What I like about Christmas

I thought I was going to spend Christmas in a stable this year, but just before the holiday-season my work at the farm was done. I am missing the work and the cows, but it´s very good to have a week of rest.

Luke 1:46-49

And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant.

For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed;

for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name.

Luke 1:76-79

And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High;

for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,

to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins,

because of the tender mercy of our God,

whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high

to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,

to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

Christmas: filled with traditions

The story of Jesus birth is what I like best of Christmas. It has to be part of "my" Christmas.

At my christmas-dinner, I read that story aloud for myself, in Dutch and in English.

Reading the Christmas story at the dinner-table was not something I got from my family in the Netherlands, but I picked it up from one family here in Norway, that I got to celebrated Christmas with a few times.

Into darkness

This time when I read the story, I was especially moved to read that God sees people in their humble situations. And that He is sending His Son as a saving light to people that live utter darkness.

It moves me to be a "visiting light" to those that don´t know and see God like this. The value that the Christmas of the bible gives me, is something I want others to see too.

Luke 2:29-32

“Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word;

for my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,

a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.”

Silenced nights

In the last week before Christmas, we have lost a young friend, Lars Kristian Kvåle. He had to battle leukaemia in the last years, and in the end his body was not strong enough. His spirit was alive, even in the hard fight against the cancer. In the end, he had all his hope in Jesus, and he lived and shone this hope every day. It was a joy to see him on the stage singing and playing guitar.

Now that he is in heaven, I will try to shine a light with the same hope and love that he had in Jesus.

For those that never got to meet him, and for those that not have met Jesus.

Mot Målet 4, 2013

The fourth and the last issue of Mot Målet for this year. Unexpectedly, I got to work as one of it´s editors. In the last three years, I´ve mainly been working on the layout of this magazine. But now that our editor has left for a year-long furlough, someone had to fill in the job. That became me.

One thing I really liked about my new role as one of the editors, was to give other people space to tell their stories. As editors, we have to know a lot of people, and know their stories well. That is one thing I learned.

I might have mentioned this before, but this year, we started to publish our magazine digitally, right here.

Fjøsnisse

The norwegian "Fjøsnisse",
the gnomes/elves that live in the barn and help to take care of the livestock.

I´m really enjoying my time at the farm. So much milk, so much muck.
The first two weeks were a very steep learning-curve. Early mornings and late evenings.
Now that I´ve got things under control a but more, I´ve got time to think of all the things I want to do in the new year. Dreaming, wishing, planning.

I did not get time to color the drawing yet, I hope to do that later.
It´s bedtime now. Bye bye.

Feeding the newborn calf with a bottle,
this was my reference-photo for the drawing.
 

The farm
 

The little red mini-loader we use to feed the cows
 

I was in a traffick-accident last thursday.
It was very slippery, and the car I sat in slid off the road.
It landed one meter down the road on it´s left side.
Thank God that of us got hurt, but the car is a bit of a wreck.
 

From the farm

Here are some more photos from the farm where I am working for a couple of weeks.
I really enjoy the work, but can get quite frustrated with how much time it takes me to finish all the work. Usually, I am not home before seven or eight.

For YWAM, I still had one brochure to finish, and I didn´t get done with it until today. Every year we send out a christmas greeting to many of sour contacts. I had the opportunity to illustrate a christmas-card for this occasion, but just did not have the time for it, I have only been in my office for one or two hours around lunchtime

The calves from last week have grown a lot, and they are drinking well.
 

A ray of winter sun-light through the stable-window.
 

This photo is taken from the little tractor we use for feeding the cows,
it just fits on the path between where the cows are staying.

Work, ask, think

Last week was a big adjustment, getting up early, getting into the new work, figuring out where everything is, and how it can be done in the most efficient way.

It´s character-building. I have to be patient with myself when I can´t get the job done as fast as I want to. Every new thing I can either divided to figure it out myself, or phone the farmer. Independent as I am, it can be difficult for me to ask for help.

The farmer is an older man who has trouble with his knee. He has recently been operated, and is still walking with crutches. It´s difficult for him to stay in the house that is seventy meters from the barn.

From the back of the stable we have a nice view on lake Mjøsa.
I am surprised it has not been snowing yet, and I am happy that it is not so cold.
 

The wintery afternoon skies,
with the tractor in the foreground.

Picking up "take-away" for the cows,
from a little drive down the road.
 

From studio to stable

Born yesterday, this is one of the calves I at the farm I am working on now.

Sometimes, it´s good to do something totally different. It´s one thing to talk about it, or think about it,  it´s another thing to just do it.
Last thursday, quite suddenly, I decided that I´m will be working on a diary-farm until the end of the year.
I´ve worked on farms before, both in the Netherlands and on Iceland.
I really enjoy the physical work on the farm, it´s a welcome change from all the office-work that I am doing the rest of the year.

I didn´t make any drawings for you this time, I´m tired. Gotta go to bed.

Good night

This is what my days look like now.
This one os the other newborn calf.

Selfie: the editor

Self-portrait,
November 2013

Hey, I´m done with the magazine, it´s all done. I did learn how to plan my work well. I started to use Evernote, and that helped. Now that I can keep track of my work a lot easier, I don´t have to "carry it around with me" all the time.
When the magazine has been printed and sent through the mail, I will put an electronic version online. Since I was one of the editors, I got to write some articles and the editorial column. With a portrait picture. I also drew myself a portrait.

The photo for the magazine.

Please pray!

Lars Kristian, the guy that took the photo for me has been fighting leukaemia in the last years. He´s been in the hospital twice now for treatment. But the cancer has come back again just this week.
At the time of writing, he is at the hospital close to where he lives. The doctors have said that there is very little they could do, a miracle is needed now.

Will you join us to pray and ask God to come with His peace and healing. For him and his family.

