Riding the bus--what an adventure! 

The bus! 

Me & Gunna enjoying coffee and pastries in downtown Kristiansand. 

Reflections on Week Four: The Prophetic

This post is a little late, but that's probably indicative of my life recently: things have been so busy! This past week was another difficult one in many ways, but one of new understanding and realizations. I'm sure the title "The Prophetic" brings weird things to many of your minds, and to be honest, I was not so comfortable with the topic myself. But I realized a very key thing: I cannot put God in a box. Just because I have a certain personality, or I have seen God work in my life in certain ways in the past, does not mean I can tell God, "This is how I will allow you to work in my life, and these are the ways you cannot work." He is God and He is allowed to do anything He wants. He is free to move and work and change me in any way He chooses. And the great thing is that even though He may do things that are uncomfortable for me at times, I can trust Him completely because (1) He loves me completely; and (2) He is always good. So though this week has not been always entirely comfortable, it has not been as much of a struggle, because I have released complete control to God and told Him He can do whatever He wants with me. For me, it's just one day at a time, resting in Him, going with the flow. As for the prophetic, I've found it's really not as scary as it sounds. But for the sake of space and time, maybe I can entertian individual emails on that subject :-).

Some other highlights from this week:

• Gunna and I thought it would be great to do a "Mission: Impossible" video of her rolling down our roof and landing on a bunch of mattresses on the ground. So we hauled 9 mattresses from the attic down to the outside of our building, only to have Gunna sit on the roof looking down for over a half hour before deciding she didn't want to jump after all. Maybe another time :-)
• This weekend Gunna went home to visit her family, so Elisabet and I took her to the train station in Kristiansand on Friday evening. Before dropping her off, we stopped at a cafe in town and had coffee! My first latte since leaving California.
• On Saturday, I went into town again with some friends for a little shopping, and most importantly, ice-cream. Also a first since coming to Norway, and boy was it yummy!
  

Go to the mattresses! Gunna retrieving mattresses from the attic. 

Gunna posing on top of the mattresses we stole from the attic for our fabulous stunt. 

A bike underwater at the dock by the grocery store down the street from where I live. I think this is a cool picture :-) 

Some roses for sale in Kristiansand. 

Me & Magni eating ice-cream in Kristiansand. Yum! 

Elisabet & Gunna at a cafe in town (Kristiansand). 

Peace Corps Placement!

After months of waiting, this week I received my Peace Corps placement assignment in the mail! I will be going to the Kyrgyz Republic (Kyrgyzstan), a small former Soviet state in Central Asia, to teach English as a foreign language to secondary students, ages 13-17. My departure date is scheduled for September 14, 2005, the day after my 25th birthday! I'm scheduled to complete my service December 9, 2007. These dates are subject to change, but shouldn't shift more than a day or two. I will first spend a couple days at orientation (called "Staging") in the States. Then on September 18, I am scheduled to fly to Kyrgyzstan, where I will begin 11 weeks of Pre-Service Traning (PST) with 5-6 other Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs) outside the capitol of Bishkek. During PST I will live with a Kyrgyz host family, and receive technical and language training, in addition to training in health, safety, and culture. On December 9, 2005, I will depart for my 2 years of service at my permanent site.

Kyrgyzstan is located southeast of Kazakhstan, east of Uzbekistan, north of Tajikistan, and northwest of China. To see a map, check out http://www.lonelyplanet.com/mapshells/central_asia/kyrgyzstan/kyrgyzstan.htm. The two official languages are Kyrgyz and Russian; PCVs learn one or the other depending on the predominant language where they are serving. Though there are no guarantees, I am optimistic that they will place me in a location where Russian is spoken, since I have some experience with the language. But I will not know where that will be until PST. Everything I have read so far describes the Kyrgyz people as extremely warm and hospitable, so I have no doubt that an incredible experience awaits me! Of course I will be sad to leave family and friends for such an extended period of time, but I am also excited to have this amazing opportunity to serve, live, and learn in another nation. There's so much more I could say, but I think I'll leave it at that for now. If you have any specific questions, feel free to email me (at the right), or post a comment. And if I get a lot of the same questions, I'll address them in a future post :-). Oh, and Happy Birthday Aunt Kristie!!

