Driving Back to Oslo

Today Malene drove back to Oslo. I got a ride and enjoyed an incredible scenery along the way, testifying about a great creator.

Visiting Molde

Today me and Frank visited my friend Geir Ove and his family in Molde.

Dinner with Family

Today I was invited to dinner at my sister Elin's place. My sister Else and her three children was there also. It was a nice way to say goodbye to them, as I'm going back to Oslo tomorrow morning.


The picture shows Elin together with Marcus (Else's child)

Narnia

Today I went to a cinema with the four oldest of my nephews and saw a movie named "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe". I really really REALLY recommend this movie.

Picture: Photo of the cinema poster.

Swimming

This morning I went swimming in a swimming-pool with my two sisters and the four youngest of my nephews.

Snowboarding Again

Today I went snowboarding at "Strandafjellet". Malene and her father went skiing. In the lunch-break and when I sat on top of the mountain, I meditated on Psalm 19 verse 1:

The heavens
declare the
glory
of God;

and the
firmament
sheweth his
handywork.

The nature pictures was taken through windows in the car on the way there.

Nothing else Matters

God
I'm dead
from me
Living for
You

MY joys
MY hopes
MY dreams
MY desires
means nothing
anymore

MY life
means nothing

YOU mean
everything

YOUR joys
YOUR hopes
YOUR dreams
YOUR desires
have eternal
meaning

Come live in me
Bring through me your
love and compassion
to the hurted, the
hungry, the sick
and the needy

Let YOUR love
YOUR power
float through me

If I can't
bring life to
the dying
I'm already
dead

------------
I laid awake praying for a while tonight. I got up from bed and wrote this prayer on a piece of paper. Some things I find easier to express in writing. Some prayers are also good to be reminded about later.

Mecco

I gave three of my nephews Mecco for Christmas. Pretty smart toys, but not the easiest ones. I've helped two of them build their thing this far. Today I helped Marcus build a bicycle.

Snowboarding

Today I went snowboarding at "Strandafjellet", which is a mountain close to Ålesund. I got a ride there with Malene, who went skiing.

The first picture shows the view from the top of the mountain. I took the next picture through the windshield while we were driving back to Ålesund.

Celebrating Christmas

Today I celebrated Christmas together with my parents, Else (one of my sisters) and her three children Christoffer, Marcus and Glenn.

Driving with Jesus

Today I left Oslo to visit my family in Ålesund, on the west-coast of Norway. I got a ride with my good friend Malene. She was kind enough to give me a Statoil-cup, a cup I can fill with coffee on every Statoil station as much as I want for a whole year. Needless to say, I was kind of hyped by the time we reached Ålesund. I usually don't drink coffee, but how else do you stay awake while driving?

We could really feel that Jesus was together with us in the car. We had nice conversations, sung praise, listened to worship on CD, prayed... Whatever. Point is: Even a 10 hour car-drive can be an really exciting experience when you are together with Jesus.

Hot Chocolate

Yesterday evening I visited Solbjørg. She steamed milk and made incredible tasty hot chocolate, better than I get anyplace else. And I LOVE hot chocolate.

When I visit Solbjørg, I can really feel God's presence in her home. Today I told her, and she said that she wants people that come to her home to feel that they are in a christian home.

Yea... I can feel that. In more than one way :D

More on Dancing

More than 10 years ago when I tried to dance, I just moved my legs in a very stiph way, somehow trying to match the rhytm, looking down at my feet all the time, except when I was glimpsing over to someone else to see how the moves was to be done. Summary: I couldn't dance at all. If I had trained a lot, I might have learned a few moves by the years.... But I found another way.

About 10 years ago when I was praying in tongues, I heard something about dancing come out of my lips. I somehow got the idea that God was gonna give me moves for a dance and I found an open place. What then happened was somehow similar to speaking in tongues. When I speak in tongues, I decide to move my lips, but God gives me the words. This time I decided to move, but God gave me the movements. At first I only moved my hands, while my feet still was like glued to the floor. After a while I started to move with my whole body and praising Jesus through a very free dance. I call this way of dancing to "Dance in the Spirit". I don't know if it is a good or bad term, but it's the only one I've heard.

Somehow this set me free to DANCE also when I wasn't "dancing in the spirit", but just expressing myself in some way. Sometimes I have forgot about this and started to think that I have to "dance like the others" or that it matters what people think about my style. When I do that I go stiph again. Only when I don't care what people think and I start to express myself, I can dance like God intended me to do.