Homedays: Visual note-taking

Tuesday´s notes from our "Homedays"
 

Wednesday´s notes from our "Homedays"
 

Drawing conclusions

Again, little time for a long post. And again, I am up after my bedtime making drawings for you.
This week, we are having "Home-days" at Grimerud. This means we drop our work for a few days and spend time together, talk about how we are doing. Rather than talking about what we are doing.
This means we have long meetings, where we are can process and talk about things.
My way of processing, has been to draw and write. And it´s interesting to see how the ideas connect visually. My imagination helps me to draw conclusions.

Since all work is for the time of homedays, I had a "almost-final" week of making Mot Målet. We did get a lot done, but I am still wearing my editor-hat in addition to my designer-hat. Only today, We´ve gotten to taking a cover-picture for the magazine.
By this time next week, we should have made the deadline.

Sketchbook pages: Wild Ducks

To the left: One finished drawing in my sketchbook.

Concept art for a folktale story: The Twelve Wild Ducks.
My favourite Norwegian folktale.

Editorial

I´ve never sent so many e-mails in one week. I knew it was going to be crazy, but I didm´t expect it to be so crazy. Now that most of the text is in, I´ve got to get the pictures and graphics for the magazine, this is the "Art Direction" phase.
It´s the almost-final week that I work on the magazine, and there is still a lot to be done. To be able to work more efficiently I installed Evernote on my computer. Evernote helps to keep track of all the things I´ve got to do. I´m still getting used to it, but it´s actually working. And I like it.

The work with Mot Målet is taking a lot of energy, so please pray with me that all the things will go alright. We are quite vulnerable

A new co-worker for Café UNO arrived this week. She´s from the states, and is going to be working with "KreativUNO". She is trained as an arts-teacher, and is going to lead the creative workshops for the youth in the city. We are really happy she was finally able to come, she´s had to wait long to get a visa.

My little nephew had his first birthday this week,
so we skyped together this weekend.

Fresh starts

I´ve joined an online challenge to become a morning-person, it´s over at 99U.
I´ve been getting up at five every morning now, and try to be in bed by ten (instead of two in the night). If you´re on twitter and want to follow along with how me and the others doing, look for the #labrat hashtag. Yes, I´m on twitter too. Here I incidentally post sketches and work that does´t come on my blog. Follow me if you like.

Now that I´m up earlier in the morning, I´m trying to take good time to read the know devotional from Oswald Chambers: My Utmost for His Highest. I can really recommend this for you if you´r a christian.

Literary costumes

Halloween costumes, Peer Gynt-style:
Peer on the goat, and the farmer who cut off his finger with a sickle.
 

If you´r out on the streets tomorrow evening, stay safe and be nice.

Coming up with original costumes is just too much fun when you´r an illustrator.

I´ve tried to keep some candy in the jar in my office for this week, but twice I ate all of in myself.

For years, the churches in Hamar have been organising their own «nice» version of halloween, where kids don´t dress up as something scary, and they do games and get candy without going from door to door. I have helped out twice with that event, face painting and making balloon figures. I won´t be helping out this year.

For the fans:
Get a big flat cardboard box and dress up like a Wittenberg-churchdoor.
The 31st of October also is reformation-day,
 

New student on our DTS

Back at Grimerud we´ve got a new student for our DTS, the special thing with him is that he only has only known about Jesus and christianity for a few months. He is originally from a country where Islam is the predominant religion. 

My parents at the moose-statue,
it was outside the Norwegian Forestry Museum in Elverum.

Some old heavy duty forestry tractor at the same museum.

Around and around

Last week I had taken a week off, because of my birthday. And together with my parents we visited the Norwegian Forestry Museum in Elverum, lots of old photos, old tools, and stuffed bears and wolves. Elverum is only forty minutes away from where I live.

I really wanted to show you some "real big nice drawings", in the last weeks I have only been posting sketches and smaller drawings. I just don´t get to draw and paint as much as I want to. This weekend, I have been very busy in the kitchen here at Grimerud.
The work with the magazine is coming along quite well, I think. but I´ve mostly been working with text up to now, so I can´t show any funky drawings or paintings.

32

It is my birthday today, I am turning 32.

This week my parents are visiting from the Netherlands. For a birthday-present I got to go clothes shopping with my dad´s bank card, this was yesterday.

Today we took a trip out to the island on the middle of lake Mjøsa. We can see the island from where I live at Grimerud. Tomorrow we´ll visit another place.

Here are some photo´s from the today´s trip:

Dad at the chalk-ovens at Bergevika on the little island of Helgøya.

Mum and dad behind Hovinsholm on the little island of Helgøya.

Family picture at lake.

For the above picture, I used the camera´s timer,
i set the camera to take two photo´s, this is the first shot.
In the right-corner, you can see me running into the picture.

After dinner I skyped with my brother and his family. All four of them sang the Dutch birthday-song fro me. My nephew´s (age one and three) don´t see me so often, so both the ideas of "Skype" and "Uncle Jan Willem" were still a bit foreign to them.

A sketch from the weekend.

Swap hat

Up to this birthday-week I have been working with the articles for out Norwegian YWAM Magazine. After next weekend, I will "swap hat" and start working as the designer of the magazine.
I have enjoyed the text-side of the magazine-making. On monday-afternoon this week, I interviewed someone for the magazine. That was the first time for me to do an interview. There is always something new to do here, and after the first time, there will be many times where I can improve upon the first.
It is dawning for me how an big influence I have gotten now that I am a bigger part of making this magazine that is going out to 10.000 subscribers. The number of readers is not the biggest reason for me to do my very best, but rather to do a good job of help people along in their christian life, and to represent YWAM well.


Thank you for all the birthday wishes everyone, it is much appreciated!