Surviving a Hectic Community Life

The facts and reality of community living is really starting to sink in for us. These first few weeks at Grimerud have been somewhat hectic and chaotic. Where shall I begin? We struggled as we tried to find our place here. We had a hard time figuring out just what we were going to do here. As you continue to read you may come to the same conclusion as we did – we needed a time out… and a clear vision of the goal for our stay here.

Our first week here Per Eirik went through three days of DTS (Discipleship Training School) staff training, while I was in Oslo to teach at the Baptist/Pentecostal leadership college (HLT). I had a good time in Oslo. I want to thank all of you that prayed for me.

The same week we also had two days of staff training, for new staff, here at Grimerud. It was good to get to know the other people who are new here at the base and to learn about the vision, and history of the base.

The next week Per Eirik went away for a few days for staff training, while I started to work in the kitchen. I have been working in the kitchen for two weeks now, making food for 30-60 people every week day. I love making food – I enjoy eating good food and l love it when I am able to make food that other people enjoy as well. I also enjoy making food together with other people – here at Grimerud I got to work with two other women that work part-time in the kitchen – that was great! However, I soon figured out that running the kitchen is too much of a responsibility for me right now…and maybe a bit of a diversion away from the main purpose of our stay here (to be prepared for missionary work in Austria). Per Eirik was with the DTS staff team and worked with them for almost two weeks. When he saw that the kitchen was too much for me – he came and helped me. For the first time since we got here Per Eirik was physically tired at the end of a day (he is usually very fit, and to me he never seems to get tired). I was so happy that he came to help me – it was really sweet and nice of him.
At this point we knew we had to have a change – we could not go on working all day in the kitchen until Christmas and not have time to focus on language learning and Austria. So we talked with some of our leaders and they set up a meeting with us.
What a blessing it was to have that meeting!!! It was as if God put us back on the right track again. We were encouraged to set up a schedule – as an overview of what we would like our week to look like. We have been working on that this weekend. So now we hope and pray that we will be able to spend some time every week learning from other missionaries, observing the leaders here and language learning. We also hope to have time for reflection, prayer and just focusing on Austria. We will be working in the kitchen as well, but it won’t be our main focus and we will share the responsibility.

Next weekend we will attend a church-weekend with Per Eirik’s home church in Kristiansand. I look forward to meeting more of the people from his church. It will be good for both of us to spend some time away from Grimerud as well. At same time it will be good to tell people about what we are doing and how they may support us in prayer and financially, if they would like.
On the 20th of September we are going to Austria. Please, pray for us – that we will have a good trip and get good contacts and further confirmation that we are on the right path. Pray that we will have a clear vision of what God wants us to do in Austria.

I am sorry for not writing this in Norwegian. The days are just too short for me right now. I will try my best to let our next blog be in both languages…

Other prayer request:
- Pray that we will have enough financial support
- Pray for our time here at Grimerud – that God will equip us for Austria
- Pray for Gods protection against sicknesses/accidents
- Pray that we will have the wisdom and power of God in daily lives
- Pray that we will have renewed strength each day