Reflecting upon the plethora of truths learned, memories made, and relationships built while at NTBI the past two years, I could hardly imagine not taking this very special time to grow in the knowledge of our God in this focused environment.

God has used this time in my life to continue to urge me to fix my proud heart to a posture of humility, and to continue to have me grow in my response to His Word, to understand the weightiness of it, to receive it not just as some ancient text, but as the Bread of Life that is literally from God Himself! In this humbling work that is at work in my heart, I am constantly being shown the grace that He has laid on me and continues to lay on me, in spite of who I am or what I am capable of apart from Him. This simple foundational truth of His undisputed goodness and unfathomable grace has overwhelmed any logical reason for me to clutch tightly onto anything in this life other than His Word. However, being fallen man, my worldview is deceptively faulty, and my heart is eager to rebel, but in His grace He is also patient and desires to walk with me where I’m at, and to continue to convince me of who He is.

So would I say it was necessary for me to take two years of my life to come to Bible school in order to be able to walk with God, and function well in ministry? No, I believe that we can agree on a biblical level that God is not limited to working through one organization. Truthfully though, it is a unique thing to find an environment of individuals who are as selflessly devoted to seeing me press on towards maturity and to challenge every area of my thinking, that it may be renewed, seeing life through the lens of God’s Word. So whether I’m walking with God here at NTBI, back home in Alaska, or overseas in some desert with a people group that is completely isolated from God’s Word, whose culture and language I am totally unfamiliar with, I am able to depend on the foundation of truth that God has convinced me of, and respond in a way that is fit for an ambassador of the King of kings.