Final Day at IMB

6:50am bus boarding was getting a little tough by this time, and it was amazingly quiet this morning.

After breakfast, Jerry Rankin, President of the IMB lead our devotion. He is rarely in the country, so it was a blessing that he was actually here this whole week and got to share his heart with us. When he finished, a panel of 6 former missionaries (and current employees of the IMB) was interviewed by another IMB employee. They were asked several questions and given a chance to respond. I loved listening to their stories and experiences. The hour flew by.

Back with our small group, we were informed that we (all 6 of us) were approved for the next level and given a chance to ask any extra questions if we had any. We now wait for July 10th to be told if the board of trustees will approve us. If we pass that, we will go to Jacksonville, Florida, for a week in September for more training and an appointment service. We will then crate our belongings and move to ILC for 8 weeks from October 11 to December 17.

It was 11:30 am by this point, and I won't go into detail about the rest of the day because I figure you are tired of hearing about it at this point. I will say that we got to meet with everyone at the conference who will be serving in Africa (only 7 this session) and that was fun. We also got to eat lunch together and talk to two former missionaries who head up that Africa region for now. They will be moving back to Africa in July, so we will see them there next year. (I guess I shouldn't say "former" missionaries. We are all missionaries where we live, so none of us ever gets to leave that job).

Someone took a picture of Doug and me with a life-size figure of Lottie Moon. I still haven't gotten over how short she was.



As I write this, all the journeyman (college graduates applying for 2 year terms) are walking the grounds outside, talking, or playing games inside; there are 12 or so people (including Doug) playing Pit (a very loud, fun game) and other games in the lobby ; some are trying to sleep (I'm betting they are getting any); and others are in their rooms packing.

I am extremely sad to leave but very excited to see the kids tomorrow night. The IMB has given us a long list of things to do and forms to gather before we get appointed in September. So I just THOUGHT the application process was over. This is starting to look a little more rigorous that applying for one of those under-cover, secret agent jobs.

Right now, though, the IMB is waiting on our references, so the next thing is to get all those to the appropriate people so they can mail them back in for the trustees to look at.

Thanks for spending the week with us on the blog. We had fun, and it was good practice for me to be semi-regular on letting you know what is going on. I will try not to always be so wordy, but I do love to write.