Saturday 27 December 2008

I will definately miss this

They call it jul month"christmas month", i think they needed to call it a parting month, because as far as i can remember i have never been to so many parties before especially ones in which rice porridge is a main delicacy, in the second week of December i had grøt (rice porridge) for dinner four days in a row that was crazy!!!.

First it was our Norwegian class turned into a pepper kaker making class, come to think of it pepper cakes, sounds interesting but they are something more close to ginger biscuits spiced up with cadamon and cinamon. Then it was card making at marita women' cafe . This something i would love to practice more in the future, giving gifts with a personal touch and not necessarily monitory touch.Then it was the christmas presents game at the C.U. and even more parties.Then came the "jul aften"Christmas eve where everyone dresses up and goes to church in the evening and to go back home for special Christmas food.The amazing thing is that everyone in Norway would tel you they may have eaten the same Christmas food every year for as long as they can remember.

I cannot forget to talk about the reason for the season,that is Jesus Christ" and he is every good and perfect gift from Gods heart to ours, he is the joy, peace and love that we need as human beings".

Wednesday 26 November 2008

Christian union

One of our tasks was to work closely with the christian union in Oslo university, we met for fellowship every Wednesday, to share food, sing, pray and share God's word. There was always a heavenly feeling that came while meeting with believers from as many countries as presented in this picture with the following different nationalities of Norway,Germany, Morocco, Iran, China, Uganda,South Africa,Nigeria,Ghana, Kenya and Philippines.

mmh....

"in Norway we dont say bad weather we can only say bad dressing"hahaha that statement makes sence.checkout the transformation, what a bunch of good students.we are still smiling even in the chilly moments



These are the Hald interantional FOCUS students in stavanger attending a staff conference.it was really nice meeting the other students and sharing our experiences during the internship.


The conference also gave us a chance to share with the NKSS staff.After sharing in the two broad themes of Gospel and dicipleship we certainly needed direction.



Nothing gives peace like a heart assured in the fathers leading,such kind of assurance is only gotten from the ability to speak to him through prayers.just like many of the biblical leaders we also had momemts of prayer during the conference.the prayers were organized in regions and so this was during Region øst time.

Friday 7 November 2008

bryllup

sometimes we have koselig moments like ,I had a chance to attend a Norwegian wedding last weekend in Bergen.of course it had some kenyan touch since the guy was from kenya (Ingrid,s and miriti,s wedding) but it was typically Norwegian and by the end of that weekend i wished i could go to see a dentist because i already have bad teeth.

Cakes cakes and cakes it never stops unless you stop it by yourself.Can you imagine all this cakes for just about 35 guests and speaking of guests 1 was also shocked at the number, you definately know what i mean especially if you come from a country with 36 million people.

working

General Samling
It was lovely to be part of the General samling 08 in Oslo region. which is a meeting held every two years to give reports and also do nominations of leaders.This is the equivalent of FOCUS AGM.The majority of the deligates are students,staff workers and friends of laget.This weekend was well organized and we also participated in the organization.Unlike many AGM's that focus on business matters this is also coupled with a concert,several different group talks about the students work and a Main speaker is invited.They invited the General secretary of IFES who spoke in an two meetings during this weekend about the theme of changing students.i had a chance to be with the university students representatives who were brainstorming on how to enhance the work in universities.the focus was more on how to reach out to other students on campus. This is not just a challenge in norway but also in the entire world where evrything has become relative, the need is for more creativity but also for deliberateness and authenticity.

Staff prayer team
The OKSl office has been working on enhancing the work in schools and universities through programme evaluation.This is a team composed of the porgammes development leader and the two students and schools directors.We are currently working with this team and we meet evry week to evaluate the work and pray for the movement together.the aim is to enhance fellowhip and deeper prayer for the work.this week we were so happy when one of us gave a report of growth in one of the christian unions and also the conversion of two students to salvation.

Marita Womens Kafe
we have also chosen to do some social servive in Marita Kafe. where we go there once a week to meet with the women who work on the streets.The focus is this Kafe is to witness to people by giving them love and sharing food with them.we work with very wonderful ladies who have a passion and a vision to save the diamonds from the streets.Everyday i get into that building and see those street girls my heart is challenged to offer more love to people because that is what the world is looking for.Just the other day i saw and talked to transsexual women, i always thought this was theory but in happens in real life, i got so scared at what the world is turning into.Today we have alot of emptiness within peoples hearts, and the world is even pushing us more into filling it up with worthless things that only last for a while and then our hearts are so empty again.What the world is craving for is love, why do we buy so much? why do we want to own everything?why do we keep wanting more?..it is because we want to fit in the society which in the real sence is the deep desire and need for friends, relationships and love. My greatests prayers is that God will put in my heart more love and the grace to share it out. i love this song by casting crowns just litsen to it it explains more

