{"id":507,"date":"2015-06-10T12:43:28","date_gmt":"2015-06-10T18:43:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wwv.group.com\/childrens-ministry\/?p=507"},"modified":"2015-08-12T09:52:45","modified_gmt":"2015-08-12T15:52:45","slug":"crossculture-vbs-why-norway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wwv.group.com\/childrens-ministry\/blog\/vbs\/crossculture-vbs-why-norway\/","title":{"rendered":"CrossCulture VBS: Why Norway?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.group.com\/vbs\/expedition-norway\" target=\"_blank\">CrossCulture VBS<\/a> gives churches the opportunity to share <em>the world <\/em>with kids. Too often, the church focuses on the issue of poverty when we talk about the world, and many times we focus only on the physical needs of kids in impoverished countries. Jesus absolutely met people\u2019s physical needs, which opened doors for him to share about and demonstrate God\u2019s love. So\u2026should we <em>only <\/em>focus on countries in which there are physical needs? What about spiritual needs? How are we preparing kids to identify and minister to people who are healthy and whole on the outside\u2026but hurting on the inside?<\/p>\n<p><strong>HURTING ON THE INSIDE<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Norway is one of the wealthiest countries in the world. On the surface, it looks as if people there have <em>everything<\/em> they need\u2014beautiful countryside, breathtaking fjords, rich oil reserves, plentiful jobs, abundant health, technological progress\u2026but spiritually, Norway is incredibly dark. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.newsinenglish.no\/2009\/09\/30\/church-attendance-hits-new-low\/\" target=\"_blank\">Only 2% of the people attend church<\/a>. While a large percentage are official members of the Church of Norway, actual church attendance is nearly non-existent. Increasing numbers of Norwegians are turning away from the God who created, blessed, and loves them dearly.<\/p>\n<p><strong>THE NEED FOR GOD\u00a0IN ALL TIMES<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s easy to steer kids toward God when life is hard. But we need God <em>all the time. <\/em>God is good <em>all the time.<\/em> Our need for God and relationship with God are just as important when life is going well. Perhaps that\u2019s why Jesus cautioned people so frequently about the dangers of wealth. When life is easy, we\u2019re more likely to think we <em>don\u2019t <\/em>need God.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.group.com\/vbs\/expedition-norway\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-525\" src=\"http:\/\/wwv.group.com\/childrens-ministry\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2015\/06\/norway-field-test.jpg\" alt=\"Kids love Norway VBS!\" width=\"250\" height=\"167\" \/><\/a>KIDS WILL EXPERIENCE GOD&#8217;S ETERNAL LOVE<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>At <a href=\"http:\/\/www.group.com\/vbs\/expedition-norway\" target=\"_blank\">Expedition Norway VBS 2016<\/a>, you\u2019ll get to share the sights, sounds, smells, and tastes of this unique culture with the kids in your community, while helping them discover God\u2019s eternal love for the world. As a result, you\u2019ll create confident, faith-filled kids who understand the power of Jesus\u2019 love in a diverse world. You\u2019ll give kids a heart\u2014not just to meet the physical needs of others, but to pray for spiritual renewal, as well. Plus, they\u2019ll have an amazing time trying out new games, songs, awesome experiences, and more, all inspired by the beautiful country of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.group.com\/vbs\/expedition-norway\" target=\"_blank\">Norway<\/a>!<\/p>\n<p>Have you ever been to Norway? Let me know about your experience in the comment section below!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CrossCulture VBS gives churches the opportunity to share the world with kids. Too often, the church focuses on the issue of poverty when we talk about the world, and many times we focus only on the physical needs of kids in impoverished countries. Jesus absolutely met people\u2019s physical needs, which opened doors for him to share about and demonstrate God\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":524,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[78,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-product-announcements","category-vbs"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>CrossCulture VBS: Why Norway? - Group Children&#039;s Ministry<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"CrossCulture VBS gives churches the opportunity to share the world with kids. Too often, the church focuses on the issue of poverty when we talk about the\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/wwv.group.com\/childrens-ministry\/blog\/vbs\/crossculture-vbs-why-norway\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"CrossCulture VBS: Why Norway? - Group Children&#039;s Ministry\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"CrossCulture VBS gives churches the opportunity to share the world with kids. Too often, the church focuses on the issue of poverty when we talk about the\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/wwv.group.com\/childrens-ministry\/blog\/vbs\/crossculture-vbs-why-norway\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Group Children&#039;s Ministry\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/GroupChildrensMinistry\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-06-10T18:43:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-08-12T15:52:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wwv.group.com\/childrens-ministry\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2015\/06\/norway-vbs.