sauna land

in finland - land of saunas, dark bread, and dry humor. as for the saunas, i have yet to try one, but will be doing so in the next few days. the girls are staying at kati's apartment and of course the apartment has a sauna, but there is just something about getting naked in a steamy room with my students that just isn´t appealing. as for the dark bread, after being used to cheap, almost white bread, this rye bread is dee-licious. in the words of einar, "this bread is so black it´s almost a sin." as for the dry humor... i believe i possessed a large quantity of it before i came, but it is even more dry now. and last little fact about finland: did you know finland is the second fattest country behind the u.s.?
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cool story #1
we were at a camp about 40 kilometers away from vaasa this weekend, just to hang out with students and do a bit of teaching. the first day there i met iida, a finnish girl who was an exchange students in oskaloosa, kansas - just a couple hours away from where i grew up! it was like meeting an old friend. we talked about small town america and the funny things americans do. she is considering being a dts student next year in skien, which would be a huge blessing for me! she lives is vaasa, so i hope to go to a cafe with her this week.

cool story #2
during holy communion at the camp, i sat in the back and talked with a 16 yr. old guy named sami. we began talking when his father called him, drunk. i asked him why he came to the camp and he said he didn´t really know, but his friends were going and he was wondering if God was actually real. he changed the subject for awhile, talking small talk, and then i asked if it was hard to believe in God. immediately he answered, "yes." when i asked why, he said "most of these people here call themselves christian, but every monday they come to school bragging about how wasted they got over the weekend." again, the conversation changed, but a few moments later he asked me if i thought it was difficult to believe in God. i thought about it and said no, but if i tried to think about God with my head it doesn´t make any sense because i can´t prove much. if i think about it with my heart though, it makes perfect sense. he thought about it for a bit and replied, "huh. believing in God is something that a person has to do with their heart and if i believe, i don´t lose anything." we left the conversation at that and went to take commmunion, but wow. what an exciting thing.
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all is going well. quite tired still from the journey (32 hours by van and ferry) and just being around people all the time. but it´s worth it for the dark bread (everything else is an added bonus).

must say that norwegian "idol" is quite amusing. little known fact for all you americans: kurt nilsen beat out kelly clarkson for the title of "world idol."
off to finland until the 5th with søren, kati, andreas, jorun, einar, and kristian! more on all that later.

hamar, norway
the all-american family

drawing the line

i had all thsese things i wanted to write and now that i sit at the computer, i can't think of anything to say. so, let's start with the new crazy cool green velvet jacket i bought. very nice. i also received two care packages this past weekend (thank you, arian and ruthie!). mail always makes the day a bit more fun, especially when it's from people who really "get" you.
oh yeah... here's something cool. last week a man called the base and said he had around a 1000 books he wanted to donate, 90 percent english. i went to go pick them up - we received them from a couple from ireland and scotland who are missionaries here in skien. i love to read and can rarely find english books to read (minus "rolling stone" at the library), so it was great to thumb through them and pick a few out for my own personal library. most were quite old, but i picked out a few elisabeth elliot, o. hallesby, and charles spurgeon. they will keep me busy for a while.
this weekend i had absolutely no energy, but we had people over anyway and for the first time this year, we didn't talk about work! it was great. we actually talked about homosexuality. even though it isn't a nice cozy subject, what a relief to talk about something that has nothing to do with my life that makes me think and want to grow as a person.
next monday evening i leave for finland. we drive to stockholm and catch a ferry over. i have no idea about anything remotely finnish. have a bit of work to do.
down to business... let's talk felicity season 2. some people call me addicted. they're crazy. i can stop watching whenever i want; i just choose not to. it's so nice to come home after a long day of work, carry my dvd down to hild mari's, drink good coffee in her warm home and wonder what mistake felicity is going to make today. but seriously felicity, how many times can ben break your heart without you putting a stop to it? like you told noel in season 1, you have to draw the line. so, i'm drawing the line...
lyndee

will the life lessons ever stop coming?

back from the cold north where we had our worker's gathering in hamar where all ywam norway workers meet together twice a year. it's always good to be inspired, catch more of ywam's vision, but it's so difficult being around all those people, especially since i just flew in the night before. i feel like such an unfriendly person at these conferences because there are just so many people around. but it was quite good nonetheless. one of the speakers talked of how christians are known for these 3 things:
we don't have goals
we don't persevere
we wait to long to take action
God has been speaking to me about this since before i left for christmas break. the past semester has hit me in the face and i've been sifting through what has actually happened these past 5 months. i believe God has worked through and in me, but i so often feel that i am just existing here, doing things that are done for the sake of just getting them done. i wonder how much of what i've done affects the kingdom. i see that most of my time is not spent using my gifts and abilities. i've been reminded of the parable where the king gives the servants different amounts of money and 2 of the servants invested their money wisely and saw a profit. the last servant got scared when given the money and just buried it. i think i've taken some of the gifts God has given me and i've been scared and i've buried them. it's a danger when God entrusts different abilites to us and we don't use them to His glory. there is a danger of God taking those gifts and entrusting them to someone else who will. i see areas where fear has pushed me not to have a plan, to give up when it gets too difficult, and in turn i wait too long to take action. i'm so glad God continues to speak even when it takes me so long to get it. all that to say, i want to have more vision in my ministry, i want to be a person who is known for persevering, a person of action. i want to see change in myself and in those around me. i want my passion for God, my passion for missions and people to grow. i want to be disciplined in using and growing in the gifts God has placed in me. He gives us gifts because He wants to be glorified because of what we're doing in His name. when it's put in that perspective, fear isn't even an option.

enough for now. i'm off to bed, knowing i don't have to work tomorrow, that i can watch season 2 of "Felicity," and i get to go ice skating saturday! woohoo! God bless our neighbor Enge who doesn't have a password for his network connections and unknowingly blesses us with wireless internet from home.