So, are there a picture here? The life in the flesh vs the life in the Spirit. The old vs the new. You figure it out! :D

Dancing for Jesus

Today I got inspired to praise Jesus and pray through dancing. It's something I do pretty seldom, even though it's great when I do it. It is something about dancing that testifies of great freedom, because I'm involved in it with EVERYTHING THAT I AM. I use my whole body and I also participate in the dance with my feelings and prayers (soul and spirit). In this way I praise Jesus with ALL THAT I AM. When I dance like this, I somehow feel that the dance in itself is a prayer about freedom - that the people of God shall give everything - all that we are - over to Him. That we shall be free to be just the ones we are called to be. Free from religion, free from the expectations of men, free from cultural limitations, free from fear. Free from everything that tells us to be ANYTHING else than what Jesus wants us to be.

Picture: Well... Can anyone send me one? I didn't find good quality praise-dance pictures in my archive.

Thank You Very Much

Thanks a lot to Kanal 24 for letting me come there and tell people all over Norway about Jesus. If some of you guys at the station are reading this, invite me back anytime :D

I took this picture while waiting for the subway, going there. I'm the moon. And Jesus is the sun. I reflect HIS GLORY!

Radio Program Tomorrow

I was called up by a national radio station named Kanal 24 (Channel 24) today. I'm gonna be in studio tomorrow at 11:50 am in a radio program named "Vær så god, Takkskalduha". Translated it will be "You're welcome, Thankyouverymuch" - written like that with no spaces in between the last words.

It's a talkshow that they send every monday to thursday from 11:00 am till 01:00 pm. I will be in studio together with Espen Thoresen and Jon Toset. Espen Thoresen is the programleader, and Jon Toset is both technician and sidekick.

Espen Thoresen was recently exposed in media for selling his back! Well... More correctly he sold the right to tattoo some commercial on it. Through this he collected 170 000 NOK (1$ = 7 NOK) to street children in northwest Russia. He told VG before the auction that he would SELL HIS SOUL if the price was right. I wouldn't sell my soul FOR ANY PRICE, but you can't say that this guy doesn't have humour and creativity. It'll be fun tomorrow.

About the comic: Click on it for bigger size. More comics like this on reverendfun.com

Magazinet Interview

Today I was interviewed by Ingvill Mydland (picture) in the christian newspaper Magazinet. I got to tell some things about how and why I started clowning, what my vision is and also some things about the clown school. I think it was a very good interview as she asked very relevant questions, so I'm looking forward to read the result.

Blogging Network

Today Anne Maria visited me. We talked about Connect Europe here in the nordic countries - where we are at and where we wanna be.

We also talked about blogging, that it is a good tool to keep track of what is happening in eachothers lives. A few hundred years ago, christians in revival in Herrnhut wrote down what happened in their lives and shared this with the rest of the christian fellowship. Blogging can be a modern form of this. Blogging helps you keep track of your own life, what your priorities are and what you are using your time on. Blogging helps the other christians in the network to see what is going on in your life and to pray into it. Through the use of comments, blogging is also a tool for the other christians in the network to give feedback.

We talked about the possibility of a network of christians committing to eachother through committing to write down what happens in their lives in a blog and committing to keep track of what is going on in the others lives through reading their blogs, praying for them and writing comments regularily. Then they could make appointments to meet face to face from time to time. When they'd meet, they would already have good knowledge about eachother and the things moving in eachothers lives. They could then faster move into a deeper flow when meeting. This form would be time-intensive and connection-focused, building close relations on a day to day basis. Well. This was some brainstorming... Any comments???

Christian Nation

Today from 5 pm we were several hundred demonstrants in front of the norwegian parlament (Stortinget). We marked a stand that we want a christian nation. We don't want the government to continue their line of hostility against everything that is christian. Linda Austnes, who initiated this, delivered lists with almost 35 000* names signed to the government. They all agree that we want a christian nation.

What made it run over for Linda Austnes was the statement from knowledge minister (kunnskapsminister) Øystein Djupedal that it should be illegal to pray (and sing christian songs) before the meals in the schools.

It was a good gathering. We prayed and sung christian songs. Linda even thanked Øystein Djupedal for waking us up through making such a statement.

* Number updated 19. desember with this article (in norwegian) as the source.

Man on Fire

This evening we were some people gathered at Svein Erik's place and saw a movie named Man on Fire.

This is a very well-made movie that has a clear allegory to what Jesus did for us on the cross.

Democracy in Belarus

Today at 4pm there was a demonstration for Democracy in Belarus at the spot outside UD (7. juliplassen) in Oslo. Belarus is the last country in Europe that is ruled by dictatorship. The next election for a president in Belarus is scheduled for 16. July 2006. By having this kind of demonstration we want to accomplish that:

• Norwegian youth and organisations shows solidarity to the opposition in Belarus, the last dictatorship in Europe


• The norwegian government, in cooperation with EU and USA, to a much higher degree makes demands to Lukasjenko's regime in the time before the next election.


• Norwegian press is active in covering the problems in Belarus, a country where free press is illegal.


