EveryMoment: a blog, a video blog, a photo blog and any other type of log of the life of tracy apps. every moment in life is a gift

By Lisa – Before coming I had met maybe three people from Denmark and a handfull of people who I knew were at least part Danish. All my friends who knew Danes also thought they were fantastic people — so I was pretty confident I would like Denmark and like the people. Sure enough!!! It is true. I’m loving it and feeling like God wants me here and is teaching me a whole lot. SOme things that GOd is teaching me are:

I cannot do things on my own!! Some days I think I have everything down pat! nope. I make bad decisions and don’t think through things enough. And I’m always thinking “well, now I know for next time!” SO i cannot do things on my own. I need GOd. I need my teammates. I need Danish host families, confirmands, boarding school students and our tour managers (yes, we have great tour managers that set our program schedule, go to our programs and help out in huge ways!!!! They work with Indremission in the areas we visit — so they have and make good connections with the kids). This ministry isn’t about me – go figure!!!

Here’s another thing I’m learning – The youth I’ve met are phenomonal!! We’ve been staying at a Christian boarding school all week. These are 15-17 year olds. All of the students I have had the priviledge sitting down with at lunch or dinner or break time in the mid morning or mid afternoon have so many awesome things to say. They are full of wisdom. Some things we’ve talked about — wearing “masks” to be popular, feeling empty without God, difficult family matters, drinking, Bible reading and journaling — these things the students brought up to me! They aren’t just about small talk – they really dig deep. Have no fear – we’ve talked about lighter things. Let’s see — US education, politics, food (they think the sound of peanut butter and jelly is the worst thing ever!!) Instead they eat cheese and jelly – yeah, it isn’t my favorite. We’ve also talked about Lord of the Rings, travelling, cheerleaders, football, handball and of course exchanging certain Danish and English words and phrases.

I’ve learned a lot so far in this short two week period. I’ll be adding much more to the list of things — but I’ll wait for another day!! Love in Christ! Lisa

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did you know that a snowball fight is a very effective ministry tool?

today we had two programs… both for confirmation classes at two churches we have already visited this week… the first one in hillerød, and the second one in skœvinge. they were different students, but the same churches we visited earlier. we were a bit late to our first program due to a huge traffic jam (which we didn’t think existed here in danmark).. which was probably caused by the large amount of snow that fell from the sky. but we made it to the church safely, and played for an amazing group of confirmands.

after leaving the first church, we headed to skœvinge and did the same thing all over again… (yet not the same at all) we had a break in our program, for a little time to chat… and throw snowballs at the students. (well, at least nate and john did that… and man did they get SOAKED and FROZEN!) i learned how effective a ministry tool that a snowball fight can be… as the attitude of the students had changed… and they warmed up to us… (even though their feet and hands were frozen) it’s amazing how God can even use snow to get His Word out….

after the two programs we had today, we had plenty of free time, and went to poul’s house (our contact for the week here in nordsjælland) for a delicious dinner, and some fun times with their three year old daughter from the philippines. it was adorable… she kept saying that we were just making strange noises… since we weren’t speaking in danish. it’s funny to think of how strange we must have sounded to her. john ended up communicating with her though strange noises… and rolling a ball around on the floor. nate used the opportunity to learn more danish… at least temporarily. and elisabeth just showed off. *grin*

and now we are back at the boarding school… just ‘chillin’…. i should get to sleep… breakfast is at 7am…. ICK! but yea.. tomorrow we are splitting up and helping out… teaching… and whatnot at different classes here at the boarding school. i’m really excited about that actually.. cuz i’ve had the chance to get to know some of the students pretty well here. and they all have worked their way into my heart… i know i’m gonna be sad to leave here on sunday.

but for now, i’m going to bed. *hugz* night all!

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so here we are in north zealand… we played a concert for the students here at the boarding school last night, and got up early this morning to play for a confirmation class in hillerød. after we were done with that, we learned that there was a castle just blocks away from the church. so we did what any ‘touristy group’ would do… we stopped and took lots of pictures. and those are all up here

i also have been having a blast here at the boarding school. i found a group of girls and guys that are very similar to me…. they are all CRAZY and love to laugh.. A LOT! so needless to say, we had a blast rolling in the snow… laughing… making animal noises… laughing some more… sharing ‘tongue twisters’ in both english and danish… laughing more…. yea. you get the point.

we will be doing a sort of program at a soldiers home tonight. this should be pretty cool from what poul was describing. i’m really excited to go see for myself.

but other than that… there’s not really any other news from here… so i’m gonna get goin. have a great day everyone!

