Radio interview

Today I got a call from NRK P1 (national radio-station in Norway). They want me to participate in a national radio program named "Balsam for kropp og sjel" (Balsam for body and soul). The program will be taped the coming monday, but I don't know when it will be sent yet.

More pictures from Spikersuppa and Jesus March

Here are pictures of:
- Dan Wendelsson, one of the new balloon twisters.
- Temilia Blad, who praises Jesus with her harmonica.
- Magdalena Gustafsson, who praises Jesus with her violin.
- Sofia Ryden, a clown for Jesus. Clowns are in deed very visual. I could see this clown wherever I turned my head.

They are all students at SOS Mission Bible College.

Dragon for Jesus

After the Jesus march I said hi to the fire-blower that walked in front of all the others. I ran in front of her trying to take a photo when the flames came out of her mouth. Having a very slow camera it was almost impossible to capture the right moment. I tried to calculate the time it took from she "drank" from a bottle till she blew flames. I took so many pictures before I managed to capture the moment. Every time fire came out from her mouth, I could feel the warmth in my face. Her name is Madelene Andersson.

Drama Director

After the march I said hi to a skater I spotted in the march. I found out that her board were really a snakeboard, not a skateboard. Her name is Maria Jonson. She works as the drama director at "Mission SOS" and travels all over the world preaching about Jesus. She allowed me to try her board and showed me how to do it. It was kind of fun :)

Creative Jesus March

We had a Jesus march from Spikersuppa to the Oslo Central Station (Oslo S) and back. This was the most awesome Jesus march ever. There were some guys carrying big speakers, so we had enough sound. There were dancers, jugglers and people doing all kind of creative things like playing violin and harmonica, skating on a snakeboard, walking on their hands, twisting balloons, blowing soup bubbles and so on. A girl walking in front of the others carried a torch and blew flames. There were spontanious outbursts of dancing and shouting. For me this march was like a dream come through. I so much long for christians to release their creativity and be free in Christ and do stuff like this. Everywhere people were looking and pointing and filming and taking photos.

Balloon evangelists

This morning I had a class in balloon twisting for about twenty young evangelists from a bible school called "SOS Mission Bible College" in Stockholm, Sweden. Together with a bunch of other creative young evangelists, they were preparing for a city outreach in Oslo.

After the class we went to "Spikersuppa" (very central place in Oslo), where there was a stage for preaching, dancing, rapping, singing and stuff like that.

By the time we got there, there were balloons all over. My students were very eager in their twisting. The picture shows one of them (the girl with balloon hat and blue top) surrounded by children at Spikersuppa.

Disco and balloons

This evening I was hired to twist balloons in a youth arrangement with about 200 young people in the age 14-20. There was a big dance floor, loud music and smoke. There was even a show by a fire artist. And then there was a clown twisting balloons... This evening my heart designs were extra popular. Everybody wanted hearts, the boys and the girls alike.

On the way there I took time to stop and look at a beautiful full moon. My life has been kind of hectic lately, so it's good to take some breaks and look at the creation.

Clowning in Kindergarten

Today I had a 45 minute show in a kindergarten with kids from three years and up. Shortening the show down to 30 minutes would probably have made it better. It was also the first time I have tried the balloon crash game for that small children. It's a game where you compete in stomping the most of your opponents balloons. They used pretty long time on breaking my high quality underinflated 5" balloons. During the process they kind of had to try to find a point of balance on top of the balloons, something that is excellent motoric training for small children (use small 5" balloons). The leader of the kindergarten was very excited about this and wanted to buy more of this kind of balloons for future balloon stomping. So the fun continues after the clown left :)

EST That's Where You Wanna B

This evening we had a gathering in a youth group at Oppsal called EST.

The picture shows (from left) Daniel the drummer and Øystein the keyboard player.

Inspired by Helene

This evening I was in a motivation course taught by my friend Helene Alnæs. I just went there to see what Helene was up to, and I didn't have any expectations. The way Helene taught the class was very good. She used examples from her own life when she said something, and we used a lot of time to talk/work in groups. During Helenes class I saw the need of having some more free-time. I have been fully booked almost every day lately.

Preaching in Rælingen

Today I was in "Rælingen Pinsemenighet" (Rælingen Pentecostal Church) and clowned and told the children there about Jesus. They have a meeting for children every tuesday evening, and sometimes they also have a bigger arrangement for children called "Barnas Dag" (Childrens Day).

The picture shows Marie Hektner, who invited me there, and her son.

The Return of the Frank

This evening I spoke with my friend Frank Jakob, who just returned from a trip to USA. On one of his earlier journeys there his plane landed in Atlanta just about the time of the 11. September terrorist attack. This time Frank Jakob was in Florida at the same time as a quite uncontrollable woman named Katharina the Hurricane.

He was going to Pensacola in Florida to visit Kent Hovind, also known as Dr. Dino. He needed to cross a bridge to get there. The bridge was closed before he came, open when he passed it and closed because of Katharina not long after he had passed. Talk about timing!

When he arrived they were working on Dinosaur Adventure Land, cleaning up after ferocious Katharina, so he lent them a helping hand. He also helped them with some TV-commercials, consulted them on effective video editing workflow and filmed some stuff for their promotion video. He was very impressed by their museum. Hearing him talking so entusiastic about it really made me wanna go there.

