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The Clinic offically ended at noon today. For lunch Biata made a Norwiegen favorite, Whale stew. That's right, we had whale for lunch. In the picture Jeni is eating it on a peice of bread. During the Clinic Pete talked about witnessing as a way of life and Jeni taught about handling objections to the Gospel. We all feel like the Clinic went well. Over all we presented to Gospel to over 45 people and had 3 teenagers pray to recieve Christ with us. God is awesome. Thanks for praying for us during the the last week. Helge said the the clinicians are excited to start to impliment and start their own Youth EE programs. Doug the pastor at the church we had the clinic is already planning to start his own semester. Keep praying for him and that the passion he has now does not burn out. The Next 3 days we will be sight seeing So if you don't hear from us we are out in a fjord enjoying God's amazing creation. On Monday we plan to fly to Oslo and visit a Viking Museum. Then we are off to Tucson! Continue to Pray for our health and Safety. Praise God! Praise God!

Today we had our "first catch" of the season! Three people accepted Christ today at the World Volleyball Championship in Stavanger, the site of our third OJT. The beauty of it all is that the first point, Grace, was presented by a clinician who had not had any exposure to EE three days earlier. We are reminded that evangelism is God's work, and that we are only to be clean vessels, ready to do His will. Anyhow, the trip is going quite well. Last night we took a ride in a Peder Fjetland's boat. We had our fair share of adventure for the day, and the world is without a few small aquatic animals because of it. We found the resolve to wake up on time this morning, and we arrived at the clinic ready to teach, train and pray. Ashley and Helge taught a lesson on implementation, the using of EE outside of this weeks clinic. It is our dearest hope that the clinicians we have been charged with teaching will take this tool and use it to train the rest of Norway. After the clinic, we learnned the reason that Americans are the most overweight nation: we get our food on time! We visited Peppe's Pizza, were Helge put me up the challenge of the "Triple Hot Knock Out Pizza". Being an Arizonan, I was quite willing to try this dish. Over an hour and a half later, I found out that although Norway can boast the invention of the cheese slicer, the paper clip, and can relish the fact that it neighbors the creator of the Volvo station wagon, it has no concept of what 'spicy' should taste like. We finished the night off with a few card tricks, a game of pool, and Nick making an effort to jump into a moving car. A day worth living as far as I'm concerned! I continue to see God's hand in our trip, and am reminded that when we find ourselves resting in God's arms, whether that is reading one of Paul's letters, telling someone about the Good News of Christ's sacrifice, or simply thanking Him for being all that we are not, we find ourselves full, full of life, peace and truth.
-Peter

Today started out great! The mornings before were really hard because we weren't used to the time change. but today i felt refreshed and ready to go! Today we started the long version of Y.E.E. We had alot of skits to go with the different sections. the skits were so much fun and they went really well. Today, while we were out on OJT we encountered many religions and shared the gospel several times. It was quite an amazing experience! Most of the Norweigan trainees are catching on extremely quick and are eager to approach people! its so much fun when they are so excited about E.E.! After OJT the trainees went back to the church to practice thier outline. As for us Americans we ventured out into the mall and the shopping center. The girls bought some scarves, and some jewelry and the boys purchased some coffee and tea. Today for dinner we had a traditional Norweigan meal. The meal contained yellow mashed potatoes, chopped ham and a grany textured round dumpling in a butter and water sauce. Us girls thought that the dumpling was very bland and didn't have much taste. But the mashed potatoes and the chopped ham was very satisfying! The Norweigans made fun of us because we weren't too fond of the dumpling. Today was so much fun to experience the shopping in Norway and the traditional meals as well! Thanks for all your prayers!
- Post By Hayley Maddox

Prayer Request: Pray for our clinicians, that they will see the benefit of learning the Youth EE outline. Some of the older Norweigens seem shy about approaching people. Pray also for Helge and Elin. They are passionate about having Youth EE a part of the Norweigen culture, but they are having a hard time getting people excited about sharing their faith. Helge had 16 people commited to take the course but only 8 people showed up. The rest chickened out at the last minute. He says that they know they need to share their faith, but are afraid to commit to it. Please keep praying for us for OJT. We have shared the Gospel to over 30 people but no one has accepted Christ yet. So pray that people come to know Christ so that the clinicians can see the benifit of learning how to share their faith. -Ashley

