Here goes nothing.

I currently have a to do list that is a mile long... I'll let you in on a fraction of it.

• send molly a letter or postcard
• send our team photo home so that people can see my lovley team and pray for us
• put jennas letter in an envelope and acutally send it
• pay my school some more money
• finish a book by tomorrow that i am only half way through
• plan the intercession topic and format for tomorow mornings intercession. (this involves meeting with Helena... meeting with God :) and seeing whats on his heart for intercession... and picking some worship songs all of which take time that i do not have)
• start my journal... and finish it
• go to a meeting tonight
• get vaccinations
• write a blessing for someones blessing pocket
• finish this blog post since i have not posted in over a week
• pack for england...

the list could go on quite a bit longer with many small things that take a few minutes and thigns that are a process and take multiple days to complete. I feel like I am running a marathon that i'm not able to walk in... or quit. Its quite tiring but I learn so much along the way. I am so thankfull to God for what i've been learning and how he's been speaking to me. By reading my list you may think i am stressed and really tired but i'm not. I have so much joy all the time! I'm not worried or stressed very often because so much crazy stuff happens here there is no need to worry. (although i do catch myself sometimes worrying). Everyday is a testimony to God's faithfullness. I also am not stressed which is odd becasue i often stress out about even the smallest things... but here i just know i'll get it done eventually so there is not point in stressing out about it...

So life has been great. We had teaching on "the father heart of God" last week and this week we are learning about our "identity in Christ." I love our speaker this week. She is so amazing. She gives us clay to play with while we teach and at first i thought it would be distracting but i love playing with it. It really helps me to be doing something with my hands. I do not really make any beautifull creations but i just roll it into balls... flatten it like pancakes or make it into long cords and braid it. If i were to make an impressive creation it would take all of my attention so its best i dont attempt to expand my art skills during lectures. I am getting very very excited for Outreach and for England this weekend. I am so excited to have a week focussed on learning evangelism strategies and then doing it. I think we have classes during the mornings and then we go out and evangelize in the afternoons... or evenings... im not really sure because we will find out more information in class this afternoon. I am however very excited to be evangelizing in a country where i do not first have to ask the person if they speak english! Yeah!

as for the rest of my daily happenings they are too many to be written down here... but I will just say THANK you to my family who sent me the most amazing care package ever... the finger puppets were a great addition and the ductape made me laugh. I also loved the snippets of the Messenger that were included and my christmas card in October:)

Thanks! and sorry my posts are so few and far between... But this week will probably be worse because i dont think i'll take my computer to england.

My lovley Team!

This is my Outreach team! Please pray for us. Tiina and Mikael are our leaders. We have 4 Swedes, 1 Estonian, 1 German, and then Me! Its going to be a fabulous outreach!

ps

P.s.

I am going to Uganda

I am learning swedish... norweigen... and lugandan all at once. Quite the feet...

In norweigein i can say "I have to pee" or "I really really have to pee"
In Swedish i can say more things, like "Ok everybody" Good morning, thank you... etc

and i can also sing a song... yeah thats right! pretty amazing...

and then in Lugandan i can say

"good morning" and "Thank you" and "white person" and "hi"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fRNIdZe05I

here is a link to the swedish song i'm learning to sing. IT is about a soccer star here in Sweden... named Zlatan

we had some extra time off
today because our speakers
flight was delayed... so we
decided it woudl be nice to go for
a walk



Here is Alfreds arm pointing
in the direction of our base...
even though you can't see it.



Me and Pihla. And Paulina's
lovley peace sign looking
like horns behind my head.



Some lovley boys. They are
roommates. Its Alfred, Axel,
and Julien from left to right.



This is me and Lina having
a very deep conversation.

My weekend...

Helena in the back and martina in the front. They are both on my outreach team to Uganda.

i love this photo even though maybe its not so flattering.

we went star gazing... and this was on the dock before heading up to the rocks.

me and cecilie went for an evening walk and took a picture with a moose...

not sure what i'm doing here... me and cecilie were going for a walk.


we went for a walk to a near by "mountatin" and climbed to the look out point... there was no trails though so we bush wacked.


body builders:)

the view! I live in such a beautifull place. God created some pretty crazy sights.

this was our friday work duty. We were cleaning the showers and found some lovley hair in the drains! so disgustin i honestly was gaggin and had to run to the window for some fresh air. It was so bad!

My first follow up letter to my supporters... i thought i'd post it here too...

Hello all!

Here is my first letter from Sweden. My Discipleship Training School (DTS) started just over a week ago and already I’ve learned so much. My Swedish experience started with a lovely 22 hour bus ride from Amsterdam to Goteborg, a city about an hour away from my school. I had been living in Holland for the summer working as a Nanny. My bus ride was LONG and hot, due to the broken air conditioning on the bus. I guess I should have expected that when I chose the cheapest form of European transportation! When I arrived at the bus station in Goteborg, I had to hall all of my bags about a kilometer, which was quite the feat. I had a large backpack, a large suitcase, a large shoulder bag, and a backpack. I was going for the big and heavy theme with my luggage. By the time I reached the train information desk, I was sweating buckets. I exchanged my money, bought a train ticket, figured out how to use a Swedish pay phone, and boarded my train to a small city near my base. On the train I took advantage of the small bathroom and attempted to make myself presentable because we all know first impressions are very important. I brushed my teeth, put on some make up, and tied my hair back. When I got off the train in Ljungskile (pronounced Young Sheela...) I met Mikel, one of my Swedish staff who was there to pick me up and bring me to the base. I was the second student to arrive at Restenas (our base.)

