God - the artist

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The sunset never stop to amaze me. I have been thinking about it lately when I've seen it, it is so beautiful every time, but it is never quite the same. The colours are always so great, goes so well together, but it's never exactly the same, it's such a piece of art every time... How amazing is that!! And what amazes me even more is to think that God actually put it there, exactly like that, today... just so I could enjoy!! How great is our God!!!

Girls Breakfast

Some weeks ago (or months actually, I think... It has taken me some time to get these out here...) we had a breakfast with some of the norwegian girls. Tried to make it as norwegian as possible, with dark bread rolls, makrell i tomat, leverpostei (liverpaté), jam, brown cheese, jarlsberg... you name it... Was SOO good... And we had a great time together just eating and talking.

This is what a norwegian breakfast can look like... sooo good!!!

The girls really enjoyed the food...

Liza, Rebecca and Elise. Rebecca left about a month ago...

Gudrun & Oline. Oline left a while ago as well...

Rebecca, Elise and Trine...

Was such a great start of the day. Unfortunately not everyone could come.. There are some really amazing girls here.. So great to get to know them a little better.

confusion...

I am confused... again, may I just add...
Have you ever felt like that? There's all these things going on inside you, and you feel like you have no idea what's going to happen. You don't have a clue where the road will turn a bit furhter on, an it would just be SOOO good to know!!

Well, I've realized (am realizing, maybe?!?!) that if God don't tell you, it's because you don't really need to know at this point. If you did, He would tell! I just have to let go and trust God.
If I stay close to Him, so I can hear when He speaks, He WILL let me know! So basically, all I need to focus on is to stay close to Him, have open ears, so I can hear Him. And I can be sure that He will tell me what I need to know when I need to know it!


"in the chaos, in confusion
I know You're sovreign still
in the moment of my weakness
You give me grace to do Your will

when You call I won't delay
this my song through all my days..."
(None But Jesus, from "Mighty to Save")

Hillsong Conference

So, Hillsong Conference is suddenly over... Have been looking forward to this for so long, and working towards it, and suddenly... it's all over.. feels so weird. I was kind of sad that it was over, yes, it was a full on week, late nights and early mornings, but I seriously think I was blessed to work with the best team ever!!

I was "trying" to coordinate the Kids Worship team, and it was a pretty full on task. Trying to make sure everyone were where they were supposed to, doing what they were supposed to, at all times. A few miss-communications, mistakes, and things like that, but all in all, a great week! I learned a lot, and we had SOO much fun. Where else can you have a water-fight in the middle of the service?!?!?! (Obi, you don't know where or when, but I will pay you back for that... lol...)

Basically, like Mike always says, the first rule for kids worship is, FUN!! And we truly had a lot of fun. Friday night we took it to a whole new level. Seriously don't think I've ever seen the guys so crazy on stage, I was afraid they were going to break something or someone... Just to give you an idea, one of the guitarists were on Obi's shoulders playing... lol... And the kids were so into it. But we also had great God-moments with the kids. Don't think there's anything more beautiful than kids full on, eyes shut, arms raised, in worship. And to be priveleged to be a part of making that happen... I consider it a great privelege, but also a huge responsibility. Friday morning (unfortunately not in my venue, would have loved to see this) they had one of those full on God moments at the Kindergarden to year 2 morning rally... They started of with the worship song and just started singing "Jesus", the singers on stage and the band stopped, and the kids (we're talking 5-7 year olds here!!!) just continued... How beautiful is that!!!

Well, it truly was a great week, and I feel so priveleged to be a part of this amazing team. It was an honour to work with them and do life with them this week, the attitude in this team was just AMAZING! No complaints about early mornings, long hours... I'll put out some pictures of my Kidsong family as soon as I get them.

choices...

Have been to the airport twice in a week. The first time to pick up a friend who was comming back after 5 months back home, the second time to drop off a girl who's been staying at my house for the last 9 weeks. And it made me think about these small things in life that suddenly makes you meet all these amazing people you couldn't picture life without. For example, I didn't know Oline when she first came here 9 weeks ago. She was just some girl who was to stay in our house for a while... And now, it kind of seems like she's been there forever, and it was so weird whe she was leaving. I came home that night, and as I walked in the front door, it hit me... there's no one staying in my living room anymore... and it was actually sad to think about... What if I had said no to have her staying with us...? I might have never got to know her... how sad is that to think about...