Reflections on Week Three: What Can We Learn From History?

This week we enjoyed teaching from our first guest speaker, Peter Bunton, from Britain. He was an excellent teacher and incredibly knowledgeable on the history of the Church. Between Monday and Friday, he gave us an overview of the Church's history from the Ancient world to the current Post-Modern world, with extended teaching on the Celtic Church, cell churches (small groups) throughout history, and post-modernism. I loved every moment of it! It's inspiring to look back and see how God has been working since the beginning of time, and also saddening to see how the Church has often fumbled the message. In essence, we have much to learn from our history: things that worked, like the Celts and their reverence for creation, their creativity in the arts, their emphasis on community and simplicity; and things that went wrong, like the theology of forced conversion that led to the Crusades. It's amazing the perspective that history brings--an idea that is not new to me, but still I feel like my perspective has been widened this week. Particularly exciting was our discussion of post-modernism and its implications for missions and evangelism. Often, post-modernism is only mentioned in the Church as the newest great evil; it was encouraging to hear teaching that emphasized the positive things it has to offer. We are certainly living in an exciting time, in the midst of a cultural shift, the likes of which have only occured twice before in all of history!

Lighthouse Hike

Today a group of us took a hike to a lighthouse on another side of the island. It was a beautiful day--blue sky and sunny--perfect for a walk through the woods and over the rocks that are so typically Norwegian. It was great to see a different part of Flekkeroy; of late, my outings have consisted of walking down to the grocery store with Gunna to buy chocolate :-). Not to say that we haven't been running, but that's a different type of outing... Anyway, about 10 of us set out on our adventure around 2pm, led by Elisabet, one of the students in my school (the SOI) and a Flekkeroy native! It took about 45 minutes on the trail before we arrived at the lighthouse. One of the amazing things about the trails here on Flekkeroy is that you'll be walking through the woods surrounded by trees, and then all of a sudden, the trail will open up to a clearing overlooking the sea! Once we arrived, we hung out for about an hour, scrambling around on the rocks, taking pictures, and enjoying the gorgeous view. I've attached some pics below. It's been a while since I posted any photos, so I thought I'd make up for it, by adding more than usual :-). You'll also be able to see some of my other friends here at the base--proof that I hang out with people other than Gunna!

A bunch of us at the lighthouse! You probably can't make out the people very well, but from left to right: Eili (SOI Staff, Norway); Magni; Jessica; Elisabet (SOI Student, Norway); Gunna; in front: Eleanor (SOI Staff, New Zealand). 

A view from the lighthouse. 

Me & Elisabet (fellow SOI Student, native of Flekkeroy!). 

What I think is a really cool picture of Gunna. 

Me & Gunstein (IBC Student, Norway). 

Steve climbing up the lighthouse. 

Gunna & Jorgen (IBC Student, Norway) having climbed up the lighthouse. Windy day! 

Me & Lina (IBC Student, Sweden). 

Steve goofing off. 

Schedule

So I thought some of you might be interested to know what exactly I do all day here! Our daily schedule is basically the same each day, with some slight variations:

• The day starts at 7:30am with breakfast. Next week, I'll have breakfast duty, which means I'll have to be there around 7:15 to set up, and stay afterwards to clean.
  
• 7:45-8:45 we have quiet times... time alone with God, devotions, whatever you care to call it.
  
• 8:45-9:45 we usually have some type of worship or intercession (praying together as a group for something besides ourselves). On Mondays, we have worship with the IBC. On Tuesdays, we have worship and intercession only with our school. Wednesdays, we have what we call "Tarry Times." Basically, we spend that time in groups seeking God for what He would have us pray for, and then praying for it. It's time to practice hearing God, and one of my favorite times of the week. It's lots of fun! Thursdays, we have worship and intercession with the IBC, and Fridays, we don't have worship at all, but go straight into teaching.
  
