On Sunday at 4 a.m, 19 staff and students loaded our bags into the 2 vans and headed off to the New Tribes Bible Institued in Waukesha, WI for 3 days. The roads were slick and the snow fell heavily in the early morning as we headed for the border. Driving was slow but I didn't notice because I was asleep most of the way. We drove in snow almost to the United States border. We stopped there long enough for the 2 European students to get visitor visa's then we were off again. As we crossed the bridge into the U.S. the snow was gone, the sun came out and there was hardly a cloud in the sky. I looked back over my sholder to Canada and saw a the wall of clouds and snow that we had just left behind it's nice to be back in the states.
We stopped on the other side of the border to get breakfast and fuel for the van and since the second van ran on propane we looked for that but didn't find any so we headed down the road. After stopping at a few more stations and being unsuccessful at finding any propane we asked some of the locals who directed us to a small farming town 6 miles off the interstate. We headed for the town and filled the tank, and drove the 6 miles back to the interstate. I didn't know that finding propane could be such and excursion.
Map Quest said the trip should take about ten hours so we guessed it should take us about 12 but with all the stops and detours that we made it took almost 14 hours to get there. We were all glad to get to Waukesha.
We spent the next two days encouraging the students to continue on in the mission training and answering any question that they might have. We had two 1/2 hour chapels, a coffee social and and a 1 hour question and answer time to explain to them what the second half of the training is like (Bible School being the first half and Missions Training, what I am doing right now, being the second half). I had a great time talking with students about the training that I am getting right now and what they could expect from it. I also got to see some old classmates and some friends. It was wonderful catching up on what has been going on in our lives. All in all I had a great time.
We left Wednesday morning at 8 a.m. I was not quite ready to leave. Being with old friends enjoying the warm weather, well, warm compared to Canada, and not having any snow. We spent a several hours in Chicago on our way back home. We did some shopping, some site seeing in down town and had lunch. We arrived home at 1 a.m, Thursday morning even more tired I think than when we left.
Please be praying that God will open the eyes and hearts of the students to see the need of the tribal people. These students may be the only hope that these tribal people will ever have of hearing the Gospel. Pray that God will guide them and prepare them for what He has for their futures and that they will be open and receptive to what he has for each of their lives.
A few of us spent our afternoon washing and waxing a truck the other day for work detail. We and a few days of sunshine and warmer weather but as you can see from the picture there is still a lot of snow on the ground. It was cold for washing vehicles but I think that we all enjoyed the sunshine. I don't think is is car washing season just yet. I thank God for the few days of nice weather that we have had and am looking forward to more.
