Day 36 - An 18 hour journey... home!

We arrived home last night at 7:30 pm EST and 1:30 am Norwegian time. It is very good to be home! I am sure that it will take a few days to just recover a bit but we are so thankful to God for all that He has done during these last 36 days. It has been an amazing adventure and we have met lots of amazing people along the way. I had the chance to read all of our 35 daily blogs while riding on the bus from the airport to our home. It seems like we have packed so much more than 35 days into this trip! Praise God!

Today's photo is our "Little Norge" lion getting adjusted to his new surroundings in Canada. Thanks to everyone for their prayers and words of encouragement along the way. We continue to hold Norway in our hearts and every person that we were able to encounter in this great nation.

We pray that the Lion of Judah (our elder brother by the way...) will continue to roar over the hearts and minds of all our Norwegian brothers and sisters and that Norway will return as a nation to its deeply Christian roots.

When I think of Norway, I think of the Bible verse from Isaiah 66:8...
Who has ever heard of such things? Who has ever seen things like this? Can a country be born in a day or a nation be brought forth in a moment? Yet no sooner is Zion in labor than she gives birth to her children. NIV

May a powerful revival of love sweep across Norway, and Canada and every other nation around the world in the coming days!

In Father's amazing love,
Barry & Anneliese

P.S. We will start our live online meetings again next week and we are hoping that we will have some more Norwegian friends joining the meetings for Europe from time to time. :)

Day 35 - Last meeting, heading to airport hotel

This is a photo of the valley and lake that is in full view of their backyard of the home we stayed at last night. We stayed with our friend's Olav and Unni at their farmhouse. It is beautiful here. A winter wonderland! When we arrived at their house last night, we watched a 20 minute video of lions in the wild that was recorded by their group in Africa earlier this year.

Lions continue to show up every where we go. Even on Friday night before I spoke on freedom, a little child must have been playing with a tiny plastic lion between meetings and it was left on my seat when I came into the room to speak!

I spoke at their 11 am church service this morning on the glorious freedom of sons. It was a good meeting and had the chance to connect with some friends that we have met before. We are now at an airport hotel just getting a bit of rest before the long trek home tomorrow. It is wonderful to be able to think about going home now, though we enjoyed our time here.

Will be home in less than 24 hours now. :)

Lots of love
Barry & Anneliese

P.S. One the students yesterday had a picture of a huge Norwegian Viking ship. When intercessors prayed for us, the sails got big and the ship was moved by a strong wind. So we value every prayer that you all are praying!

Day 34 - The final day of the school.

Today's photo is from the party we had last night at the school. What a celebration of freedom!

Today is the final day of the school. The school ends with a parting message from Olav, Unni and myself and then testimonies from the students. It has been a very good school and I believe the students have received much. Praise God.

Late this afternoon, we fly to Oslo and then have a 2 hour drive north to Gjvik where we will probably arrive around 9 pm tonight. Tomorrow morning I speak at Joshua Church which is Olav and Unni's home church. Right after the meeting, we will be driven to an airport hotel where we will try and rest a few hours before we make the long trip home on Monday.

It has been a very good trip to Norway and we have been blessed ourselves. After attending 90 meetings, speaking at 40 of them and seeing lots of this beautiful country, it will be good to turn our hearts toward home.

Papa's blessings
Barry & Anneliese

Day 33 - The Lion roared in Bergen!

This morning I spoke to a group of Bible school students for 2 hours while the Fatherheart School was going on in the other room. It was a good opportunity to introduce this message to them and the ministry time was good afterwards.

In the evening, I spoke on the glorious freedom of the children of God from Romans 8 and how our Father's love is ferocious for us to walk in freedom. I had the opportunity to share our journey bumping into lions everywhere on this trip and all the students were really receptive to the message.

It is as if the people that we are speaking to have been waiting for a message on freedom. It was an amazing night where I really felt I heard the roar of our elder brother as we all cried out the word freedom (in Norwegian) which was very, very, loud and lasted for a long time.

Afterwards I just lied down on the stage because I was very tired and needed to rest a while.  It was at this time that all these dear Norwegian people caeme around Ann and I and started to bless us, pray for us, and prophesy over us while I was still lying down.

