When I first came to Minneapolis in 2003,

came to Bethlehem at that time.

We had a little program here called TBI, the Bethlehem Institute,

and it grew up and became an adult called Bethlehem College and Seminary.

And so I found myself in the fall of 2003 in a cohort of 12, 20-something guys.

They were sharp, they were able.

They had ministry, vocation, ambition.

And it was hard not compare ourselves to each other.

And you get to know a cohort so well,

not just on the surface in a big classroom,

you guys know this, you know each other well in those small settings.

And you find out your own inclinations and abilities

in those comparisons. Some holy, some unholy. Ponder how God

made us differently and is forming us differently for the various works he has for us in the

decades to come. But here I stand now 20 later, since my TBI graduations.

That was the spring of 2005, when our cohort of 12 graduated, we dispersed mainly.

Some stayed in the Twin Cities, mainly dispersed.

And so I've had a joy that you seniors haven't yet had, but it's coming.

My joy has been for two decades.

I've seen these brothers.

I've seen how God's dispersed them.

Some have gone overseas to very hard places.

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