Tautra

Here are some pictures from Tautra, an island on the same fjord that Trondheim is on. We spent about 5 days at a monastary there on a silent prayer retreat between Palm Sunday and Easter.

The chapel

The view was a bit of a distraction during the sermon. Not complaining though.

The old monastary ruins from 1207.

Our first morning there it was so windy. I stepped outside for about

one minute and my sweatpants were caked with snow. I love storms!!!

The view from my room.

On the train ride back

Scotland Banter

While I was at the conference in Belgium during August, I had the chance to meet some crazy, yet amazing people from Scotland. A couple of weeks ago, Kelly and I had the chance to travel to visit them. It was such an amazing time! Really can't say enough good things about it. Here are some pictures from our time there.

After a glorious night train. I LOVE THE MORNINGS!!!

We had a great welcome team

Strolling through a park in Dunfermline

The Abbey in Dunfermline. Part of William Wallace is claimed to be buried there.

Our male models....

Downtown Edinburgh

William Wallace himself

Everyday at exactly 1 they shoot off this canon over the city so everyone knows it's one o'clock. Kind of like in Mary Poppins.....

There are at least 4 of us in there, maybe 5. I can't remember if Linda squeezed in there.

Sign winner of the day

HUGE calzones.

The gang walking around at the castle. We got to see the crown jewels of Scotland. They've also rebuilt certain areas of the castle to make it how it was during the time of wars and keeping prisoners there.

We found out that Dunfermline is the sister city to Trondheim so Kelly and I had to get a picture with the sign. Unfortunately though it was kind of in the ghetto so we took a quick picture and got out of there.

Introducing Puppy Chow and 7-Layer bars to the Scots!

I don't get how an entire continent doesn't like peanut butter.

Linda and Jo hard at work in the kitchen making dinner.

I think I am checking to see if the bars are done.

Haggis, potatoes and turnips.

Haggis is a traditional Scottish food that is the ground up organ meats of the cow boiled in the stomach of a sheep. I actually really liked it.

Down at the beach!

It was so windy that day.

I swear....it wasn't my fault.

Luckily it wasn't too cold that day.

Kelly and Linda dried my clothes using the little hand dryer in the

bathroom in the basement of "Miami Beach"

Balmeddy (pretty sure I spelled that wrong) Beach

yes....yes we do

It is known for its dunes.

This is Jo explaining Donnottar Castle.

Jo and me

We were trying to take a picture and Jo was more focused on getting us across the street.



Walking around the University in Aberdeen.

Airport fun. I have Nessy on my head.

It was so sad saying goodbye to everyone there but we had an absolutely amazing time. I can't wait until our paths cross again!!!!

Fridays, Peace, and Pride

I now have a "lost in translation" story to add to the books of them before me. Aside from announcing in my Norwegian language class earlier this fall that I "straddle" the bus instead of "ride" the bus, I haven't had that many slip ups.

In September, I decided to teach myself guitar so that I could help out leading worship. By November, I was struggling through songs but playing nonetheless. Since then I've been playing more and more and felt confident to start leading some songs in Norwegian. Sunday night was the first time I lead a song in Norwegian. It was at our student service. I only had to mumble my way through one part and felt pretty good about it afterwards. Tonight we had a prayer meeting at Brett and Cortney's house. We usually start off with a time of worship where I am playing guitar. With my new found confidence in singing in Norwegian, I decided to play that song again. Because it was a new song in my repertoire, we didn't have the lyrics on our normal sheet of music for people. Right before the meeting started, I took a few minutes to type up the words to this song and printed out a few copies for the evening. We had already sung a few songs when I started playing "Jesus Du Viste Veien" The first verse went fine [although looking back on the sheet now, I am finding several typos]. I start singing the second verse, and the mood of the room started to change. I look up to see that everyone is looking, pointing, smiling, and Kelly is trying hard to control a fit of laughter. Soon everyone is rolling in laughter. I stop playing, assuming it was something that I said while I was singing or the way I pronounced one of the words. With my face hiding behind my guitar to hide my embarrassment, I ask them what it was I said that made them laugh so hard. They assured me that it wasn't what I said that they were laughing at rather what I had written.

So the text was supposed to say:
Jesus du gav meg livet, Du gav meg fred

Which means:
Jesus you give me life, you give me peace

When I was typing up the lyrics I wrote:
Jesus du gav meg livet, Du gav meg fredag

Which means:
Jesus you give me life, you give me Friday

As if this weren't embarrassing enough, later on in the song I accidentally wrote "Jess" in a spot where "Jesus" was supposed to be. Word to the wise, never substitute your name in for Jesus' name in a worship song. It just doesn't go over that well.

On a slightly less embarrassing note, here is a video of me singing and playing at the Open Mic Night we had last Friday (oh how that word haunts me now). Hope you enjoy :)