help me remember

I am leaving for the great city of Hamar at 1 today. I wanted to leave a blog message because to me this is not worth sending in a mass email, but it is a crutial moment of my year. I will be leaving this time of quiet, and peace and Erika time for the rest of the year. I have been able to do what I want, when I want and for whatever reasons I think I should. In this time (the last 2 weeks) I have come here hoping that God would allow me a bit of his heart to even desire in my deepest parts to stay. I was severely homesick for a little while. Upon visiting my good friend Karen and her family in the south of Norway I was welcomed with open arms and good food. I then came to fix my VISA and that was a challenging time.....I hoped it would all work out, which it did PRAISE GOD. As I was back here in Skien, I had this break down sort of.......do I go to Bergen, do I stay here and relax? I was tempted to call my plans off, but then at the last minute I had this feeling that I 'needed' to go to the West Coast. So, despite curious thoughts of how I would pay for it....I went. And very true.....I needed to be there. My friend Janelle, also a foreigner was open and willing to help me transfer my heart from the states to Norway. She is so knowlegable and her experience is true....she has had to really fight to be here and she knows the system by now. Her friendship really made me see that beyond myself here in Norway is a vast landscape of hearts not always unlike mine, but very close to it. I lastly visited Ingebjørg, a girl that will be coming to the Skien YWAM DTS as a student this year. She lives in Voss....a very beautiful place in the heart of the fjords. My visit to her helped me see that the ministry is not mine, but God has it all planned. I was excited to meet the students and very excited to see God move in thier hearts in the course of this year. It will be challenging and sometimes I won't believe that I can do what I am asked to, but like I said God has it all planned out. A little note in Ingebjørg's room says this 'Lord help me remember today that I will not face anything both you and I can not handle.' What a great reminder.

And so now....I am here...just 2 hours away from leaving for Hamar and turning the last couple pages of this chapter----'With Wind in the Wings' and I go to write the next. One that seeks quiet and sees peace. There is much deliverance in a heart that finds the hiding places in God. So I do not have quiet outside of my body, but I have quiet inside of my soul. Let it be stirred oh Lord.

Erika