ほっと ♡ HOPE

Wanna hear a crazy story?!
Well it started a few years ago when Anniken and I took a trip along the coast towards Miyako and happened to stop by a random city called Oofunato on the way.
Check my former blogs here:
1. http://www.nina-san.blogspot.jp/2009/01/mission-trip-with-anniken-to-miyako.html

2. http://www.nina-san.blogspot.jp/2009/03/2nd-mission-trip-with-anniken.html

In January here in this City we went to the local church and a met a lady there called Keiko-san. And from one talk to another. We both found out we knew Anniken.
Here´s our conversation.
Keiko: Where are you from?
Nina: Norway
Keiko: Oh I know someone from Norway. Her name is Anniken Mori
Nina: Really, I know here too!!! Where did you meet her?
Keiko: I met her at a cafe in Oofunato a few years ago..
Nina:...... ??? was there anyone else with her at that time...?
Keiko: Yes, it was a younger girl..
Nina: IT WAS ME!!!!!!!!

It was soo amazing to meet her again.
She is an amazing woman with lots of guts and ideas and she makes them happen.
She told me about this english/bible/tea study she wanted to start up, and asked if I was interested in helping her.
So now a few months we have been having this english study teatimes every friday. It´s called HOTTO♡HOPE.
It´s so nice and many people come, and we always have a good time.
Every time there is someone in charge of doing something creative (in english), either I sing, Kat shows hula-dancing, Burton teaches drawing etc. and we connect it together with a bible verse that we read in english and japanese. Then we drink tea and talk! :)

So here´s some pictures:

Sub church stopping by:)

Last weekend Paul and I went to Iwaki to spend some days with our wonderful Sub Church family that came to visit from Norway.
It was sooo nice to have them here!
On our way back to Senmaya, we put Pål Hallstein in the car and brought him with us, and he came and joined us at our Tohoku life for a couple of days.

We also visited a temporary housing that Kei Masui and Tomoko usually visits. And we sang songs together.

Buron & Kat Sue

Check out our wonderful co-workers blog HERE

Love on Japan

I made a little movie from our work here in Tohoku Japan.
The song is from a Norwegian movie called "Kamilla& Tyven" and the song is called "Vi bygger hus".
The lyric of the song is about building up a "house" of love and friendships.
We will give you all the hope we have.

Our work here in Senmaya-Kesennuma

Here´s some pictures from our daily kind of work here.
So here one day we helped this guy, a photographer who came from Tokyo to deliver out socks that had been donated from different kind of Punk bands in Tokyo.
This guy also has his photo project called "Rolls Tohoku", you can check out his website here ROLLS TOHOKU
He gives out cameras to different people and get them to take pictures of their daily life and then he posts them here at this page.


This kanji says "Shiawase" that means "Happy"











This man had dried up Kaki outside his temporary housing and he gave me one :)





And here´s some pictures from the mobile cafe´s we are doing and different stuff:)
This is from an event this lady had where she taught the survivors how to make this baskets out of this annoying commercial papers you always get in your mail.
I love the smile of this lady under here while she is working on her 3rd basket.







This is from a craft event at another place.
The lady with the peace sign used to have a music instrument shop together with her husband, now the shop is gone.
Really nice people.



This man had lost alot in the tsunami, including all his nice hats, and our volunteer Glen wanted to give him his Buffalo hat, so they changed:)

Do Not Worry- there´s more chocolate on the way

I like chocolate!
No, I loooove chocolate- specially good chocolate- rare chocolate- dark chocolate!
I loooove coffee!!!
Specially Hides coffee, good coffee, fresh coffee, unusual coffee!

I have really been reminded of something lately, and that it that God actually provides;)

A few weeks ago this L.A team left us a special christmas present, a box of "See`s chocolate" and "Pet´s coffee".
(I wrote about it in my "Gift" post a few weeks ago).


Paul and I opened the box and the chocolate was amazing!

We ate it carefully so we wouldn´t run out of it..
The coffee we got was also amazing, and yea, we actually got TWO bags of pet´s coffee from them ...
It was so precious that I kind of felt like hiding it away...and to be honest, keep it a little bit for ourselfs ...

...but then the blessings kept on flowing over us....
Another team came and had heard the rumors about us enjoying the See´s chocolate, so they had brought another BIG TWO LAYERS BOX!! .

