want to see some pictures?

The last couple weeks have been really busy, but really GREAT! On Wednesday the 8th, I head out for a Team Week to a place called Søgne, near Kristiansand. It was such a packed program, and we were so busy all the time, but it was SO amazing! I can't even explain how or why, but it was. We did a lot of "church work" (teaching sunday school, leading youth meetings, giving testimonies, working with confirmants, giving devotions, doing dramas, songs, dances, etc etc etc) and we went to a couple schools too. The picture below is Team Søgne, we sometimes referred to ourselves as the "Dream Team" just because we all fit together SO WELL. It was totally God that picked that team out so perfectly.















Left to Right: Markus (team leader), Hanne (team leader), Linda, me, Solbjørg (Sol), Tone (and Markus' daughter, Lydia in Tone's arms), Amund, and Sindre.















This was the room us girls slept in. Right before we left it. Notice the butterflies on the wall... the room was decorated with these butterflies, which was very funny/cool because before we left, Malin (DTS student) said our team would be like a butterfly, spreading joy. Then we kept running into butterfly things wherever we went. :-) I miss sleeping in that room with those girls. It was so much fun!















We got a home-cooked dinner every day. The hospitality of these people was absolutely incredible. I never knew how much I would appreciate hospitality! And how much it shows God's love. It was SOOO nice to be in a warm HOME, a REAL home, with a real kitchen and a real bathroom, eating food that they bring to you! The prison can get kinda cold.















This is just a glimpse of the beautiful nature in Søgne. As we were driving around the area, I often found myself just staring out the window with my mouth dropped open, being completely in awe of the nature all around me.















Maria, Lydia, and Sindre... en, to, tre, HOPP! Right before we left Søgne.




















In the car on the way back to the PRISON! :) We were all quite tired.















Hanne (staff) had a haircut day on Saturday (the 18th). She did such a good job on everyone! Afterwards there were people walking around all over the base, with new hair and big smiles!! :D

Moving Onward!!
On Monday, November 13th, we started a new Teaching Week. Our teacher was a Dutchman named Tjebbo! The topic was Evangelism, but his teaching seemed to be on other subjects too. He talked a lot about the will of God. He talked about other things too, including some about evangelism and "city mapping". His teaching techniques are different, but really cool. He said he didn't come here for us, he came for God. He came to the DTS not to give us answers, but to "frustrate" us and to "provoke" us. He wants us to actually search out the answers for ourselves. Well, this was the most challenging teaching for me personally so far. I think that's because it did make me think so much. It challenged sooo much of what was already in my mind... and it made me re-evaluate myself and so many things I've believed. It did "provoke" me and "frustrate" me, but in a really cool, good way. It was SUCH a good workout for my mind. And it kind of forced me to take all my questions to GOD, rather than just taking every word of the teaching and not really processing it. That was realllllly good for me. I'm so glad Tjebbo came here to "frustrate" and "provoke" us.

Anyway!
This past week has been another Team Week. I'm on a team that stays in Skien this week. Since I couldn't be home for Thanksgiving, my loverly parents sent me a "Thanksgiving Survival Kit", to be shared with my American friends here on Thanksgiving. But unfortunately, some of the other Americans were out on Team Week during Thanksgiving. SO, we celebrated it on Monday instead of Thursday!! Here are some pictures!















hehe, it was a very "humble" Thanksgiving lunch. We bought turkey lunch meat, instant mashed potatoes, "buns", a pastry, corn chips, and kiwi at the store, and we pulled it all together with some apple juice (instead of sparkling cider) and some jam (instead of cranberry sauce). It was fun!! :)















Clockwise from left: Evan (from Canada), Melissa (from Auburn, WA), Katie (from Idaho), and me! So there we are. Before we ate, we went around the table to say something we were thankful for! yay! Little did I know that ON Thanksgiving, we were going to have an actual "American Thanksgiving meal" with the whole base (or with all who were not OUT on Team Week). It was nummay. :)

NEWS:
Last teaching week, Søren announced which countries we'll be going to for MAIN OUTREACH! The countries are: Thailand, Ethiopia, Ecuador, Botswana, India, and Laos. We were given the weekend to pray about where we wanted to go/where God wanted us to go... and then on Monday we had to hand in a piece of paper with our preferences... numbered countries 1-4. This next Teaching Week, they're going to announce the outreach teams! That means that I'll find out where I'm going and who I'm going with! I'm really looking forward to next week. Not only will I find out where I'm going on outreach, but the teaching topic is "The Holy Spirit". Apparently the teacher is going to go through all the spiritual gifts and practically teach about each one of them. And (hehe) they're changing the schedule a bit in the end of the week, in order to "make time and room" for the Holy Spirit. So it should be pretty nifty! haha.

Anyway, tonight I'm headed off to a state church youth club thing. Kasper has the intro, Tonje has the devotion, and Ole, Kasper, Søren and I... are going to lead worship. Yeah. I have no clue why I accepted this task. oh my word. What am I getting myself into? haha. Well... the "team goal" for this team week, as well as my "personal outward goal" is to do something new in ministry, something we haven't done before. SO... this is definitely a challenge... and at least it will make me meet my goal, haha. Plus, I'm praying that God will just sing for me. That would be nice.

