Every morning in my prayer time, I am always asking God to help me to encourage and do something good for people this day. I am open to The Holy Spirit to show and remind me about people I can encourage and bless.

Since I am privileged to be married to a dear, wonderful husband, it is easy to do something good for him every day. But very often I can do more, the great fact is that I can even reach people without seeing them,  because of the modern equipment we have now in IPhones , tablets and Internet. 

Today I had allready invited a neighbour friend to visit me. It was so good to see her. She had been ill and been to the hospital recently, but she was happy to come. We had a good time of fellowship, and enjoyed the lunch together, and I prayed for strength from God to her. A blessed time.

Later today I was reminded to call an old lady that I have been in touch with for years. It was the rigth timing, she was so grateful for the call and the conversation we had together. I am praying for her to be saved, I have shared the good news before.

Later this evening I send flowers and encouraging words through sms to a friend I have.  I know she has so many challenges and difficulties these days. I talked with her also yesterday. I got a big thank you back.

i think it is so wonderful to do something for others, even small things can be a blessing. I felt encouraged and blessed myself to do these small things. We just have to seize the moment and seize the day.

Text: Solveig

 Today was the perfect weather to be outside. It was sunshine, so nice and warm.

I had much work I wanted to be done in our garden, so with an old rug I could kneel on, and the right equipment to use for digging in the soil, I found a flowerbed with lots of weeds.  

I started the work, kneeling down rejoicing. The sun was warming my back and I really enjoyed the work I was doing. 

While I was working, I was thinking, praying and meditating. I thought about God, how He is a gardener, working in my life and wanting me to allow His Holy Spirit to show me weeds that needs to be removed. He is digging and cultivating our hearts.  I saw that as the weeds and dry branches and leaves disappeared from the flowerbed, a whole new picture was seen. The flowers and plants looked more beautiful and colourful. It was such a wonderful change. I was glad and satisfied. 

I believe that our Heavenly gardener is also very pleased when we allow the Holy Spirit to work in us, so we can become more and more like Him, our Lord, and reflect His glory even more. That is my desire!

Text: Solveig 

To make things a bit simpler for myself and my friends I have merged Solveig's blog and my two English blogs together. Our blog is now called I am somebody. We will both blog more frequent than what we have been doing lately. When Facebook arrived on the scene, that social medium took nearly all our attention. However, in the long run I think our blogs are more important. I have also merged my Norwegian blogs in one: Huset i skogen. Now we will develop our two blogs for future glory.

Today my brave wife has been bathing in our lake. The water was to cold for me, but not for my Excellent wife! I was only the witness to her courage as she jumped into the water and had a good swim in the lake.

Yesterday my dear wife made me a very delicious desert which she called Forest Dream. As the main dish she served Salmon which I also enjoyed very much. Forest Dream is her own variant of the old fashion Norwegian Troll Cream. After having had fish for dinner she always makes me a sweet desert. She is using her God given creativity to come up with beautiful looking and most delicious tasting food in the world. 

The most amazing thing was that we could enjoy this meal together on our veranda in beautiful sunshine and nice temperature this late in September. God is good! I thank him for giving me such a wonderful wife and pouring out blessings on us.

Misjon i ei tid med terror

Me har nett minnast terroren som råka Noreg for fem år sidan. 77 menneske vart brutalt drepne. Minnefeiringane var ikkje over før me fekk meldingar om terror handling i München der liv gjekk tapt. Kvar einaste veke har me i den seinare tid fått meldingar om grusame terrorhandlingar omkring i verda. Me lever i ei tid med terror.

Kristne minoritetar blir ofte utsett for terrorhandlingar i mange land utan at norske media syner noka interesse om å gjera det kjend. Kyrkjebygg blir brend ned, mange kristne blir drepne, andre blir banka opp, skamslegne og jaga frå hus og heim. Me får meldingar frå mange land i Asia om auke i terrorhandlingar retta mot kristne. Folk me kjenner fortel om vald, trugsmål og terrorhandlingar som har som mål å skremma dei kristne frå å forkynna evangeliet og gjera folk til læresveinar.

For nokre dagar sidan hadde me besøk av Victor John, som leiar eit stor nettverk av veksande forsamlingar i India som sidan nyttår har sett gjennomsnittleg 182 nye menneske koma til tru og bli kristne kvar einaste dag. Han fortalde om korleis dei kristne er under aukande press frå ekstreme hindu grupper som blir meir aggressive og brutale. Alle dei indiske vennene våre seier det same. Terrorhandlingar mot kristne blir meir og meir vanleg. Nokre av vennene våre vågar ikkje lengre å ha store gudstenester for å ikkje bli utsette for vald.

Victor John sa: ”Når me møter terrorhandlingar, vald og trugsmål, er det ikkje tid til å trekkja seg tilbake eller å gøyma seg. Då er det ikkje tid til å bli skremd, men tid til å vera modig og djerv, og forkynna evangeliet med endå større kraft. Evangeliet er Guds kraft til frelse og forandring. Til og med motstandarar og terroristar kan bli frelste til å leva eit nytt liv!”

Denne haldninga hans rørte ved meg og er nok ein del av forklaringa på at dette nettverket sidan nyttår har sett meir enn 36000 ta i mot Jesus Kristus som frelsar og Herre. Me må ikkje la terror skremma oss. Me må ikkje gje opp i urolege krisetider. I denne tida med terror og politiske og økonomiske omveltingar og uro, treng folk evangeliet meir enn nokon gong før!

Evangeliet skaper lys i mørke. Evangeliet gir håp og nytt liv. Evangeliet er vår trygge heim som tar imot bortkomne barn og flyktningar. Evangeliet er godt nytt for alle menneske som lengtar etter fred og forsoning.

Det har kome mange menneske til landet vårt som rømmer frå krig og terror. Lat oss møta dei med kjærleik og omtanke. Lat oss ta godt imot dei og inkludera dei i våre fellesskap. Lat oss først og fremst gje dei evangeliet om Jesus Kristus som har overvunne hat, synd, død og grav, og som gir oss sin fred i ei uroleg tid.

Tekst: Erling Thu