In a "better late than never" attempt to leverage the wonders of social networking, I signed up for a Twitter account on Monday.  Pretty cool.  From my mobile phone, I can quickly post short updates on what is happening in my day.  I can even post photos too.  All of this with the ease of sending a text message.  Check out my twitter site:

www.twitter.com/adamhartel

If you are interested, you can set yourself up to get RSS updates on my posts.  If you are already a twitter user, you know better than I do at this point on how you could use it.

Check it out... 

Earlier this month, I was  invited to attend the national conference for the Foursquare Churches in the Netherlands.  This was mainly for the purpose of building relationship with Piet Brinksma, the National Leader, and the National Youth Leaders there.  The entire trip was a blessing from start to finish.  On the ride over, I sat next to a young Norwegian man who remembered me from the Quart Festival outreaches we have been doing in Kristiansand.  He worked at the McDonalds when we had sent teams of youth in to clean the restaraunt for free.  As I heard more about him, I learned that he is 22 and is living a very missional life.  He travels in Norway and in Europe giving (well researched and educated) talks about creation and archeological evidence surrounding the Exodus of Israel.  This guy was bright!  Both in mind and in his life.  He works hard to finance all of his own travel, and even sometimes to finance other people to come with him.  Norwegians have a strong heritage as missionaries, and this guy was no exception.

The conference went extremely well.  I was spontaneously invited to share (along side Foursquare's Missions Director Jonathan Hall) in a workshop about reaching the next generation in Europe and engaging youth in missions.  I also spent a delightful 24 hours building a new friendship with Marco and Paulienn DeBruin (National Youth Leaders for Foursquare Netherlands).  They are a wonderful family and a terrifically missional couple.  We spent some time in down town Breda (near the Belgian border) where they live.  I was reading the capstones for graves from the 15 and 1600's in old Dutch.  Amazing to see some of the similarities that the Norwegian and Dutch languages have! 

This was a very encouraging and insightful trip.  It was great to see the unity and synergy among the 40+ churches in the Netherlands.  The Dutch are friendly and sincere people.  The cheese is awesome too! 

Okay, so that song is about a month too late...but in Kristiansand, Norway we don´t get much snow in the month of December!  The first snowfall this year was back in October, but since then there hasn´t been a lot of snow.  Typically we get snow during the months of January and February...so it´s coming.  Having just been in sunny southern California for 5 weeks, it was a bit cold coming back to Norway.  The day we arrived it was 4 below, celsius...brrrrrrrr.  Being a native Southern Californian, it was a bit of an adjustment.  My kids, on the other hand, were thrilled to see it was snowing this morning!  Well... I hope you are nice and warm while reading this post!  And yes, I just dedicated a whole blog entry to the "weather".  

Hello again!  We were traveling over the holidays which is why there have been no blog entries during that time...but we are back in Norway and ready to start again!  We stayed with my parents in Pasadena, CA for 5 weeks and had a wonderful time with our church family(Pasadena Foursquare Church), immediate families and friends.  It was a good trip to connect with everybody and for my children, Ida and Max, it was a very special time for them to get to know their relatives better!  As you see in the picture posted above, they wasted no time feeling like family.  I hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Years!!  Until the next blog entry... 

While traveling in the greater London area, I had the privilege of meeting (and dining with) Paul and Fran Hendrick in Gilford, England.  They have planted a church in their home right around the dinner table.  They have opened their lives and their home to students attending the university in the area.  They have a large home with many rooms which they open to students.  Currently they have five people living in their home with them (4 of which are students).  Their church gathers in a very relational way around the dinner table for a Sunday lunch, a Monday night Bible study, and Saturday night worship.  For birthdays in the group, they have prayer at the local Starbucks.  Fran is a marvelous cook (I and my stomach can attest to that), and it is no wonder how this very caring and hospitable couple attract peopl into their home and their lives.  They have been doing this for a little over a year, and in the past year they have a core group of about twenty people - consisting of five different nationalities.  They have had a total of eighty-two people attend their gatherings, and have had thirty people in total staying in their home in the past year.

