Tomorrow we have our next Reboot-show, this week we're going to different places on the eastern and southern parts of Norway.
Pray for unity and health. And not least: That people will get saved and people will meet God, either for the first time, or again. Changing peoples' lives.
God is god. He is good!
-paul andreas
Today the first snow fell! On the first day in December! It was the first package in God´s advent calendar to us on the base.
This really has been a fun week:
On Monday, we made peppercookies shaped as hearts for all the people on base. We decorated them and today, we hung them up in the prison, inviting everyone to our annual Christmas party celebration on the last day before Christmas break. It´s gonna be on Thursday 15th, just so you know. It was so good to see all the happy faces of The Invited.
Then, on Tuesday, we went to see Petra´s last concert in Norway, and I met with my best friend there, and you know what? For the opening band, it was Darrel Mansfield wth band. (for all of you interrested in 70´s Christian music, and know who he is, it was an impressive opening on the show. That man is SO fast on his harmonica!)
Then Petra came, and did alot of the old songs I grew up listening to, and John Schlitt, the singer, pointed and smiled at me alot of times as I was singing along. It was fun. If you´re a fan, ask me, and I can give more details about the show.
Moving on: Yesterday we went ice skating as a social night with the staff on the base. It was such a nice time, teaching others how to improve their skills, improving my own, and getting blisters on one of my two feet. And we had clementines, peppercookies and gløgg. Such a Christmassy feeling.
And this day has been filled with snow, Chrismas music, peppercookies (they just keep coming...) and last but not least: Christmas marzipan (julemarsipan) together with Shoemaker Street (Skomakergata).
Wow. I really like Christmas. But remember the one who is, as Stryper so poetically put it, The Reason for the Season: Jesus Christ, who humbeled himself and made himself the likeness of a man, coming into this world to make right our relationship to God. That is what ChristMas is about. God becoming man, for us to be together with Him.
your norwegian friend/writer/photographer/poet/etc.: paul andreas
As many of you by now may be wondering how the week of touring went, I'll tell you:
We saw people saved!
We're singing a song called Salvation on the tour (by Charlie Hall). And it has one line in it that goes: "let all the prodigals run home", and that's exactly what we saw. We saw many coming back to Jesus, people who once had been Christians but had fallen away. They now took a new stand for Jesus, recommitting their lives to him. It was GREAT! Not just hat, we also saw a number of people getting saved for the first time!
We had a lot of fun on the tour, laughing much, and worshipping in the mornings, eating and sleeping at churches and having our shows in the night. Our days were like this: driving to a new place, putting up the stage, sound and lights, and then hopefully have a run-through of the program, or at least have a sound check. Then people arrived, the girl danced, we sang and our leader had a presentation of the Gospel and their need to be saved, and then we prayed with the ones who responded.
In one boarding school, one night, we invited people to receive prayer, and I got to pray with three people. They were already saved, but they were touched by the message, and wanted prayer. So then I got to pray with them, and I had forgot how much I like doing that. I got to pray into their lives, and ask Jesus to touch them. It really made my week being able to pray with people.
And now I'm really looking forward to Christmas, and to this week. On Tuesday, we're going to Petra's last show in Norway, on their farewell tour. I am really looking forward to it. (You can say what you want, but I grew up listening to them).
Then on Wednesday we are going ice skating with all the staff on base, and on Thursday it's the first of December, and then I'm gonna eat marzipan and drink julebrus (Christmas soda from Hamar). Woohoo! And the week after that, we're going on tour again, around to places in eastern and southern parts of Norway. It's going to be great.
That's it for now. Check out my photo gallery with pictures from the Reboot tour. It's at http://pauliephoto.blogspot.com
Have a blessed time preparing for Christmas and enjoying this time.
Peace.
-paul andreas
Right now, I'm running back and forth between to computers. On one, I am doing the final touches on the Reboot 2005/2006 DVD. Ok, not that kind of DVD. It's the kind that has music on it, and some pictures that move to the music, and then it fits together. It fits so well together that it's gonna be the playback/multimedia/video-thing for the whole tour. And I get the privilege to make it.
Well, on the other computer, I am writing in this blog of mine. The one that you are reading to get to know my deepest thoughts, sometimes getting disappointed and sometimes greatly encouraged. I'm glad to be at your service...
So what's up in my life, you ask.
To start with the latest:
I was at a meeting yesterday with a team from the Philippines. It was a pastor and the national leader of YWAM in the Philippines. It was really encouraging to listen to them, and it was a worship team from our base that led worship.
Then, they asked all under the age of 30 to come forward, so that the ones older than 30 could pray for us. Two generations coming back together.
Then they went around praying for people afterwards, and they came to me. They prayed straight into my life. It was awesome!