• 10:00-12:00 we have teaching. Usually we have one speaker teaching on one topic for a whole week.
• 12:00-12:30--Lunch Break!
• 12:30-2:00 teaching continues. Except on Fridays, since we start class earlier, we are usually done by lunch time. The rest of the afternoon is usually free.
• Mondays and Wednesdays, Gunna & I go running after class, usually for about a half hour.
• On Thursdays, we have "One-on-Ones" at 2:15, where we meet with a staff member (the same staff each time). It's a good time to discuss any struggles we're having, to talk about our journals (which they evaluate), and just to build relationship with someone who has done this school before.
• 4:00 is dinner! This week I'm on dinner duty again, so I go early (3:45) to help set up, then I usually end up cleaning until around 5:30.
• At 6:00 on Tuesdays and Thursdays it's Jofrid-cise!!
  
• The scheduled events of the day are rounded out with supper at 8:00, which is essentially the same as breakfast. If I have supper duty, I set up early, and then clean up until around 9:00.

So that's my week in a nutshell! Free time is spent writing emails, reading, working on my journal, having fun with Gunna, playing games with other students, playing outside, etc. Sorry this is the second post I've put up without any corresponding pictures!! I'll try to remedy that next time :-). Have a great week!

Reflections on Week Two: Worship

This week has been somewhat of a struggle for me. We had teaching from our staff on worship, and I struggled with feeling pressure to fit into what I perceive to be the "YWAM" mold. In many ways, I have had a difficult time adjusting--to especially expressive worship, to an environment that often calls for immediate responses to teaching, to new people and a new country, to being seen and known all the time, to the expectation that I will be open and honest about everything in my life with these new people. I have struggled at times to fit our teaching in with who God has created me to be, and at times I have been tempted to respond to perceived pressure with a rebellious heart. But even though things have been difficult at times, it has been good to go through this process. And more importantly, it has been good to go through this process with other people. There isn't a whole lot of room to hide in a school with 6 students and 8 staff! And placing my struggles out in the open has helped me to resist attitudes of rebellion, of criticism, of self-pity and of arrogance.

So what did I learn this week? Worship is not about fitting a mold, whether that mold is dancing around the room waving flags, or standing in the pews with hands by your side. Worship is not about doing what others expect or find acceptable. Worship is for GOD and God ONLY. Worship is me giving God the glory and honor due to Him--period. I choose to worship because God is WORTHY--worthy of ALL my worship, ALL the time, no matter what I feel, no matter what others think. The focus is on HIM, not on myself, not on the people around me, and not on what the people around me think of me. The moment my focus shifts from God to anything else is the moment I have ceased to worship Him.

Psalm 95: 1-7
O come, let us sing for joy to the Lord,
Let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation.
Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving,
Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms.
For the Lord is a great God
And a great King above all gods,
In whose hand are the depths of the earth,
The peaks of the mountains are His also.
The sea is His, for it was He who made it,
And His hands formed the dry land.
Come, let us worship and bow down,
Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.
For He is our God,
And we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand.