Paul and Fran have been in ministry together for twenty-eight years.  What they love about what they are doing now is that they are simply ministering out of "who they are" and truly sharing their lives with people.  To board in their home, it is not required that you attend their church gatherings.  However, they find that all who stay become curious and tie in relationally with the others around the dinner table.  You also do not have to have any religous background or be a professed Christian to be a part of their fellowship.  In fact, many who attend aren't, but they are drawn to the authentic relationship that they find with the others present.  In this very relational and hospitable environment, they are drawing people into relationship with eachother and with Christ.

Here is a photo from when I was there.  Unfortunately, we had already finished the wonderful dinner!

What do Winnie the Pooh, Jane Austen, and Foursquare Pastors have in common?  A Regional Pastors Conference in England of course! 

Shortly after returning from vacation, I flew to Englad to lead worship for and participate in our Regional Pastors Conference in Northwestern Europe.  We stayed in an old Enlgish manor not too far from Jane Austen's home, and the place where Winnie the Pooh was written.  We had Foursquare Pastors from Great Britain, Ireland, Estonia, and Norway.  We had Dr. Paul Risser, and Pastor Terry Risser from (Foursquare Pastors from the Florence Avenue Church in California, USA) as our guests and main speakers.  This was an historical event in that it was the first ever Regional Pastors Conference for this part of Europe.  It was a profound time of relationship building, sharing of perspective and mission, worship, as well as receiving very practical and pastoral instruction from our guests.  We have the privilege of serving a diverse region with many strong ministers.

Here are some pictures from where we stayed:

We had the opportunity of going to Spain this year for our family vacation! As you read in the previous post, we were invited to Madrid, Spain for a Missionary Retreat, and were there a little under one week. We decided to take our family vacation after the retreat and rented a car and drove from Madrid to an area close to Alicante (about 4.5 hrs south). It was my first time in Spain as well as the kids, but Adam had been there previously for meetings.  We were able to rent an apartment through some friends of ours in Norway, and stayed there for a little over 2 weeks. The weather was nice and warm, and comparable to a Norwegian summer, even though it was October. We explored the area and found several beaches in the area, and had some relaxing days in the sea and of course taking in all the sun before returning to cold Norway. The kids had a great time and we had a lot of fun together as a family.   

Immediately after the visit from my parents, we were off to Madrid, Spain where those of us who are serving as Foursquare Missionaries in Europe gathered for a Retreat.  It was an excellent and productive time to connect with other families on the field, to talk about the future of Missions in Foursquare, to come before the Lord and worship together, to hear from the Holy Spirit and to have a fun time!  One of the highlights of the Retreat was that we were taken to a traditional Spanish restaurant in downtown Madrid, where they surprised us with live Flamenco dancing after the meal!  This has always been a dream of mine, and to be able to see the real thing in Spain was incredible!  And of course the food was excellent, but since I knew the performance was coming after the meal, I don´t remember much how it tasted.  Too excited!  It was a very memorable and relaxing retreat in Spain. (see additional pics in the Photo Gallery)

We had an excellent visit with Papa and Nana, Ralph and Pam Torres, or my parents (choose whatever you like).   They were here for 2 weeks and we pretty much stayed around the area of Kristiansand, which is the city we live in here in Norway, and it was a very nice time!  Alot of good time with the grandkids, Ida and Max (pictured above), which is extremely important since we live far away from our families.  Drank alot of Peet´s Coffee, as well as ate alot of Mexican food, prepared of course by the best Mexican food cook, my dad.  Nana had a great time walking with the kids and taking in some of the cool fall weather of Norway, before going back to the heat of L.A.!  (More pictures in the web gallery).  My parents were able to be with us for 2 of our youth meetings, and my dad led the worship and spoke at one of our Sunday night services.  We were able to introduce them to several of our close friends that we have made here, and it was chance for our friends to get better acquainted with my family.  It was a really fun visit!