Teal Nail Polish

So in February 2013 I was sitting in church on a sunday morning next to one of my friends and noticed her nails. They were this absolutely perfect shade of teal which is kind of green and kind of blue but I personally think there's more blue in my preferred definition of teal.

Side note- I love having my nails done. If they're painted and manicured I just feel so much more put together, like I can basically be super women or Lois Lane that day. I think it's just part of my hopeful (not hopeless) romantic personality. Coco Chanel supposedly said

and I will be the first to admit that I've left the house before looking like a mess but the point is that I just feel better when my nails are done. Also, (haha I feel so silly saying this) the color really matters. Sometimes if the color is just right then the rest of the day can be just a little more perfect. So anyways back to the story. I decided after seeing her nails that the color would be perfect for the next week. The only problem was that I didn't have any teal nail polish at home. I had pink,green, purple, blue, yellow, chartreuse, beige, magenta, and any other color but no teal. So on tuesday I was at the store with mama and I asked if I could get some teal nail polish. She said no because honestly there's probably a lot of better things you could spend $3 on. But me being 17 year old Matisse so much younger... (haha not really I'd probably do the exact same thing today) decided that I had had to have it. So after getting the no I decided to ask my papa. No, not my dad but my papa God. I thought well, God you say that you'll take care of your children and give us the desires of our hearts and that you feed the sparrows so I know that I don't need this teal nail polish but papa I really really would love if I could somehow get some soon. And then went on with my day. Forward to the next night, wednesday night, I go to Acteens. Basically it's this girls group from 7th-12th grade and we meet once a week at church and talk about missions and our week and encourage each other and have lessons and snacks and do some mission trips. It's really awesome. So I walk into the class room that night and sit down ready for a lesson or speaker or craft when one of our teachers walks in and says something like "Okay girls, I know we've never done this before but tonight instead of lessons we're going to paint nails." And of course I was half freaking out and half thinking of course papa:) you are so good and always follow through. And then she pulled out a giant bag of all pink nail polish. But I really believe that God cares about even the tiniest details down to the color. So I just sat there and waited and then about 5 minutes later her daughter came into the room late because she had forgotten a bag in the car and then she pulled out a big bag with all different colors. Inside the bag was not just one bottle of teal nail polish but 

five bottles of different shades of teal. God is so good!! I of course got super excited and cried and was overwhelmed with how awesome my papa was for listening to such a simple and kinda silly prayer and told everyone in the room what happened. Then the next day my teacher shared with the people at her work what happened with my prayer for nail polish and then one of the women she worked with showed up a few days later with a lovely present bag full of all this new nail polish and polish remover and cotton balls she had gotten for me because she'd been touched by the story. So my teacher gave me the sweet gift and I was really kind of in shock because it had started out so little then it had gotten all the way to that kind woman. I already had most of the colors so I saved the nail polish and took it with me on my mission trip to Guatemala in June 2013. While I was there we visited a mountain village where we helped with a local program that fed children twice a week. The children lined up outside to be served 

 and while they waited I painted the girls nails with the nail polish the woman gave me. Most of them had never had their nails painted and they were beyond excited. Their little faces would light up when I finished and told them how pretty they looked and how beautiful they were. They walked around skipping and showing each other and getting back in line to have their nails painted again. I absolutely loved every second of it. I also got to paint more nails after dinner when they came out from eating

and while I was painting my heart was breaking because some of the leaders at the meal program told us that most of these children didn't have anyone at home hugging them or loving on them or telling them they were beautiful. They were lucky enough if they got a meal that day and their parents were either absent physically or mentally because they were exhausted from working too much to make enough for meals and schooling. I was just talking to God and asking why papa why are all these beautiful children going without these basic needs isn't there something I could do. And He said that even though it wasn't much when I sat down and took the time to paint their nails they felt seen. They maybe for the first time in a while had someone give them undivided attention, someone looking into their eyes and braiding their hair and holding them close. And for now that's enough. Because just like in the starfish story you can't save every starfish, but for the one that you pick up and throw into the ocean you made a difference. So there's my story about how incredibly good God is. He's so good. He answers the smallest prayers not always how we expect, sometimes in a completely different way or like in the nail polish story where He answered it and used it in ways much larger than I expected. 

Know that when you pray He will listen. 

love love love you guys

Matisse

Randomness

Here's some random details about this past week and everything else I could think of!

