Monday is our day of “chillin”,
but this particular Monday, January, 21st, 2013 our base leader
Steve Bishop was with us. So because it was a special Monday we decided to
venture over the bridge to the mainland to visit the Arctic Cathedral. However,
when we got there the Cathedral was closed! It was rather unfortunate (we had
looked up the wrong opening times). It wasn’t particularly a nice day weather
wise because the snow was coming down, so we didn’t get much of a view from the
bridge either. But all in all it was a good day despite our soaking socks and
frigid fingers.
The
next day was Tuesday, and the long anticipated day of our first Love 101
course. We showed up at the University around 11AM. We prayed like we always do
before we set up our stand and split up into pairs to go out and ask people to
fill out questionnaires. We had some really good conversations with people and
created some publicity for the course. For me (Clayton), the best part of that
afternoon was when Jessica, Raph, Becky, and I held up signs asking people what
they thought love was. We had lots of people walk by and answer us as they went
to and fro. We also had some people actually stop to talk to us about love and
write their answer on our signs. We had differing opinions on what love is. One
person said it was sacrifice, another said it was definitely not sacrifice. A Frenchman
said that it was a recipe that you need to find the right ingredients for.
Leave it to the French to come up with some romantic metaphor. We loved talking
to the people, and we could tell that even those who didn’t answer us were at
least thinking about it.
Our
course started at 4PM. We weren’t sure if anyone was going to show up. Well
actually we knew a young woman by the name of Ronnie was coming. We’d met her
previously and earlier that day as well. Apart from her we really didn’t know
if anyone was going to be there besides us. But praise the Lord we had a few
people come! One girl came that Jess and I had talked to while holding up
signs. There was also another two that Becky and Raph had talked to that came. Lye
taught us about things we should look for in a partner, and things we should
avoid. I had heard the teaching before, but it’s always good to be reminded of
something that can affect your life in a deep way. The thing I took away most
was what Caitlin said at the end. She said that we should first be all the
things we’re looking for in our partner. I agree with her. If we want our
partner to be patient with us, we should first seek to be patient people
ourselves. We chatted a bit with people after the class, and then jumped on the
bus heading back to the city center.
On
Wednesday, Steve spoke to us all about putting in the extra effort all the way
until the time we get on the plane headed for the UK. He encouraged us that
many people were praying for us, and told us many practical things that He
thought would help us during our ministry here. Then we all said bye to him as
he left with Nathan to catch a bus headed for the airport (we found out later
that they actually got lost, but thankfully Steve still made his plane). We
waited for Nathan to return before we started our team time, and prepared for
that night and the rest of the week. We wrote up questions and prepared paper
to play a game with the girls who were coming later on that night. We also
practiced our drama for Sunday’s service.
When
the girls (Emilie, Maria, Johanne) showed up that night we played a game that
we haven’t quite figured out a name for. I think we’ve decided to call it “picture
telephone”. It was fun, and it always causes us to have a good laugh or two at
the end when you see how messed up your original description of a scene turned
out. I think the girls enjoyed it. Then we passed a bag around that had a mix
of funny questions and more serious questions. Some people were asked where
they’d like to go while others were asked about why they believed in God or if
Adam experienced love at first sight. It was interesting to hear what others
had to say, and I think we all had fun.
It’s
a bit tough to get out of bed on Thursday mornings; 6:30AM isn’t exactly my
ideal time to get up. But once we get to the City Hall and start praying with
the Christians here I find that it was worth it. They’re incredibly passionate
about their city. They long to see it transformed by God, and we long for that
too. We prayed about justice being done in the court cases against the Hell’s
Angels. We also prayed for their salvation, and for them to stop committing
crimes here.
Thursday’s
seem quite long to me. I think it’s because we have a prayer meeting early in
the morning, we don’t do much other than team time and eating in the afternoon,
and then we have another prayer meeting at night. At night we meet with Jesus
Tent to pray about various things and about the following Saturday when we’ll
go out on the streets to try to talk to people. It was a great time of worship
and praising God for what He’s done and will do. It got us excited for what God
was going to do over the next two days (and He was going to do a lot).
The
following day, which was Friday, we went to the University at 11AM. We set up
our stand and split into pairs with questionnaires. A few conversations were
had, and we prayed for a few people as a team before we went for lunch. After
lunch a few of us went to hold our signs again. While Jess and I were holding
our signs we saw a young man and a young woman pass us and look at our sign.
After about twenty minutes we saw them again. They were approaching us rather
quickly, and then before either of us knew it we were being embraced. These
random strangers were hugging us, then they let go, told us that’s what love
was to them, and were gone. It was a really touching moment for Jess and I. I
felt really uplifted by their random act of kindness and I think Jess felt the
same. It was also encouraging to see that people are thinking about what our
signs say even if they don’t directly come up to us to answer.
