Moving to back to Norway have been something that I thought would happen in the future sometime. “The future” came just a bit sooner than I expected! We have always put our children before “calling and ministry” and made decisions based on what has been best for them. It came to our knowledge a while back that the kids would loose their Norwegian citizenship if they didn’t live in Norway for 2 years before turning 22 years old. After spending time in prayer as a family, we all felt that the best would be to move to Norway the summer of 2024, before Kaleb (16 years old) would start high school. Our kids are quite international and are so called “third culture kids”. The truth is is that they are actually fourth culture kids, and will naturally get a tremendous culture shock by moving to Norway. To minimise the culture shock for them, we have been advised to put them in a christian school as the development of the secular schools in Norway has gone into a direction that is not really “a pro christian way”. We had initially planned to move to my hometown, Sandefjord, as my parents and relatives live there. I’ve really missed the relationship with my relatives for the 23 years living abroad! During the last year I’ve been thinking of how it will be to no longer be “on the mission field”. We thought that if we were going to move to Norway, we would need to take regular jobs to be able to survive in Norway, and leave the calling for mission as God has put on our hearts. We have been following the development that has happened in Norway over the years and seen that it’s been going in a direction that is turning away from God. Norway has become a great mission field and we can still work actively for the Kingdom of God! A job offer on the national office in Norway The word spread in some circles that we were planning to move to Norway and a few mission organisations offered us jobs to various positions in Scandinavia and Norway. The national leaders of YWAM Norway, Andreas Nordli and Ann-Helen Sperrud, have asked if I can join as the third person, to lead the national office. It’s a new position as YWAM Norway haven’t had before. YWAM Norway had approximately 450 long term staff and over 100 missionaries and is one of the largest mission organisation in Norway with a yearly revenue of 8,800,000€. They are gathering several thousands of people to gatherings and events yearly and are leading a generation of young people who are not ashamed of the Gospel. Waves of young people are going out as missionaries to unreached people groups. It is going to be very exciting, and I am incredibly honoured to been entrusted to join the leadership team for YWAM Norway. It will also be an incredible step of faith for us as a family to step into this position, as none of the workers in YWAM International is being payed by YWAM, but live on financial support from churches and other individuals. The principle is basically that we trust God as the Provider when we sense that He calls us to go, even if the money is not there yet. To live this way is a blessing but also a challenge. Our 16 year old, Kaleb, will most likely not live with us as he is hoping to get accepted to a christian boarding school in south of Norway, who has an incredible community. I know how difficult it was to return from the mission field as a 24 year old, and I cannot even imagine how it will be for (young) teenagers. It is a critical time being 12/14/16 year olds, so it will therefore be good for Rebecka (14) and Eliah (12) to come to a YWAM base, where there is other teenagers who have been living in other countries and have an understanding of why they are a bit “different” than other regular Norwegian kids. Martin is actually applying for several regular jobs and will not be a full time YWAM worker as it seems like now. God has been so faithful We really take a leap of faith and trust that God will send people to stand with us in our new mission project in Norway. We have been working this same way during the last 9 years we have been working in Greece, and we have seen Gods provision even when the bank account has been almost empty a few times. We don’t yet know how much of our support will continue as we will move from Greece. But we definitely need to raise more support to be able to live in Norway. Please pray for us and ask the Lord how you can partner with us in this new season. We are trusting God for a minimum of 30 people to support us with a 100 Euro/USD a month, but we definitely need a lot of prayer as well! We are ready for new adventures together!!!
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AuthorFamiljen Sandås består av Martin, Hege-Elise, Kaleb, Rebecka och Eliah. Archives
March 2024
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