Update from the Andersen’s

/i /av

Hey Friends!

These past 2 months have flown by and it’s definitely time for an update! We’ve been so blessed to have been a part of so many fun things and we can’t wait to share them with you! Since it’s been a lot we’ll split it into 2 sections: Thailand and Tanzania!

It’ll be a tad long but that’s mostly because of the photos! So hang in there, it’s a good one! 

THAILAND
On the 24th Jan we flew over to Thailand to visit one of our outreach teams. We had one on one conversations with all the members of the team and we were able to encourage them in their ministry  and to really chase after all they wanted to see in the last month of their outreach! We joined most of the ministries they were a part of and got to meet lots of local people, refugees, do practical work and even visit some villages around the area we were staying! God moved in the hearts of the team, people were saved and miracles happened!

40 people gave their lives to Jesus!
We went to a Burmese tribal group called «Karen» people. We got to give food to them and also I (Gøran) got to share the gospel with all of them! About 40 people gave their lives to Jesus and many of them got healed of different infirmities in their bodies!

I think a huge highlight for us as a couple was that I (Laura) was actually well enough to join the trip and be present while we were there. It’s been such a long time since we’ve been able to do a «mission’s trip» together and it was really encouraging for both of our hearts and made us realise again how MUCH we LOVE doing this kind of work and being out in the nations! It’s so life-giving for us and it was a really beautiful time for us as a couple to finally do it together again!

Here’s so fun pics of our time there <3

By some crazy chance we got to meet up with Amy in Bangkok! We all did our DTS and SOE together almost 10 years ago!!

Some of the team and Gøran helped run a youth seminar for some local Burmese youth over 3 days! They said they were so encouraged to see the youth’s hunger grow and to be there to pray and talk with them.

________________________________________________________________________________________
TANZANIA

Less than 24hrs after we arrived home from Thailand, Gøran was back on a plane headed to Tanzi!! This was a whole different outreach experience than Thailand as the team was going to a lot more rural places and often had to drive minimum 3hrs to get to surrounding villages! They stayed in a village which was 8hrs away from the YWAM base in Arusha for about 1 week in tents! God did so many incredible things through the team there as well, healings, salvations, baptisms!! The two weeks I was in Tanzania, one of the staff told me that we had seen over 100 people saved and many of them healed!

Testimony of Salvations:
During evangelism in the city of Arusha I met a bunch of motorcycle taxi drivers and started sharing the gospel with them. Two of them were muslims and several of them were christian by tradition. After sharing the gospel and talking to them, 4 of them wanted to give their lives to Jesus, one of the muslims was quite interested but he was also a little reluctant at the same time. One of the guys got so happy that he took off his watch and gave it to me, and I was so reluctant to take it, but culturally I had to! The following Sunday the team got to baptize three of these guys!!

This woman was one of two wives to her husband and wasn’t treated properly so her and her children were very malnourished. She ended up giving her life to Jesus and we were able to bless her family with lots of food parcels! And now she is a new member of the church we worked alongside.

Kaka Daniel (Brother Daniel) is a 30 year DTS school leader just like me! He was the host for the outreach team we sent and we connected really well and he’s become my African brother! Please pray for him and his family as they live completely by faith, trusting God to provide all their needs!

 

 

JESUSFESTIVALEN 2023

/i /av

Hjertelig velkommen til Jesusfestivalen 2023!

Den skal være i Betania Kristiansand, Elvegata 10.

Mer informasjon kan du finne på  https://jesusfest.no

 

 

Update from the Andersen’s

/i /av

Hey friends!

Happy New Year!!
Hope you’re all enjoying the first few weeks of 2023 and feel fresh vision and excitement for the year ahead!
We’ve had an exciting start to the year as we got to send out our 4 DTS outreach teams: Indonesia, Thailand, Tanzania and to South Asia where they have now been for about 3 weeks!
Gøran and I are super excited because tomorrow we will be jumping on a plane to Thailand to visit one of the teams there! We call it a «Pastoral Visit» which includes having one-on-one chats with all the members in the team and with the leaders to make sure everyone is doing well and that they are connecting as a team. We will be joining the team in all the ministry they are a part of and basically just love on and encourage them and the people they are working with!

We will be there roughly 2 weeks, we fly back to Kristiansand and then Gøran will have 12hrs at home before he flies to Tanzania to visit another team there.
So we’ve got a very fun month ahead of us!!