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“day off and new years concert in lindeskov church, nykøbing f.” is what that says. and that’s bascily our last two days.

yesterday (saturday) was our day off, where we hit downtown nykøbing, and went shopping. i finally got a power converter, so i now have all charged batteries! *dances* i also attempted to get my camera fixed.. only to find out that no one would be able to fix the camera there.. and it would have to be sent out. AHHH! but yea… that’s upsetting…

anyways… today we only had one program, and it was a ‘new years concert’ at a church in the same town. this was the program where we found out they ‘sold out’ within a couple days. 300 tickets… in a couple days? hello? what’s going on here? but it was awesome. people started arriving almost an hour before the concert… which is very weird to us… but it was pretty cool to see people waiting for the doors to open. heh. but yea… the concert went great, and we had some great snacks afterwards. man. i’m gonna get fat here in danmark because of all the delicious food!

now we are relaxing for the night at our host homes. i’m gonna miss being here… it seems like home… even though we have only been at this home for a week. it’s a bit strange, and i’m sure it will be the whole 4 months here, living with someone for a week, and then saying goodbye. i hope we get to keep in touch with all these families… since they become like my ‘family on the road’ in a very short period of time. i’ve had a blast in nykøbing… but we leave bright and early in the morning, and head to nordsjælland efterskole (north zealand boardingschool) which just happens to be where the two boys from this family (where we are staying right now) are going to school. so me and lisa get to thank them in person for being able to sleep in their rooms

well, i’m off to enjoy the company of my host family. have a great day/night everyone.

oh yea… i uploaded a TON more pictures lately… both in the ‘stateside pictures’ and the ‘danmark pictures’ so go check them out!

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Entry by Lisa — Things are going really well here. Tonight we had such a good time hanging out with the people in Teestrup. The kids, adults, pastor, and church building were all so cool!!! This small church had candles on the end of every pew! It was really beautiful. It made me think of the light that Christ brings to my life. Being the sound tech i felt a bit unsafe moving around in “my” pew so I blew my candle out. Each time I went back to the sound board (my dark pew) I was reminded of the people who do not know Christ. We’ve had and will have opportunities to speak with people who aren’t sure about God and who desire something more than the life they are living now! I’ve been reminded tonight that we really need to encourage people and ourselves to SPREAD the Light – not just keep it to ourselves. Do I live my life so that people see me and see Christ. Is there something different about me that others might want to know God or know God more? I guess I can try to know God more and pray that God works through me. When we are doing our thing, I want people to see God – not us. That’s my prayer!!!

SO on the way back from tonight’s service —
It was around 11:00 pm tonight and the team was in a crazy mood. When we are tired – we are either asleep in the van or in non-stop madness!!! All of the way home we were either constantly talking or singing songs at the top of our lungs. I think Iversen (our contact for the week) wants to quit now. hehe!!! We’ve been “working” late nights, but they have been so fun and worthwhile!!! Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers!!! Lisa

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first off… God is good. SO good.

secondly, my day was an interesting one. we had two AWESOME programs thursday, but i also had a low point, when i dropped my camera and broke it. i’m sure that i’ll be able to get it fixed, but it still was a tremendous blow to my mood today!

but besides the camera ‘breakage’, the day was amazing. we played a program for a confirmation class in a simply GORGEOUS old church in keldby…. we walked along the most beautiful cliffs… “møns klint”…. and we played another amazing program in a fairly brand NEW church in næstved. (btw… pictures of all this are here) you know.. i don’t think i’ll ever get used to having 120 people singing, dancing, clapping and even standing on chairs while we are playing music… playing encores…. and then signing autographs and taking pictures afterwards… it’s just surreal! i can’t believe how much this resembles a dream that i thought was never possible for my life. actually… it surpasses any dreams that i could think of… only God could think of such great things… i’m glad that i let God lead me to this… His plans are much better than mine… in so many ways!

let God lead your life… you’ll be surprised… and amazed… trust me.

dude… I’M IN DANMARK! (i STILL can’t believe it… heh)

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go trick or treating in the bronx….
check.

play an empty guitar case on danish tv…
check.

welp. i’m done.