Today was the first day of our clinic. We were all very excited to get started even though some of us are still battling a little bit of jetlag. We had a devotional this morning and then we got to start meeting our trainees. Many of them have come from other parts of the country to be here and it’s so cool to see the passion they have to share the gospel throughout Norway. We have been praying that God would eliminate any language and communication barriers on this trip so that we could share His gospel with understanding and passion, and we were all relieved that almost all of our trainees speak English very well. We have been teaching most of the clinic in English and it has been an awesome experience to hear Helge (our Youth EE contact in Norway) teach parts of the outline in Norwegian. Today has been mostly an introduction day so the trainees can get a feel of the presentation of the gospel and I am so excited to go out on OJT (On the Job Training) later so that they can get a more hands on experience. It’s just been such a blessing to have passionate people here to learn and grow in God’s love with us.
This morning during our devotional Pete asked each of us to go around and talk about some of the struggles we’ve encountered so far during this trip and how we can look at them in a way that God is using those struggles to comfort us. Probably one of the biggest challenges for me is spending so much concentrated time in such close quarters with people I normally see once a week. It’s hard because at home I can have my privacy and alone time, but I do feel that God has brought this hardship on me so that I can use it as a learning experience. I am going to college in the fall with a whole new group of people and a roommate I’ve never even met. I feel that God is showing me that no matter who the people are and what city or country you’re in, everyone has had different life experiences and everyone has something new to teach me. I’m just so grateful for this opportunity, not only to go out and teach others how to teach and share the gospel, but to fellowship with Pete, Ashley, Catherine, Nick, Peter and Hayley.

Posted by JENI WILSON

Pray Also For:
1. The Clinicians See and Get a passion to share the gospel

As the day rolled into a close I felt a strange sense of accomplishment. Although not much different from a normal days hard work, the day felt more productive; I believe it's the European air. While here, even though the day starts at 4 Am and ends at 11 Pm, everything feels easier to accomplish. I am reading more, communicating better, and absorbing everyone's smile a little better than normal. It is now around 11 Pm and I am closing a half-way finished book that I had started only two days ago. We started set-up today for the clinic starting tomorrow morning, and I felt a lot closer to God than I have in a while. We prayed for the clinicians by using their empty chairs in hopes that we would be able to leap over the "language barrier" into their minds and convey our message. After we set up for the clinic and practiced our skits all of our tummies were starting to rumble for some authentic Norwegian cheese (all of the food seems to taste better here [probably because its all fresh]) and we made our way to Dag's home for some leftover sausage and burgers. After lunch everyone was feeling a little tired from the jet-lag in combination with the time difference, but we were all glad that Ashley made us get up and go shopping in the city of Stavanger. After shopping we piled into Helge's van (a scary expierience) and made our way to Heinrich's house for dinner. When in Norway everything seems to move a lot faster, and although it might be because the sun never sets, i feel like there is more here that I have a chance to do. I feel God is with me constantly on this trip and i hope that anyone reading this blog will pray for the clinicians that we are presenting to for the rest of the week.

Until next time - Nick Gianas (Tech.no)

Yesterday we had a chance to attend our guest church. Though they spoke mostly in Norweigen we were able to talk with them about the upcoming clinic. Jeni gave her testimony on how God used YEE in her life and thanked the church for their hospitality. The pastor is really excited for us to teach them a way to share their faith. Today we are going to be setting up the clinic room and meeting with Helge to go over the clinic details. We are all now officially rested from our travels. It took some time as the sun never seems to set. It is very strange to go to bed when it is daylight outside and the clock says midnight despite the light.Yesterday we also walked around the countryside admiring God's awesome creation. At the girl's house we are surrounded by fields of green grass and flowers. On the first morning, we awoke to what sounded like cowbells outside. After much curiosity we ventured out to find our house surrounded by grazing sheep with cowbells attatched to their necks. Being city girls, we promptly took out our cameras and captured the unusual sight. We are very blessed to be hosted by families that are eager to share their culture, food, and common love of Christ.
We spent the morning in prayer that God would stir and provoke our spirits to witness and do what He has called us here to do. We also prayed for our clinicians, that they would catch on to YEE quickly and would grow spiritually in the coming week. We are all excited to get started and see what God will do. Please continue to pray for us and our clinicians, we appreciate it so much!