Please join us in prayer for the teams:
– Unity in the teams
– God’s heart for the people
– Faith for the impossible
– Protection from the schemes of the enemy

We’ve added in some testimonies from some of the teams below! It’s always so encouraging to hear about what God is doing in the nations!


TESTIMONY

60 YEARS OLD AND LAME FOR LIFE, WALKS FOR THE FIRST TIME

On a day off in Tanzania the team was at a place which was prodominatly muslim and they came across an elderly woman at the age of sixty who had been born lame so she was sitting in a wheelchair. She was muslim but they still asked if they could pray for her and she said yes.
Instantly the most miracoulus thing happened, just like Peter and John in front of the temple with the lame man, she got up and started to walk!! For the first time in her life! She gave her life to Jesus and said that when she gets home, she will throw away her hijab. A crowd started to form around them so the team started sharing the gospel and praying for people and they saw 2 more healings and 3 muslims gave their lives to Jesus! Ahh it’s just insane!! Thank you Jesus!!

FUN UPDATES
  • Laura’s brother (Luke) will be moving from Australia to live with us at the end of February!
  • On the 24th Jan we will celebrate our 8th wedding anniversary!
  • Laura is starting the process of getting her Norwegian driver’s license. So please pray that her health continues to get better so that this goes smoothly and quickly!
  • Gøran is helping to renovate the DTS office at the base so this past week he’s built a wall and will be putting down new flooring today! We’ll add pics of it when the office is finished… maybe the next update.

Update from the Andersen’s

/i /av
And suddenly we are in December! 
Hello friends!
How these past few months have flown by! We are now nearing the end of Lecture Phase, this is the last week of teaching the students have before Christmas break and then Outreach!! We want to take some time to share some highlights from the last few weeks about what God has been doing and also share about what’s to come!

GOD HAS REALLY BEEN MOVING!

Healings

Lots of healings have taken place in peoples bodies, like different injuries and pains, sleeplessness, anxieties, acid reflux, and other inner healings!

Inner healing through Papa God’s Love

Healing of the Orphan Spirit:
So many of the students have really experienced Papa God for the first time in their life, and today they are living as His children, enjoying the new relationship they have with Papa God, where they get to hear His voice and receive the incredible love He is pouring out on them. This has resulted in a lot of healing and forgiveness from past hurts, traumas and abuse.

God pours out His gifts

I really enjoy the testimonies of where God just suddenly pours out His gifts on people. Most of the students has received the gift of tongues, and many of them received it while being prayed for to be baptized by the Holy Spirit during Holy Spirit week. But 3 or more just suddenly got it randomly in the middle of other prayer times, or personal prayer times with Papa God. One girl told me that during a time of intercession, I was sharing that I felt we should all pray in tongues, and right then she got the gift of tongues and started speaking it out! Many of them are prophesying now and moving quite powerfully in the prophetic and several of the students have been able to pray for healing and seen healing take place while ministering in some local churches.

Deliverance

Early in the school one of our students who had been struggling shared she had felt a little breakthrough, and I felt God wanted me to partner with Him in what He was doing in her life as she was on the verge of throwing in the towel and going back to her home country. I went over to pray for her and I felt lead to pray for freedom and deliverance, then God’s presence came over her and she suddenly fell forward into my arms and she said afterwards that she felt this huge heavy load that she had been carrying lift off her and she felt so free!

Callings and missions

So many of the students have gotten a calling for going into the mission field through this lecture phase and all of the students hearts has been broken for the lost and unreached people groups in this world. Others have gotten confirmations through prophetic words about their dreams and desires that they’ve had from before!

FAITH

Several students came to DTS not fully sure if God existed and this was them giving their relationship with God one last chance. Today they are full of faith and because of that they are experiencing God so much! Most of the students have made Jesus Lord of their lives for the first time, which in practical terms means that they have surrendered their future to God, their wants and desires, their rights for comfort, family, where to live, what to do and chosen to fully follow Jesus wherever He is leading them! It’s incredibly beautiful to see!