:-P
so yea… today was an eventful day. we started out the morning with a question and answer session with a class of 9th graders (two classes actually) at stensved centralskole (a public school). and yea… we played some songs… where i ended up playing the empty guitar case.. since the djembe was still in the van. and the guy from the tv station… who was taking lots of video last night at our concert… was also taking video of us talking to the students. then we broke into small groups and had the chance to talk to them… each group of 10 or so people with one american ‘watermarker’. each group discussed different things… but in many groups.. interest about God, Jesus, and faith were sparked. it was amazing to see the wide range of questions… everything from “what do you think of the iraq war” to “what do you think about danmark” to “do you live by the bible”…. it was great. then we had a traditional danish meal.. that was prepared by the girls of the class….. and MAN it was DELICIOUS! i had such a fun time with those teenagers.

then this evening we played some music at a worship service at a church in rødbyhavn. it went really well… and after the service we had time for some great conversations with the people there while we had coffee and cake… and we were asked to do some more songs as an encore.

i would write more… but i’m tired. i did upload more pictures from today… so go check those out… oh. and i want to apologize for my webpage being blank earlier. it was a problem with the server.. and not my fault! but all is well again… and tracy is a happy girl again

have a most awesome night everyone! *hugz* keep spreading the love of Christ!

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so you would think i was in danmark or something. and don’t be too impressed with that title… it’s just what was on the schedule for today. we did a little acoustic program for a confirmation class in vålse… EARLY this morning… and then we did a ‘youth service’ in nakskov at night.

so i’m extremely exhausted right now.. since it’s almost 2am, but i just have to say quickly… GOD ROCKS!!! i had so much fun today… met even more great people.. and just had a great time rocking out on the drums… in a huge, beautiful, old church building. (probably the oldest building i’ve been in… ever) our program at night consisted of around 45 minutes of music and a sharing… then a coffee break… then a time of worship afterwards. the program went well.. the coffee break was fun and i sold stuff… and then the worship was AMAZING! we just played some contemporary worship songs in english… overheads shown against a wall in the church… and worshiped God in this beautiful building… with new friends. there were around 30-40 people there, all ages. i miss being on a worship team. i miss seeing people with eyes closed and hands raised, not even paying attention to me playing the drums. it was nice to get a taste of that tonight. it was completely unexpected… and so much what i needed.

-o- in other random news…. tonight while we were eating and during our concert, there was someone there taking video of us…. for a tv station! it seems weird.. but they want to do some sort of story on us…. so a guy was taking lots of video… close up… behind us… in front of us… far away… us eating…. us talking… us playing… etc. and tomorrow we will be going in for an interview or something? i donno. this seems weird… but i’m excited for this opportunity. it just shows that when you are following God’s call to “go”… people sit up and wonder why.

oh. i also uploaded pictures tonight… so go check those out

alright. tracy needs her sleep. *hugz to all* nighty night!

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Message from Lisa – The last few nights have been about relaxing and getting to know the people here. Danes like to sit around a table with candle light while drinking coffee or tea with some cake. The purpose is to be cosy and enjoy one another’s company. Last night Tracy and I spent some time with our 18 year old host sister Elisabeth. She is going to a school called gymnasium (grades 10-13th I believe). She is in her last year and knows English very well and so do her parents. We talked with her for a long time during and after dinner and as she translated the newspaper headlines to me. On the front page there was a Des Moines article. The headline was Valgkamp eksploderer I Bush-had. Now that it’s a new day I don’t remember exactly what she told me it meant. By looking at the article and picking out words I recognize, I think it is talking about John Kerry’s ads against Bush. Anyway, it has been neat to say “Jeg hedda Lisa, jeg kommer fra Iowa, USA” and people actually nod their heads having heard about the lovely place Quite exciting!!!

A little about our upcoming week- Jesper Iverson is the contact that is with us now until Sunday. Yesterday after we met him he asked us to share our testimonies with him and our expectations for the week. My expectations are that we will meet many wonderful people. I hope I can get to know them a bit and that God’s love is poured out on them through us. I also expect to be asked questions about God and about the USA. We will be stretched in many new ways, and we are up for the challenge! God will be faithful. You may follow our schedule (it is a rough outline) on the Innermission website. http://www.indremission.dk/musik/watermark/tur.php Thanks for keeping us and the people we meet in your prayers. Until next time, Lisa

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