Latvia, Skudeneshavn, Lovefeast, etc.

May I start this blog by saying... I'm sorry for the lack of updates as of late. I guess it's been a bit busy.

Secondly! May I say... I'm ready for Spring! Snow is nice and beautiful and all of that. But it's also cold. I'm ready for Spring. hehe.

So I found out some more things about Thailand. I'm leaving 2 days after my 19th birthday... March 23rd. Also, we're taking a flight to Moscow, staying there for 7 hours, then flying to Bangkok. I really hope that we'll be able to get out in the city for a couple hours while we're in Moscow. Oh, that would be so cool! But we shall see.

Here's what's been going on since my last update...

MINI-OUTREACH IN LATVIA!
Some highlights:
- It was a verrrry somehow refreshing time for me! Thank you for praying! I got enough rest!
- I got to teach "Father Abraham" to a bunch of people. That was way fun!
- We had a "house church meeting". The people were SO free and in love with God... it was inspiring! :D
- We got to spend a day walking around Latvia's capitol, Riga.
- Again, thanks for praying... we had great teamwork and team unity. Our team had a LOT of fun there!
- We went to many peoples' homes and schools... it was cool to see how God worked through us even though we weren't even doing that much... sometimes we were just there.
- We helped set up a missions conference. We made a "missions cafe".

I'll put up some pictures from Latvia later.
Next up... KEN HELSER WEEK!

The teaching topic was kind of journaling... it's a specific way of journaling. The technique is that you write down God's thoughts... conversations with God on paper. Pretty cool! The thing is, Ken only teaches on journaling for like an hour or two the WHOLE week. The rest of the time, he just goes with the flow... he plays the piano and sings, he tells stories, he prophesies and prays for us, he shares his heart with us. Unfortunately, I was only able to be there for about half of the week, because I got sick again. But during the time I was there, it was so great. He talked about living from the heart, and letting your mind be submissive to your heart, rather than the other way around. He's like a grandpa type person... there's just so much of God in him. I think I learned more this week from the way Ken is than I did from what he actually said.

What else...
Ah yes, REUNION!
From Friday to Sunday that week, there was a reunion for former DTS students of YWAM Skien. So we had a TON of people in the base during that time. I actually don't have much to say about the reunion, because I was in bed most of the time, being sick.

SO, then last Monday night, we had an...
AMERICAN NIGHT!
That was quite lovely. We ate rice-a-roni and chocolate chip cookies and watched the movie, Elizabethtown. We had it at Lyndee's (an American staff) apartment... it was me, the other Melissa, and Katie, and then Evan joined later.

Next...
TEAM WEEK IN SKUDENESHAVN!
For so long, people have been telling me, "You have to go to the west coast!!! It's so beautiful there!". So for a long time, I've really been wanting to go to the west coast of Norway. And finally, I got put on a team going to the west coast, yay! We were on an island called Carmøy, in a town called Skudeneshavn, or Skudenes. It was such a quiet, cute little town. Good times there.

Then, this last Monday night, it was the guys' turn to throw a
GIRLS' LOVEFEAST!
All week prior, we were really worried that the guys didn't really have anything planned... haha. And then the morning of the Lovefeast day, in class, they finally gave us some information. Theme: none, time: 6:00pm, dress code: nice, sidenote: "since this is a lovefeast, love you all!" So... we got all dressed up, showed up ready to go into the basement at 18:00 sharp. And as we went down, it was a "grandiosa lovefeast". Grandiosa is a type of frozen pizza. And then there were mattresses on the floor, for us to sit on... and there was some really crappy "entertainment". Then they only had like two pizzas, it was burned, the guys ate it all, and they put out cereal. Basically it sucked, and some of the girls were starting to be sad/mad. During this time, many of us girls were thinking/saying "This HAS to be a joke!"

AND THEN, IT WAS A JOKE!

Praise the LORD it was a joke, haha! The fire alarm went off, and we all lined up outside the prison, and then some cars drove up and took us driving around for like an HOUR, and then we finally got to the Bedehus (prayer house/church-type place). All the guys were lined up, ready to escort each girl in, and take her coat. They were waiting in there to serve us some cider stuff... and then as soon as we were all there, they opened up the other room, where there were these fancy tables set up, with place settings and flowers petals and candles and the works. It was so good! Then each girl got escorted to her seat... and there was live music and entertainment and a playlist of songs that girls like and good food and dessert... they did a great job. And then! Ole had a speech for the girls, and they gave us each a personalized card with encouragements and words they got from God when they had prayed for us.

Then they put on dance music at the end. That was fun! So all in all, they did a VERY good job, and we were all SO glad it wasn't what we thought it was at first.

THIS WEEK
We have an Australian teacher who's living as a pastor and evanglist in France. He's teaching on Evangelism. It's some more quite challenging teaching, because of the way he says things sometimes. But it makes us think! I love that. He has a focus on PASSION for the lost... and how we should share Jesus because of the intense passion that God has for the lost... and that we need to get GOD'S heart for the lost. Anyway, it's really good. But I'm sick again, so I didn't go to teaching today. I'll be going back again tomorrow.

Prayer that I will stop getting sick would be GREAT! You can pray that I don't have a lung infection or anything. And that I'll get better soon.

Friday night through Tuesday night (I think?), we have winter break. I'm staying here at the base, along with probably all the other foreigners, and maybe some other people, I don't know. It will be a nice chance to relax.

Okay I guess that's it for now! I will try to put pictures up real soon. LOVE YOU ALL, MISS YOU ALL, GOD BLESS YOU ALL!