Safely at NTBI!

The weary travelers arrived in Jackson, MI Monday around lunchtime. Soooo happy to be done traveling, but almost too tired to know the difference. 🙂

As you can see from the pictures, Naya was thrilled!! (haha, she actually was quite excited, and quickly made friends with the many neighboring toddlers! they have the married students with young children in the same general area.)

By the way, that first picture was taken on Sunday night in Kalamazoo. Shortly after checking in to our hotel (which we thought was very nice, and a perfect, relaxing end to our trip), the sky darkened and thunder-storms took over the area (most of western Michigan, to be exact). We decided to play it smart and go swimming in the pool at this point… no really, we did, but it was an indoor pool and we felt it was quite safe…right? Haha!! But I was quite taken by the seriousness of their weather report during such a storm. Clearly this is a focused study out here… nothing like I’d ever seen in the PNW! All the little red diamonds represent the areas that are most likely to experience lightning strikes…however they figure that. Very smart technology.

Speaking of weather, we found out almost immediately after arriving at NTBI that Sunday night in Jackson was even more exciting— tornado warnings!! So all the staff and students already there that night spent some of the evening in either the basement or the 1st floor (very sturdy brick building- apparently one of the safest spots in town should a tornado touch down). We were, needless to say, quite happy to have NOT been here for that! That would’ve made for an “exciting” first evening at NTBI.

After being blessed with lots of helping hands to unload our Uhaul trailer and car, we went out for a quick 3:30pm lunch (?) at Bob Evans (comparable to Denny’s, we’re told). Then we thought we’d take a ‘quick peek’ at Meijer (pronounced “Meyer”), the department/grocery (“Everything”) store comparable to the Super-Walmart. Our quick peek ended a couple hours later, but with a lot accomplished. Including the accomplishment of causing our 100% exhaustion to rise to a record peak of 200%!! Naya slept well. Wish I could say we did, esp. for being so tired. But my RLS (see previous blogs) didn’t know the difference, and apparently it kept Noe up as well. Poor thing!!

Today we went out for the day with the intention of purchasing a bed (yes, after nearly 3.5 years of marriage we are purchasing our first bed! Woohoo!), and we also “unanimously” decided to treat ourselves to a small window air conditioning unit. We returned home around 6.30-ish, WITH a bed (!!!!) from Sam’s Club, and our new membership for Sam’s Club (haha), and an air conditioning unit from Lowe’s which will be installed by maintenance whenever they can get to our work order. Yay!! What a treat!!! 🙂 🙂 And thank you, USPS, for the 10% of coupon for Lowe’s! Haha.

We got a little bit more done as far as unpacking/settling in. But tomorrow our intention is to stay here all day and work on the apartment, as well as fill out paperwork for various things. I’m sure you were dying to know that!!

We can’t tell you how much we have appreciated the comments that are on here. You are the ones that really encouraged us and kept us enthused about our journey! And the Lord blessed every single mile of our trip, as evidenced by our safe arrival here at NTBI! We are looking forward to hopefully being rested by the time school starts next week, and just for the excitement of school itself. Truly, fellow brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus Christ, can you imagine much sweeter things than being soaked in His Word for 2 years?? !!! (“May the Word of Christ dwell in you RICHLY!”) (“…meditate on it day and night…”) (“Your Word is a lamp for my feet and a light unto my path!”)

May He bless you with joy and with His presence daily, and to God be the glory for the things He has done!

Safe and sound at NTBI!

Noe, Lisa, Adannaya, and “Little Two”

—p.s., this blog will continue, so do check in now and then if you’re interested in seeing what we’re up to. In under 3 months, we hope to report some specific happy news as well!