Tonight was an amazing experience that I never will forget. There was so much freedom released in people's hearts. They were shouting, dancing and being very expresssive. I was told that this was very unusual for Norwegian culture. We ended up the night blessing people over and over again through a fire tunnel.

A very good night indeed. Roarrrr!

Bless you
Barry & Anneliese

Day 32 - Orphan heart, Sonship & writing letters

Today our friend Olav spoke on the orphan spirit and I spoke on sonship. In the afternoon we had a ministry time where we prayed for each student and gave them an opportunity to write a letter to their parents. Every time we pray for the students they seem to receive more and more so that is always nice to see.

Tonight we didn't have a meeting so went into Bergen to have a really nice Italian dinner with the ministry team. Lots of fun and lots of good food. I think I am going to have to call a 40 day fast when I get home! We have eaten lots of great Norwegian meals (4 per day) while we have been here. :)

Tomorrow morning I will be speaking to a group of young people in a separate Bible school from 9-11 am so that should be fun. In the evening I may be talking about the glorious freedom of the children of God from Romans 8 and some of our experiences with the lion's roar these days!

I still am not sleeping very well. Last night I didn't feel I slept at all so that continues to be a little frustrating so thanks for your prayers of strength. We do feel your prayers and both Anneliese and I have strength for each day.

After today, we have 1 1/2 days left of the school and then fly to Oslo Saturday afternoon and the take a bus to Gjovik where I will be speaking Sunday morning.

Big hugs and blessings
Barry & Anneliese

Day 31 - Halfway point in the school.

Last night our friend Unni spoke about the importance of forgiveness. She teaches it better than anyone else I have heard. Forgiveness is such a key to receiving a deeper revelation of Papa's love.

I spoke twice today at the school. The first session was in the afternoon and I talked about the importance of embracing a childlike heart in the way we relate to God. There was a very powerful time of corporate ministry at the end of the session which was really good. In the second session that I spoke at was an open evening meeting where people from the community were invited to join the students. There was probably 200+ people in the meeting.

Thanks for your prayers for this time as the spiritual atmosphere can tend to shift when people join the meeting who may be new to the message. I have encountered some meetings in this trip where there is an unspoken resistance to Papa's love. Of course it is not the people, but something that is keeping people enslaved in wrong mindsets. The power of thinking and the mind is very strong here... as it is in most places.

The evening meeting went very well as I shared on identity. I only had 60 minutes to speak which means with interpretation, my time was reduced to 30 minutes which can always be a challenge, but it worked out. I think a bunch of people were touched. One thing that struck me while I was speaking was the look on the students' faces who were part of the week long school. Their faces were beaming because Papa's love was really getting through to them.

It was interesting to see the contrast between people who were attending the school and those who only came out for the evening meeting. It was a really clear indication to me how Papa has been freeing those who have been in the school. Thanks again for all your love and prayers.

Only 5 days and we will be home. :)

Love and blessings,
Barry & Anneliese

Day 30 - The School Continues...

We are now less than a week before we will be home. It has been quite a long time to be away and it will be good to find our way home soon. When I think of some of our experiences earlier in this trip, it feels as if they were so long ago. So much has been packed into this trip that the time goes by quite slow sometimes.

The second full day of the school continues today. I am not speaking at all today, but Anneliese will be sharing her testimony this morning so that is very good. Though I am not speaking, I need to still be available for ministry times, etc.

Up until this week, we have been listening to simultaneous translation of all that is spoken in Norwegian during the meetings. That means as Norwegian is being spoken, someone is speaking directly to Ann and I at the same time translating what is being said into English. This gets very tiring after a while, so since we are going to dial down the amount of Norwegian we try to get translated for us in real time and just hang out in the meetings without trying to understand everything that is being said. I think that will help us be able to rest more.

6 more days of ministry and internal travel within Norway, then we fly to Germany, then home! Whoohoo!

Thanks for your continued prayers!

B&A

Day 29 - The first full day of the Bergen School

When we walked into the meeting last night, we really sensed a very healthy anticipation of what God is going to do from the students.

This morning I shared a whole bunch of things I didn't plan on sharing. It just seems like there is an increasing sense of Papa's presence and our elder brother's authority in the meetings. It is not like I am teaching, but more like I am making prophetic declarations into people's spirits.

