With the recent horror visited upon the nation of Norway with the bombing near government buildings in Oslo and the many shooting deaths on Utoeya Island at a political youth camp Terje Konradsen, the Chairman of YWAM Northern Europe, issued this statement:

The Norwegian people of 4,8 mil woke up to a national tragedy this morning. After the bomb explosion in Oslo centre yesterday, it became evident that more than 80 young people also had been shot to death at a political youth camp, by a 32 year old Norwegian – probably the same person who made and released the bomb.

The government buildings, including the office of the prime minister, look like a battlefield. How could one extreme nationalist do this alone? There are many questions.

As believers we ask ourselves what to say to non-believing victims and their families. The horror at the island, where the youths were killed, was a hell-experience. 500 young people were running for their lives as the gun-man was executing them. Some escaped jumping into the sea, but even there they were shot at.

No YWAM’ers were killed or wounded yesterday, but as Norwegians we all feel the loss and the pain. Personally I have two children living in Oslo center, they were both safe. Our son is working close to the bomb center, but he was not at the office yesterday. We have lot to thank God for!

Please pray for YWAM Norway; that our staff, and the entire body of Christ, will be anointed to point at Jesus in the days of sorrow and grief.

Terje Konradsen

Chairman, YWAM Northern Europe

Our sincere prayers to out to the nation and people in Norway.

If you have ever thought that being an engineer wasn’t a useful skill for being in missions, then you are quite possibly missing out on fulfilling God’s plan for your life.

Don’t believe me? Check out this video:

The Engineer has a vision to design and build semi-trucks that can provide housing for a 12-person team, a full equipped stage to do evangelism and also provide a place for store and transport Bibles.

You can read a bit more about it here.

Sometimes it’s amazing how much you can help, through something so little…

In rural Papua New Guinea one in seven women die in childbirth! Yep, that’s right, 1 in 7 women die in childbirth! That’s a shocking statistic to say the least. To give birth to a child a mother has a 15% chance of dying, can you imagine?

A friend of mine, Adriel Booker, in Australia works with YWAM Ships, a ministry that is currently working on delivering medical help into Papua New Guinea. She is a Mom, blogger and fellow YWAMer who has a strong passion for helping other mothers in need. To help expectant mothers in Papua New Guinea she has started a program called Bloggers for Birth Kits to help reduce maternal mortality in rural Papua New Guinea.

The way to help is so simple that anyone can do it…

For as little as a $2.00 donation you can purchase a Birth Kit. The Birth Kit is very simple, but according to the Birthing Kit Foundation can greatly help to reduce the incidence of infant and maternal mortality and morbidity. The kit includes:

• 1 plastic sheet to provide a clean birthing surface
• 1 bar of soap for clean hands during the birthing process and to clean the umbilical stump
• 1 pair of plastic gloves for clean hands
• 1 sterile scalpel blade to cut the umbilical cord
• 3 cords / pieces of strong string to tie the umbilical chord
• 5 gauze squares to clean the baby and mother

The kit is simple, yet effective. Adriel made up her own (which you can watch on the video at the bottom of this post), but I think the most effective way for us to help is to donate.

If you do want to help with this great project, and for only $2.00 who wouldn’t want to help, you can read more about it at Bloggers for Birth Kits.

This post was originally posted on my personal blog at Help Prospective Mothers in Papua New Guinea – Bill Hutchison