• That the norwegian parlament's (Stortinget) foreign comittee (UD) visits Belarus during the spring to meet opposition politicians and human rights fighters.


• Wanted (etterlyste) opposition politicians in Belarus is given political asylum in Norway.

We will have some sort of marking at the sixteenth every month. You can read more at www.belarus16.org (norwegian).

There are many organisations behind this marking, including Krfu which I am a part of.

Article in Aftenposten

Today I saw an article about the clown school that was written in Aftenposten 9. Desember. Aftenposten is a large national newspaper in Norway. The article was in a column named "Aftenposten Aften".

The article say that I plan to expand this concept to other churches in Oslo, if it turns out to be a success. Sounds good, although I never said that. Could it be prophetic?

Focus on Mammon

Today I tried to study some economics. I am uncertain about some rules on how to do the finances for my company. After searching through some material that was pretty hard to access and very hard to understand, I found that I was supposed to call some governmental office about something when I started my company. Not that anyone ever told me about this before, and I have even attended a class in this topic because I wanted to be sure I did things right.

I sure hope we christians don't make the gospel as hard to understand as governmental web-pages do the rules of running a small company.

I also found that the rules of running a stock company at all places I looked was totally intertweened with the rules of running a small private company. To a degree that it was IMPOSSIBLE to tell if the rule I was reading concerned my company or only stock companies.

Do we christians mix THE OLD with THE NEW? Do we preach both law and mercy to a degree where most people are unable to know what MERCY really is? Are we REALLY able to see what Jesus did on THE CROSS?

Cake Party

Today I threw a small cake party. Small because almost nobody was available today, but we were me and seven friends that worshipped God, ate stuff and had lots of fun.

Ingrid Kristine's Birthday Party

Yesterday I was in Ingrid Kristine's birthday party. It was cool to meet some more of her friends. Of course I ended up making some balloon-figures.

I also met a journalist there that might do a reportage about me and the clowning and maybe say something about the clowning school. We'll see if her boss likes the idea. I'll get back to this when I know for sure.

UPDATE: This interview was conducted monday 19. December. Read more here.

Krfu Christmas Gathering

Yesterday we gathered at the Krfu office, ate pourage and inspired eachother. Krf (christian political party) had a pretty bad election this year, but it hasn't put a demper on the enthusiasm and eager desire to make a difference in the society. We will continue to fight for the rights of the children, both the born and the unborn. We will continue to speak up for the poor and the sick and the needy. More about this in an earlier post: Politics.

By the way... I was inspired to start recruiting new ones for Krfu. Live in Norway? Consider being politically involved? Age 13-33? Please contact me!!!

Prayer for Bangladesh

When I woke up yesterday morning, the first word in my mouth was Bangladesh. I started the day, not yet out of bed, with praying God to protect this country. I prayed that God would show this land great mercy and don't let it be punished according to it's sin.

I don't normally pray for Bangladesh or know like anything about this country, but I just read on Wikipedia that it is the seventh most populated country in the world and that it is very few christians there.

Just moved in party

Although I moved in here at Oppsal a few months ago, I didn't have a party to mark this until monday. I started the evening with killing a big pig made out of balloons. This was to mark that although we are richly blessed with lots of food and drink here in Norway, we won't let this be an idol. We will search God's kingdom first. We will let Jesus be King in our lives and King among us when we gather. After slaughtering the pig we had a very good time worshipping Jesus. Afterwards we held hands in a circle and lifted our hands, so it looked like a crown. This symbolised that Jesus is our King.

You can also read about this on:
Anne Maria's Blog
Åse Marie's Blog (in norwegian)
Solbjørg's Blog (in norwegian)

Desperate prayers

On saturday I was clowning in a store and they had a release party for a collection of Ivo Caprino movies. Ivo Caprino's son was there and signed boxes for the customers.

I met a lady in the shop talking in a strange language in an insanely speed out in the air while holding tight to a necklace. She only stopped once in a while to talk to me in plane norwegian. At first I figured that she was speaking in non-christian tongues, as I could feel that it was "some" sort of prayer going on. Then I thought that it could be some sort of language, although she was kind of speaking too fast for that to seem likely. Still I asked her what language she was talking in, and she said it was urdu.

Kind of interesting. She didn't at all seem emberassed about what she was doing. She had a desperation in her prayers, written all over her face. Question to christians reading this: Are you afraid that your neighbours might hear you while praying???

Celebrating Christmas

Last friday I attended a christmas celebration ("julebord") where Jesus actually was given the glory and attention. It was in cooperation between "Ny Generasjon" (christian union for students) and Jesus Church. A newly saved student named Preben told his testimony. It was great to hear how he gave his life to Jesus and got baptised.

You can see Preben to the right on the last picture.