It's funny to think about how such small things can be part of shaping your life... They were talking at youth today about defining moments, and it is really something to think about. It is often those small things that might seem so unimportant, that shape your future. Sometimes it might be something that's out of your control, but other times, it's just a little choice... How many times have I missed those moments because I made a small choice? A time when I should have chosen differently... hmmm... How many people have I missed to get to know?

"Every person, all the events of your life, are there because you have drawn them there. What you choose to do with them is up to you." (Richard Bach, American writer, author of 'Jonathan Livingston Seagull', b.1936)

It's getting late, so think the wisest choice I can do right now is to go to bed...

Have a great night!!

17th of May - the Norwegian Day!

Of course the 17th of May have to be celebrated, even down under. The first year I was here, it was a monday, so we had the day of, but this year, we had to skip college for the day... Some couldn't do that, but most of us went out to the city for the traditional parade and stuff. It was such a great day! The weather was perfect.


Heidi & Pauline at the train-station

We took the train to the city and went to Hyde Park, where all the Norwegians were gathering. There's heaps of Norwegian students in Sydney, so there was games and songs there before the parade. We even got "boller og saft". Oh yes, this was the day for all the Norwegian food.


"Finn 5 feil" - eller iallefall en...
The norwegian flag in the front, even a "rødruss", and palm trees in the back!!! How weird is that!!!


One of the guy's in the city was making a segment for P1, a norwegian radio-station.


The parade went from Hyde Park to Circular Quay, where the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge is.


Norwegian girls with the Opera House... Notice the norwegian "bunad" that the lady on the left is wearing..

Copenhagen Ice Cream at Circular Quay. I know we're celebrating freedom from the dane's, but it was the closest to norwegian icecream we got...

After the icecream we took the ferry over to Manly and the bus up to the Norwegian Seaman's church, "Sjømannskirken", there. They had heaps of norwegian food, Rømmegrøt, spekemat, pølse med brød, vaffle... you name it... It was SOOO great!

Oline and Nina on the ferry

Kris and Sindre

Me and the Opera House

Just had to put this in here as well... what a great day to go sailing, hey...?

At "sjømannskirken", eating norwegian food!!! YAY!!!

Then we went back to the Hills, and had cake and snacks at the girls' house. Pauline had made "marengs-jordbær" cake, it was so good! We just hang out there for a while and looked at pictures from the celebrations in Norway and other places in the world on the web, we even found a couple from Sydney... Was a great 17th of May!!!

party time...

In the break week we had between terms, I had 3 birthday-parties and an engagement party (which i unfortunately missed...) in 2 days, so thougth I'd put out some of the photos from that. The first one was Charis' 20th birthday, no more teenagers in the house... Most of my house went out to the city and just enjoyed the day there.



Charis and the Opera House



the girls



Tabitha taking pictures of the Opera House



Kristin, Charis and Tabitha


okay, know this is a random photo, but seriously, if you're ever visiting the Opera House, the toilets is actually worth a visit...

We had lots of fun and took a lot of pictures, walked through the botanical garden. I've actually never been there before, how bad is that!!! It was so beautiful, and I took heaps of photos. I'll put some out here later... Then we took the train back, picked up Gudrun, the last girl in the house, and went out for dinner. When we came home the girls dressed up. Don't think I can remember the last time I laughed so hard, it was so funny!


The day after, Adrians 21st birthday party was in the afternoon. Lots of family and friends, barbecue and a westcoast norwegian cake-table... It was so good!



Adrian cutting the cake



Nina and Cathrin

And that night, some friends had put on Gudruns 21st party, so more food, snacks and cakes...
Was a great night with a lot of friends, playing mafia till way too late... Basically, a pretty full on weekend... lol...



Gudrun, Charis and Tabitha, 3 of my housemates




Gudrun blowing out the candles

here i am...

okay, so I finally surrendered to the fact that it wasn't possible for you guys to comment on my blog, and got myself a blogspot page as well... I'm not the one to write the most though, so might be mostly photos on here... I've been a bit behind on my photos from my old blog, so the first pictures I put out here will be a couple of monts old or so... hope you'll enjoy, and I would love for you to leave comments, so I can see that you dropped by.