Ministry Team Track - Bodø

For the second Team Ministry week, October 29 - November 2, we headed 3 hours north by car to Bodø. This Team Ministry week we decided to let each student plan a day of ministry, so that they could choose something they were excited about as well as giving them a leadership opportunity.  Here is an overview of that week.

We left on Monday morning and arrived by lunchtime. Today was Hanna's planned day so we went to the Glashuset (Glass House in English, and is a mall in the center of town) to hand out flyers for the youth to join us on Thursday night for a movie.  We also split into 2 groups to hand out free Øystein cds to children (a Norwegian version of Veggie Tales),while also talking and praying with people we met.

Aleksander planned the day for Tuesday, so we went to the University to pass out free waffles (a popular Norwegian food) for 3 hours.  While there we had some really great conversations with lots of international students (Russia, Slovenia, Canada, China, France), and were invited to come back in the evening for a Bible study with the students, which a few of us did.

On Wednesday JP and I planned the day and we decided to go to City Nord (another mall just 10 mins outside the city center) and do Random Acts of Kindness. Ironically the car would not start as we got ready to leave and after 15 minutes of trying, it finally cranked.  As it started we noticed an old man standing next to the car, and he mentioned that he needed to go to a certain place, but had no way of getting there. So, we offered to take him and realized that God had already delivered to us our first random act of kindness. Once at the mall we split into 3 groups and among all of us spent a few hours passing out Coca Colas, helping people with their groceries, and retrieving lost shopping carts.  Later in the afternoon we went to a cafe and wrote encouraging notes to hand out to people. 

Paninngwaq's day was Thursday and she wanted to pass out free waffles as well, so this time we went back to the Glashuset to do that.  We spent another 3 hours cooking and giving away free waffles and chatting with many more people.  Several people even asked us to pray for them.  

And on Friday we all did a little personal shopping for toiletries since things are much cheaper in Bodø than Engavågen, and then headed back to the base. 

Some Cultural Observations

So, I figured since most people used to ask about cultural differences that I experienced while I was in China, I figured I would share the cultural differences that I have observed here in Norway.

* Cake, coffee, and tea - after every church service and if you are invited to visit someone's home, there will always be cake, coffee, and tea

* Bread and spread - this concept relates to Norwegians eating bread with spreads such as liver paste, chocolate spread (similar to nutella), cheese, veggies, etc. placed on bread like an open faced sandwich and is eaten for breakfast, lunch, and an evening meal

                - 4 meals a day include: breakfast (between 7-8am), lunch (between 12-1pm), dinner (between 4:30-5:30pm), and evening meal (between 8-9pm)
                - dinner is usually a hot meal

* Take shoes off at the door when entering a house (different reason than China - more or less because of rain and snow and not wanting to track that through the house); also most people wear wool sock booties around the house

* You host your own birthday celebration - you expect most people you know from the community to come visit you on your birthday, so you prepare your own cake for those that will visit, and most do not want presents

* Babies (6 months and older) and toddlers are dressed in warm clothes, swaddled in blankets and placed in their stroller (the European ones lay flat) outside during nap times to get fresh air

* Norwegians are very trusting - you could accidentally leave your wallet somewhere and nothing would be taken and would be returned to you immediately.  

Ministry Team Track - Lovund

Typically for our Discipleship Training School (DTS) the schedule follows 2 weeks of teaching and then 1 week of the Team Ministry or Outdoor Adventure tracks.  The Outdoor Adventure track has 9 students and 3 staff and their time this year will involve hiking, climbing glaciers, caving, skiing, kayaking, and some other adventures.  The Team Ministry track has 3 students and 2 staff (Jon Peter, aka JP, and I) and our time will be split between going to Lovund and Bodø to evangelize and/or do practical work.

For the week of October 8-13, we (the Team Ministry track) went to the island of Lovund.  Lovund is small, and can only be accessed by boat (there is no driving around the fjords and over a bridge from one place to another like you can in some places), and which only comes and goes a few times a day. The island has 433 people living here, 1 old folks home that has room for 5 people, 1 grocery store, 1 hotel, and is known for the puffins that visit the island around April each year.  The pastor, Hans Arne, and his wife Trude have really been praying and asking for people to come and help, so we were excited to be able to do that.  

On Monday our team left at 5:45pm on a fast boat from Grønøy to Ønoy , which took 2 hours.  We then switched boats to go from Ønoy to Lovund, which took another hour, and we arrived at 9pm.  We had an evening meal with Hans Arne and Trude and then went to the church, where we stayed for the week.

Tuesday we took a tour of the island and then enjoyed lunch at the salmon factory (biggest and major business on the island and where Trude also works).  In the afternoon we began painting one of the walls of the church building that had been rebuilt by a DTS team the year before.  And in the evening Hanna, Paninnguaq, and I were invited went to “knitting time,” which is held at the hotel every Tuesday night for those that want to join.  Knitting is very much a part of the culture in Norway and it was a great way to meet other women from the community.

