Light in the Darkness

Hey everyone...

Ive just recently return home from a caving trip and my local outreach. Before all this fun a man born and raised in California came to speak to us about hearing Gods voice. This was an awsome week for me, this is a topic in which I have had a lot of questions about. Marc talked to us mostly in story form so it was very easy to stay focused. All in all it was a great week.

The following weekend was nice...the base was empty, many of the staff were out on a trip and it was nice having some quiet at the base. Hanging around in the living room, by the fire stove just enjoying life, talking, worshiping and just not doing anything to hard.

On Monday we left and drove about 5 hrs inland to this apparently european known caving area. I have not ever been a big caver and with a couple past experiences, I have found out that I am a little on the claustrophobic side. This was an awsome experience for me, pushing myself and doing things that stretch me out of my normal routine. None the less it was alot of fun, I can definantly say that I would not ever go caving for sport but every now and then it might be a little fun. Monday night we camped out on this beautiful mountainside and tuesday and wednesday night we stayed in a cabin...there was a sauna right outside the guys cabing so any sore mucles we had werent sore anymore...=)

We came back to Engavagen on thursday and friday morning I left again for my every other weekend local outreach. It was a nice relaxing weekend. The family we normaly stay with, we told the parents to take a weekend and go to Bodo and take a weekend off, we would watch there kids so it was alot of fun just hanging out around the house and taking it easy.

It would be nice to hear from more of you back home and see what you think. It is always nice to log on and see that I have had new posts so...

This coming week our base leader is talking to us about "relationships" so this should be an interesting week. Today for practical work, my roomate Nathan and I did alot of construction type work so it was very cool. I felt like I was back in school doing my building trades class...lots of memories.

Well I hope to hear from you all

Gods Nature

This past week a mate born in Australia came to speak to us. He has been living in southern norway for the past 10 years now. Darryl Krausse spoke to us about Gods Character and Nature. It seemed that this past week was more of a debate for us here at the base than it was a weeks worth of teaching. Alot of questions were brought to the surface and since Darryl didnt have all the answers we often found ourselfs talking with one another about what we thought.

This week of teaching fell into place very well with our local outreach. Every other weekend me and a two students and two staff travel about 3 hours north to a small island called Sorarnoy. The island is about 3 km by 1 km. Theres about 250 people that live on the island. One of the familys allows us to come and stay with them... to tell you the truth, I have only been there 2 times but they seem like family to me. Anyways, we arrive on Friday around 4:30pm and spend time with the family, at 7:30 we go to the 3 classroom school down the road and meet up with kids from the age of 13-16 and play games (this past Friday we played capture the flag in the woods on a big hill. It was dark so it was a ton of fun) After we all have a good time, we sit down and have a little devotional time with the teens. We had our talk this week in the "Saloon" It is a little building the family we stay with has built, it looks like an old west building with cowboy items...ect. We turned of all the lights and talked to them about how God is a light in the dark and I lit a candle.

One of our big prayers for the weekend was that God would move in the kids hearts and reveal himself to them. One of the kids, Ellias (dont count me on the spelling) a little bit bigger, not really into the whole running around deal, he kind of feels like an outsider, we prayed that he would have fun and enjoy himself and hear Gods voice.

It turns out that 3 of the kids started questioning who God was and wanting to know how to have a relationship with him. Keep them in your prayers as they are searching and Ellias was another who started to question. It was amazing, Ellias didnt talk to anyone the first week and this week he talked to Lars (a fellow YWAMer) and me alot. He had fun running and playing capture the flag.

Keep all these kids in your prayers and ask God to really show himself. This was an amazing weekend and I am looking forward to going back and talking to all the teens again. God answed alot of our prayers, good weather, he even provided Northern Lights when we were playing capture the flag. We all stayed safe, like I said it was an amazing weekend.

The Bible and MPW

For our second week of teaching, a Norwegian guy named Lars Olay came and taught about the history of the Bible. This week was a little harder to stay focused than with Gawdatt because of the type of teaching. I felt like I was back in school...I guess I am back in school. It was quite a bit more interesting towards the end of the week.

MPW...mountain peak worship was the focus of our outdoor trip this past week. We took an hour long boat ride to an island called Bolga then hiked around to our base camp. It was so beautiful. There were massive boulders everywhere. It was so amazing getting to climb on rock that didnt fall apart...it was great. We stashed all our gear and hiked up to this huge split in the mountain then hiked through it to the other side of the island. Before we reached the other side, I was smart and droped my knife into a crack in the rock and it took 3 of us to find it. I was not to happy about almost loosing my only knife but with Gods help we found it. We walked along the rocky coast all the way back to our camp, it was definantly an enjoyable day. The next day we hiked up the main mountain on Bolga. The view was pretty sweet, it was so windy up on top that you could lean forward pretty far and the wind would hold you up. We spent time on top worshiping, singing songs and praying for the surrounding communites. The 3rd night on Bolga was a solo night where we all recivied a tarp and some rope and we were sent of to go to different parts of the island and spend the night by ourselfs. This was so that we could just have some time to reflect and pray and not be distracted by the outside world. It was a really cool night other than the fact that me and all my stuff got soaked...oh well it was an experience. Thursday we took another boat to a smaller island called Melaoy (dont take my word for the spelling on this one) and hiked up about half way to this beautiful cabin sitting on a fresh water lake. We then hiked up to the tallest mountain on that island. My two roomates and me have started a tradition of every mountain peak we reach we stand on the cairne and get a photo. MyThe view was incredible, from the top I could see Engavagen (the town the YWAM base is in), the boat harbor, I could see Soranoy (my local outreach point, every other weekend me and a group of 4 others go to this small island and work with 5-16 year old kids and teach english in the school and just build relationships with them) anyways back on track, we hiked back to the cabin and had a nice warm, dry night just worshiping and having a ton of fun. Sleeping there was nice but I decided to sleep on the porch on the picnic table and again had a briliant moment when I rolled of. Again it was another experience, this one I hope to not repeat.

It is weird to call Nordtun home but in a way it is really cool. All I know is that its good to be able to say...its good to be home.

First week back to school

Ive been here in Nordtun, Norway now for 12 days. Every day im here I learn new and amazing things. The weather here is not very consistant...rain, sun, rain, and so on so it has been very interesting getting used to the cold wet weather. So far we have climbed up the 2nd biggest glacier in Norway. Its called "Svartisen", meaning black ice. This was the first time I have ever done any ice climbing and I definantly think im going to stick with rockclimbing. Ice climbing is amazing however im not so sure about the cold.

My two roomates Nathan and Daniel and a friend from germany, Lars took a bouldering trip. The hike wasnt bad, about a 20 min walk/scramble from the base. Its kind of a bummer how the rock seems to just fall apart here but that just makes me become a more cautious climber.

Next we hiked up a 2000ft mountain called "Risnestind". This mountain is the view I have when I look out my window. Every morning its one of the best parts of my day. After the sweet hike, we had a norwegian style barbaque on a beach about 20 mins away. It was nothing like back home on the warm beaches of Florida, however it was nice.

Finishing up our first week of class, I have taken in more info than in a long time. Our teacher this past week was a guy from Egypt named Gawdat. He was so halarious in class and had a cool way of keeping me focused. He liked to draw pictures however all his pictures consisted of was lines, circles and dots. Every time he drew one, the whole class laughed. To end this amazing week, one of my roomates Nathan and I decided to start a campfire right by the water. (About a 10 min. walk from the base). A good size crowd came out and joined us and we had a great time laughing, worshiping and just hanging out.