Psalm 139:4

"Before a word is on my tongue, You know it completely, O Lord."

No pictures today. So, this last week we had teaching on Spiritual Warfare, from a lady named Hanne something or other. Tomorrow (Monday) morning at 2:00am, I'm leaving with 6 other people for Latvia for two weeks! We'll be visiting a one-year team there, and working with them! I'm not exactly sure yet of everything we'll be doing there, but I think we're going to be working in schools and making house visits. It should be really interesting to go to this part of Europe, and see how these people live. Other DTS teams these next two weeks are doing their outreach in: Estonia, England, Finland, Scotland, Denmark, Sweden. There's also a team of staff going to Madrid!

Not too much else going on as of now. When we get back from mini-outreach, we will have the (much anticipated) Ken Helser week. He will be teaching on Journaling, but apparently he teaches on many things, more than just journaling. So many people have said that it was their favorite teaching week of their DTS. But (haha) I'm trying not to get my hopes up too crazy high.

In other news, I think "culture shock" is taking its beginning stages among the other foreigners and I. Which would make sense, because apparently studies have shown that culture shock sets in between the 4th and 5th month in another culture. I've been here something like 4 1/2 months now. It's not a huge deal, it's just weird. I don't gid to explain it right now though. (gid = "norwenglish" for "bother").

What else, God is good! He has really been showing me His faithfulness and unconditional love lately. He's so good! :D

Anywho, I have to pack for Latvia! If anyone wants to pray, here's what you can pray about! Good health for all the teams, enough rest (both physically and spiritually, in God), team unity/teamwork, and last but certainly not least, for God to work through us, letting His will be done in these countries!

Farewell all of you, and God bless!!!

Be, be honest. Be, be, be honest!

Hey people!

Yes, so, for Christmas break, I spent a few days in Mandal, with Solbjørg and her family. We spent some time in the main part of the town. It was sooo cute. And such nice nature!!! Here's some pictures!

Then I took a bus to Oslo and met Therese there. She showed me around the city a bit. We ate at McDonald's, haha, it was awesome! And I saw the castle where the King of Norway lives!

On the 28th, we drove to Hamar, for the New Year's Festival, at the main YWAM Norway base: Grimerud. There were something like 300ish participants there I believe. Most of them age 15 and up. Many DTS students and staff from our base and other YWAM Norway bases went as staff. We had duties... cleaning, cooking, etc etc etc. Also, the Norwegian staff got to lead smallgroups.

Anywho, at Grimerud, they have a prayer room... it's soooo nice, and cozy ;). I went in there one day, I had it all to myself for the majority of the time. IT WAS HEAVENLY! There were different stations (or walls)... one was the World Wall, meant to pray for the world, and the missionaries out in the world. As I sat there, curled up on a mattress, with a blanket, with lit candles and soft music... looking at the World Wall, I suddenly remembered how much pain and suffering is in the world. And I asked God a question... I asked Him why He would allow a world He created and loves so much, to be in such bad shape. Basically, the cliche "Why is there so much pain and suffering in the world?" question.

I already knew the answer... the whole "it's a result of sin" thing. Which is true, I know. But God showed me something else. On the "World Wall" of the prayer room, it had a picture of the world, upside-down... and it said "How does GOD see the world?" I think sometimes we focus too much on all the pain and suffering in the world. Don't get me wrong -- there are a lot of problems... and a LOT we can and should do to help improve things. But God reminded me that while there are things about the world that are... less than lovely... the world, and all its people still are God's creation! He still loves the WHOLE world. And there is still SOOO much beauty in the world! Look around at nature! But not only in nature... also in people. Whenever someone does something good or praiseworthy, is that not a piece of God's beauty? Even if only a small piece? And a sunset, or breathtaking views of mountains and seas... is that not a piece of God's beauty???

We have so much around us to be in awe of.

