Eternal Sunrise of the clouded sky!

I'm happy, the sun is finally peaking over the mountains that surround our base, and at 10am its about time. As the days wear on and we lose what precious sunlight we have day by day, 7min per day to be precise, you begin to appreciate some light. The problem is, however, the sun seems tired, a little lazy, with barely enough energy or desire to peak its head up over the mountains blanketing it for a few moments before it decides to spend yet another day under the covers, away from our prying eyes. Its like living in an eternal state of sunrise, merging into sunset, forever twilight, never a bright and glorious day. It's kind of sad.

Base life has been interesting of late. I just found out im going to Tibet for outreach, spending 10 weeks traipsing throughout central asia supporting and building up local missionaries through prayer and worship while meeting the communities and getting to know the cultures, encouraging them and helping out where we can. To say im somewhat excited is probably an understatement as the team I'm going with is brilliant. We have the crazy german lars (seen here flying through the air), My two roommates, Nick and Daniel. All 4 of us are into climbing and slacklining so im sure Tibet will be one huge playground for us when we're not busy. Anna, Line and Rita make up the female contingent of the students, all crazy gals that are tough as nails. Its quite fortunate that we're into the outdoors and doing it a little rougher than usual as the villages that we will be spending time with each day are aroudn 2 hours hike away in -15degree Tibet!
Our leaders are Kjersti and Harman Jon, a Dutch guy and a Norske Gal and both crazy. (over left). We dont really know the plans yet but hopefully we'll spend some time in beijing, xining, tibet and catch the tras-siberian railway.

Mini-outreach, a week to get used to the idea of reaching out to a community, is happening next monday. I will be heading over to a place called... errr some crazy norsk name... to hang out and support and guy names Oudin. He's about 21 years old and is working with the young people in the community. Whats cooler (well sort of) is that he has just built himself a climbing wall inside his living room and he's into crazy outdoor things like bridge swinging. I'm sure its going to be awesome.

On a different note, we tried a social experiment the other night. To set the scene, there is a small room here at Nordtun, about 2 x 3m big, walls plastered in the norweigian bible, quite literally and a small table with some candles at one end. Now, cram a pile of pillows, blankets, tea, coffee, cameras and 6 people into this space. Close the door at 11:30pm, no one leave, except for a pee break till 9am (breakfast time) and no one sleeps, and see what happens...
What happened was an truely amazing night of prayer and worship, we didnt really plan it that was, we just wanted to see if we could last the night without sleep and killing ourselfs, we were thinking a few games of chess, some knitting and alot of joking. But, as God does, he sort of hijacked the night and we spend it in prayer, building each other up and encouraging each other. It was a night I wish never to forget, and somehow the 9.5 hours went like the blink of an eye as the hours skipped past. We all came out excited and refreshed, wanting to hear more from God!
Yet, we also all promptly crashed and slept the day away after an awesome breakfast of home made cerial and toast!

This week we're looking evangelism with two young guys from the SOE (school of evangelism) up from down south of Norway, it should be an interesting week!

A traipse through liquid ice

As our feet first touched down into the mid-calf deep ice flow stream we knew we were in for a bit of an adrenaline rush. The waters cool biting edge but through out warmest clothes in seconds and chille dus to our bones. We had to move fast as hanging around in that temperature saps your strength in no time. Quickly we trudged up the rapidly flowing stream.At this stage we were a good 15m below ground in the pitch black caves carved by centuries of fast flowing water, with nothign but our small head torches to light our path, there were about 8 daring souls in total for this adventure. After a few minuites, by now our feet had pretty much lost feeling we came to a stone slab with water flowing quick out below it. "under here" cries Harman Jon, out leader. 'Under here' was a 10cm gap of air between icy river and cold hard rock. "no way", "You're joking" and "I cant do that" were the few words spoken as we looked at the path ahead.
"It's now or never, if you go you go, make up your mind now" yelled Harman Jon above the roaring of a not so distant waterfall. With that he dissapeared under the water and through the gap.

As the water hit my chest and crept up to my neck i could do nothing but lose my breath, regain it, and yell the first thing that came to mind, "Baaaaaaaaahhhhhhh", this was shortly followed by "shiiiiiiiiiite". It was cold. For 20m we crawled through the water faces to the ceiling trying to suck what air we could, hearts beating at rediculous speeds and adrenaline pumping through our bodies. As we crawled along the roar of the waterfall grew louder, sliding through a small gap we popped out below a gushing waterfull with a delightful sight before us, the rope, our path out of this feezing tunnel. Pity it was sitting right in the middle of the downpour of freezing water. So, the final hurdle, a 3m rope climb up a overhung tiered rockface, sound fun, not so much with icecold hand. Grip after grip was laid upon that rope, though i could never quite tell if i was actually holding it hard enough. After an epic struggle against the oncoming water I finally made over the top and bolted for the mouth of the cave, where ever it was, I just ran upstream. finally, with muscles tired from the fading adrenaline rush but still buzzing we made it out, never have a felt so happy to chuck my hands into snow, it actually felt warmer...

