I have come back to the place where everything started: home. Six days ago I was attending the DTS graduation ceremony in chilly Skien and now I am sweating and sweltering in the summer heat of America.
My time in Norway is finished. No more teaching, no more team-weeks, no more laundry lists, and no more prison living. But just because my DTS is done does not mean that my life with God or my life in missions is over. There is still so much more to come. It is my hope that what one of our teachers on the DTS said will be true for my life: that the nine months of the DTS will be the worst nine months of my life because each year after this will be better and better.
In conclusion, I want to thank you dear readers for in the first place reading this blog and then for your support in prayer. I cannot tell you how much I appreciate your prayers.
Now for the next adventure...
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Ethiopia: The Adventure
What to share about Ethiopia? So many things have taken place in these past two months, so many experiences, so many impressions, so many lessons about life. It is strange to be back in Norway where no one is asking me for money constantly, I can walk alone, the language is familiar (almost), the electricity and water are constant, and most of all, I live with forty other people again instead of just seven.
First of all, I think I'll tell you about my team. I went to Ethiopia with seven Norwegians and I learned more about Norwegians in those two months than I have for the other seven months I've been here. First of all there are Annelisa and Ragnhild. Annelisa is always organized and Ragnhild, who I also went to Scotland with, has a great sense of humor. Kristin, a girl who is passionate about God and Rebekka who is full of life, were my fellow girls on the team. Then there were the guys. I have to say, we had really amazing guys on the team. They were all servant-hearted and very protective, staring daggers at any man who dared to stare longer than two seconds at us. There was Martin the funny man, Fredrik the preacher, and Eirik the evangelist. It was a great team.
If there was a theme to our ministry in Ethiopia, it would be preaching. We preached the gospel to street children and taught school children about God's strength in the capital Addis Ababa. Then we went out into the countryside, having two small conferences in total and then teaching for a week in the city of Kuyu to evangelists and pastors (that was a little intimidating). Finally, we spent four weeks in a city called Kofele, which is mostly populated by people who practice Islam, where we encouraged the Christians in and around Kofele.
And of course, we did a lot of this too...
Highlights:
1. Meeting the beautiful people of Ethiopia
2. Seeing God transform and heal people: both inside and outside
3. Taking the challenge of both preaching and teaching
4. Drinking the wonderful coffee
5. Having a team full of unity
6. Spending time with missionaries and learning more about missionary life
7. Seeing churches encouraged which are in difficult areas for Christians
8. Meeting street boys that have been transformed into princes
There are many, many stories from Ethiopia that I could tell, but I am trying to think of a story that sums up what we did in Ethiopia or better yet, what was done through us in Ethiopia. The truth is, there isn't one. For me personally, the best moment was being able to hug an old beggar woman in Addis Ababa. Her blind eyes were not healed, but I was still able to be Jesus' hands and feet at that moment. I think that God works many times in small ways through us that we may never personally see the fruit of, but the point isn't that we see instantaneous results as much as it is walking out in trusting God and that He is good. That was Ethiopia.
First of all, I think I'll tell you about my team. I went to Ethiopia with seven Norwegians and I learned more about Norwegians in those two months than I have for the other seven months I've been here. First of all there are Annelisa and Ragnhild. Annelisa is always organized and Ragnhild, who I also went to Scotland with, has a great sense of humor. Kristin, a girl who is passionate about God and Rebekka who is full of life, were my fellow girls on the team. Then there were the guys. I have to say, we had really amazing guys on the team. They were all servant-hearted and very protective, staring daggers at any man who dared to stare longer than two seconds at us. There was Martin the funny man, Fredrik the preacher, and Eirik the evangelist. It was a great team.