Work Duty

All YWAMers are familiar with the concept of work duties! As part of the community life of YWAM, every student who lives on the base is assigned a work duty, or chore, to complete each day. At my DTS, work duties ranged from hospitality to grounds-keeping, to the ever-glamourous toilet-cleaning. Here in Norway, I have kitchen duty! This is actually one of the most enjoyable duties. Each day, I have the responsibility of preparing for and cleaning up after one of our meals. The really nice thing about this job is that it changes from week to week. Last week, I was in charge of supper (the 8pm meal), and this week it's dinner (the 4pm meal). For those of you who are now questioning the safety of the students on our base, don't worry--kitchen duty doesn't actually involve any cooking! Breakfast and supper duties involve putting out the bread and various condiments, while dinner duty only involves putting out the food that our wonderful chef, Fred, prepares. And then, of course, there is clean-up, which the bulk of the job. Most of the dishes can be fed through the heavy-duty industrial size dishwasher, but the big pots and pans have to be washed by hand. Then there are the counters to wipe down, the garbage to take out, and the floor to mop. This week, I'm doing dinner duty with Gunna and Per Kristian (P.K.), and we are having a blast! Most days it only takes about 45 minutes to an hour to clean up, but today there were a lot of extra dishes, so it took almost 2 hours. But working together makes the job enjoyable. Plus the fact that we can pilfer food left over from the meal. Today there was some chocolate cake that mysteriously disappeared during our work duty... hmm... we'll have to have someone look into that :-)

Fred, the chef, doing a test-taste of the cheese sauce. It passed! 

Some of the dishes we washed tonight. 

Me, Gunna & P.K. (Norway, IBC Student) doing the dishes in style. 

Reflections on Week One: The Law of Jante

"You shall not believe that you are somebody.
You shall not believe that you are as worthy as us.
You shall not believe that you are any wiser than us.
You shall not imagine that you are any better than us.
You shall not believe that you know anything more than us.
You shall not believe that you are more than us.
You shall not believe that you are good at anything.
You shall not laugh at us.
You shall not believe that anyone cares about you.
You shall not believe that you can teach us anything.”

This “Law of Jante,” or Janteloven, was first observed by a Danish man named Aksel Sandemose in 1933, and is well-known by all Norwegians. It is an ingrained attitude of Norwegian culture that tells people they are not to stand up above the rest and that they have nothing of value to offer anyone else. It is a stronghold that keeps heads bowed low, strangles initiative and boldness, creates a spirit of criticism, and produces fear of hearing one’s voice heard above the rest. As our speaker this week on The History and Culture of Norway said, “This mentality is garbage straight from Hell” and hinders much for God’s Kingdom.

On Friday, we all stood together against the Law of Jante and the lies it feeds us about our identities. Even though I am not Norwegian, I saw the impact of the Law of Jante in my life, and renouncing it was a significant act for me. I found myself believing at times that I didn’t have much to offer these people who know so much more about prayer, worship & spiritual warfare than I do. But this attitude was hindering my ability to be involved in what God is doing in our school, and robbing others of the ways God wants to use me to bless them. Saying I don’t have anything to offer is really saying God doesn’t have anything to offer, and what greater lie is there than that!? Now that we have all taken a stand against the Janteloven, I feel much more prepared to both receive from God and pour out into others. Down with the Law of Jante!! :-)

Day Trip to Kristiansand

Flekkeroy, the island where I live, is just a tiny little town. We have a small grocery store down the street from the YWAM base, a bank, a church, a school, and a prayer house. Other than those buildings--and a coffee shop rumored to exist nearby--Flekkeroy is maily residential. There isn't really any temptation to spend money here, since there isn't much of anything on which to spend it. It's great! But every once in a while, it's also nice venture off the island and be reminded that there are more than 50 people in all of Norway. The nearest town to Flekkeroy is Kristiansand, about a 20 minute drive, or an $8 bus trip (yikes! a reminder to be thankful for U.S. gas prices!). But today our staff arranged transportation to town so we could exchange money, buy things we can't get on the island, and see a different side of Norway. Gunna and I hung out with friends Line & Lina, from Denmark and Sweden, respectively. Together, we made up all the nations represented by the students in our 2 schools! I was finally able to get some Norwegian money (kroners), and I bought some materials for the journals we're required to keep as part of the academic requirements of the school. Other than that, we just wandered around in shops and enjoyed the beautiful day in the city.

Downtown Kristiansand. 

From left to right: Gunna, Me, Steve, Lina (Sweden, IBC Student), Fred (Norway, Kitchen Chef), Line (Denmark, IBC Student) in downtown Kristiansand.