Evening Photos

Weekend in the Norwegian Mountains

I got to have a great relaxing weekend recently with my friend Turid when we went to a cabin/hut in 4 hours north of Oslo. Now the hut to Norwegians is as a bach is to Kiwis so it is like a well setup little house (without electricity or hot water mind you). We took Turid's dog and her parents dog with us and they pulled us up the hills. They also tried to pull us down the hills but that was not as fun.
Always it was a nice relaxing time of chatting, reading, sleeping in and a few hikes....good times!

Turid and VictorBelinda

A farmers hut we found on a hikeThe Cabin

Sweden

Here is an update which is basically the same as my newsletter info....but hey! It is still news!

Greetings from my new home in Sweden. It is a nice feeling to know that I will be in one place for a while. I have committed to work with the YWAM Restenäs base for two years in starting the School of Communication Foundations (SCF) and continuing to work with the University of the Nations development team.

The work is continuing to stretch me and refine my skills to be used effectively. I expect I will be working even more with staff development and teaching. I am really enjoying to teach but I do keep thinking that all this teaching stuff should be left to the older experienced people…then I realize that in 1 year and one month I will be 35 years old….. how did that happen???!!!! Please check out my web pages for my latest photos.

Odds and Ends: I ended my time in Central Europe with a road trip to the French Rivera with 3 friends. We stayed in an amazing campsite high on the hills over looking the Sea. In our short weekend we saw Cannes, Nice and Monaco which was all great. It was a busy time and a long drive but fun! See my flickr site for photos.

It was also great to have Mum and Dad visit for a few days near the end of their European Trip (I saw them in Switzerland as well). It was a blessing for them to see my new base….and also buy a car!! They will use the car when they come back here next year…in the meantime I get to use it! I have not had a car for 8 years now so it is a HUGE blessing. I feel like I have a greater opportunity now to get off the base and integrate more into society and have more of ‘life’; avoiding the danger of just been stuck in the YWAM environment. This would include taking Swedish lessons next year.

SCF 2008 in Sweden: And that brings us to the rest of this year. I am now preparing for the first SCF in Restenäs. So far we have 10 applications and do not think we will accept many more for this year. I only have one staff which will make my job harder; but it is doable. Have a look at the www.ywamrestenas.se to see more of the base and read about the SCF.

I believe this year will be one where I will stay around Sweden (rather than travel too much) which I think will be a good thing. I can see now that my ministry focus is coming more to a point. Now I want to zero in with the skills I have into areas of education and training. There may even be some doors opening on the horizon in teacher training in developing nations. I really never saw myself going back to preschool so it is interesting to see how these new opportunities will form.

Thank you all for your love and support! While it is easy for me to become a very ’here and now’ person, I never forget my friends and family around the world. If you want to know more specifics about what I am doing then email! Until next time….