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| Top Row, Left to Right: Ragnhild, Annelisa, Kristin, Me, Rebekka Bottom Row, Left to Right: Eirik, Martin, and Fredrik |
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| Fredrik preaching to street boys |
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| Drama for school children in Addis Ababa |
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| Teaching pastors and evangelists in Kuyuu |
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| Preaching in a mud hut church |
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| Teaching in Kofele |
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| waiting |
1. Meeting the beautiful people of Ethiopia
2. Seeing God transform and heal people: both inside and outside
3. Taking the challenge of both preaching and teaching
4. Drinking the wonderful coffee
5. Having a team full of unity
6. Spending time with missionaries and learning more about missionary life
7. Seeing churches encouraged which are in difficult areas for Christians
8. Meeting street boys that have been transformed into princes
There are many, many stories from Ethiopia that I could tell, but I am trying to think of a story that sums up what we did in Ethiopia or better yet, what was done through us in Ethiopia. The truth is, there isn't one. For me personally, the best moment was being able to hug an old beggar woman in Addis Ababa. Her blind eyes were not healed, but I was still able to be Jesus' hands and feet at that moment. I think that God works many times in small ways through us that we may never personally see the fruit of, but the point isn't that we see instantaneous results as much as it is walking out in trusting God and that He is good. That was Ethiopia.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Ethiopia Prayer
It is never too early to start praying for something and I want to again thank everyone who has been praying for me during my DTS. In less than three weeks, I am leaving for Ethiopia with my outreach team. We have many different ministry opportunites ahead of us including teaching at a mini DTS, working with street children, and serving churches. Unfortunately, I most likely will not be able to use the internet while I am in Ethiopia, so this is the last update until I come back in two months.
If you would like to pray for my team and I while we are in Ethiopia, here are some key things that our team would like to be covered in prayer:
If you would like to pray for my team and I while we are in Ethiopia, here are some key things that our team would like to be covered in prayer:
- Unity in the team
- Clear communication within our team and with our contacts
- Protection in travels (we will be traveling quite a bit around Ethiopia)
- Good health
- Strength for our leaders
- Clarity in knowing God's will for our time there
- Revelations of God's heart for Ethiopia
- Open hearts among the people we meet
- Joy among the team
Friday, February 11, 2011
Preparation
Recently I realized, with a mounting feeling of something like panic, that it is almost a month until I go to Ethiopia. Yikes! Time is flying. Lucky for me, I had an interesting experience last team week which helped me to prepare a little for my time in Ethiopia.
Last weekend, my team - which also happened to be my outreach team - went to a Confirmation camp in the foothills of Norway where we invested in the youth and talked to them about the Ten Commandments. I have to say that I have not seen so many stars as I did during the nights at the camp in a long time. Nor have I experienced so much cold in a while, since the prison is surprisingly warm. But these things did not exactly prepare me for Ethiopia; rather, it was the place where we, the girls at least, stayed.
The little house looking shack on the left side of the picture is where I and about ten other girls stayed for two nights. It was actually used to store grain about one hundred years ago and we were the first people to be housed in it for over a year. Our room was coated with cobwebs and an even better surprise met us in the mattresses of the bunk beds: mouse poop. Needless to say that in a room shared by five girls panic quickly arose, which died down as we began to take our eyes off of our predicament and thank God for the opportunity to speak into the lives of the young people around us.
As I am writing this, I realize that the story sounds a little cheesy. However, I hope that when I encounter things that are less than comfortable in Ethiopia that I can remember the response of placing my eyes on God instead of the mouse poo.
Last weekend, my team - which also happened to be my outreach team - went to a Confirmation camp in the foothills of Norway where we invested in the youth and talked to them about the Ten Commandments. I have to say that I have not seen so many stars as I did during the nights at the camp in a long time. Nor have I experienced so much cold in a while, since the prison is surprisingly warm. But these things did not exactly prepare me for Ethiopia; rather, it was the place where we, the girls at least, stayed.
As I am writing this, I realize that the story sounds a little cheesy. However, I hope that when I encounter things that are less than comfortable in Ethiopia that I can remember the response of placing my eyes on God instead of the mouse poo.
Sunday, February 6, 2011
To Scotland and Back: Mini-outreach
What can I say about mini-outreach? I have no previous mini-outreach experience with YWAM with which to compare the one in Scotland with, but I have the feeling that it was unique in many ways. For starters, my team consisted of only three people including myself. I went to Scotland with Ragnhild who is Norwegian and Katherina who is German, both of whom are my DTS staff.
Another unique part of the outreach is the focus. If there was a theme to what we did in Scotland, it would have to be prayer. We, my team and our host family, spent a lot of time praying with people from the church that we were working with in Scotland and with a few other people who God put in our path.
For the entire time in Scotland, my "team" and I were working with a small church called the Lighthouse Church which is located in the small costal town of Troon that few people have heard of. I think that the most that we did with in church itself was going there on Sundays and helping with their prayer rooms on Wednesdays. However, we did spend a lot of time connecting with people in the church. While the Lighthouse Church may be small, the people are fantastic. We also stayed with an amazing family from the church who not only opened their home to us, but also gave up their time to take us places and ministered alongside of us.