That was cave 3/4 in the Norwiegian highlands, the past 4 days have been a traips around the the caves, about 50km from YWAM base, unfortunately its a 5hour drive aorund the mountains to the other side. The first night was spend camping in the fresh snow overlooking the mountain range. That night we spend some time in a large gaping cave lit by candle light, praying and singing praises as our words were whisked away by the thunder of the river below so we could barely hear what we were saying.
The rest of the caves we visited were winding trails carved by streams, mostly dry now with a little water deep within them. Being in the caves was amazing, the knowledge that you are meters underground surrounded by cold rock in every direction with nothing but a headtorch and your freinds to get you out. For some reason i felt right at home within the caves, it was soo much fun just wandering around exploring all the nooks and crannies, squeezing through tiny gaps like a peice fitting into the last spot on a jig-saw puzzle. Lars and Madara say 'Hi', its late here at Nordtun about 1:30am, we're still up as we had our 5hr drive back to base this arvo and filled ourselves with chocolaty goodness on the way.
On that note, i should probably sign off and crash for the evening, tomorrow is a day full of planning for 7-11 (the youth group we run every second friday) and 7-11 itself, theater sports tomorrow i think.
hope all is well.

some facts...

So, it started to snow! - this will be short...
it was cold and raining, then down it came!
the mountain opposite me in now balck and white striped!
We ran outside, barefoot, and frollicked!
Being so close to the coast it doesnt stick for too long just yet but it will soon!
Its still autumn and its already colder than it is in melbournes cold winter... well warm winter now...
We're losing 7 mins of sunlight a day, thats 1 hour of sunlight a week! it will be dark soon...

sorry, thats about it... gotta go organise outreach, just wanted to share some random things about norway, and the fact that im excited for snow! not as much as the alaskan but im excited!

And the sheep have tails here... go figure...

Island hopping and the aussie...

so It's been a while since i posted, things are a little hectic and i get a little distracted by all the thing i can go and do, from hiking up mountains, lighting fires and cooking meals outdoors or combining them both and hiking up and cooking a meal on the top of a mountain.

hmmm, its been so long that i'm beginning to forget what has happened so many details will be missing but ill give it my best shot.

so we went island hopping, we caught the local ferry across to a small island called Bolga, it was a small island with a granite mountain. Base camp was the best so far as we were right next to a sweet boulder feild with heaps of stuff to clamber over and under, more moss covered boulders everywhere with little caves with a large mountain looming behind us. We managed to get a little bit of bouldering which was good as most of the rock in norway is falling apart and crumbles under your weight.
The first day we hiked around the island (this one was pretty small) and climbed up through the moutnain, there was a large crack that split it in two that turned into a short cave to get through to the other side of the island. the descent on the other side was pretty nasty, with a few spots with just a rope and a small drop onto a small ledge and another drop... fun... that was all followed by a traverse across some slippery slopeing rock.

the next day we went up the mountain, passed over the giant crack in the mountain and made it to the top. Any vertigo i may have once had is quickly dissapearing with these repedative climbs! sketchy is the best way to describle some of it. at the top it was a beautiful view! the weather was perfect, for the whole week infact, which is totally uncommon for Norway for this time of year, a week of sunshine! My roomies and I have started a tradition for taking a photo on the cairne of each peak we cap. we've got 4 so far and will most likely have heaps more at the current rate. At the top of the peak we had a time of MPW (moutnain peak worship) which was a time of prayer and intercession and worship for the surrounding islands in the area. someone managed to hike a guitar up the top and we just sat on the sheltered side and worshiped! it was great. oh yeah, the wind was absolutely insane up the top, you could run down with your jacket open and feel the wind hold you back and slow you down!
on the way down we took a rediculously steep chute down the side, it took us about 1/4 of the time to get down that it took to hike up.

That night was solo night, a chance to get out into the widlerness with our packs, a tarp, some rope and a bible. it was great, after i managed to find a spot to camp out. i can tell you now that the top of a windy treeless hill by the sea is not the best place to pitch a tarp, i searched up there but after the sun began to fall i quickly dropped down to the forrested valley below to find a spot. with a head lamp on and a pack on my back i muddled around for a while. Norsk wilderness with either rocky or swampy for the most part but i eventually found a spot (probably settling with it out of desperation) that managed to do. Most of the next day was spent by myself wandering around, i found a nice ravine to chill out, pray and read my bible for a while coming complete with a babbling brook hidden below the fallen rocks.

