Å leve fra Ånden...

So the last two weeks have been C R A Z Y busy, that´s why I haven´t blogged in a while. The days run by so fast and weeks sprint away! But let me share just a little of what has happened these two weeks. I absolutely love being staff in the school I´m in! And one of my roles is to organize some events. I had been helping out planning a weekend at a retreat place called Makapala. We went there in some cool traditional American school buses ( the ones like in the movies! ); 101 people all in all and had a fun weekend with rest, games, stargazing at night, good teaching and good food. It ended up being a really restful and bonding time together. I just enjoy being away from town for a while, surrounded by nature everywhere! The stars at night were so bright and clear. And afterwards I just felt so relieved that the trip went well; no one hurt, everyone safely home. I´m starting to really love these guys. They challenge and teach me and bless me in so ...

I´m one of those that always need a reason to do something or understand why something is happening. I think the deeper issue is a need to control everything, and to prevent bad things from happening. I like to know why I´m doing what I´m doing and to be able to defend it to outsiders that might not understand. Probably because sometimes I´m insecure myself as to why I´m really doing what I´m doing. And I really want to know what´s going on in my life and why, so I can have a peace of mind that I´m on the right path. Probably because I´m sometimes insecure about being on the right path or not. So today - Sunday August 10th - I´m really missing my Dad. And my first reaction is to wonder why and try to understand it. Nothing special happened August 10th last year, it´s not a special day or month, and it is over 1,5 years since he died. But then it hits me that I actually don´t ever have to have a reason, or need to understand why I sometimes miss him so much that it aches in my bon...

Hurricane Iselle is suppose to hit our island and our place tomorrow Thursday at around 2 PM (klokka 2 natt til fredag). So the café has closed down, the big corporate night meeting for the whole base is canceled (they never cancel that meeting!), all equipment in our classroom tent is packed and stacked in the middle of the tent, sandbags have been filled and loaded along the sides of vulnerable places and some have even gone and bought food and water supplies to last for a while. We´re ready. I think. Bad case scenario some trees will fall over and we´ll have to stay in our rooms all afternoon and night while the hurricane is raging. Worst case scenario we´ll all have to evacuate into one room - all 500 of us - and bite nails and twist fingers while waiting for the storm to pass us by. Last year there was a warning like this, and the base did a lot of work to prepare for it, and then nothing happened. This time they expect us not to be so lucky. Tsunamies and hurricanes and ...

Jeg har vaert litt fravaerende paa sosiale medier, og generelt fravaerende i alle henseender, fordi jeg har vaert syk i en uke naa. Det har ikke vaert noe kjekt. Akkurat da jeg foelte at jeg begynte og komme litt ovenpaa her, bli vant med folk, klima, arbeid, osv, kom omgangssyken og slo meg i bakken. Og ikke bare for en dag... Jeg er en av de heldige som aldri har hatt omgangssyken... i alle fall har jeg nesten aldri spydd. Jeg pleier aa si at jeg har saa mange bakterier i magen fra alle landene jeg har vaert i, og all den rare maten jeg har spist, at magen min taaler en stoeyt. Jeg spiser salat i de fleste land, drikker vann fra springen og glemmer alltid aa ha med haanddesifisering, men har likevel aldri ligget og spydd hverken her hjemme eller utenlands. Derfor tok det meg et par dager med sykdom foer jeg faktisk forstod at jeg hadde omgangssyke. Jeg fatta ikke hva som skjedde. Kramper, kvalm, svette... jeg var ganske i villrede foer jeg seinere innsaa at dette maatte va...

Another week is over, filled to the max with so many impressions and happenings, talks and teaching, so much learning and getting to know people. I still don´t know all my students´ names, especially the mens´, I must admit, but I love love love getting to know these people!! That gets better every day! And I got this!! Finally! Can you see this, everyone?!? Mom? Magnar? Anyone that has gone with me through one of my accidents where I did not have a helmet? It is actually quite amazing I survived and turned out not-too-head-damaged (or that could probably be debated!) from all my accidents when not having a helmet!!! But now I do. And it is amazing how it changes how I feel when I ride, I never thought I would. I actually feel a lot safer . Yeah, I look like a dork, and I definitely feel like one, and hope nobody recognizes me, but the safety is worth it. I´d rather be a safe dork than no dork at all. Funny I had to get this old to understand why people wear helmets! ...