While the church that we came to work with is located in Troon, our host family lived about forty minutes away in the town, which looks and feels more like a city, of Paisley located near Glasgow. Paisley is a town rich in history which has fallen under hard times. I think that in a way Paisley represents Scotland in that it is a beautiful country with a rich history that has fallen under a lot of oppression and seen many hard times. We met many people in Scotland who were in need of hope in their lives.
Somewhere in the history of YWAM, the DTS staff figured out that it is good to have a day off to rest during outreaches and for our day off, we went to Stirling Castle and the city of Glasgow. Thanks to our amazing host family, we were also able to see a bit of the Scottish countryside as well during another day.
I want to end by sharing one incident of how God placed people in our paths while in Scotland. On one of the first days that we spent in Scotland, we had a time of prayer with our host family. This time of prayer was a bit more than a quick, half hour session and after a while I began to get distracted, thinking how nice it would be to take a walk (yes, I know that it must be a terrible shock to hear that a DTS student gets distracted). As I was thinking about how I could get outside, a strange thought came into my mind that if I were to go on a walk, I would meet a woman on crutches. This is not a normal thought for me, so I told myself to stop trying to think of excuses to go outside and to go back to praying. Not long after this, Andrew asked if we would like to go walking on top of a nearby hill. Hallelujah! My silent prayers had been answered. The hill turned out to be a frozen cow pasture with an amazing view of Paisley and Glasgow. About half-way through the walk, Katherina and I noticed that there was a woman ahead of us walking her dog. I couldn't believe it at first, but as we got closer the woman was unmistakably using crutches. As we approached the woman, debating if we should pray for her or not, the woman actually started a conversation with us and allowed us to pray for her. Nothing visibly happened at that moment, but we could tell that God had met her with His love. Now all that I see is people with crutches.
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| Katherina, me, and Ragnhild |
For the entire time in Scotland, my "team" and I were working with a small church called the Lighthouse Church which is located in the small costal town of Troon that few people have heard of. I think that the most that we did with in church itself was going there on Sundays and helping with their prayer rooms on Wednesdays. However, we did spend a lot of time connecting with people in the church. While the Lighthouse Church may be small, the people are fantastic. We also stayed with an amazing family from the church who not only opened their home to us, but also gave up their time to take us places and ministered alongside of us.
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| Andrew and Sadie: our wonderful hosts |
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| The Lighthouse Church |
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| Inside the Lighthouse Church |
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| Part of Troon where the church is. Incedentily, the church sits in the center of Troon's roughest neighborhood. |
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| Troon's harbor |
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| Paisley Abbey |
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| Paisley Town Center |
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| Stirling Castle |
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| From the battlements |
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| Loch Lomon |
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| the hill |
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Update
Welcome to 2011! I came back to Norway just in time to welcome in the New Year and to discover that the Norwegians like fireworks on New Year's Eve more than Americans do on Independence Day.
It has been wonderful to have a break and absorb what has happened since I arrived in Norway. God has shown me so much of His goodness while I have been here and the crazy thing is I know that there is more yet to come. Tomorrow I head off to the Grimerud YWAM base for Workers Gathering, which is where all of the YWAM bases in Norway gather together to hear about what YWAM is doing throughout Norway and send off the outreach teams. While I do not go on my main outreach for another three months, I am going to Scotland in six days for a two week, mini-outreach. Other teams from the DTS in Skien will be going to Austria, Estonia, Germany, Italy, Latvia, and Tromsø (which is a city in the north of Norway). I will tell you about my work and adventures in Scotland when I get back, but if you want to pray for my trip, please pray for favorable weather conditions for travel, protection, unity within the team, for a good connection to the people in the church that my team and I will be working with, and that God would give us the knowledge of how we can be a blessing to the people of Scotland.
I think that it is not too early to share with you the country where I will be going for my main outreach before I end this update. For my main outreach, I and seven other people will be going to the beautiful country of Ethiopia. As of the moment, I do not have a clear picture of what we will be doing in Ethiopia, but I will know more after mini-outreach. I think that it is better not to know everything now so that I can set my eyes on Scotland.
It has been wonderful to have a break and absorb what has happened since I arrived in Norway. God has shown me so much of His goodness while I have been here and the crazy thing is I know that there is more yet to come. Tomorrow I head off to the Grimerud YWAM base for Workers Gathering, which is where all of the YWAM bases in Norway gather together to hear about what YWAM is doing throughout Norway and send off the outreach teams. While I do not go on my main outreach for another three months, I am going to Scotland in six days for a two week, mini-outreach. Other teams from the DTS in Skien will be going to Austria, Estonia, Germany, Italy, Latvia, and Tromsø (which is a city in the north of Norway). I will tell you about my work and adventures in Scotland when I get back, but if you want to pray for my trip, please pray for favorable weather conditions for travel, protection, unity within the team, for a good connection to the people in the church that my team and I will be working with, and that God would give us the knowledge of how we can be a blessing to the people of Scotland.