Wednesday included spending the morning planning for youth club that we would run in the evening on a nearby island. We left at 1pm on a fast boat to Salvær (the island is about 45 minutes away by fast boat, and is where Hans Arne leads youth group one Wednesday a month and a Sunday service once a month).  On this night we had a devotion, songs, and games for the 8 youth (ages 6-15) that live there and then had cake and snacks before taking the 7:30pm boat back to Lovund.  Only 63 people live on Salvær and they have no grocery store, so they have to plan accordingly when they need to visit another island by ferry boat for supplies.

On Thursday we spent the morning putting a second coat of paint on the church wall while JP worked on cutting and framing the inside of an emergency exit door at the front of the church. In the evening we joined a prayer meeting.

Friday JP finished the door in the morning while Aleksander did practical work around the church. Paninngwaq, Hanna, and I made food for the evening youth club and then we all spent the afternoon planning and preparing for youth club. From 6-8pm is for the youth in grades 5, 6, and 7 followed by a cafe time from 8-9pm for all the youth before club continues from 9-11pm for grades 8 and up.

And finally on Saturday we took the fast boat at 7am from Lovund to Ønoy, changed boats in Ønoy for  Grønøy and arrived back at the base by 10:15am.

DTS Overview

So, this is a brief overview of September during which time the Discipleship Training School (DTS) began.  On September 14th, we welcomed twelve students who were eager to begin their 9 month school.  While we were unable to get the Chinese students we had hoped for (based on visa issues), God has definitely put together this great group of students for this year.  The students and their nationalities are as follows:

Males - Aleksander (Norway), Håvard (Norway), Trygve (Norway), Luke (Canada), Tim (Canada), Tristan (Great Britain), and Andreas (Germany)

Females - Maaike (the Netherlands), Rahel (Switzerland), Paninnguaq (Greenland), June (Norway), and Hanna (Norway)

The first week of the DTS was an introduction week.  Since we have two different tracks that the students could choose from as their focus (either Outdoor Adventure or Team Ministry), we decided to expose them to both tracks during this time.  So, on Tuesday morning, September 18, we headed out for 2 days of hiking and 1 night of camping on a nearby mountain so that they could see what Outdoor Adventure trips would be like.  We returned to the base by dinner time on Wednesday and re-packed before leaving at 6:30am on Thursday for Bodø.  The first thing on the agenda in Bodø was to register the foreign students at the police station (required for those with a resident permit).  After finishing at the police station we headed to the mall where the students would get to see what Team Ministry trips would be about.  At the mall the students were paired up and sent out to prayer walk/talk to people that they felt God was leading them to.  Most of the students admitted feeling uncomfortable at first, but by the end were chatting and praying with all kinds of people, and were really excited about the people with whom they had conversations.  We returned to base Friday night and finished off the weekend with a celebration.

And after introduction week we began the regular schedule of 2 weeks teaching, followed by 1 week of Outdoor Adventure or Team Ministry.

First Month Review

Well, in the 6 weeks that I have been in Norway I have traveled several sections of the country by bus, ferry, train, and by car.  I have also traveled through Sweden and spent 1 night there.

So, for a recap of August......

I left the Nordtun (now known as Nordland) base early in the morning of August 15 headed to Bodø to register at the police station before leaving that night on a train en route to meet my team the next day.  My train left that evening at 9:10pm and I was able to enjoy the scenery for the next hour before the sun went down and it became too dark to see most things.  I had a seat on the train and was quite comfortable. I arrived at 11:33am and was met by the DTS leaders and their two teenagers.  The rest of the team began arriving within the next 2 hours on trains from various locations.

From August 16-20 the time was spent with the DTS staff focusing on team building, fellowship, and fun activities in the community where we were staying.  The first day was beautiful weather (70 degrees), so we all decided to go hike a nearby mountain.  The second and third day it was raining, so we did lots of activities indoors.  The fourth day we decided to make the hour drive to visit the tallest mountain in Norway.  We were able to drive almost all the way to the top, where we encountered reindeer on the road, and enjoyed a look around.  The fifth day we drove to Grimerud, the national base in Norway, to begin our week of corporate training.

The training at Grimerud included all the DTS staff from all the YWAM Norway bases, as well as DTS staff from YWAM bases in Denmark, Sweden, Latvia, and Estonia, since they are part of the Northern Europe initiative.  The week included attending two workshops that lasted 2 days each from the nine options that were presented.

On August 26 we began our 18 hour drive back to the Nordland base.  One of our staff members, JP, lived an hour from Grimerud, so we made a stop at his house first for "coffee" before continuing our drive home.  In Norway when you are invited to someones home for "coffee" it means that you will be served coffee or tea, cakes, waffles with jam, and sometimes pork or sausage.  It was all delicious and we enjoyed meeting JP's family.  Before leaving JP's house we looked at the map and decided that travelling through Sweden would save us a little time as it would be a little more direct route than in Norway where you weave around fjords and through long tunnels.  We stopped late that evening at a camping site in Sweden where we were able to stay in a cabin.  We arrived back at the base the next day and took the day after that off to recuperate before more preparation and getting ready for our students.