Yesterday was slightly hectic and scattered, but it was a good day nonetheless. We spent some time in the morning discussing the concept of obedience, looking especially at the book of 1 John as the author lays out the importance and necessity of being obedient to Christ. John keeps it pretty simple when it comes right down to it: love God and love others. That's the big idea, those are the commandments we need to keep. Sounds simple enough... until you actually try and start living those ideas out, and then you realize it's almost an impossible proposition. It's not enough to simply not do "bad things" - murder, adultery, etc. - because God is calling us to an even higher standard and goal for our lives. He wants us to live for Him and for others, which means sacrificing our own goals, dreams, and desires, and love of ourselves, and to begin to truly live as though we love God and also our neighbor.

Last night was "American Night" (each nationality gets a chance to share something from their culture one night), so we had a cookout, played some "American" games, and also got in a game of volleyball down at the beach. I'm not particularly good at volleyball, but it is nice to play a game where my height serves as an advantage for a change. Later that evening we had an "iPod Idol" competition, which was some embarrassingly good fun. The idea is you play a song on your iPod (or other digital music player... Zune Idol just doesn't have the same ring to it, though) and turn the headphone volume up loud enough so that you can't hear yourself sing. It's absolutely hilarious to see and hear people singing at the top of their lungs to music only they can hear. I, of course, made an absolute fool of myself, but it was a grand time. We even had a panel of judges who issued scathing critiques of our pathetic singing attempts.

A couple from New Zealand has been staying at the hostel the past couple days (not as part of discipleship week; they're just traveling through), and they even good-naturedly joined in on the fun of iPod Idol. It's so cool to have people from such a range of countries and cultures coming through this place; I love it. I love hearing people pray in different languages (or accents), hearing what God is doing in different parts of the world, and getting a chance to fellowship with some really quality Christians who are from different countries. Good stuff.

Hopefully we'll get a chance to do some hiking today - it looks like some good weather is finally coming our way after a few drizzly and overcast days. We may try and get a football game going tonight, too - Jan is always up for a game, a quick text is all it takes for him to join the party, and he can usually round up a few others to come and play, too.

It's been really great to reconnect with Steve and Debs, the leaders of the group from the U.K. They more or less lead the Latvia portion of the trip, so they'll be helping us prepare for Zosna camp in the days to come. They're a great couple, and good friends too - they're both real servant leaders with a heart for the Lord. I'm really starting to get excited about Latvia. As great as Norway is, it's Latvia (and Zosna Camp in particular) that I really came back for. I get excited just thinking about getting back there!

Breakfast time - oatmeal again. I forgot just how little protein one tends to get outside of the U.S.