Hello dear friends,
This summer has been crazy. A lot of plans, a lot of cancelled plans, a lot of changes
on the way. I will start with the main news of this summer, and later I will add more
about what happened before.
So, the main news: we finally moved to Norway. Just for two months now, because
we only have tourist visas, which allow us to stay in the country only 90 days in a 6
months period. Our idea is to stay 60 days out of 90 and save other 30 for short
trips.
We arrived in Vadsø late at night on Friday Aug 17. Since we can’t use our car, we had to build a complicated logistic chain to get us there with a lot of stuff (some might say we were traveling really light).
The first link in the chain was my uncle, who drove us to Nikel, a town right next to the Norwegian border. Then there was a friend from Kirkenes, Georg, who came to Nikel to pick us from there and take to Norway. Then the plan was to borrow a car from another friend in Kirkenes (a town in Norway closest to the Russian border) and wait for one more friend from Vestre Jacobselv, who would come and pick our stuff, and we would drive the borrowed (very small) car. But something went wrong on this stage of the process. The guy from VJ (Øyvind) did come, but the car we were going to borrow wouldn’t start and happened to be completely dead (it was very, very old). So Øyvind picked both our stuff and us and took us to Vadsø. Due to the attempts to revive the small car in Kirkenes, we arrived in Vadsø very late.
Another part of the adventure. The house we were going to rent for these two months was not available anymore. So we had to stay in the church apartment. As the result: right now we are here in Vadsø, staying in the church apt, ready to work for the Kingdom here in the very North of Norway.
On Sunday Aug 19 I preached at the Sunday Service. There were amazingly many people (Masha counted 37). But the greater thing was that there was God’s presence and prophetic words, and great worship. The church welcomed us very warmly and we were blessed indeed. We heard a lot of good and kind words, and it made our hearts melt. And yes, today a very old lady from the church loaned us one of her two cars (she kept an older one for herself). It is small and funny, but it works and it is a true blessing.
Ok, we are here. What are we going to do?
The pastor of this church moved south a year ago, and the church has been shrinking since. My task will be to do the pastor’s job. And of course I am praying to start a men’s fellowship here again, because since Max (the pastor) moved, men’s group has been cancelled. Now it’s time to start it again on the whole new level. So, here are the main two jobs for us:
1. Pastor the church in Vadsø
2. Develop men’s and women’s ministry.
More news soon!