Praise God we made it to London, Amsterdam, and then Stavanger. The Flight to London was delayed 2.5 hours, so we had to run to catch the flight to Amsterdam. Thankfully Peter LaMear bought a dozen cookies from the Paradise Bakery in Phoenix, which held us over till Amsterdam. I was reminded while listening to a Podcast by Ravi Zacharias of Acts 17:16. Paul was in Athens and the Word say’s that “his spirit was provoked within him as he saw the city full of Idols.” It struck me that tomorrow we will get a chance to visit and actually walk around in the city of Stavanger. I have been praying that as we walk that God would provoke our spirit so that we may be able to witness not out of memory of the gospel presentation but out of our hearts. PRAY FOR US: that the students spirit would be provoked as Paul’s spirit was provoked for the lost of Athens.
– Posted by W. Ashley Maddox

We are about to leave for Stavanger, Norway. Our bags are packed, and we feel like we are ready to share the amazing hope of Jesus Christ with those who are thousands of miles away. We will be posting a daily update at irockyouth.com telling of the amazing things that God is doing. If you would like to bookmark the "Text Only" version of the Daily Updates go to www.irockyouth.com/blogger Here's what you can pray for now: 1. That we arrive safely. 2. For God's will to be done. 3. For Nick, Jeni, Hayley, Peter, Pete, Catherine, and Ashley to be strengthened and bold in sharing our faith. 4. For Helge and Dag who are the pastors that we will be running the clinic with. We need you to pray for us daily and we will let you know specifics right here at www.irockyouth.com/blogger

It was great to hear Will's testimony on Sunday. If you missed it, please listen to it here. Will shared with us the journey of his life and how he came to know Christ as His savior, and better yet, how Christ used a near death experience, the loss of his father and uncle, and his own personal struggles to reveal to Will that God has a wonderful plan for his life. Just like Will, there are times of frustration in our relationship with God that we doubt God and even question His own integrity. Is God trustworthy even when things aren't going well for us? Can we put our whole life in His hands and let him lead us down the direction that He has for us? Will used a great analogy for how he approached God. Will said that God was his "airbag". Whenever things got tough, God would always save him. He realized later that God wanted to not only go along for the ride of his life, but that God wanted to drive! Will finally realized that he was most pleased in his relationship with God when he put full trust in God. If we focus on the individual circumstances in our lives, than we will not grow in our relationship with God. Luke 11:5-10 shows us a great picture of the personality of God and the reliability of God to take care of us and to give us exactly what we need. We must be persistent in our searching of God. Do not give up because you haven't heard an answer from God, just knock louder! He will answer. -Pete

Last Sunday we read the interesting poem by Solomon in Proverbs 9. Solomon gives human qualities to two intangible things: Wisdom & Folly. I like this proverb, it's different and I can actually picture myself in this story. Two people handing out invitations to their party, Wisdom and Folly. The parties are at the same time, so you can only choose one, which one you will pick will change your life forever. This proverb is important to us because it demostrates to us the day to day challenges that we can face in our relationship with God. Everyday, we are given an "invitation" to disobey God and to indulge in our sinful desires. Folly makes her invitation seem very exciting and enticing, but we need to know that in the end, there is utter disappointment. Step outside of the anology for a moment and consider the reality in your life. What temptations do you face today that compromise your walk with Jesus? Jesus Christ has become to us the wisdom of God. By following Christ, we learn wisdom and learn what is pleasing and not pleasing to God. We usually fall into sin not when we expect it, but when we don't see it coming at all. Proverbs 9 encourages me to always be on my guard and watch for situations that could be potentially harmful to my loyalty to God. Check out the invitation by clicking on the talk notes on the left - which party seems good to you? --PETE