So what were my first impressions of Sweden and YWAM Restenas? It is beautiful here. The landscape where I am is similar to Canada, but the mountains here are not nearly as big. They are more like very large hills. My base is in the countryside and is literally in the middle of nowhere. We are a five minute walk from the sea. My expectations and preconceived ideas of what my DTS would be like were not even close to correct. I thought everyone would be between the ages of 18 and 22 give or take and that we would have international staff. I also didn’t really have an idea how living with 4 girls in such close quarters would be. My classmate’s ages range from 18- 38. There are married students, engaged students, dating students, and then the single ones! We are a class of 25 students from 11 different nationalities and everyone brings so much to the class. Everything that is said is said twice -- once in Swedish, and once in English. At first it really bothered me but now I like it. It gives me a chance to process what is said and take notes without getting behind or having to write insanely fast.

NIKO- My first week of DTS was spent in the woods doing a program called NIKO. Niko is a greek word which means ‘to overcome,’ and that’s exactly what we did on Niko. It is a program designed to prepare students for their outreach in the developing world. Niko also focuses on surrender, teamwork, leadership and servant hood. We were challenged spiritually, mentally, emotionally, and PHYSCIALLY. I really wish I could tell you what the week entailed but we are sworn to secrecy so that if others do a Niko, their experience will be as rich as ours was. I will however tell you a little bit about what I learned.
• I learned that you can accomplish so much more when you work together.
• I learned what it means to lead in humility and to lead from underneath as a servant
• I learned that when you put others ahead of yourself great things are accomplished
• I learned what it means to surrender your rights
• I learned what it means to support your team members
• I learned about the power of encouragement -- that a small encouraging word can be exactly what you need to keep going.
• I learned about perseverance and what it means to keep fighting when you just want to give up.
• I learned about Loving through actions.
• I learned how to dry your wet clothes when it’s raining and there is no place to hang them (sleep with them in your sleeping bag and they will dry overnight). Each night I slept with my pants in my sleeping bag and all my wet socks nicely against my stomach and chest underneath my shirt. I smelled great!
• I learned that if you tuck your wet socks into your pants while you walk your body heat will dry them and you'll always have an alternate pair for halfway through the day when you need to change socks.

So I hope you have a little idea of what I’ve done here so far. Our real lectures start this coming Monday and our first topic is on Hearing Gods Voice. I am very excited about all that I’m going to learn here and all the lessons and wisdom I’ll be able to take with me for the rest of my life.

so thank you!

Heidi

Me, Kristi, and Lisa on the night of the "big party!"

My shelves are the two lower ones... as you can probably tell if you know me... My roommate Helena's shelf is the on above mine... and she is much neater than me!

This is also at the "party" that one of the staff buildings hosted in our second week here... each room had a differnt theme. This is Mikels room and the theme was checkered/plaid shirts.

Me and Paulina

our for a walk on a blistery day!

me Roelof, Kristi, and Cecilie

I'm still Canadian:)

I hope you enjoy three new blog posts all in one day! haha...

here are some pictures from my adventure in Ljungskile with Cecilie... my norweigen friend... and from my quality time with God at the sea this morning...

What did i learn this week?

This week our lecture topic was "the two kingdoms"

we learned about the Kingdom of the World and the Kingdom of God. It is such foundational teaching and most of us were quite shocked that we have never really had teaching on this before in our christian lives. It was such great teaching from an amazing Norwegian teacher.... those of us who have grown up in the church were very happy to have a way to organize all this bible knowledge that is floating around in our heads without a "place" to put it...

We are citizens of the Kingdom of God. Jesus is our King. Love is our constition...and our future is Heaven. We have different rules than the Kingdom of the World because these two spiritual kingdoms are opposites... We are called to love those who hate us. Pray for our enemies. Turn the other cheek...

Also we learned about relationships but only briefly becuase fitting two weeks of teaching into oen week is a little difficult for someone who is longwinded... haha... but we learned alot about bitterness and selflessness... and forgivnes... and it to was very refreshing teaching.

We also found out our possible outreach locations on friday morning...

Nepal
Uganda
China
Cambodia...

those are my choices... and at the moment that is the order of preference i have. Nepal being first and Cambodia being last... I really wanted to go to India.. but as you can see its not an option... so we'll see where i go.

looking back...

Okay... so i have not written in forever... and i must apologize for that...but this week has been crazy with lots of learning... and processing... and lovley times with lovley people.

So this week i went swimming in the ocean. If you dont think much of that re read the last sentence and just ponder it for a minute... i am in sweden... it is october... and its cold here...!

This week I was tired! Not really sure why exactly. We did alot. The days are packed... and its constant thinking and doing. We got our official work duties this week... and voila. Heidi is back in the Janitor business! haha... I felt like i was back at the elementary this week becaue one day i was on hallways and stairs in the student housing building... and i was wearing my brown flip flops and lulu lemon capris... and thats what i always wore to janitor... so it brought me back a few months... haha.

this week i also was very wise about sleeping times:) I went to bed before 9:30 almost everynight. We wake up at 645 usually... breakfast is at 7... and so at night i am tired... and i just decided to be wise and get a good sleep so i go to bed at 930. its funny because i'm not the only one... I am usuall one of the first in bed in my room.. but on tuesday night we had an evening class untill 9 and i think everyone in our DTS (at least all the girls) were in bed by 920... haha... so funny. You think you go away and are with young people and it will be lots of late nights and early mornigns with lots of coffee... but no... we are smarter than that here:) we go to bed Early.