So thank you for all the encouragements before telling my story this Wednesday morning, in this school I'm staffing (Awaken DTS). This week every staff had 20-30 minutes to share their story to the class, 80 students we barely had begun to know. It's something really powerful about sharing your own life story, whether you are 18 years old and you feel like life just started, or you're 80 and hopefully have a well of wisdom to draw from. And everyones story is so different and it is just yours , no one can take it away from you, no one else but you can own it. While thinking about and telling it, it might hit you how good it is and how fortunate you are. Or you may notice how you have not even begun in reaching your goals, maybe you even forgot about them because the dreams faded so long ago. Maybe your story is full of pain and hurt and how you have overcome them, or still are in the process of it, or just never got started and pushed it all back down. Telling your story...

Jeg skal dele historien min på onsdag. Foran 105 stk, 80 ukjente. Neste uke kommer den første foreleseren, og etter det er det 10 uker med nye forelesere, men denne uka er det oss; staben som er forelesere. Og oppgaven vår, å dele med hverandre og de 80 studentene er - fortell om livet ditt. Og hva Gud har gjort i livet ditt. Hvem du er. Hva som har gjort deg til den du er. For en utfordring! Hva hadde du fortalt om du kunne fortelle dette til fremmede? 20-30 minutter valgfritt om livet ditt. Hva som har satt spor og forandra livet ditt, hva som gjør at du er slik du er nå... Det er min tur på onsdag. Jeg vet enda ikke hva jeg skal fortelle. Det er så mye. Det er så mange historier og mange folk som har gjort meg til den jeg er. Og Gud? Det har vært en evig opp- og nedtur, livet mitt har blitt snudd opp og ned, både til det bedre og det verre. Hvilke tidspunkt skjedde noe spesielt mellom Gud og meg? Var det da jeg forstod at han var ekte? Var det da jeg første gang opplevde en p...

Jeg har nettopp kommet ut av det to og en halv kvadratmeter store "badet", hatt en dusj i lunkent vann etter å ha venta i timesvis på at vannet skulle skru seg på igjen. Jeg har kjøpt en tilnærma ny blender til å lage smoothie med for 5 dollar (ca 30 kroner), telt alle myggstikkene mine og spist lunsj på et lite, rødt tefat. Det er det nærmeste vi kommer en slags frokosttallerken her på rommet og det fins bare en av dem. En helt vanlig dag på Hawaii. En helt vanlig dag på rom A201. Ei romvenninne sover etter en lang stranddag (stranda kan virkelig gjøre deg trøtt) og ei anna sover på det harde flisegolvet, sikkert fordi hun ikke gidder klatre opp øverst i køysenga. De andre jentene vet jeg ikke hvor er, de kan være hvor som helst egentlig. Altså en helt vanlig lørdag. Men ingen ting av dette er vanlig for meg. Ingen ting minner meg om livet mitt. Ingen av folka. Ingen av rytmene og rutinene. Ikke en gang språket. Ingen ting føles trygt og alle rundt meg er ukjente, ell...

I love getting comments. I will totally admit to that!! I love getting likes and encouragements, and I love it if people disagree or see things from a different perspective so they can challenge me!! I never say no to a good discussion!! I´ve been blogging for so many years now that I should have a celebration soon, haha! Back in the early 2000´s - when blogging was hot and super cool, I used to get lots of comments, on all kinds of random blogposts, and at times really interesting strings. When I changed from Squarespace to Blogspot I copied and pasted over 200 old blogposts from before 2011 over to Blogspot, and if you take a look at those it looks like I only got 1 comment every time. But that´s just because I copied them all in one go, if you click on it, many of them are long strings of conversation. I´ve been made aware from several people at different times that it is hard to leave a comment on this blog. Is that so? If so, you could comment on the Facebook-thread. But her...