YOU HAVE A VOICE

Most of us grow up with the message «Our voice isn’t important», whether it’s from other people in our lives, or the culture we’re living in. Many students come to our schools with a sense of unworthiness, low self esteem, withdrawn and shy. In Norway we have something called «Jantelov» or «the law of Jante» and this is a cultural stigma that says «Don’t think you are anything special, don’t think you know something, dont think you are worth anything, dont think you are a good at something». These are lies that hold us back from speaking up and daring to be different. The students have received an incredible sense of worth, healthy self esteem and been built up to understand their significance in God. This has resulted in many of them believing they have a voice and that they dare to speak up in front of other people and share what’s on their hearts and minds. They dare to dream big again and believe they can go into all the spheres of society and make a change!

What’s to come?

– Between 4-6th Jan we will be sending out all the teams to their outreach locations! They will be travelling to Tanzania, Indonesia, Thailand and India/Nepal!!!

– Towards the end of January Gøran and I will travel to the team in Thailand for a Pastoral visit. It’s basically just a check in with the leaders to support and love on them and to help the team in any way we can! We will be there for around 2 weeks and then Gøran will travel to Tanzania and join the team there for another 2 weeks and I will travel home. We are SUPER excited to get into the nations again!

It is a very expensive trip due to flight tickets increasing in price so if you would like to help us get there and support our trip then I’ll add some giving information below! 

But for now enjoy some pictures of our last few weeks!

TESTIMONY
100% healing on the streets
I (Goran) went out with my track (Jesus lifestyle) for evangelism. We went into a restaurant in Kristiansand to see a friend of mine. Me and this other girl staff ended up talking to a waiter as we were waiting for my friend to start his shift. And we got to love on this 21 year old Hungarian guy who came to Norway a year ago. I really felt God’s love for him, so I told him that God really loves him. He looked a bit suprised and interested, and I asked him if he has ever heard that before, and he said no. So I got shocked and asked him if he knows why God loves. He had no idea. So I asked if I could share why, and he said «go for it». So I got to share the gospel with him and he teared up a little! After that we needed to go, but I wanted to just pray for him. So I asked if I could pray for him and if there was anything God could do for him like healing or something. He said that he has had back pain for a long time and that it was constantly quite painful. So I got to put my hand on his back and pray for him. After that we asked him to check, and he was moving around wondering what was going on in his back, and suddenly the back popped! He goes «Wow my back popped and I’ve never been able to do that before, and then he said that all the pain was gone» Praise God!
Just then my christan friend came out as we were rejoicing, and we said to the Hungarian guy to listen to my friend because he’s got all the answers! 🙂

Konsert med Arvid Pettersen

/i /av

På fredag 2. desember kommer Arvid og Ragnhild Pettersen med band og holder førjulskonsert i Betania.
Konserten kalles himmeltonen 2022, og du kan kjøpe biletter på Vipps #776654

Støtte til nytt EL-piano i Betania

/i /av

 

Betania har i lengere til har hatt behov for et EL-piano og i sommer kom vi over det ønskede pianoet som Daniel Pettersen hentet for oss.
I den forbindelse, søkte vi støtte i Sparebanken-Sør, og vi fikk en positiv tilbakemelding fra Sparebanken-Sør.
Vi har dermed fått dekket alle våre kostnader til innkjøp av vårt nye EL-piano.

Tusen takk til Sparebanken-Sør som har støtte oss.

Update from the Andersen’s

/i /av

Hello again friends!

Well DTS has officially started and we are about to round up week 2 of teaching!
We had an incredible start up with lots of ice breakers, worshiping in the rain, bonfires and good conversations! It’s been so beautiful to see how quickly the students have engaged in worship, prayer and the teachings, they are a hungry bunch and it’s only week 2!!
So far we’ve had teaching on The Gospel by Geir Fagerbakke and this week we have Paul Yadao sharing on The Father Heart of God.
It’s beautiful to be reminded for a whole week the importance of living our lives out of sonship and in knowing who we are because of Him!We actually wanted to use this newsletter to share some testimonies of what God has been doing lately! We believe it’s encouraging and faith building to share stories of what God is doing in and through our lives and we hope it leaves you feeling encouraged as well!

