News & Views
Norwegian international trip report
written by Louise Taylor
published on 15th June 2006
I recently went on my DNA international trip to
Norway
for two weeks with a team of eight others. It was quite a scary thought, but I was also very excited. I had no expectations about what we would be doing in
Norway
or even what
Norway
was like. When we arrived we were warmly welcomed by the whole church and this turned out to be a regular event, the church we were hosted by was such a loving hospitable community, they shared their lives together on a daily basis, it blew me away.
I really felt as though the language was going to be a huge barrier, it seemed as though the Norwegians couldn’t talk any English at all, but it only took me a few days to realise that they could speak perfect English, but were a little shy to use it. We spent most of the first week hanging out with the church and building relationships, at various BBQ’s, picnics and parties.
The second week we focused on schools work, we had the opportunity to get into around 20 different schools in the space of four days, so to say we were busy is an understatement. It was busy but lots of fun we played games, sung songs, and made complete fools of ourselves. But the kids loved it I heard one boy say to his friend that it was the best English lesson he had ever had.
In between all our schools work and relationship building we also had quite a few opportunities to pray for the church and the city Askim. We experienced a lot of spiritual attacks throughout the two weeks, but we knew that this was because we were taking new ground in the city and doing things that the enemy didn’t want us to be doing. As a team we learnt really quickly to support each other and we knew that it was very important for us to be unified, and there for each other.
By the end of the two weeks we didn’t want to leave Askim, the church had just welcomed us in and treated us like we were part of them. I think that the most important things that we did for the church in Askim was to help make the local community aware of kraftverket church, so that they can continue with work in the schools and local areas, and also I think that we released hope to the church and to the city of
Askim
.
Louise Taylor