After he left from Kent Hovind, he moved to stay with the Island Breeze Team in Orlando. He also went on a mission trip to Tallahassee (Florida) with Warrior Force, a team much like Team Extreme. Frank Jakob is a member of Team Extreme and has done some travelling with them. On his performance in Tallahasse he bent steel bars, folded a frying pan into a burrito, pressed a soda pop can with his hands until it exploded and... chewed threw a soda pop can with his TEETH. I asked him if his dentist appreciate him doing that.

Visiting Muluh and Etenesh

This evening I helped Muluh and Etenesh with a printer problem. They are my neighbours living only three minutes walk away from me in the same flat as Anne Maria lived in before. Afterwards we chatted for a while. It is good to have some nice neighbours I can visit :)

Balloons and cars

Today I had the assignment of twisting balloons in a big arrangement displaying cars, car companies and some other stuff in a hall named "Vallhall Arena", just by "Valle Hovin". It is interesting to see how these guys really understands how to attract people. It was free to enter. They had a face painter, they had professional stage performers, they had a professional balloon artist (me), they had free hot dogs, drinks and ice cream. These guys really treated the children nice, and it wasn't even an arrangement advertised to be for children. On next years arrangement I guess the children will drag their parents there, not the other way around. I wonder: Could it be that christians have something to learn from these guys?

Rehearsing drama

Today me, Stein Are and Ingrid Kristine rehearsed a short drama to be used at the childrens meeting in Jesus Church at Sunday.

We are currently using the books named "Kreative Barnesamlinger" (Creative Children Gatherings) written by Kåre Skuland and his wife Janne Skuland. There are four of these books. They are really good and provide a lot of ideas.

Sharing impressions

Today I shared some impressions from the Prague trip with Helene, Anne Maria and Kjell Arne.

The picture at the top shows the sky from Helene's balcony.

The picture at the right shows Helene, Anne Maria and Kjell Arne.

German neighbours

Before I moved I had two german neighbours named Annette and Dagmar. Dagmar is now moving to Birmingham for some studies. Today I visited my old place by Diakonhjemmet and said goodbye to Dagmar.

The picture shows (from the left): Dagmar, Annette

Kindergarden

Yesterday I got a call from the manager in a kindergarden. He asked if I wanted to work part time there. I think that working with children in a kindergarden can be a good experience for me, so I will work there for a period and see how I like it. It will also mean an improvement in my economy, and most of my assignments as an artist is on evenings or weekends. The children that I have started to work with are between 1 and 2 years old. This might give me some good experience to apply on my own kids when that time comes :)

Reformer: Hans Nielsen Hauge

Today I went to a birthday party to entertain. When I arrived the father in the house met me outside and pointed to a nearby statue in a small park. I went there before the children and found that the statue portrayed the norwegian reformer Hans Nielsen Hauge. He was born close to Fredrikstad in 1771. In 1796 he had a life changing experience of God while he was working on a field and singing a christian hymn. From that day he walked from place to place on foot. He even knitted while he was walking to get better use of the time. Everywhere he came people got on fire for Jesus and companies were started. He saw business possibilities everywhere he came and helped people to start up. In addition to the tremendous impact for christianity, this man has a lot of the credit that Norway has a solid economy today.

The picture shows a statue of Hans Nielsen Hauge. I bet he wonders who put the clown hat there :)

5 year celebration

Yesterday Jesus Church had a 5 year celebration. We had a BIG marzipan cake.

Young entertainer

Some time after my seminary today a 17 year old girl named Aud Christine Moen asked for extra lessons. She is arranging birthday parties to earn money for a school trip, so she wanted to learn some balloon hats for entertaining at these parties.

Picture shows (from the left): Christine Støle Nordås (10), Aurora Høiland (15), Aud Christine Moen (17) . They are all leaders in a children group at Betania Vigeland

Newspaper interview

After my seminary today, I got interviewed by a reporter from the christian newspaper "Dagen" (The Day). So there might be something about me there soon, for those who want to look for it.

Creative Preaching with Balloons

Today I had a workshop on creative preaching with balloons. 30 eager christians with a heart to reach children sucked in knowledge. I sold balloons afterwards that just got blown away. From the interest in buying balloons it seems to me that a lot of them want to apply what they have learned. That makes me glad :)

Dolls for Communication

Today Chris Duwe had a seminary on how to use dolls and ventiloquism to communicate with children.

The guy to the left is Chris and the.... well... to the left you see Øystein. I feel pretty sorry for Øystein. You see. Poor thing. He can't come to heaven :(

Inspiration: Kåre Skuland

Kåre Skuland is the guy who initiated this conferance. Kåre is also the guy who has done most of the work in arranging it. The reason is that he sees that there is a desperate need to reach the children and that it is important for us to stand together in doing this. Kåre encouraged us to be pioneers - start up stuff even though it is a lot of work.

The picture to the left shows Kåre Skuland. The picture to the right shows his wife Janne Skuland and her friend Eva-Serine Strand

Together for the Children

Today I travelled to a conference in Kristiansand named "Sammen for Barna" (Together for the Children). I got a lift with Fred Håberg, one of the pastors in Jesus Church. Hilde Sværen and Ingrid Kristine Lundeby was also in the car. We had some nice conversations on the way.

Picture shows (from left): Fred Håberg, Hilde Sværen, Ingrid Kristine Lundeby

My Parents Dropped By

Today my parents dropped by. They live in Ålesund, about five hundred kilometers away from here. Always nice to see them :)