WAFFLES AND COFFEE 

One Saturday we joined evangelism with some people from local churches to make waffles and coffee for people on the street and as you see here, Goran was able to share the gospel and give some Farsi bibles to two Iranian woman that came by.
I (Laura) saw a lady and her daughter standing a little distance away from our stand who looked very interested in what we were doing. I walked up to her and asked if her daughter wanted a waffle (which she did) and so while we waited for one I got to talk to her and ask a few questions about life and if she knew Jesus. She said she had gone to church before but since moving to our city she hadn’t found a church and that it was difficult with her husband, that he wouldn’t go. I could tell there was something there so I just spoke some words of love and value over her.. telling her that «Jesus sees her, knows her, has not left her and that she is worthy of love». She started crying and I hugged her and prayed for her. She said «I really needed this today, I really did». We got to give her daughter a bible and I encouraged her to find a church and a good community.
If you like, please pray that she is able to find a church and that her husband would come to know the love of Jesus!

TREASURE HUNTING

My (Gøran) heart is to equip people in sharing their faith, that is why I am leading a track called «Jesus Lifestyle» in the school. So last Saturday we did evangelism in the form of treasure hunting, which means to pray to get specific words and pictures from God before we go out.
One of the students that I was with had seen a vision of a girl with blonde hair, a blue sweater, black pants and white shoes, and that she had pain in the very low parts of the back, he also got a certain place. So we went to that place, and funnily enough my sister and brother in law with our little cute niece were there. As we talked with them my student pointed out that my sister was the exact girl he had seen in prayer, and I went like «ooh yea!! thats right!»  And she needed healing in her tail bone, so we got to pray for her!

I got some norwegian words like (markering, torvet, scene, preach the gospel) which roughly translated to english means (public awereness event, the square, stage and preach the gospel)
So we went to this particular square in town and we saw that they were putting up an event and it turned out to be an event protesting for freedom for women in Iran. We got to talk to some people there and share the gospel with some. Then as the event was going on, I got the thought, «what if God wants me to share from the stage?» but they had a program and so on. Then my friend Kristian came by who is from Iran, and I share my heart and he said «YES, good idea, I’m going to talk to them» so he came back and said «It’s all good you can share, you have 1 minute»
So after a while I got called up and I got to share how both women and men are created in Gods image and likeness and that we shared equal value, and that God loves them all etc. How good is God!!!

VICTORIES

– I (Laura) managed to go to the gym for the first time in 3 years!! It was a huge victory and I’ve been able to go back a few more times since then!

– I have also been able to be at the base more often and have joined in on worship and teachings!

Everything I’m doing at the moment really is trial and error. Sometimes I manage more some days than other days and I’m in a «testing» life out stage. But I am so grateful for all I can do and would appreciate prayers for healing and wisdom as I keep moving forward!

Konsert: Øyvind «Elg» Elgenes

/i /av
Blå Kors Kristiansand inviterer til konsert med Øyvind Elgenes i Betania Kristiansand, hvor overskuddet i sin helhet er øremerket hjelpeaktivitet for barn og unge i byen som lever i fattigdom.
Øyvind Elgenes, bedre kjent som ELG i Dance With a Stranger, fikk en mektig oppsving etter deltakelse i TV2 suksessen «Hver Gang Vi Møtes». ELG har gjennom flere ti-år bergtatt sitt publikum med sin fantastiske stemme og sterke formidlingsevne.
Vi lover flott musikk fra Øyvind Elg, der vi samtidig fokuserer på mulighetene, håpet og kraften som får mennesker med håpløse erfaringer til å endre kurs og en ny retning i livet. Visjonen «Med hjerte, kunnskap og kraft skaper Blå Kors mulighet for mestring og mening» vil være rammen for det som formidles denne kvelden.
Dessverre viser statistikken at 1 av 10 i regionen vår sliter med rus, noe som tilsvarer at to til tre barn i hver skoleklasse går hjem til rus daglig. I tillegg vet vi at omlag halvparten av rusavhengige pasienter faller tilbake til et liv i aktiv rus etter endt behandling.
Denne kvelden vil vi i Blå Kors fokusere på det positive – varmen, omsorgen og tryggheten – som skaper muligheter for mestring og mening for den enkelte. Mange trenger hjelp, og ved å kjøpe billett er du med på å støtte arbeidet.
Tusen takk til alle dere som er med oss, og hjertelig velkommen til en musikalsk og meningsfull konsertaften i Betania.

