3 Year Anniversary at Fosenkoie

We managed to get away for a few days to a cabin owned by the university. We hiked 3 1/2 hours uphill to a beautiful spot on the other side of the fjord from Trondheim. We had a full day to relax in the perfect weather and enjoyed the seclusion of the Norwegian wilderness. We can't wait until we can do it again...need to let our muscles recuperate first though! It's hard to believe we've been married for 3 years now, but we are still enjoying every day we get to spend together. We are truly blessed to have one another.

*Apartment Update!*
For those of you who may be wondering and were diligently praying for us and our apartment search, we have great news! After returning from Africa and much searching and praying, God has blessed us with a new place that is a fulfillment of our prayers! The owner of the house we are renting the first floor from is even from Duluth! What a small world...he is married to a Norwegian and has been living in Trondheim for 18 years now. We are looking forward to getting to know them better. Thank you for your prayers! God truly did answer beyond our expectations! Pictures coming soon! :)


Off to Brussels tomorrow morning for 2 weeks!
In case we don't get to update while we are gone, please be praying for our annual CSM (College of Student Ministry) conference in Brussels, Belgium. Students from around Europe will be attending to receive training and vision for campus ministry in their country and we will also be meeting with the other staff of SFC Europe to vision-cast and encourage one another. We look forward to this time of re-connecting, learning, and being encouraged. We also are bringing a Norwegian student with us. She will be a freshman at the university here this fall and is excited about joining with what we are doing. She will be the first Norwegian to ever attend CSM.

The U.S. Team Arrives!

As soon as we returned from Uganda, we had visitors from the U.S. for an idea of Chuck's: 21 days of prayer for the city of Trondheim and our work with the universities. We were blessed to have Chuck and his wife Sally, their daughter Emily, Dan and Elisa- friends of ours from Duluth who are now living in Kansas City, MO at the International House of Prayer training school, Dan and Sarah- also friends from Duluth: Dan did the UMD Chi Alpha internship with Cortney and was on staff with us both the following year, and Nadia- a friend from Nicaragua doing full-time campus ministry there and who interned with UMD Chi Alpha with Brett. How amazing God is that He would bring all of us together again in this place to pray for Norway! It was a really encouraging time for us as we joined them for prayer and worship nights and just enjoyed hanging out with American friends! We really haven't been forgotten over here! :) They spent full days prayer-walking and making connections with Norwegian Christians. God spoke so many things to them and to us and we are encouraged for the year ahead- we believe God is really going to do some breakthroughs in the next year in the city and at the universities! Thanks for coming everyone- we were truly blessed and miss you all already!

Having some traditional Norwegian food at the Tautra monastery ruins

Brett getting some quality bonding time in with the Dans and Stig playing frisbee golf

It's been too long Nadia! The students of Nicaragua are truly blessed to have you- and so are we!

What a joy to see great friends from home again...we realize yet again how much we miss them!

The day before Dan and Sarah left, we saw these two wild moose 15 yards away! Great picture Dan J.!



Opera at Nidaros Cathedral

Emily, Linn, Kelly, and Cortney went to their friend's dress rehearsal performance of an opera that took place both outside and inside the famous cathedral in Tronhdeim- it was amazing (and free)!
The cathedral was lit up with many different colors with an outdoor orchestra as well. What a backdrop!

SNAPSHOTS FROM UGANDA....As you may have guessed, we arrived safely back to Trondheim after 3 1/2 weeks in Uganda. We have so much to update on, so we'll try to make this brief and will be more than happy to tell detailed stories later! Overall, it was an amazing experience and a culture unlike any we have experienced before. We were kept busy too! We accomplished all that we set out to do and more and learned so much in the process. Thank you for your prayers...we felt them and saw the hand of God work in many ways during the trip- within our team, within relationships, with teaching opportunities, with health and protection, and in growth and experiences.

Our team of Norwegians and Americans meshed so well, we couldn't have asked for a better team. All so servant-hearted and willing to try new things. We all came back with a heart to bring the things we learned back with us to Norway. What a beautiful, hospitable, joyful people we came in contact with! So family and relationship focused- we were rarely alone! The love that was shown to us was truly a blessing. Even with the challenges of adjusting to such a drastically different culture from what we are coming from, God gave us the grace and open hearts to glean all we could from the experience and let ourselves be changed and challenged.

And the sound equipment that we were able to buy with the money we raised was such an enormous blessing to the Church of Uganda! Our showing of the Jesus Film was a success and we know that many more outreaches will be made possible because of the generous financial gifts that were given. We saw how incredibly important having the equipment was and we even had money leftover to use for purchasing Bibles for new Christians and blessing different places that we visited with practical things that were very needed.

So many stories! Check our our picasa web album to see more photos. For now we'll leave you with a few short low-quality video clips from our camera (more better video from the video camera later!).....

One of our most memorable experiences in the village of Otuboi, they blessed us by including us in their traditional village dance.

No details necessary. Until we gave it to a family, we really did own a live chicken, and yes, it rode by my feet all the way to our next location. Alive.

Before our attempted showing of the Jesus Film (at this location, the wiring was destroyed by the dancing feet of the villagers- we didn't show the film, but prayed for many people! And danced until we were quite sweaty!)

May the joy that is so obviously present in many of the lives we met in Uganda overflow into the places of the world that attempt to find in the temporal and material with no avail- for this JOY is most certainly of the lasting kind and comes from heavenly places...