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1067\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jody Brolsma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@groupkidmin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@groupkidmin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jody Brolsma\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wwv.group.com\/childrens-ministry\/blog\/vbs\/crossculture-vbs-why-norway\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/wwv.group.com\/childrens-ministry\/blog\/vbs\/crossculture-vbs-why-norway\/\",\"name\":\"CrossCulture VBS: Why Norway? - Group Children&#039;s Ministry\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wwv.group.com\/childrens-ministry\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wwv.group.com\/childrens-ministry\/blog\/vbs\/crossculture-vbs-why-norway\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wwv.group.com\/childrens-ministry\/blog\/vbs\/crossculture-vbs-why-norway\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/wwv.group.com\/childrens-ministry\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2015\/06\/norway-vbs.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-06-10T18:43:28+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-08-12T15:52:45+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wwv.group.com\/childrens-ministry\/#\/schema\/person\/0252ca36290735b6f337c050eaea5d01\"},\"description\":\"CrossCulture VBS gives churches the opportunity to share the world with kids. Too often, the church focuses on the issue of poverty when we talk about the\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wwv.group.com\/childrens-ministry\/blog\/vbs\/crossculture-vbs-why-norway\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/wwv.group.com\/childrens-ministry\/blog\/vbs\/crossculture-vbs-why-norway\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wwv.group.com\/childrens-ministry\/blog\/vbs\/crossculture-vbs-why-norway\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/wwv.group.com\/childrens-ministry\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2015\/06\/norway-vbs.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/wwv.group.com\/childrens-ministry\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2015\/06\/norway-vbs.jpg\",\"width\":1600,\"height\":1067},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wwv.group.com\/childrens-ministry\/blog\/vbs\/crossculture-vbs-why-norway\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/wwv.group.com\/childrens-ministry\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"CrossCulture VBS: Why Norway?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wwv.group.com\/childrens-ministry\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/wwv.group.com\/childrens-ministry\/\",\"name\":\"Group Children&#039;s Ministry\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/wwv.group.com\/childrens-ministry\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wwv.group.com\/childrens-ministry\/#\/schema\/person\/0252ca36290735b6f337c050eaea5d01\",\"name\":\"Jody Brolsma\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wwv.group.com\/childrens-ministry\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4c150cd4acb92f85a2c5bd18dd680cec4d21de44fbd3b5f5905844ff91a63a83?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4c150cd4acb92f85a2c5bd18dd680cec4d21de44fbd3b5f5905844ff91a63a83?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jody Brolsma\"},\"description\":\"Jody Brolsma is the VBS Executive Editor\/Champion at Group Publishing in Loveland, Colorado. She\u2019ll be the first to tell you that it is truly the funnest job in the world! (That\u2019s why she\u2019s been doing it for more than 20 years.)\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/wwv.group.com\/childrens-ministry\/blog\/author\/jbrolsma\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"CrossCulture VBS: Why Norway? - Group Children&#039;s Ministry","description":"CrossCulture VBS gives churches the opportunity to share the world with kids. Too often, the church focuses on the issue of poverty when we talk about the","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/wwv.group.com\/childrens-ministry\/blog\/vbs\/crossculture-vbs-why-norway\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"CrossCulture VBS: Why Norway? - Group Children&#039;s Ministry","og_description":"CrossCulture VBS gives churches the opportunity to share the world with kids. Too often, the church focuses on the issue of poverty when we talk about the","og_url":"https:\/\/wwv.group.com\/childrens-ministry\/blog\/vbs\/crossculture-vbs-why-norway\/","og_site_name":"Group Children&#039;s Ministry","article_publisher":"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/GroupChildrensMinistry","article_published_time":"2015-06-10T18:43:28+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-08-12T15:52:45+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1600,"height":1067,"url":"https:\/\/wwv.group.com\/childrens-ministry\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2015\/06\/norway-vbs.