Life with YWAM

Relaxing with the SOE

 It is six-thirty in the morning and my alarm clock is telling me that its time to start another day. Already I can hear the pounding of feet as people run up and down the stairs to and from the bathrooms which, by the way, have showers with glass doors. The sun isn't up yet, but almost everyone at the YWAM base here in Skien is in order for breakfast.
 If I had to describe my life here in Skien with one word, routine would be one of the words that I would be tempted to use. On an average day here, life for a DTS student looks like this: we eat an early breakfast, spend an hour with God (praying, reading the bible, etc.), then we go to class where we learn about a different subject each week. So far, we've learned about the father heart of God, holiness, the bible, discipleship, and relationships. We have a break for lunch at noon and then it is back to class or cleaning the base depending upon the day.


class



waiting for class to begin

 Something interesting that I have learned about life here in Norway is that Norwegians eat four meals a day, most of them consisting of bread. Breakfast and lunch are at what we in the United States would call 'normal times', but dinner, the only hot meal we eat, is consumed around four thirty and then there is super which is eat around eight. The base here in Skien is no exception to eating four meals a day, which is nice because there is always cereal for supper if you didn't get enough for dinner. 
 Weekends at the base are good for two reasons mainly: you get to sleep in and on Saturdays we have a Norwegian specialty of rice porridge which has a name that my laptop doesn't posses the right keys to spell.

 I may have already mentioned this, but one of the best things about living here is the fellowship. Now that it is getting cold, we spend a good amount of time around one of the stoves drinking coffee or tea, talking, and laughing. Sometimes the conversations are deep topics and other times it is just swapping jokes. The atmosphere here is open and it is a safe place to learn how to be yourself. We are working towards being Youth Without Any Masks. 
 Of course, there are many times when we need to be alone and think. Thankfully the cafe culture is big here in Norway and Cafe Tullis is a good place to go for some alone time. However, there is always the chance that you will meet someone else from the base there so visitors, be warned.


Cafe Tullis

   I think that this nicely sums up what my life is like here on a day to day basis. After reading over what I just wrote, it sounds a little repetitive, but that is where people come in. People are the game changing variable and I would have to fight really hard here to be bored.