So this week has been all about moving in. From the room with 10 girls living on top of each other, to a room with only 3... where one supposedly would move out in a little while. I could hardly believe it. Would we be only two girls living in that spacious room, only two girls sharing shower and kitchen cabinet?!  Well, before I could even get excited about it a girl asked if she could move into our room the day after we had gotten in. And then another one asked... And then - suddenly we were six girls stuck together, totally crammed, stuff everywhere, girls everywhere... and I decided that I could either be a bit upset over it and start complaining, or think of it as more people I´d get to know really well these months.... and also, just accept the fact that this is #ywamlife and the only thing constant about that is change!! So here are some pictures, with explanations under - from my moving in!! Creating some privacy by using a sheet (laken)! Creative, huh?! W...

If the first week was super hard, the second week had many ups, and many downs. I realized after the first week that patience probably would be my keyword this season, and that everything wouldn´t come as easily to me as I would have liked.... this might be a good thing for me to learn.... keeping at it when it doesn´t come easily. I´ve always hated that, most things had to be fairly easy for me from the beginning to pour my heart into it. Somehow I had it in my mind that leaving home and moving across the world, from living in a nice apartment and driving my own car to living in a community with an unknown number of foreign girls would be easy! That I would just be good at it right away. That I would just love all of it. That it all would be an adventure. Sometimes the dream is better than reality, at least in the beginning. It´s not until the end of the story the girl gets the prince, the war is won by the good guys and the mystery is revealed. And then you realize that it was all...

I´d love to get snail mail, in my mailbox. Letters or postcards or even salty stuff from Norway. What I really miss is `leverpostei´. I brought a lot of  `knekkebrød´ but only six small packages of  `leverpostei´. The food here is not the same, and I hardly ever want any of the candy. Oh well, could be a good thing!! And I still have some chocolate that I brought from Norway to munch on. I love the mix of milk chocolate and salty peanuts, M´s or kvikklunch (not hinting at all!!) So my mailing address is (per September 2014): Renate Solberg 75-5863 Kuakini hwy. APT 226 Kailua-Kona HI 96740 USA I´m at my favorite café right now, Kona Haven , where you sit outdoors overlooking the ocean. Now, at 7 o´clock it´s extra nice to watch the sun set. It´s beautiful, and different every night. This is how it looks right now: Isn´t it just amazing?  No filter. I´m on the other side of the road. I´m lucky to sit here outdoors with a cup of iced mocca a...

Det er fredags ettermiddag i Hawaii, og jeg har vært her i akkurat en uke. Sju dager, åtte inkludert reising, borte fra Bryne og alt jeg kjenner der - til andre sida av jorda, 12 timers tidsforskjell, fra nord til sør, til sommer i Hawaii, deilig varme, palmesus, sjø og strand fem minutter fra der jeg bor, hvor jeg skal bo i fellesskap på et slags misjonsuniversitet, og være misjonær her og til resten av verden, sammen med hundrevis av andre, men først og fremst 24 andre ledere i disippeltreningsskole. Ledertreninga starta en dag etter at jeg landa, og alle var i 200, full av energi og forventninger. Utenom meg. Det har vært ei tøff uke. Når jeg nå skriver det ned kjenner jeg at det er en underdrivelse. Det har vært ei knalltøff uke. Det har vært knalltøft å være ny og usikker og ikke kjenne noen. Heller ikke kjenne til alle kodene, all intern humor, alle folka "alle andre" kjenner, hva som er normalt og ikke normalt, hva som er forventa og ikke…. osv…. Jeg ankom...

I´m in a small room with 9 other girls. I´ve just slept (or tried to sleep) on a top bunker that none of the other girls want because of the hard matress and no latter up, - along with dirty socks, a sleeping bag, some clothes, a hair dryer and a bunch of other knickknack I didn´t get out of the bed before I fell asleep. I had spent 15 minutes, half in my own world after staying up almost the entire 26 hour trip from Norway to Kona, Hawaii, cleaning out everything else laying on that bunkbed, which was packed with stuff... I woke up 7 this morning and had left over potato chips and a lukewarm Coke with no fuzz for breakfast before I gathered in line and hoped for the water to still be hot when it was my turn to have a shower.... Welcome to Hawaii! Welcome to Paradise! Welcome missionlife and transition! The story gets better. And it gets worse! It started with almost forgetting my passport. Yeah you heard right. I had totally forgotten about it BEFORE we cleaned out my apartme...