Meloy was our next stop, we had one night in a cabin half way up the mountain situated by a glistening lake with two large peaks looming over the top. We settled in and hiked up to the peak. we were set loose to go solo for the last stretch up to the peak. It come complete with 3 false peaks so finally reaching the top was a releif. More MPW followed and some great views.


Ill run through it a little faster now... my fingers are getting tired. On the weekend a few of us, probably due to out masachistic nature or something, decided to climb another peak behind base, the tallest one so far. The day was just too beautiful to waste though so we did it. best views so far as i got to see the whole surrounding area with our local outreach spots all within sight and all the spots we have been, the glacier, ornes, the pool, etc. laying below us.
The following week of teaching was headed up by an Aussie who has been living in norway for 20 or so years, it was really nice to have a familiar accent and common slang (even with the generational gap, he didnt know what a bogan was... go figure...) around the base. the teaching was on the nature and identity of God, it was great as he attempted to fit together they apparent inconsistencies in Gods character as he is both Holy and righteous and loving. It gave us all alot to think about around base and our processing groups (discussion groups) were running with full verbal diarrhoea for once. it was brilliant.

everyone here at base is slowly coming out of their shell and we are becoming one big family, I'm loving it!

NExt weeks teaching is about hearing the voice of God and I am quite excited to see what we will learn by the end of the week. Monday week i will be caving in the surrounding area for 1 week and will fill you all in when i get back all covered in mud. hopefully ill be able to sit down and write it straight away, not wait for a week and a half before i try and dredge up some memories....

Hope all is well!

oh yeah forgot, my local outreach, 7-11, (it runs from 7-11pm on a friday night) is going great! we have a bunch of local youth come every second week and just hang out with them teaching them some life skills like teamwork or practical skills like music or cooking and just build up some fellowship, on friday we had a massive scavenger hunt with team building games that ended in a large bonfire down on a rocky beach in a nice cove with sheer rock walls! we cooked bananas and chocolate. all teh Kids are opening up and really enjoying it! they even said it was nice!!! (thats a massive thing in norway as they tend to under exaggerate their excitement here...)

ok now this is the real end.

bye =)

fire and the northern lights!

So, where to begin, its been a while since i last updated this and alot has happened....

The base at Nordtun continues to amaze me each day, with the beautiful scenery surrounding us, to the extremes of weather. Lately the days have been wonderful, warm sun, calm waters rolling like liquid glass, still a little chilly but ultimately just great days to be out in Gods creation. However, there have been days completely overcast with clouds hanging just a few hundred meters above the ground level, just capping the low peaks surrounding us, some days this comes with freezing wind and thrashing rain, others its calm and it feels like I'm living under a giant blanket.

It was on one such day, overcast, raining, freezing that we decided to go fishing. We can walk 500m from the front door to a nice point jutting into the fjord that has been affectionately named "worlds end" and cast our lines off (this is worlds end on a nice day...) . It's a great spot however, if its cold, windy and raining the full force of nature will hit you there. Nick (my American roomy) and I were hankering to catch a fish so we decided to brave the weather and go out. we did, it was cold, freezing is an understatement, Hooray for Gore-tex and windprool fleeces, and like 10 layers of clothing... but we still couldnt feel our fingers. We didnt catch anything decent, just two small fish about the size of a mobile phone but it was still amazing being out in the elements "acclimatising" as we called it. On the walk back, we decided that night needed to be calm, not raining or windy so we could go out and set a fire at worlds end, take a guitar, jembae and fish + sing the nighta way. We had also been learning about our identity in christ during the week and had read a passage that when two or more people agree in prayer it will be answered or something along those lines, so we figured, hey, why not ask God for this opportunity...

That night was amazing, not only did it not rain, there was a clear sky full of stars, most of the people in the base decided to join us at worlds end and we sung and praised the night away by a huge fire just hanging out. What was even better was that God decided to give us something special and switched on the northern lights! they are crazy if you ever get the chance to witness them! whats even cooler is that they only show up on really clear nights in winter, so having them this early in autumn is a real treat!

This week we have been having teaching on "the bible". The history, its canonisation and all that mentally heavy stuff, its not quite as entertaining as other things we have done but we are learning heaps. Soon i will be able to pick apart the bible like a pro, well no, not really but thats what they're teaching us to do, well trying to teach us to do.
The sky last night was big, really big. If you have ever lay on the beach (is that bad english - its slowly slipping from me) at ocean grove or somewhere else where teh city lights die down and look up you'll begin to understand out big it is up here, just double everything, the sky is so packed with stars some sections of the night sky look white rather than black.

next week we are heading out to go island hopping and climbing a few of the peak on these island and sitting at the top doing some MTW or "mountain top worship" just hanging out praising God and praying for the local area and islands around us, it will be a really cool week as we will just get to hang out on the islands and hike!

my mind is slowly melting and im about to start rambling so ill cut my blog off here. I'll have some more pics up for you in about a weeks time i guess after the trip.