Later
that night, about 9PM, we met at the Baptist Church for a prayer meeting before
setting up for our café night. I didn’t really know what to expect for the
night. I hoped to talk to a few people, and hand out a few cups of hot
chocolate on the cold streets. God had bigger plans. We got everything set up
outside and upstairs. When it was my turn to go outside, I went and was
standing outside sipping some hot chocolate when it began. We had four
intoxicated teenagers come up and I gave one of them a cup of hot cocoa. They
invited us out for drinks which we declined. Then a man who must have been
either mentally sick or worse came up to me and asked me if I was a pig. I wasn’t
sure what he was saying so I asked him to clarify. He then asked me what he
should tell his kids if this world is doomed to hell. He asked me if he should
tell them to live normally. I asked him what he meant by “normally”. Then he
walked away. It was an odd conversation. Then two intoxicated guys came up to
us and told us that handing out hot cocoa was against the Bible. They said that
we were going to sexually arouse the woman of the city. They were joking
(thankfully), I didn’t understand the humor of what they said, but I was glad
that they were joking. We didn’t really have any type of deep meaningful
conversation with them, but they seemed to be grateful for the hot chocolate.
I
went upstairs to get more hot chocolate, when I came back down it was like the
night had been turned upside down. David and Jess were in deep conversation
with this one guy, and Nathan, Abi, and Caitlin were talking to an intoxicated
elderly man. I didn’t join their conversation (which seemed rather interesting
to say the least), but I did join David and Jess’s conversation. They soon
left, but Mark joined me to talk with this man who was rather odd. I’m not sure
what he believed. We asked him a few times, but he kept saying things that didn’t
have any meaning to what we were saying. He spoke very good English, but we
still couldn’t really get any sort of meaningful discussion going on. He was
adamant about telling us he was a pacifist; even more adamant that he had told
the Norwegian government that along with what he thought of them (which was a
list of profanities). He told us that he knew he was ugly which saddened Mark
and I and we tried to tell him that God didn’t think so and that God loved him.
We tried over and over to explain that God loved him, but he didn’t care or
believe us. I think he might have actually offered Mark and I a job at his “organization
of firefighters”. We said that we were quite alright, and then he left.
As
soon as he was gone, Mark and I joined a conversation that had just started
between Nathan and two guys from the University. They had quite a lot of
questions about God. I think that they thought we were the “fire and brimstone”
type of Christians that tell people they’re going to burn in hell (which we of
course are not, or at least try not to be). I think they lightened up a bit
when they realized that we actually weren’t outside in the cold because we
wanted to tell people they were all wrong about life. We had a really good
discussion with them. They were asking about questions about hell and morality.
They asked us questions about God and the Bible. I think they were rather
surprised to find out that I used to be an atheist and had all the same
questions they did. I think they were equally surprised to find out that Mark
agreed with evolution (a different type than the normally accepted version). We
tried our best to answer their questions and explain things from our
perspective. At the end of it they thanked us for talking to them, and we
thanked them for stopping by. We all shook hands and they called us “friends”
which was something I’m not used to after discussing God with atheists. It was
a really pleasant conversation, and I hope we see them again.
We
met with Jesus Tent on Saturday morning to pray before we went out. We got our
little tent set up in the city square. Jess and Abi prepared signs about the
city that they held while the rest of us either stayed at the tent or went out
prayer walking. Glen and Erin were able to pray for a woman to be healed and
she was! She had a leg that was shorter than the other that grew out before
their eyes. She had back pain that was gone. Her dizziness stopped, and her
anxiety and fear were relieved. Praise the Lord! We also had a few good
conversations with various people from the street. The people we talked to knew
about our café on Friday’s. It was an encouragement that people know about what
we’re doing. Erin and Raph even got their pictures taken and were asked
questions that got put into an article in the Newspaper. They wrote up a
paragraph about how we’re here trying to bless the city. It was good publicity.
We also had others come up to the people holding the signs and talk to them
about why we’re here. All in all it was a good day of conversations and prayer.
We
thought the excitement for the day was over after we got home from Jesus Tent,
but it was most certainly not. At about 6:30 PM we got a text from David that
said we were going to go on a hunt for the Northern Lights! It was the most
amazing time! They drove us outside of the main part of the city closer to sea.
We had this amazing view of two mountains split by the sea. It was a gorgeous
view even without the Northern Lights. It was almost too much to handle when
the Northern Lights came out. They were unlike anything I’ve ever seen. In
fact, I had never seen anything like it in all my life. It was breath-taking. I
was amazed by God’s majesty. He’s truly the most amazing painter there ever
was. The lights danced in the sky, and just when you thought they had gone,
they suddenly appeared behind you even brighter. We tried our best to take
photos of them, I think we got a few good ones, but no camera can capture that
feeling of “wow” that they impress. We are so grateful to have someone like
David who is always trying his best to make our stay here as best as can be.
We
ran part of the service on Sunday with the Baptist Church. We performed our “mask”
drama. The drama is all about how we can be real with God and we don’t need to
put on any type of mask to please Him. We can come as we are before Him. Jess
gave her testimony, and Raph and Caitlin lead worship. All of them did a superb
job. The guest speaker was from the Pentecostal church. It was a nice service.
We talked with a few people after, which is one of my favorite parts of Sunday.
I love talking with people from the Church and learning about their lives.
It
was a great week here in the Far North. We really felt God move in the city and
in the lives of the people. For me, it was the best week since we got here. I
had some real hard personal struggles, but to see God work through us and among
us made those problems infinitely smaller. I love that. I love feeling smaller
when it makes God bigger. We must decrease, but He must increase.
Clayton
Clayton
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