Update from the Andersen’s

/i /av
Hello friends
It’s start up time!! Summer holidays are over and we are back into it!We are currently in the middle of staff training, a crucial part of our Discipleship Training Schools. The school itself doesn’t start until the 23rd September but we have 6 weeks of training for our staff prior to that. The staff are the ones who are going to be working closest with the students so it’s incredibly important we establish a culture of honour, family, learn to live out our values and get our hearts/spirits unified before the school starts! It’s a really fun time of getting to know each other more and to build relationships and trust between our staff.
And we currently have 37 students enrolled for this next school and some in process! Exciting!This is the 3rd DTS that we’re going lead and we’ve started to get more and more vision and understanding of what God is doing in our time. More than ever I (Gøran) really believe in the work we’re apart of as I am seeing something that I rarely see other places – young and old coming together as family under the common goal of getting to know God and making him known in the world. The decrease of Christianity in the west is not much more than lack of discipleship, and we as a DTS are coming together for 6 months to just go after God like never before, to believe for His presence to show up more and more with healings, signs and wonders and for His goodness to be more evident in our midst.
We have heard many prophetic words about a new wave of missionaries being sent out to the unreached people groups of the world (which is 42% of the worlds population) and they are people who have never heard the Gospel before!
This is something we want to be apart of through our schools, sending teams out to the nations and maybe even some people being called to stay long-term!
It’s so fun to partner with God in this way to help see the nations discipled and reached!We also traveled to Ålesund for 1 week for the Northern Europe staff training (every 2nd year most of the bases in Northern Europe have teaching and training together in preparation for our DTS’s).
It was a special to connect with the other bases, encourage one another and to get our hearts ready for all that God is going to do in this next season! We’ll add some pics down below!

As I have written before, I (Laura) have been doing better in terms of health so I’m hoping to start going to the base a few days a week and to join in on teaching/worship. It’s really a time of trial and error for me right now as I try to learn what my capacity is at the moment.
But I am EXTREMELY grateful for the extra energy I do have and for the ability to join in on more things and to see friends/family more often! That is a huge blessing and I try to remind myself of that when the days are a little rough! God is always so so good and I have SO much hope for the days ahead!

Update from the Andersen’s

/i /av

Hello dear friends!

It’s about that time for another little update from us!
The last months have been pretty busy and we’ve had the privilege of being apart of many fun things.
We’ve had DTS graduations, a wedding, a quick trip to England and been apart of The Send ++!!On the 25th June The Send took place and it gathered almost 10,000 people together to worship and gave them the opportunity to make the decision to live ALL IN for Jesus! To live a life that glorifies His name in whatever area of society you are in, whether it is in your job, your family and neighbourhoods or to say yes to being in missions full time etc… It was a 12hr event – 10am til 10pm and MIRACULOUSLY I (Laura) stayed the entire time! I remember laying on the couch a year ago and was hoping that I would be able to go to the event but didn’t know how it would be possible.. well fast forward a year and I was there standing with all those other people praising God, I even jumped around a little haha!! God is soooooo GOOD!Gøran was actually asked to help translate for some of the speakers and he did such an incredible job (Proud wife over here) but it was such an awesome opportunity for him to step out of his comfort zone and learn how to translate for different types of speakers.
And in the week leading up to The Send he was in Oslo (capital of Norway) for Hope for Oslo (a week of reaching out through creative evangelism to the city)! He, along with 500 other people got to learn new ways to do evangelism and saw God move in many different ways. He got to share the gospel and pray for many people and some were even healed! (Testimony of this below)

Then the following week after The Send we went to Rogaland Base to be apart of a call centre that was following up all the people that had given some kind of response on the day of The Send. Gøran was leading the team responsible for ringing those that had given their lives to Jesus or had rededicated their lives to Him.
He was able to encourage them and share about what it means to be saved and how to grow in their relationship with God through fellowship, prayer and Bible reading.

 

Healing on the streets

I Goran was out evangelizing during Hope for Oslo and one time I came in contact with 4 young guys and we started talking. I asked questions about their faith and I realized they weren’t christians. I figured out that one of them had pain in his wrist, so I prayed for his wrist twice without seeing any change. I ended up sharing the gospel with all four of them and then towards the end I remembered the guy’s wrist again and asked if I could pray one more time. He let me and so after praying this third time the wrist was totally healed! After seeing this miracle from Jesus, one of the other guys shouted out; «Oh can you pray for my back, I have pain in my lower back». I did and the pain left as well! It was a wonderful time of sharing the gospel in great detail and seeing the Holy Spirit move!