I think that it is not too early to share with you the country where I will be going for my main outreach before I end this update. For my main outreach, I and seven other people will be going to the beautiful country of Ethiopia. As of the moment, I do not have a clear picture of what we will be doing in Ethiopia, but I will know more after mini-outreach. I think that it is better not to know everything now so that I can set my eyes on Scotland.
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Gud er God, Hele Tiden
To the dear people who are reading this blog, Merry Christmas! I wish that I was able to travel back to the US for Christmas, but I got to go to Germany instead, which has been a big blessing.
I have talked a lot about my life in Norway so far, what living with a multitude of other people is like, and what we do in YWAM Skien. But now, I want to talk about what God is doing Skien; how He is working in the city through us.
In general, the Norwegian people are open to spiritual things, whether it is the Holy Spirit or not good spirits. I think that this is one of the reasons why God has met many, many Norwegians in what we would call a supernatural way. Before I go on and share some stories of what God has done, I want to say something about the core of miracles, signs and wonders, etc. The heart behind the supernatural is for a person to encounter the love of God in a tangible way. Praying for people is another way to visibly demonstrate God's heart, His love, and His compassion.
Okay, story time. One Saturday night in November, a lot of us from the base went out to evangelize. My group and I got to pray for a man with stomach problems. Not much happened after we finished praying, but when another group met the same man and asked if they could pray for him, he said that God had already healed him.
On my last team week, my team and I went to a Baptist church in Skien to hang out with the youth group. While we were there, we got to pray for a girl with a sore throat and God healed her.
Of course, healings are not the only things that God is doing. Another area that He is working with is divine appointments. Let me give you an example. One cold, dark night in November we had a fire drill just as the cafe that we run on Thursday nights was closing. The parking lot which serves as our safe meeting place in case of fires is right next to the disco club across the street from the prison. I guess a large group of people, some wearing pajamas, standing in a parking lot late at night looks funny because people from the club started to come outside and ask what we were doing there. When the fire drill ended and people started to go back into the prison, Melanie, a fellow DTS student and I started to talk with a girl who came out from the club. The girl shared her story with us and we had an opportunity to speak life into her life. Melanie is still in contact with this girl. I have no doubt that it was God who orchestrated things that night to reach this one girl.
There are many, many more stories of how God has healed people inside and out and touched the lives of the people in Skien. These are just the events which I have been privileged to witness.
I have talked a lot about my life in Norway so far, what living with a multitude of other people is like, and what we do in YWAM Skien. But now, I want to talk about what God is doing Skien; how He is working in the city through us.
In general, the Norwegian people are open to spiritual things, whether it is the Holy Spirit or not good spirits. I think that this is one of the reasons why God has met many, many Norwegians in what we would call a supernatural way. Before I go on and share some stories of what God has done, I want to say something about the core of miracles, signs and wonders, etc. The heart behind the supernatural is for a person to encounter the love of God in a tangible way. Praying for people is another way to visibly demonstrate God's heart, His love, and His compassion.
Okay, story time. One Saturday night in November, a lot of us from the base went out to evangelize. My group and I got to pray for a man with stomach problems. Not much happened after we finished praying, but when another group met the same man and asked if they could pray for him, he said that God had already healed him.
On my last team week, my team and I went to a Baptist church in Skien to hang out with the youth group. While we were there, we got to pray for a girl with a sore throat and God healed her.
Of course, healings are not the only things that God is doing. Another area that He is working with is divine appointments. Let me give you an example. One cold, dark night in November we had a fire drill just as the cafe that we run on Thursday nights was closing. The parking lot which serves as our safe meeting place in case of fires is right next to the disco club across the street from the prison. I guess a large group of people, some wearing pajamas, standing in a parking lot late at night looks funny because people from the club started to come outside and ask what we were doing there. When the fire drill ended and people started to go back into the prison, Melanie, a fellow DTS student and I started to talk with a girl who came out from the club. The girl shared her story with us and we had an opportunity to speak life into her life. Melanie is still in contact with this girl. I have no doubt that it was God who orchestrated things that night to reach this one girl.
There are many, many more stories of how God has healed people inside and out and touched the lives of the people in Skien. These are just the events which I have been privileged to witness.
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