more traveling

Last week I, Erlend, went on a trip to a different island again. Anne and Alia stayed home, because it wasn't really a small-child-friendly trip.

 As you can see by the shadow in this picture, this place is quite close to the equator.

After flying commercially to the island, we had to use our organizations helicopter to get out to the village in the mountains. Why do you ask? Because the terrain is so rough there that 5 minutes in the helicopter covers the same distance as one whole days walking if you're in good shape.

 Here is the village where we stayed for 5 days. It is one of the older works, the missionaries moved in in the late 70's, so there's already been a church for a while and the missionaries have moved back out because they are no longer needed there. We attended their church conference where representatives from churches in different villages, but same tribe, met to study God's Word.

I went there with my friend Daniel, and this is the house where we stayed. 

And this is the room we stayed in. If you're wondering, yes, we slept on the floor with only two mats to lay on, but since they were so thin, it felt like sleeping right on the floor.

It was quite exhausting. Every morning when we got up, it felt like we'd got no rest at all.

Here's a picture from one of the meetings. This church has about 400 members and is one of the best Biblically functioning churches I have ever seen. These peoples understanding of Biblical truth and their heart for missions among their own people was just amazing!

This church alone has 40 missionaries in other locations at the moment.

At this conference people attended from a church in another village that used to be at war with the one we were in. Two of the guys were joking about how they would have tried to kill each other just a few years earlier. It is really nice to see how the Gospel not only saves us from our sin, but also sets us free from things in life. 

Me and one of the guys in the village. Because he's got problems with his legs, and can't walk without walking sticks, he makes a living by selling stuff like the hat he's wearing. Its made of the skin of some animal that I have never heard of before...

This country has a lot of coast line, so when we got out of the village, we went to the beach for some snorkeling. Is was awesome, if felt like diving in the finding Nemo movie or something