Sunday 26 October 2008

The forest in oslo

Norwegians definately love the outdoors, in oslo one of the most beutiful things is the forest.This is my forth weekend, and i have already walked 54 kilometers in The Forest in Oslo out of the four trips i have had .The OKSL have a sports chapel(nordmaskappellet) in the forest .Many church youth groups and student groups always have weekend trips to the forest either for retreats ot trainings.The Chapel also has services every sunday that serve the people who go jodging,cycling and walking in the forest on sunday mornings.The chapel may have been been began 75 years ago but according to me this is what i call creativity because it serves many people who would rather go breathing fresh air on a sunday morning than go to church. Each service has aprroximately hundred people and out of this each sunday are thirty regular attenders.The chapel is run by 10 volunteers three of them are the collective members,they maintain the hostel facilities, run a small cafeteria on sundays and find speakers to preach during the sunday service.
Chapel moments


  • 28th September: Our first sunday with our contact person Karl Johan, he was preaching in the service
  • 4-6 October:A weekend with the kollective, the theme of the weekend was drawn from John 15:1-17.it was a very reflective weekend that was facilitated by Stig a part time student worker with Laget
  • 19th October:a walk with Elbjorg, o wonderful Lady who challenges me alot about love and witnessing.She is very creative and finds an opptunity to live a mark in someones life.We attended the service together and the topic of that weekend was on Turning form sin.
  • 24-26 October:A weekend with the chrittian union.the theme was on love of another kind.1st Corinthians 13:1-17



the forest is always more uplifing with very reflective topics and also refreshing with fun games such as the one in the video below,dont worry about my interuptive voice this was a first good trial



Monday 20 October 2008

Beyond the tourist stage.........

Wel Certainly Being in Hald was great and the warm welcome in oslo was perfect.it,s been three weeks in oslo now,we have still been getting to meet people and get to attend the laget fellowships in OKSL.(Oslo Christian students group). What amazes me is that the students movement in kenya (FOCUS) ans NKSS have an almost similar approach to students' work. However because naturally we are prone to use what we are familiar with as a standard of making judgements, i must admit that at first i thought of the fellowships here to be shallow."dont make that face as you read this", just think of the way you have always reacted to new things especially when you use what you are familiar with as the scale of measuring things.Experiencing a new culture however does something to us and i had to go back to the drawing board again, I had to think over what Christianity is and why am i a christian?. Is it ;

  • The enthusiasm, zeal and competence in the bible all motivated by love Jesus,i had always seen back at home.
  • The genuine questions that would seem ignorant but were motivated by a deeper love and a desire to know Jesus.

I had to think over what Christianity is and why am i a christian?. This may sound funny and i know you are wondering whether i have never understood;even i thought that i really knew and understood quite well, but believe me if you have ever been in a new culture you will understand why i had to think. it is definately true that different cultural experiences dissorients us, but i believe that as christians there is a need to see where all the new experience fits in God's greater mission for transforming humanity through deeper love.As paul writes to the Phillipians in his paryer for them.

Phil 1: 9-11, "And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ. filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ-to the glory and praise of God."

As Paul G Heibert puts it, "it is important that we recorgnize the quality and extent of our cultural biases when working in cross cultural settings, for then we can work to reduce our ethnocentrism and mutual misunderstandings.”

beyond all the experiences there is something happening to us,but it is only when we examine it in the light of scriptures, that our experiences become a tool used in furthering Gods mission for transforming humanity through his love for us.

our fathers love

Friday 17 October 2008

Hald international Centre

I am currently Norway as an exchange student.The programme began on the 10th of August will be running until 12 th June 2009.


These are the the other students on the FOCUS exanange programme with our contact person siri.
More about Hald
Hald International Centre is a meeting place for cross-cultural understanding and international work, with common goals within the fields of development, mission and leadership.the school focuses on a youth excange programme between Norway and the soth developing countries.The course lasts for 10 months, it is divided into three main categoriesfall course: a seven weeks period where the participants go through orientation oncross cultural understanding and communication,leadership development, team building,bible lessons on missions and spiritual development, and develpment studies. It is a school owned by three organizations: Laget (IFES)International fellowship of evangelical students Norway.The exhange program for those who would like to experience a different and meaningful year by working among Christian students and growing in their spiritual life.NMS(Norwegian Missionary Society) the exhange is done through team service in different congregations,and Stromme stiftelsen foundation where the exchane is done through a programme calles Act Now, the main focus is on Development and youth involvement.

moments during the seven weeks orientation course.
well of course Hald is a school,this means that 70% of our time was spent in class learning.I liked the teachers approach of making it more participatory and therefore this gave us a chance to exchange ideas among the different cultures that were presented.
other activities included:

Team bulding.
Two weeks into the course we had a mountain forest trip in the southern part.The trip was coupled with many team building activities to enhance cross cultural understanding and personal development.
The games we had during this trip were, used in enhancing coperation within a team.The teams were composed of the countries and the programmes where the exhanges would occur and thus promoting corss cultural unnderstanding

Spiritual and Personal Development
Hald school is based on christian values and therefore the spiritual development of all the participants is focused on as a major area of personal development duting the course. Fellowship and reflections is emhasizes on as a means to achieve spiritual development.

Fun and games
Fun ,recreation and games was an important part of creating harmony and understanding across the different cultures that were represented in the programme. the games helped to bring all the students together and also enhanced team bulding.The relcreation activities also boosted on the confidence of all the participants