Please pray for the upcoming tour week. This week, we're going to the west coast of Norway with the tour, to the area in and around Bergen. Pray that we wil function well together as a team, and that people will get saved! It's purpose with this tour, to see people saved. And Jesus has done it. The Holy Spirit will convict them. We are people who have the privilege of going together with God in His plans.
Please pray! We need it.
Updates will follow.
-paul andreas
PS! Really nice talking to you again, Lori!
And, the DVD is coming out good, if you were wondering.
I told you about me going to Frankfurt on the book fair. I'm back, and hva been back for some time now. Actually, I was there for only four days, so you do the math.
It was good quality time with my dad, as well as busy days meeting with most of the large Christian publishers in the US, looking at a lot of books, and being tired after the day's end. But even though it was tiring, it was really good and alot of fun. We got to see the books coming out this year, and now we know all the inside secrets of the American publishing houses. But I can't tell them to you ;) Or I could, but then I would have to...
We ate out, and went shopping, and were invited to a release party of a book. I've never been to that kind of thing before. It was the release party of the book "Jesus" by Walter Wangerin. He's a good speaker by the way.
Today I was out shooting footage for a music video for the Reboot tour. Kristin Skaug was the movie star, and you get to see it if you ever come to one of our shows. www.uioskien.no/reboot
And, yesterday I fainted. I got out of bed, walked over to my closet, and everything went black. I found myself in a pile by the door of my room, and Hans, my room mate, was shouting my name. I was out for three seconds, and was really dizzy afterwards. So I spent the rest of the day in bed, reading and relaxing. But now I'm doing much better. A bit tired, but still. I'm doing much better today.
This was a very diverse and random post, but I just had to update all you people about what's happened in my life lately.
Canada is still cool (literally).
-paul andreas
Hi there. It's been some time since my last appearance on this screen, and by now, the rumors have started flourishing: Has he rid himself of his dreadlocks? Has he gotten plastic surgery? His face can't just turn like that just over night, can it? And people all over the globe are running around, confused, angry and in distress because of the lack of initiative from my part to give any confirming or unfirming evidence to those craving an answer.
But now it's here.
My hair is still dreaded. Not scary, just dreaded. And, no my face has not been the subject to either an accident nor a plastic visit to the hospital. It's just a piece of photographic fun.
For starters, you will need a camera and a friend to take the picture (the friend is needed for a clear shot, but you can try holding the camera yourself. Then you will see why you need friends...) Then you shake your face from side to side, letting your cheeks follow the movement of your head. Then your friend takes the picture, preferably before you start laughing or stop cheek-shaking because ofdizzinessyness it brings. Sit back, look at the picture, laugh your head off, and then take another one. (Don't take me literally on that one. Hard to do a cheek-shake without a head, you know...)
Apart from taking pictures of my cheek-shaking, although that takes up most of my time, I still work here at YWAM Skien. Right now, we're planning our new tour, booking and changing some on the program and stuff like that. There are also some graphic design to do, as well as totally redesigning our website.
And, tomorrow, my dad is taking me to Frankfurt, Germany, where we will be at the book fair there. We will be finding books to translate into Norwegian. (So, if you have any good books you've read lately, give the names to us, and we'll check them out.) That will be great fun, some quality time with my dad, as well as a completely different work duty for a few days. I'm really looking forward to it.
Later.
Until then, no more rumors, ok?
Much blessings from the Lord of lords: Jesus Christ.
-paul andreas
It's now been ages and a day since I wrote in this thing last time, so I thought that if this is gonna seem to you as a news update thing, I better start writing.
That's what this is. Writing again.
SO since the last time, I have been busy with the startup as a YWAM staff again, here in the city of Skien. We've been doing a lot of different things lately, the most changing is moving into a new room, and settling in with a new room mate and a new room. It's smaller, but it's been promised me a single cell after Christmas, so we have a good deal, Hans and I.
I've been using my designer skills to design lately. (Would have been fun trying to use them to climb a wall, but, that's not they're for, you know...) But, yeah, I've kinda climbed a wall with them still, as I made two huge banners that hang outside our base, they measure 5x1 meters, that's 15x3 feet. Big. They turned out better than I expected, and the picture will soon be tried posted here.
Yeah, of course. We went to Italy as a get-to-know-each-other-as-staff-trip, because we got it for SO cheap, that it would have been cheaper than traveling inside of Norway, almost. So then we went to Bergamo, an inland city an hour from Milan, with a really beautiful old part of the city. It was this old Italian city with city walls, with old churches, small really narrow streets, cozy restaurants with Italian pizza AND ice cream (yum!). It was great, and my first time to Italy. Not the last, I hope.
Now we're preparing to celebrate YWAM Skien's 10 years jubilee, and most of our time is focused on that weekend, next Friday through Sunday, as well as the DTS starting this coming Wednesday. I think it will be good.
God is good. He's done more in my life, and blessed me with a lot of friends, and I am really grateful for that.
Blessings from Him, Ephesians 1.
-paul andreas
