recording the first steps

If you wonder what has been going on since Italy then get ready for a run down!
Will and I arrived fresh and relaxed from Italy. Wow, what a great trip. Not only was this time together good for our friendship it also helped us get a healthy stand back from Norway. I think in most cases you are really a good judge of what is happening TO you...when you have a moment to step away from it. At times I guess it is the opposite. You realize what you need to do by stepping INTO it instead of AWAY. For us...we needed to step away from Norway. It's so hard to see what things are happening to me while I am in the middle of it. Being down in a warm culture helped me to appreciate the people who just simply 'looked' at us on the train. The idea of someone just giving a little smile seemed so distant and sort of hard to imagine after spending so much time in a colder country up north. It was WARM: the people and the weather.

So we were refreshed for sure. And ready for the job that lay ahead of us. RECORDING our little project called 'The Threshing Floor'

Last week we started our music project with help from two wonderful friends from the west coast of Norway. They have taken thier DTS in a creative school in Ålesund and because of my good friend Lyndee (who worked on staff with me in Skien last year) I got to know her sister and brother in law--Caleb and Erin Paxton. Wonderful musicians and fantastic people. They came to help us. Look at how cute they are!!!!!

We laughed a lot. I mean if you want additional details you can just look at Will's blog (willstrickland.blogspot.com). I was so proud of my instrument tracking skills. I was in charge of getting a banjo and a cello. WHAT? WHERE? WHO? It's a miracle actually. I contacted the man that asked me to join the blue grass concert and asked if he could get one. He did. I asked for a cello and three days later we had one. Who should play the cello on our songs? ME. So fun. I definetly want to get a cello and start playing when I get back to the states. Thomas, the cello owner, asked for his instrument a day too early so we rushed through the recording. I did ALL the cello parts in a half hour. It was fun to try and I felt fairly successful. Thomas....as he took the cello away--said it was good playing. YES! All I have to say is---LOOK FORWARD TO MY CELLO DEBUT ON OUR CD!

It was so amazing to see our songs that we really didn't have much idea for---come to life. I found it to be quite difficult to open up and be creative. There were some moments that I just felt unproductive and like I was hindering the group from progress. I know that God was using this time to teach me about trust. I need to trust Him and to trust my friends. He has anointed us to do music. I need to trust that people are not going to reject my TRYING...and to just be willing to screw up. That is why there is a delete button---and grace.

We spent a lot of time in the YWAM Skien office building but the second half was spent in the Skien Methodist Church. It was a blessing to use that big acoustic space....and the huge wonderful piano. Frøydis (my beautiful Methodist church pastor friend) was a sweet heart to let us borrow the place and she even came in with hot coffee for us. It was a sweet moment!


I think it was obvious that Will and I needed another couple to experience some life things with. To have a young couple the same age showing us some first baby steps in the direction of our hearts...is a dream come true! God has gone above and beyond my expectations of this time. Will and I are on this super strange adventure that sometimes seems like a LIGHT SPEED space mobile. We then look around and wonder 'Hey this is nice and wonderful, but how did we get here? God....show us what we need to know and do.' I am contantly trying to understand. I guess it is the process of trust. This project was that first step towards really letting our hearts open up to God in a new way.

Be still
Lay down
Rest in the Father

Give thanks
For everything
Comes from the Father