I hope this doesn't sound boastful, because I do not feel it is me doing the speaking when these things happen. Of course this is all coming with some peculiar and sometimes humbling manifestations which I do my best to contain... Sometimes to no avail!

I do feel like there really is a lion inside of me that is causing a boldness that I have only experienced twice before this trip. The above photo is of the alpha male lion from the Kristiansand zoo aptly named Aslan!

People were really receiving from Holy Spirit this morning and I trust more is to come from the Father of Lights... James 1:17 Tonight I talked about the priority of love and for the first half of my message, people seemed a little sleepy and unresponsive. We felt that there was some opposition but by the end of the meeting we had a breakthrough and the ministry time was really powerful.

We are staying with a wonderful family with 4 young boys. It is nice to be around little children again.

Had a good sleep last night so I am ready to face a great day! Rooooooarrrrrr!

:) B&A

Day 28 - A ferry ride, a bus ride, a cancelled flight and a flight to Bergen (Sunday)

(We did not have Internet Friday-Sunday so this post was updated while we were driving on the bus to Kristiansund today).

We wrapped up the conference this morning and it was very good. I had the privilege of meeting a young man named 'Moses' who is a refugee from the Congo. He lost his entire family to violence and it was really an honour to pray for him and minister Papa's love to such a precious gem. I think if we came to Norway just for Moses, it would be well worth it! Of course we prayed for other refugees from Ghana and Ethiopia during this weekend conference.

After the conference was over, we had a scenic drive through the mountains to catch a ferry across a fiord so we could fly out of Molde. You know you are really getting to see a country when you start re-visiting airports on the same trip. Our flight was canceled from Molde to Bergen so we are now on a bus to Kristiansund where we will be flying directly to Bergen (hopefully).

The view on the ferry was spectacular and the ride to Kristiansund was as equally spectacular though it is getting dark now so we couldn't get any good photos. We will soon be flying to Bergen where we will start the final 7 day Fatherheart A School at Christ Church in a few hours. Thanks for your continued prayers as we will be going 9-9 for the next 7 days straight. As we enter our final week traveling in Norway, we look forward to what Papa is going to do in the hearts of the 50 students that our attending the school.

God is good and He is giving us strength for this adventure. However, Ann and I are starting to talk about home now since we only have one week left. We are looking forward to seeing all of our friends and family very soon! It won't be long and we will be back on Canadian soil.

Thanks for all your prayers!

Lots of love,

Barry & Anneliese

Day 27 - A full day at the conference (Saturday)

(We did not have Internet Friday-Sunday so this post was updated while we were driving on the bus to Kristiansund today).

Today's photos taken today from the conference centre we were staying at. The first one captures an amazing sunset on Friday night and the second photo is the view from the room where the conference is being held. Not a bad view eh? It is beautiful here at the ministry centre that we are staying at until Sunday. It is an absolutely gorgeous facility nestled in the mountains. Our friend, Olav spoke on the orphan spirit this morning and Ann shared her own testimony telling about how both of her parents were orphaned as children.

This is the first time that Anneliese has shared her testimony in public and she did an amazing job! Many hearts were touched by what she shared. It is wonderful to see the freedom that has come to her during this trip to Norway. The lion is roaring over us continually for more and more freedom.

Our friend Unni, shared in the afternoon and I shared in the evening meeting. I was going to share a message on the childlike heart, but before I was going to get up and speak, I was handed a brochure explaining the vision of the ministry centre that we were staying in. 

This brochure talked about the heritage of the Nation of Norway and how a king named Olav died in a battle in an effort to bring Christianity to Norway. His death triggered a response to the entire nation becoming Christian.

A couple of weeks ago, we were taken to his burial site in a very huge church in Trondheim and since we arrived in Norway, I have been very interested about Norway’s Christian history and have been doing some reading up on the subject. 

As I got up to speak, the presence of God came on me and I started to speak about our experiences with lions before coming to Norway and how we felt that there was a new freedom that the Lion of Judah wanted to impart to His people.

When I speak about these things, I do not feel like I am ‘steering the ship’ as I feel that Holy Spirit is really speaking through me. I was told afterward by a very strategic national leader that they felt that this was a very significant, timely message for Norway and that I need to come back as soon as possible to share it with others.