• I got to Skype my family for a long time and it was lovely. It's beyond weird seeing them grow up through a phone or computer screen but I'm so grateful that technology exists. I can't imaging writing letter and not being able to see faces or hear voices for so long. 
• I watched Obediah do a front flip because he's super awesome and I got to talk to Bella about life and Henry about football and I miss them each tons and they're so old:(

• I got to speak at a youth group and even though it was maybe 7 people for the first time I wasn't  nervous at all! Yay God!! 
• After the youth group I was running around the car super fast to get in the back seat first haha and I ran smack dab into the thing that you attach a boat or trailer to and completely wiped out in the parking lot and I'm pretty sure this dad sitting in the car saw me along with everyone else coming to get into the car. It hurt really bad but I so wish I had a video because I'm pretty sure it was the funniest thing ever. 
• Alfie, my plant is still alive and well after being in my room and being taken care of me for 7 weeks. 
• I started listening to Christmas music on Nov. 2 because in Norway they don't put up trees or anything until the 23 of Dec. so I'm planning to enjoy everything Christmas for as long as possible. 
• I'm still loving it here!! Everything is so beautiful and the people are lovely. 
• It snowed a couple times this week but it didn't stay on the ground very long but the puddles have all frozen over so I can step on them 

• Everyone has a work duty and mine is in the kitchen one monday tuesday thursday and friday and I love it!! The cooks are amazing! I help fix the food so doing things like chopping up fish or vegetables or peeling 2 kilos of carrots or washing dishes or cleaning something or making rice. It's so much fun and relaxing because I don't have time to think too much about anything except for what my task is. I also get to help set up the tables and light the candles which is my favorite part of it. There's a word in Norwegian that is Koselig and it's similar to the english word cozy or comfy or snug but it's used a lot more. It's almost a definition of creating warmth. It could also be used as a feeling that doesn't exactly have an english translation. Here's another bloggers explanation of it                                                                                                      "There is an important concept one needs to understand and embrace when living in Norway: being “koselig”. Most English speakers translate it by “cosy” but that term doesn’t even begin to cover everything that “koselig” can express. This concept is difficult to translate to those who do not live here, but basically anything can (and should) be koselig: a house, a conversation, a dinner, a person. It defines something/someone /an atmosphere that makes you feel a sense of warmth very deep inside in a way that all things should be: simple and comforting."                                     So basically it means candles every night at dinner and it's like living in a pinterest board of winter lovely cozy things. Koselig. And it's so much fun to use because everything in the winter is so koselig! I'd pronounce it like cooshleague I think but there are so many different ways to say it so I may be wrong :) 
  So I would say for example - The room in the picture is so koselig. The fire is koselig tonight. I feel so koselig. The warmth is so koselig. It's so nice to feel so koselig when it's so cold outside. But that's just what I think it means :) haha I could be wrong 
• It's starting to get darker and darker earlier. It gets dark around 3:58pm and the sun comes up around 8 am 
• I'm really excited about advent calendars 
• Burl Ives singing about Christmas makes me homesick 
• So many people haven't seen the polar express so we're going to watch it in December
• I can't think of anything else :)

Happy Saturday!!!

Hello Everyone:) I hope this post finds you all healthy and happy. I've had a really amazing week. It's been a ton of processing and excitement for what God has planned. It's also been a week where I've had some break throughs with things. It's been so good but also exhausting like a baby bird finally breaking out of it's shell. It's happy to be out and free but it's so tired from all of the work that it took to break through the shell. I think God's been teaching me to let Him guide me completely. It's so easy for me to want to be strong and do things and carry myself and I think for a long time I thought I was letting God carry me but I realized there's so much that I try and hold onto by myself. So this weeks been full of letting things go and becoming more childlike, learning to hold Gods hand and let Him lead me and not worrying about where we're going or when we'll get there but just trusting that He'll keep me safe and not lead me somewhere that He couldn't go with me. I think the verse that talks about if human fathers want good things for their children how much more would God in His perfect love want to take care of and give His children good things.. is so good. It's easy, I've found, to have so much head knowledge but to allow all of the head knowledge go to your heart and really sink in is an entirely different thing. This week has been a week of letting all of my head knowledge take the 18 inch trip to my heart in things like

