Mini Outreach and More

Lars, Line and I left for Sorarnoy again...this time just us, no leaders, and not only for a weekend but for a week. We were incredibly excited as always! We love going to Sorarnoy, the people are so friendly and hospitable, they care for you and want to do things for you...We arrived and Gjermund who on the previous Mini Outreach (in the fall) his side was hurting and it turned out that his appendix had exploded but he was okay, he just had to have it removed. Anyways he picked us up at the dock, it was great to see him again, it had been since before Christmas since we had seen him last. We drove a whole 5 min to his house and sat and had coffee and just caught back up on the past 3 months.
Through out the week we worked in the school teaching the kids in their English, German and Religion classes. I think the best class was when we had a chance to teach the kids about Tibetans and Tibetan Buddhism. For being a little younger age they paid attention very well and had incredible questions. The English and German classes were great as well. We also had several days where we helped Gjermund and his father out around the garage (they own a huge garage, they have cattle, horses, lots of land and lots of work to do...) we helped doing yard work, cutting down trees and piling it. Gjermund and I put up a fence...well we almost finished it but on our second day of working on it, it was cold and rainy so we decided to call it a day and just go home. We did landscaping work and much more...
Along with all the work (which was great!) we got to shoot Gjermunds gun, ride horses in which I found that if all else fails I will go be a rodeo rider...I was getting used to riding the horse, pushing my luck a little bit riding faster than I should have been but oh well. The horse started bucking and aparently the others thought I was "For sure going to fall" but I didnt, I held on and rode the horse to the middle of the ring. I felt like a cowboy, it was GREAT!!!

Leaving Sorarnoy, God just keep showing our team how much he cared for us and how much he wants to help us. God has provided many times and he has provided in a time of need again...He is such a GREAT God. Coming back to Nordtun we had a week of teaching about Missions, it was a really nice week to have because unanswerd questions that I had were answerd, It was great getting to talk to the couple, John and Ellen who have been Missionarys in India for 9 years. It was great getting to hear their stories and here about struggles that they went through. I think that it was really good timing for this week seeing as how I am planning on going to Tibet...

This past weekend we had DIVE. A weekend youth camp for kids age 13-16 to come to Nordtun (our school) and just have fun, worship, learn about God, talk with us, play instruments, football (european)...many many many other things. It was a really fun weekend but now I am a little on the tierd side. Today we had a free day since we have been busy all weekend so Daniel, Madara and I decided we would go Snowboarding for one last time. It was such a beautiful day, sunny probably 60-70 degrees out, shirt off and just enjoying Gods wonderful nature. Only bummer was the fact that every step you took you sunk. Sometimes to your knee and other times down to my hip in the snow. It was a little frustrating but then I would just turn and look all around, sunny, snow on the ground, fjords and mountians all over the place. I started realizing how fortunante I am to be here with good friends doing what we love...enjoying Gods creation pushing the limit. The ride down wasnt the best since the snow was so wet it just stuck to our boards but it was still an incredible day.
I am really looking forward to going home, seeing friends and family but I am going to be sad when I have to leave here, leave my home here in Norway where there is such beauty in everything. I guess I have to see the beauty in eveything, everywhere...even in the flat lands of Indiana :)
Please continue to pray for me while I work on ways to get back to Tibet or look at other possibilities for a year or two. Please pray that God will help provide a way in which ever way I go. Also please remember all those who are in Tibet and China who are working with the Tibetian people, the disaster, and all of the riots.
Thank you so much...

Bridge Swinging

So Lars, the craziest german ever...a good friend here at Nordtun Skole had two of his friends from Germany come and visit. They came to Sorarnoy with us for local outreach and Line and I had the chance to get to know them decently. Martin and Leboo were there names, Leboo spoke okay english, Martin didnt speak so well however they were both very kind and a ridiculous amount of fun to hang out with.