Wow....

So i arrived at YWAM base about a week ago and met all the people i will be living with for the next 9 months, everyone seems really chilled out and awesome people. they all love God first then love the outdoors second, my kind of people!

After a short introduction and a quick supper (we managed to get to base at about 10:30pm as driving directly from Bodo to Engavagen consists of driving aroun in the hugest squiggly line you cna amagine due to all the fjords up here, a 100km direct line took us about 3hours i think...) were todl the plan for the next few days, basically it consisted of jumping on a small boat, taking a short trip over a crystle turquose blue glacial runoff fjord to the base of the 2nd largest glacier in norway and setting up camp. all on the 2nd day we got there with half the student still Jet lagged and feeling tired and sore, awesome...

so basically words can barely begine to describe how beutiful northern Norway is, pictured dont really do it justice either, though ill throw some up anyways. We set up camp at the bottom of the glacial flow just behind the big turquose lake at the bottom in a small clearing of tree's. The mountains rise about 1000-1500m up from sea level with rocky outcrop and near vertical cliffs, the tree level is about 300m so there are not many tree's on them at all... everything is lush and green with small waterfalls cutting their way down the side of the mountains at regular intervals, small berry bearing bushes litter the ground, all of which you can eat if you feel a little peckish.

we camped one night at out base at the bottom of the mountain then hiked up and spent a day on the glacier with crampons and iceaxes in tow all tied together with a rope to make sure we didnt fall. its hard work and we got our first glimpse of freezing norwegian temperature as it was windy, raining, icey. we were all soaked and cold by the time we got of the glacier and we still had to scramble down a wet rocky mountain side to get back, it was great! that night was horrible, pouring rain, over cramped tent as we forgot the poles for one tent, with a splitting headache. got through the night and we packed up early instead of hiking up to a hut 1400m up the mountain as the wind was too strong and it was pouring with rain.

My room at base has an amazing view, its great for the mornings when you just dont want to get out of bed, you just look out the window and want to jump out and go climb it or something, its picturesque!

so thats about it for the short ramble, not too much details but you get an idea of what its liek up here, we're yet to start the teachign phase, that starts this monday but i'm looking forward to that and to see what is in store for us! after a week or so of teaching im sure my Blog will have a little more substance to it! but yeah....

NAthan.

leo and ali...

So i flew out of liverpool a week or so ago, having spend an awesome week there having lots of fun with Joy, Kurzon and Trish (tina) - they were all brilliant hosts ! - and landed in Oslo for my first stint going solo... managed to navagate my way through the airport, its a really really good one, everyone's relaxed and very helpful, though thats the same for most of the norweigian people anyway!

got in the hostel door moments before it poured down with rain, the hostel is on a big grassy hill, a really nice change coming out of Englands crampedness...

so far I've basically been wandering the streets seeing the sights. I met up with two others Leo, a smooth talking mexican at the end of his travels and Ali, an Aussie gal, it was nice to hear an accent from home too. we hung out and had a great time at the vigeland park? (spelling on tha tis probably wrong) with all the random sculptures and walked aroudn the bay to the viking museum and saw how they moved the ship in a whole chung 100 yards at a time on moveable track... crazy norweigians...
oh, also saw scream by munch, we were in a hall of all his work and only realised it was famouse art when we spotted that paining, its pretty crazy!

we ended up cooking dinner, food here is rediculously expensive if you eat out, like 50AUD if you want a large pizza... so we made a massive bowl of pasta for me and Leo, 500g of pasta with about as much sauce, we were stuffed but managed to get through it all in the end, though felt rather unwell.

Leo, being the smooth talker he is managed to get 2 young Russians to sing to him. we found out they were from a choir and managed to get invited up to their practise. there were about 14 Russian woman with amazingly beautiful voices, very hard to descrive how good it was though it gave us all shivers they were that good! turns out they were only amatures who sing for a hobby by we felt they were professionals, besides all the laughter and chatter between songs...
they were a great group and when their leader found out i was australian she asked if i could find some poeple who would be interested in being penpals with a russian as they were studying international studies and austrlian in particular for the last semester... so if anyones interested...

besides that I've just been hanging out relaxing.
not really sure what else has been done, im sure ill remember later...
oh, large fireworks show in liverpool, fosters in the park at night like a bogan (scally), knitting with some ladies while drinking coffee at the white room... yeah thats about it...

so, send me an email or a reply or something and fill me in on whats happening back home, im kinda out of the loop up here you know...
hope alls well.

oh, ill chuck up some photos when i get a chance, i have to use an internet cafe as the hostels wireless is a little stuffed at the moment or something.. oh well.