March 04 till 12, 2009: Training Trip to the Faroe Islands

A team of Paradigm Shift is invited by YWAM Faroer to conduct a weekend training on the Faroe islands. The people on this special group of islands located between  the Shetlands and Iceland has a warm place in the hearts of the Paradigm Shift team.  

 

The team members are:
Debbie Wenting, Harald Menning and Maarten Bruynes. Since they were invited in last January they have been looking for opportunities to bless these people. We are aware that we can only contribute our little part but we trust in a great God. 

 

you also can get involved through praying for us and the training that we will conduct. And if you feel like sharing in the costs of our tickets that would be wonderful. please feel free to contact us for banking details.  

 

On this page we will keep you updated on our progress and doings.

May God continue to bless you. 

 

The following is still to be translated>>>

05/03/09

After a flight from Amsterdam to Copehavn and from Copenhavn to Vagar onthe Faeroe islands we arrived at 20:15 wet and safely. Vagar, is one of the many islands of Faeroer.

The rain was really getting down on us when we ran out of the plane unto the dry arrival hall. After retrieving our lugage we took the bus for the  smallest capital in Europe., Torshavn. During this bustrip unfortunately we weren able to see much of the country as darkness and rain were covering most of it. In Torshavn or Havn as the Faeroees say we were picked up by Eydstein, one of the members of YWAM Faeroer.

 

 

Today we settled in and got acquainted with the people and the area we were in. And after that we had a time of prayer for the upcoming training. We also enjoyed the hospitality and the tasty food of YWAM Faeroer very much.  In a few moments we will continue to make further preparations for the training and we discovered that the training will be on another island with the name Eysturoy. It's about an hours drive by car... by speed boat it would be 15 minutes or less. There we very likely will be staying the trest of our time.Hopefuly there is internet available.

We are enjouying ourselves and people take good care of us.    

 

As you probably have noticed no updates did appear. We had no access to the internet in Toftir. And calling Holland was a bit expensive.  Coming Monday we we write a complete report when we are home again.  

Til then!  

 

05-06 March 

 

As you probably have noticed no updates did appear. We had no access tothe internet in Toftir. And calling Holland was a bit expensive. Coming Monday we we write a complete report when we are home again.  

Til then!  

 

March 05-06  

Before we left for Eysturoy we visited the houses of parliament in Torshavn.Realy worth looking at and with a bit of wind around our heads weenjoyed the simplicity of the buildings and surrounding houses.    

That same evening we left for Toftir next to Runavik onEysturoy. There we started the next day with the preparations of the Re-Loaded training that we would conduct from Friday evening unto Sunday afternoon.

 The translation of the training into Faeroees took a fairly amount of time and effort. Some of the words we could  not translate as the Faeroees did not have such a word. With a lot of explanation we were able to find similar expressions and content. Eydstein and Maarten have been working hard for hours behind their laptops to get the job done.  

 

The Re-Loaded training was conducted in cooperation with a local church. They took care of the worship, coffee break and lunch times with lots of goodies and so on. This made us adept our training program to their schedule. So  frequently we had to ask ourselves what's next for a training item?    

 

On Friday evening we started at 7:30 pm with a time of worship. We had 25 participants in the trainin. A mix of young and elderly people. The cultur is very relation oriented so it was no surprise that 7:30 became 8.00 pm before we started. 8:30 Maarten was given the word and the training took of. 

A word of welcome and explaining what the partcipants could expect followed by a an explanation of how the training would be conducted. The request was that everyone would fully participate because it was made clear that they were more used to just listening. Re-Loaded is an interactive training so it was exciting for the participants. The start went realy well and at 10:00 pm we closed the evening. 

 

 

Saturday March 7

We started again at 09:30 am with a time of worship, lead by the youth of the church. This time a few less people showed up. We were about 15 people. They were allowed to sign up for just a day instead of for the whole weekend as we are acustomed in Holland.