Since the fall Lars and I had been talking about setting up a bridge swing at the bridge about 2 miles away from the base...we had talked about it alot. One night when we were hanging out we decided we would do it when we got back from local outreach, so when we got back the following day Lars, Martin and Leboo left early in the morning while I was still sleeping and set up the swing (I guess not that early but thats besides the point...) anyways after lunch a group of us went out to the bridge and checked it out. Leboo jumped off, then Martin and then my turn had come up...the longer I stood there looking down the more my stomach and head said..."NO DONT DO IT, YOU DONT LIKE FALLING!!!" but my adrenaline junkie side was saying..."YES, YES LETS DO IT..." so I put on my harness and...well you can see by the pictures...It was geat fun and hopefully we will go to another bridge and do it!!!

YEEHAW!!!

Life back at Base

Since coming back to base we have had a great week of teaching with a Norwegian guy named Henrick Stromberg. He taught on Worldviews and unfortunantly it is not really a topic that can be covered in 5 days so it was very difficult to get alot out of it but you just have to take out what you can get!!!

After the teaching we packed up again and went on a snowcaving trip. We drove a little less than an hour and on our journey through the mountians we drove through two tunnels. Both tunnels had ice on alot of the road through the tunnel and the first tunnel happend to be quite steep. The car in front of us slowed down as we entered the tunnel therefore we had to slow down so we started sliding on the ice. We stopped the car but we couldnt get going again so we piled out of the van almost falling down sliding on the pure ice below our feet. After 20 min of sliping, sliding and shoveling sand under the front tires we sat on the engine and slowly started uphill once again. We hit a dry spot on the road and all jumped back into the van. A little further uphill we got stuck on ice again and this time it was a little more fun, we started sliding backwards but couldnt stop until the trailer jack-knifed. Again we all piled out of the van and did the same thing as before however it wasnt working...after a while of failing Øystien (the base leader) came down with chains for the tires, instead of all getting back in the van we had to walk out of the tunnel. (about 3/4 mile uphill).

Getting to the parking lot we unloaded all our bags and cross country skiied to our spot where we dug our snowcaves. We split up into teams of 4 or 5 and dug for hours and hours. Basicly there was a almost vertical wall of snow that had been blown by the wind onto the side of a hill, we dug a tunnel straight into the wall for aobut 5 or 6 feet then dug out a rounded room where we slept on both sides of the walkway. In order to stay warm we made the entrance lower than where we were sleeping...it may not seem like it would be warm but it was quite warm! I stayed nice and warm all nights but the last and that was because I was damp and my sleeping bag was damp but it wasnt unbearable it was just definantly uncomfortable. We took two ski trips one of which was just getting used to ski's and the second was a 14 killometer trip to a small "Gamma" (small cabin that looks like a Tipi but is made out of wood and has soil so it looks very earthy)...it was a great trip but I definantly like being on a snowboard much more than on ski's.

After coming home from the trip I had to pack the following day to go to Sorarnoy, my local outreach that I went to all fall. It was so great to see all those who I had meet and started relationships with. The kids...sorry "youth" were very excited to see all of us, and I think it was the same for us as well. Friday evening we had an idea to do an easter egg hunt since we had missed easter but we used hot dogs instead. We put 20 hot dogs in plastic bags and scattered them all over the island and we split the group into two and gave each group a paper with clues as to where the hot dogs were. We gave the two groups an hour to find as many as they could and then they had to meet us up on a hill. When they arrived we had a fire roaring and we all talked and laughed while roasting the hot dogs. Following the feast we had we went to the gym hall and set up a projector and showed the youth pictures of Tibet. It was such an awsome weekend and next week we get to go for the whole week to help out in the school and do what ever we can to help out the community.

Please pray that we continue to build the relationships with the youth and familys on the island. Also pray that they will trust us and talk with us like they did before we left for the winter.
Please keep in mind the whole situation in Tibet as well...it is still not a good situation and if this keeps on going I will have trouble getting back to do the work God has called me to do...
Thanks