I Made It!

After a very long Friday, I finally made it to the New Tribes Mission of Canada Missionary Training Center (or NTMC MTC. Say that 10 times fast!) at 3:30 a.m. Saturday morning. My dreams of jumping into a cozy bed and sleeping for 12 hours or so were quickly dashed to pieces as I arrived at my new apartment only to discover it locked and myself without a key. At this point I was so tired I decided breaking and entering was perfectly acceptable, especially since I was going to live there. So I managed to pry open the window to one of the bedrooms and crawl into the house with all the agility of a two-legged cow. Again, my hopes of crawling into bed and sleeping were put to rest when I realized my bed wasn't even made yet and my bed sheets were packed away in the trunk of my car. But after a little improvising I ended up with sleeping conditions that I could consider reasonable for at least one night.

Besides sleeping, I also spent much of Saturday unpacking and getting organized in my new apartment. Saturday night was Men's Night Out and some of us from NTMC went to the Varney Motor Speedway about a mile down the road from Durham, which boasts "The fastest 1/4 mile track in Southern Ontario."**

The Varney Motor Speedway was the most fun I've had at a rural/redneck event since the Ionia Free Fair. The Trains were definitely the highlight of the night. Three cars chained together is considered a "Train." All three cas have drivers helping to steer, but only the lead car has an engine and only the last car has breaks. The middle car is just along for the ride. If you put four "Trains" on a track and have them "race" you can imagine the ensuing chaos. I was rooting for Train-Osaurus-Wrecks but unfortunately an unexpected (yeah, right) collision took him out of contention.

Monday Aug. 20th, we'll begin a full week of work detail in an attempt to help ensure the campus is in pristine condition as new 1st year students arrive and we all begin our training. The following Monday, the 28th, marks the beginning of my Culture and Language Acquisiton training, which I eagerly await. It will be a fast-paced and academicly intense year but the training I receive here will greatly assist me in the future as I prepare for the ministry of Tribal Church-Planting.

--Jake


**Currently I have been unable to independently varify this claim