Today was our first day of orientation. I can already tell that this is going to be an amazing semester!!! It's taking a little getting used to, but everyone, including the teachers, calls one another by their first name. There's no Mr. or Mrs. anything. The staff joined the freshmen in a survey game where we went from person to person asking random questions from a list we were given....I learned that the most popular movie right now is Batman....big shocker. And then we all split into teams and went to the gym where a group of lovely people duct taped me to the wall. The goal was to see who stuck on the wall the longest, but after 15 minutes of being suspended in the air, my feet started turning blue and my hands got numb. SO I stayed on the wall while three of my team mates massaged my hands and my feet to get the circulation going! haha Most people have to pay $100 for that, so I didn't really mind hanging from a wall and getting it for free. My hands are still kinda numb though...it's been 2 hours. Definitely a new experience. Welcome to NTBI!




This is a picture of the school. The tree is kinda in the way...but yep, there it is!
















This is in my dorm. This is our "living room" I guess. We each have a desk of our own...mine is the one in the corner with the suitcase in front of it. And the shelves are the best part of the room...that's where we store all our food. Yeah!












This is my bedroom. I'm on the top bunk for a change and it's fabulous because I get to look straight out the window. I can't wait for the leaves to change color! Then I can wake up each morning and see all the pretty colors!













So that's what the dorm looks like. I stole these pics from my roommate Kaylee's facebook. Shhhh..don't tell her. But the credit for the fab photos goes to her.

I'm going to end with a quick story. We had a missionary by the name of James Comancho come and speak to us today. He was telling stories of the difficulty of cross-cultural evangelism, especially in superstitious countries. There was recently a group of missionaries sent to a small tribe in Brazil (I think it was Brazil....) and they were shocked at how horribly they were being treated by the natives. They had been asked to come to the tribe, but when the natives talked to them, it was in a very angry, demeaning, and plainly mean manner. The missionaries were so frustrated with their efforts seemingly being wasted on the natives, that they were ready to pull out. It turned out that the tribe's traditional belief was that there was an evil spirit who would hurt them by hurting or killing the ones they loved. Therefore, it was customary for them to speak in an angry and cruel manner to the ones that they truly loved. The natives treated the missionaries "hatefully" out of pure love for them and joy that they had come to their tribe. There are millions of people out there who have such a twisted perspective on reality and spirituality. That's why we're here. To be trained to reach them, whether they be in a remote tribe or our next door neighbor.


I love and miss you all! Send me mail! :)