Here's some pictures from our "Team Gathering" lunch today at Helene and Markus' (staff) house:














Therese, Helina! (too much coffee Helina!)















Kasper, Tonje















me, Kasper















Tonje, Søren, and Helina!















Søren played a German song for us, yay!














I love it when Tonje laughs!















And then someone decided to shake their face in front of the camera, and take a picture of it.















So Ole did the same.














As did Tonje.














Hey, hvorfor ikke? It looked like fun.

Well I guess that's all for now!!
God bless you all! And Happy Late Thanksgiving!!!!

***edit***
I almost forgot. I'm in a band now! Go to www.myspace.com/jumpingoctopi to hear our first single. ;)

What Is YWAM?

Real update coming later. But for now... here's a little humorous look at what people say YWAM stands for:

Yes, We Arrange Marriages.

Young Women After Men

and my personal favorite...

Youth Without Any Money

Now of course these are all silly, and made up by YWAMers for a good laugh. We all know YWAM really stands for Youth With A Mission. But the others are funny too ;)

pictures PART II (plus other random things)

So blogger is finally letting me post pictures again!
I took this picture right outside the base when it snowed on October 31st.















Melissa frolicking in the snow!



















This is the weird-lookin' ketchup dispenser. It looks like a lung. hehe.



















Presenting Grandiosa, "Norway's most-eaten pizza". People seem to be almost a little obsessed with it sometimes. It's very popular.














And this is Brad, putting lung ketchup on his slice of Grandiosa pizza. Brad taught some of us a very cool trick having to do with... matches! And I can do it! I'm so happay! But alas, I don't have a picture of that. :( Maybe someday I'll get a picture of me doing the match trick though.














Helina took a picture of me having quiet time in our "bathroom without a toilet/shower room/laundry room/dressing room" which used to be a kitchen. It was quiet in there... so that was where I went, teehee.



















Ohp, now it's not letting me post pictures again. Oh bother, that's a poo.

The base is SOOOO empty right now. Fall Break started on Friday night, so almost everyone is either at their homes, visiting friends, or at the Get Focused conference (which I was planning on going to, but that kinda didn’t work out… but I’m okay with that). So I’ve been here with no more than 3 or 4 other people here at a time -- or less. It’s SO quiet! Strange. But it’s been kind of nice in a way, because it’s sooo much easier to actually GET ALONE with God! When there’s 60 other people living here, getting alone with God becomes a difficult thing to manage. However, I will be very happy to see everyone again when they get back! It’s amazing how much everyone missed everyone on the first Team Week. But it makes sense, because we’re always with each other! So we get to know each other pretty stinkin’ well!

Anyway, PRAISE THE LORD, I'm finally almost over my flu!! A huge thanks to all who have been praying for me! So maybe you're reading this, thinking to yourself "Well now that Melissa's feeling better, what should I pray about for her??" AH! Have no fear, I can answer that question! heheha. You can pray that I stay healthy, and that the others here stay healthy. You can also pray for my upcoming Team Week, which will begin on Wednesday morning. My team is going to a town on the southwest coast, about 2 hours or so away from Skien. We’ll be staying in a church (with no showers! That should be interesting ;). We will be giving lots of testimonies and devotions and doing some evangelism I think… I’m not too sure what else. We’ll be visiting churches, schools, youth clubs etc. So anyway, prayers for effective teamwork (I’ve discovered that that’s sooo much more important than I used to think) and effective planning/preparing. But most of all, that we can rely on GOD and clearly understand HIS will, direction, and plans for this Team Week. That would be MOST wonderful!!!

Again, thank you all muy mucho much for the prayers!!! Or in other words, tussen takk!!!

GOD BLESS!!!

byebye for now.

sickness, Latvia, pictures, etc PART I

First things first...
I found out where I'm going on mini-outreach! I'm going to Latvia. We'll be working with a YWAM base there.. they already have stuff arranged for us. Funny story behind that... I believe that's the same base that I e-mailed a few times about doing my DTS there. haha. What a co-winkadink.

So yeah, I've been sick since Thursday, October 26th. So I've mostly been in bed for the past 8 days. But everyone has been taking care of me, they're so sa-weet. Tonje bought me candy... TWICE! Yeah, in Norway they have kids programming at night instead of the morning, and it's like a "thing" for the parents to buy their kids this "TV Candy" and they eat it while they watch Saturday night cartoons. So even though there's no TV here (which is fine with me!!), Tonje bought me TV candy, teehee. Here's a picture:














My smallgroup made me a cookie, writing a little message that God gave them about me when they were praying for me! Here's a picture:

















You can't really see it, but it says, "Melissa, stand in God's waterfall." teehee! I like it.
And here's a picture of me and part of my smallgroup, taken a couple weeks ago or something:















Yep, that's Marie, me, and Therese. My smile's all cheesy but OH WELL!

In other news,
it snowed here for the first time on Halloween night. It didn't stick or anything, but it was still exciting. I went out in it for like 1 minute. And took pictures! If you look close, you can see the snowflakes.

Dogonnit! It's only letting me post 3 pics in this blog... weirrrd. I'll just post another blog. tada!

TO BE CONTINUED...