Together with the Christmas season, good food ,marsipan and good cookies war raining down over us, followed up by a trip to Iwaki where we got another dose of Hide´s coffee ..
then a package from Norway filled with joy, great stuff and ANOTHER BIG BAR of Fantastic Norwegian chocolate.
and another package with wonderful chocolate, then a box with a BIG bag of wonderful coffee beans, than another big Box of chocolate and goodies and coffee, than ANOTHER one with amazing chocolate from Germany..



What I´m trying to say here is that there´s no need to keep a survival mood here, store up to be sure you have enough, cause God really knows how to provide the right stuff at the right time! ;)


Matthew 6:25-34

25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

2011 og 2012

2011 "Music year /Result year"

New-years eve facing 2011, I was sitting with my friends concluding that the year of 2011 would be my "Music year and the year of Results (not just ideas)"
So let me sum up here and see..

-January: Got to borrow an apartment in Berlin for free for a week. Practiced and played at open mikes.


-February: Two weeks trip to Japan, 2 concerts, one in Tokyo and one in Iwaki, music-video for fun.



-March: Joined Trine Reins support concert for Japan "Gift to Japan" with my song "Angel", with the crown-prince and TV2 as audience.
http://webtv.tv2.no/webtv/sumo/?progId=506297


-April: Went to Kentucky and started dating Paul.


- May: One week "Acoustic-String workshop" in innsbruck in Austria with all the expenses covered. One week intense music focus with great musicians from all around Europe.
http://www.sommercamp.at/workshop2011/Acoustic_Strings_Workshop/Overview.html



- June: Got engaged to Paul


- July: Got 10.000 NOK support from Cultiva to record an EP (that I ended up not getting since I ugently moved away from Kr.sand. But it was a nice compliment and gave me a lot of inspiration)

- August: Paul & I got married


- September: Moved to Japan

- Oktober: Rested with my husband, made music and played out in the nature


-November: Moved to Senmaya and started working for CRASH, Performed my songs on all the mobile cafe´s around this area.


-Desember: Collected my drawing into a little book. Performed on the cafe´s every day.




So now as I´m looking back, I think 2011 really turned out the way I prayed. God really opened doors for me in 2011. And I must say the biggest result of 2011 was that I found a man-got engage- and married all in one year! :)


2012
I still wanna continue with my music year and I still need results,
so I think I will call this year the same!

Hard to give...

A few years ago, I remember I heard a pastor saying in his message,
"If you give something that doesn´t mean anything to you to someone, you haven´t really given anything"....
I was reminded of that yesterday...
Yesterday at our mobile cafe at the temporary housing areas, we were sitting around a table talking. Then I saw one of the volunteers starting to give out this cake/snack that we at the staff had gotten as a gift from someone. The thing is that I have really learnt to love this special snack, so I was a little disturbed by seeing it been given away.
Then someone at my table said as a joke: " Haha, Nina doesn´t really want to share this cake with everyone, cause she wanna eat everything herself".
I was feeling really embarrassed and tried to excuse myself... while I kept on thinking about how selfish I had been in my mind...
This was just about a snack and no big deal...

But today it´s Christmas, "JULAFTEN".
I woke up to a normal day as usual, ate breakfast with about 15 new people, prepared for a mobile cafe, and right before we took off, I checked my email, and find wonderful Christmas e-mails from my favorite people in my life, parents, sister and brother with family. I was feeling how much I miss them all and how much I would have wanted to be with them right now.. I kind of just wanted to sit there in front of my computer, close my eyes and pretend I was there together with them...
But then I was called on to hurry up, and I had to run out to the car that was waiting for me. As we were driving the 40 minutes to this special temporary housing area that I´m usually looking forward to be done with since it usually makes me feel insecure and it´s very challenging for me, I was hiding myself in the backseat of the car trying to hide the tears falling down my face..
I was feeling so sorry for myself, feeling that this feeling was the core of my sacrifice....
The time of the year when we all come back to our hometown, meet up with our good old friends, walk around in the nice cold christmas decorated streets doing the last christmas shopping as we pass all this random people we haven´t seen in years, spend time with our family and eat good food and cookies, and then friends and family christmas parties the days to follow..

Before we left the temporary housing, they thanked us for coming, over and over again, and told us how grateful they were that we chose to spend our time with them in this christmas season..
It was hard for me to receive..cause today it was really hard for me to give....

..it stil is..

Cause today..I really miss my wonderful family and friends!