What God has been doing with me

I go to a language class two days a week at a place called Kia. Kia was started by a local church to help the refugees get plugged in and learn Norwegian. At Kia they offer many multicultural social events like dinner gatherings, choir classes, (I have just joined this) prayer meetings, and above all, the love of Jesus is shared with them. I really enjoy going to class, not just for the Norwegian, but getting to know people outside of the church. This is a huge ministry opportunity.

I help with overseeing many projects at church. Some include ripping out old carpet in the kids class room and putting in new carpet, building stage seating for the kids’ class rooms, painting the new fire sprinkler system water pipes throughout the whole building, and organizing many storage rooms.

Managing worldbase house is something I really enjoy doing. I get to do all the upkeep inside and out and taking care of any guests or teams that come to stay with us.
I help members of the church with small projects like a few weeks ago the family below us had their apartment flooded so we installed a new floor and by the grace of God nothing else was damaged. I also help with the set up for Sunday service – getting the coffee room ready, ushering, setting up chares etc. and help with the cleaning of the office every week.

I am currently helping with the new web page for worldbase and you can check this out at
www.worldbase.no
Movie night once a month at WorldBase is something that Gretchen and I have started as a way to bring people together for fellowship and our vision is to get people from outside of the church into an environment where they can see the love of Jesus.

I’m getting more involved with a ministry down town called Café Jabes. This is a very big coffee shop that was started by the Salvation Army with the purpose of bringing foreigners and Norwegians together where they could experience the love of Jesus. At Café Jabes you can enjoy coffee, food, many games, live music, and fun fellowship. One of my favorite things is it is open from 8PM to 2AM. This is my kind of ministry, as most of you know, I’m a big fan for staying up really late; but really this is very good because it gives people the alternative of going to taverns and night clubs and a safe place to hang out. Right now Café Jabes is only open Friday nights and Saturday nights but Mike (the new manager who is from the states) has a vision for it to be open every day. This will take some time as Café Jabes is still in the process of growing.

ANSWERED PRAYERS

God is still doing miracles today.
You were praying for a man in the church who had a seizure and several heart attacks. This man had to go in for emergency heart surgery because his heart was in such bad shape. The day he went in the doctors couldn’t believe what they saw. They said he had the heart of a 20 year old, but how could this be just a few days ago his heart was in critical condition? Even though this man has experienced great memory loss from the seizure, he has hope and trust in the Lord that He will never leave him nor forsake him “I got my miracle” he said. Isn’t it amazing how one miracle can make all our other problems seem bearable because it reminds us God is still looking out for us. Thank you for praying.

Youth group
The youth are hungry to be more like Jesus. It’s just so wonderful to see the fire growing inside of them.

PRAYER REQUESTS

Café Jabes
-Please pray for more people to get involved Christian and non-Christian so it can be open more days of the week.

WorldBase
-We would like to see more missionary teams coming into Norway, as there is a great need for people on fire for Jesus.

-That the movie night at WorldBase would grow into a big ministry tool.

Personal
-That God would continue to give me boldness to step out and minister his love to His people.

My Christmas

I had a wonderful Christmas holiday in Norway getting to share it with several different families and with this it gave me the opportunity to really dive into the Norwegian traditions. Christmas was a very relaxing time with friends playing lots of games and eating a lot of food. The main Christmas meal is served on Christmas Eve and the whole family dresses up for this. The main dish is a huge delicacy called pinnekjott. This is lamb ribs that are dried, preserved with salted, then steamed for many hours. With this is boiled potatoes, a side of something that looked like mash potatoes but taste like broccoli and then always a rich tasting dessert. Opening Christmas presents took place in the evening. This is traditionally always done on Christmas Eve, and afterwards we read the Christmas story followed by a discussion on why we celebrate Christmas. On Christmas day Gretchen and I were with another family eating more food and playing games. We also got out to enjoy the crisp air. For breakfast, toppings on your bread is one of the more popular meals, and for Christmas they have special toppings. I wanted in on this so I dove right in and tried the special topping as several people looked at me a little surprised that I wanted to try it. It was pretty good until some one told me what I was eating then very quickly the good taste in my mouth went from yum to yuck and my mind would no longer allow me to enjoy raw fish. I can’t say I’m glad I tried it.

Christmas was wonderful giving gifts to our neighbors, spending time in fellowship, singing Christmas songs, baking cookies, reading the Christmas story, and not worrying about going any where for a week as most everything was closed down anyway. Christmas didn’t seam to really end until New Years Day but I tell ya it was one Christmas I will never forget and to put the icing on top, God gave me a wonderful gift of getting to talk with my whole family over the internet and web cam so I got to be with them on Christmas morning.