 

After the worship Harald started with a devotion about the first chapter of the letter to the Ephesians. People realy enjoyed this time, starting quiet  in peace.   After this we were ready for action and so we did an exercise. In one word great, to see  again and again  every group have its own way of doing things. And always surprising too what it is revealing. in the evaluation. After that  it was time for our lunch!! Lunch is always a warm meal and time to relax. [food is very important  on the Faroer islands and it was not at all a crime for us]

After this Debbie was given the owrd to teach about what we believe  and what is true for us. Not an easy time with all that food in your stomach. With a little bit of help from Maarten all went very well  if you consider her doing it for the  first tiem and in English. As long as we were asking for general respons people would react but when things became more personal it became very quiet in the room ;-)
[very common]. 

This day the training went on till  late in the evening with more teaching and exercises. We noticed that during these times people realy get to know oneanother because the times of being together are long and very intens. We finished the day at 10:00 pm., tired but very satisfied. 

 

 

Sunday March 8 

A new challenge!!! Maarten was invited to speak, teach and train in a church service. So people who had not been in the training so far showed up and of course the training participants were there too. The challenge was not to repeat things and alsdo give the audience an idea of what the tRe-Loaded raining was all about. It was a great service and a good worship time. People were challenged, became aware and made thinking about their believes. During this time there was a strong sense of the love of the Holy Ghost.

After the service the peopple who just came for the service left and we had again a wonderful lunch. After that it was training time again. Maarten continued training till about 5.00 pm in the afternoon and the training finished with a request of who wanted to get some personal coaching ? 4 persons signed up for that! 

 

Back in the house, where we were staying, we had a time to relax and let go of what ever we had to about the training. And we needed to geive some expression to our emotions so we put on an cd of John Denver and we sang as loud as we could. Just to release all our tensions and get clear in our minds again. :)

 

 

Monday March 9

Eydstein's birthday!  He had organized a brunch for his friends in the house where we were staying. And of course  in the evening more friends showed up and we had a table full of goodies. Once you had had your share at the table you would offger your seed for the next person. They realy now how to ceelbrate a birthday. !!

Harald had written a beautiful poem for Eydstein.

The rest of that day we didn do a lot. A bit regaining energie and a good walk through the beautiful nature of the Faroer Islands.. 

 

 

Tuesday March 10

First of all we slept in till about 11.00 am and started with a breakfast. After that we sat down with the YWAM Faroer team for evaluation and extra input about vision for them as a team. 

At 3.00 pm we were picked up by 2 guys with 2 cars for a tour around the conecting islands and spot some beautiful places. Within 3 hours we had al the weatheer types you can imagine, hail, snow, rain and alwys wind and once in a while a sunbeam peaked through. It was really nice to get a bigger picture of the islands and the country. What we noticed was that we spotted more sheep that people outside. :)

In the evening Haradl stayed home to watch a soccer game and Maarten and Debbie went with another couple to a jazz cafe in Torshavn, the capital. That was about an hours drive from where we stayed  but if you want to see some action than that is a normal thing to do. 

 

 

 

Wednesday March 11

This day we spent most of the time teach and training the YWAM Faroer team. In the evening we already said goodbye to a few people and we prepaired ourselves for an early departure. We watch a movie and had some chocolat [and cake of course] ;)) . 

donderdag 12 maart 

05:40 am We were picked up by some one who would take us to the bus what would take us to the airport. We had a long trip but good connections and  a smooth trip. At 7.30 pm we were picked up from the railway station in Apeldoorn, nearby where we live .

We could start landing in our own things again. Om half 7 in de avond werden we opgehaald van station Apeldoorn en konden we beginnen met weer een beetje te landen. For those that want to connect with us? Contact us via the contact button.

We have had a wonderful time and we see that God has been using us in many different ways. If you prayed for us or donated finances we thank you very much for all. May the Lord continue to bless all of you.