The first decade of the new millennium has already come to a close. The year “2010″ always invoked images of science fiction becoming reality for me growing up, and while we do not yet have a Mars colony, extraterrestrial contact, or giant robots (much to my disappointment), this year is definitely marks a lot to look back on and celebrate.
Alexia Grace Hartel:
It is very recent news (just a few posts ago), but the birth of our third child was definitely the greatest highlight of this year. She is a beautiful little baby girl, and has recently begun smiling – a lot. That means that we are smiling a lot too!
Youth Camps and New Friends:
This year, God has opened so many wonderful relational doors for us. One of the aspects that marks our calling in life is working with youth. This Spring I received three different invitations to speak at youth camps in Spain, Russia, and the Netherlands. Each of these invitations were unsolicited and came purely from relationship – they also gave way to new friendships with some really wonderful people across Europe. What a gift it has been to make friendship with and serve some truly amazing young people and leaders!
Divine Direction… and Providence:
At the beginning of 2009, God made it clear to us that by the end of the year we would not be carrying any of our current responsibilities in our church in Kristiansand. He would raise up volunteers and leaders to carry those responsibilities onward. Cultivating committed leaders who will take the lead role has been one of the most challenging tasks since we helped plant this church nearly 8 years ago. I knew that this meant that we needed to have new leaders volunteers by the summer in order for it to be a reality. When I questioned God about how this would be possible in just 4 months, when in previous years it had been such a challenge, His reply was simple: “It will happen this year because I said it would happen this year.” While it did not seem possible to me at the time, all I could do was to pray, and be faithful with the volunteers that we had. By the beginning of the summer, various volunteers from among the worshippers that I have been working with had stepped forward to take over the worship leading in our church. One of our youth leaders, Svein, whom we had worked with for about 2 years was led of the Lord to take over the leadership of the youth ministry, and he and his wife are doing an amazing job. There is a new courage that is rising in people in our church to step up and take responsibility and meet the challenges that come. I beleive that this will also mark a new season of fruitfulness for our church.
Quart Festival Rocked!
This year our dear friend, Febe, completely led the Quart Festival outreach in July. A team of three (Jasmine, Georgia, and Alicia) hard core workers arrived from our sending church (Pasadena Foursquare) to assist Febe. The first thing we noticed was that these three ladies did not need us to build any bridges for them. People came out of the woodwork to meet them and invite them into their homes. This is a testament to the relationship that has been cultivated between the Pasadena Foursquare and Kristiansand Foursquare churches over the past 8 years. The outreach was totally led by local volunteers, and Sarah and I were involved on a minimal level – awesome! Febe did an outstanding job, and it was the best summer outreach we have had yet in Kristiansand. Nine pre-teens on the street decided to follow Christ. I met two musicians from Lithuania on the street who we were able to share our dinner with. Afterward they had many questions. They knew Christ, but wanted to receive the Holy Spirit. After praying with them, the three of us jammed together in the church auditorium!
The Estonia Effect:
This summer we took a team of youth from Kristiansand to join up with a team from Pasadena Foursquare and a team of youth from the Foursquare church in Parnu, Estonia to share the love of God with Estonian youth. We led a boot camp together with the leaders from the three churches to forge the Estonians, Norwegians, and Americans into one team. What a success! These guys were amazing. We were on the streets and local beach for three days, and invited the youth to an open house “party” each night. We had rockin’ live music, dramas and dances, hair and makeup styling for the ladies, and baloons for the families with kids. During the course of the week we had a lot of youth come and continue to come back each night. Ten youth gave their lives to Christ, and I hear that more youth continue to come to the youth gatherings even now as a result of this summer.
Courage is rising in the people we serve here. The local church in Kristiansand is now totally led by local volunteers and leaders, and with the beginning of this new decade this church is stepping into a new time of fruitfulness. Courage is rising in Sarah and I as well. We have come through a long season of waiting on God. In the midst of a time of shaking, God is shaking things loose, shaking things into place, and as the dust settles, a remarkable clarity and direction is emerging! But more on that to come in another post soon… 