Anywho. Here's some pictures!!! (of my time in Oslo, and of the New Year's Festival and Worker's Gathering)

Sooo... what else... yeah, the Worker's Gathering:
Twas very good! I really really enjoyed being able to meet people from other YWAM Norway bases. I even met some more foreigners! We had a lot of good teaching from different people. One of the teachers was Duncan Smith, from Toronto, Canada. We also were able to go to different seminars, and see what our other opportunities with YWAM Norway were. I don't think I'll get any more details about the Worker's Gathering though. But it was really cool!

I had a very nice break! One thing I learned is that it has become so much easier for me to adapt to different places, and to moving around, and to living out of a suitcase. Cause that's what I did for about 3 weeks straight. But it was really good! And it was sooo good to get "home" to the base! Only... when we got there, there hadn't been anyone in the prison for over a week or something. So it was FREEZiNG in there! It was so cold I could see my breath ;) ;) ;) (that's for you, Joanna!!) It's finally back to normal temperature again, pretty much. (which is kinda.. not warm... but at least it's not freezing!)

MOVING ON!
Sorry, this is getting reallllly long.
buuut... I'm continuing anyway!!! :)
So this week we had teaching on WORSHIP from Rudi Myntevik (a Norwegian worship leader) He is now living in London, writing songs in ENGLISH! He played a couple of them that he's working on for us in class... :) you can go to his myspace HERE --> http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=62242647 ).

I loved the way Rudi taught... often he would just sit on a stool and there would be this atmosphere of discussion, and figuring things out together... all of us. He was so real, and so down to earth... it was soooo nice and refreshing! One of the first things we did, was look at all the "christianese worship words" like: worship, praise, honor, glory, blessing, exalt, etc. These words are used so much in worship/praise songs... yet do we really know what they mean? And do we really know what we're doing when we're having "worship time"? When the pastor says, "Let's praise the Lord"... what does that really mean?? Does it mean "Let's stand up and sing songs"? It was very good/challenging to consider these questions. Rudi’s idea on what worshp and praise should be, is a response to what God is/has done in/for us. It should be thankfulness, from our hearts, to God… as a response! And it should be HONEST! He also brought up how in the world of worship, there is a culture; the songs we sing, the way we sing them, whether we stand or sit or sway or kneel…. close our eyes or clap our hands… etc. that’s all part of the “culture” That doesn’t mean it’s bad… it just is. But it’s whether or not we really mean what we’re doing/saying/singing. Challenging stuff to think about! Basically, we just need to BE HONEST before God… because… do we really think He’s pleased with cheap words that we don’t mean? He’s more interested in our obedience, and our honesty. ACK, there’s sooo much more good stuff to say about this teaching week… but I can’t get it all down!

So I will now tell of the SNOW!
Yes… we finally had some more snow, for goodness sake! I mean, I’m in NORWAY! It should be cold and snowing!! It’s said to have been the warmest winter here in like 50 years. Which is why there has been an extreme lack of snow. Actually, I think my lovely little home in SeaTac, has had a lot more snow than what I’ve seen while I’ve been here in Norway. How can that be? Kinda funny actually. But ANYWAY, we got snow yesterdayyy!!!! Get this… the snow here has a BLUE TINT to it!!!! It’s amazing! (oh and some parts or Norway have REALLY RED sunsets…. It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before.) Yep, so yesterday, for gym, instead of playing soccer, or doing aerobics, or running up and down stairs…. We had SNOW GYM!!!!!!!! We were to “dress warm for snow activities”!!! Then we just spent like almost two hours doing team snow games… seeing which team could build the biggest snowman, etc. And then just having a big snowball fight, pretty much. I don’t think I’ve had that much fun in the snow since I was like 9 or 10 years old or something! I PLAYED in the snow! I had not done that for such a long time. Mmm, it was good. And then TODAY, we had some extra time, so we had “fun time”… in which we drove to this forest place, and we hiked a short while…then we played capture the flag in the snow. I’ve never liked capture the flag… but the fact that it was in the snow, in a forest, made it better. J

And tomorrow is Saturday!

The end.

God bless you alllllllllllllll!

P.S.
If you made it all the way through this long blog… WAY TO GO!!!!!!!!!!! You have patience, my friend.