I was out on the town - partying and drinking.
In the middle of all that, after a few years of living like most young people, I felt a huge emptiness.
Do we have everything?
You have to find the Thermos.
Hildigunn, should we bring more cups?
I grew up in a Christian home in Langesund.
I had six brothers and sisters.
We had a really good childhood. I look back on it as a very rich time
where I had gotten something that I felt was very safe and good,
from my upbringing.
Gunnar's childhood was carefree, but when he became a teenager he had to make his own decisions.
Many things happened, and I chose to go my own way -
I wanted to live the way most young people live.
The evenings at the bar were all pretty much the same.
I had hoped to start a family sometime or maybe do something more with my life.
Those were probably my first thoughts.
Gunnar was always thinking about that he had to change, and suddenly a girl named Hildigunn came to his mind.
I had heard about her before, and her name came up in some setting I was in.
And suddenly it occurred to me that I had to meet her.
We were so much alike, in a way; she had the same background
as me, from her childhood.
And that made it so we felt like we were on the same wavelength, in a way.
It was pretty much love at first sight, I think.
We met each other more and more often, and fell more and more in love with each other.
I had always felt that when I met the right person, then I would marry her.
I thought that was a good idea - to start a home and take care of her.
Getting married was fantastic, and she was an amazing wife,
but there was still something missing.
I found that I got so easily irritated. That's just how it was. Daily life happens, right?
And then I really started longing for what I had heard when I was a child.
I went home one day and dusted off an old Bible I had.
and secretly started reading it.
Without Hildigunn knowing.
I felt like I couldn't stop - I had to keep reading.
I sat outside one evening and prayed, "God, give me a sign from heaven.
"and tell me that this is right."
That didn't happen, but I had come to the point where I had to make a choice.
Either you serve God, or you cut it out completely.
One evening when Hildigunn and Gunnar went to visit his sister,
the family was sitting watching a TV broadcast meeting from Brunstad.
And then
Then he said a sentence, the person speaking in the meeting:
"Remember that the voice you hear today, you must listen to it."
God isn't going to show you a sign from heaven,
but you must listen to the voice that is within you.
That was a very powerful experience
that caused me to make a decision
I knew that the time had come. Now was the time.
Now you need to go back to Brunstad.
So then I turned to Hildigunn, and I said,
"We have to go back to Brunstad," I said. "Now. Tonight."
And she replied, "Can't we wait until tomorrow?"
I said that tomorrow would be too late. We have to do it now. Then she said, "All right let's do it."
Jesus has been our forerunner; He has shown us the way.
It is possible to be freed and to overcome the sin and everything that plagues us.
It is a battle and a struggle, but it is something that gives you joy.