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Jody Brolsma","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@groupkidmin","twitter_site":"@groupkidmin","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jody Brolsma","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/wwv.group.com\/childrens-ministry\/blog\/vbs\/crossculture-vbs-why-norway\/","url":"https:\/\/wwv.group.com\/childrens-ministry\/blog\/vbs\/crossculture-vbs-why-norway\/","name":"CrossCulture VBS: Why Norway? - Group Children&#039;s Ministry","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/wwv.group.com\/childrens-ministry\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/wwv.group.com\/childrens-ministry\/blog\/vbs\/crossculture-vbs-why-norway\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/wwv.group.com\/childrens-ministry\/blog\/vbs\/crossculture-vbs-why-norway\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/wwv.group.com\/childrens-ministry\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2015\/06\/norway-vbs.jpg","datePublished":"2015-06-10T18:43:28+00:00","dateModified":"2015-08-12T15:52:45+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/wwv.group.com\/childrens-ministry\/#\/schema\/person\/0252ca36290735b6f337c050eaea5d01"},"description":"CrossCulture VBS gives churches the opportunity to share the world with kids. Too often, the church focuses on the issue of poverty when we talk about the","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/wwv.group.com\/childrens-ministry\/blog\/vbs\/crossculture-vbs-why-norway\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/wwv.group.com\/childrens-ministry\/blog\/vbs\/crossculture-vbs-why-norway\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/wwv.group.com\/childrens-ministry\/blog\/vbs\/crossculture-vbs-why-norway\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/wwv.group.com\/childrens-ministry\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2015\/06\/norway-vbs.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/wwv.group.com\/childrens-ministry\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2015\/06\/norway-vbs.jpg","width":1600,"height":1067},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/wwv.group.com\/childrens-ministry\/blog\/vbs\/crossculture-vbs-why-norway\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/wwv.group.com\/childrens-ministry\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"CrossCulture VBS: Why Norway?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/wwv.group.com\/childrens-ministry\/#website","url":"https:\/\/wwv.group.com\/childrens-ministry\/","name":"Group Children&#039;s Ministry","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/wwv.group.com\/childrens-ministry\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/wwv.group.com\/childrens-ministry\/#\/schema\/person\/0252ca36290735b6f337c050eaea5d01","name":"Jody Brolsma","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/wwv.group.com\/childrens-ministry\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4c150cd4acb92f85a2c5bd18dd680cec4d21de44fbd3b5f5905844ff91a63a83?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4c150cd4acb92f85a2c5bd18dd680cec4d21de44fbd3b5f5905844ff91a63a83?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Jody Brolsma"},"description":"Jody Brolsma is the VBS Executive Editor\/Champion at Group Publishing in Loveland, Colorado. She\u2019ll be the first to tell you that it is truly the funnest job in the world! (That\u2019s why she\u2019s been doing it for more than 20 years.)","url":"https:\/\/wwv.group.com\/childrens-ministry\/blog\/author\/jbrolsma\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwv.group.com\/childrens-ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwv.group.com\/childrens-ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwv.group.com\/childrens-ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwv.group.com\/childrens-ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwv.group.com\/childrens-ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wwv.group.com\/childrens-ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwv.group.com\/childrens-ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwv.group.com\/childrens-ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwv.group.com\/childrens-ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwv.group.com\/childrens-ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}