• trusting that God really does want the best for me
• knowing that really and truly He does mean what He says in Jeremiah 29:11 
• believing that I can trust Him to hold my heart and if He has it He will protect it

and several other things that I'm still working and thinking through. I think besides letting head knowledge go to my heart, one of the hardest things for me is not expecting so much of myself. I find it way to easy to judge myself on how far I should be along or what I should already know by now instead of having grace and allowing myself the time to just process and grow. So with all that said it's a painful process but so absolutely good. I'm so excited that all of this is taking place because I want more than anything to know God and to become the woman He created me to be so that I can encourage others and in any way help His kingdom come to earth as it is in heaven. I think that this week has been a week of falling more and more in love with Jesus. He is just beyond words beautiful and good and spectacular. * side note .... lol so I'm listening to spotify while typing this and the song Build Your Kingdom Here by Rend Collective just came on right as I was typing that and it was just too cool not to share :) It's one of my favorite songs and is one of those songs that you can just pray the lyrics to and be overwhelmed with the desire for them to come true. God is so awesome!!!!!! Also, we watched the film Compelled by Love about Heidi Baker and it was so inspiring to see how she completely gives her life everyday to Jesus and says yes to whatever He asks. I think I want to do that but I find myself so many times saying no even if I don't realize it. It was eye opening and all I want is to be able to say yes to all that He asks of me so that's something that I'll be working on the rest of my life but thank goodness I'm not relying on my own strength. In the movie she just had this sense of reckless abandonment that nothing mattered at all just Jesus and what He was asking her to do and where He was asking her to go. Her desire to be sold out and to love all the people around her with this radical love was absolutely incredible and makes me want to live the rest of my life like that. Not in copying her but in running after Jesus and holding nothing back and saying here is everything I have, here I am. Send me. I'm so excited as I type this! God is just so incredibly good. And it wasn't that she never got hurt or that her life was perfect. It actually sounded extremely hard and she has lived through so much pain and many trials but those didn't matter because in the end all she wants is Jesus and to love and serve Him and to love and serve His children. After watching that it was also hard to feel "happy where I'm planted" but I know this is where God wants me right now and I know that I have so many opportunities to live a life just as radical as hers if I just allow God to use me in every day life. and also to know that none of this matters if I don't love Him. Because Jesus is the only thing that matters. He's the only reason I can do anything. I just want to spend the rest of my life falling more and more in love with Him and it's the most thrilling thing knowing that I can. That it's not this thing that I have to work harder or be better. I just have to love Him and everything comes from it. And I don't even have to earn His love but He loves me and has loved me from the beginning of forever and will love me always. He is just so good! So that's how my week has gone. I hope everyone has had an amazing week. I love you guys and miss you! Let me know how you're doing or something new that's happening in your lives. xx - Matisse

Futbol

straight hair! 

this is my friend Ingrid. She's awesome.

Daphne from scoobydoo and Rosie the Riveter

Jelly fish

This is Elizabeth my roommate and Monica. They're sheep/rappers

Dina, one of the staff who is amazing!

Love you all!! Happy November 2nd!

Past Week

So I'm not sure if the vlog worked so I'll just put my highs and lows of this past week

Highs-

• John Dawson, came and spoke over the father heart of God. It was really good but a lot to take in because almost every sentence was something you really need to chew on and think about. He also talked about our history and it made me feel so privileged.
• It snowed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was lovely and white and perfect.
• We had a costume party (pics to come later) and I dressed up as Daphne from Scooby Doo and ate cake with whipped cream and danced to the just dance songs.
• I got to do everyones make up for the party and that was fun
• I had maybe one of the best saturdays I've had since I came to Norway and I got everything cleaned and sorted and felt very accomplished and made something of my saturday
• I got to play monopoly and maybe the first time in ever I finished the game and won
• I got to make dinner for the whole base with 3 other students
• I sorted all my summer clothes out and put them into my suitcase in the attic, thus acquiring more space for clothing
•  spoke in front of a youth group and didn't feel as afraid and actually might have enjoyed myself 
• straightened my hair for the first time in 3 months and it's gotten so long yay!!:)
• got to meet a lot of awesome people from other schools in Norway
• went for a walk and explored old abandoned houses (no worries I was safe and didn't step on the rotten floor boards)

Lows-

• The snow melted the next day
• I dropped the cake with whipped cream on the floor
• I burnt all of the dinner I made hahaha but thankfully everyone ate the porridge that the other people made
• there was only 6 people in the youth group I was talking to lol so not a huge crowd
• everyone from the other base went home.. which is also a high because now the wifi works.. :)

Soo that was my week and I can't really think of anything else.. It was really lovely. Love you all and miss you!!!! 

love love love,

matisse 

Video Blog

Hello everyone :)

The British Museum

We also got to have a tour of Biblical history in the British Museum. It was so cool seeing actual historical evidence that is inline with the Bible. It was also cool to be able to touch something that was in a palace somewhere thousands of years ago. And it was cool to see that my tattoo did actually match up with history and that early christians wanted so badly to display that they were reborn and changed that they put the chi rho on everything including floor tiles and silverware. Also they had the rosetta stone which was crazy to see in person.