Pastor Helle Maria Wolstad has been selected to become the new daily leader and pastor at the Norwegian Church in Pattaya, informs the Church in a newsletter to the congregation. She will replace Arnstein Lothe as of 1 October 2022.
The Norwegian Church shares an introduction from Helle Maria Wolstad to who she is and what background she brings to the job.
“I am 59 years old and have four grown up children and to grand children, one 14 year old and one 4 months. To say it with a song title “I travel alone”.
“I grew up as a missionary’s daughter and after being qualified in Theology I started working in the Methodist Church. Since then I worked at the City Mission of the Church, the SOS organisation of the Chruch and for three years I was also the leader of the volunteer center of Stovner. ”
I have been practicing as a Methodist Church Pastor several places in Norway. When I started working with Church of Norway i was district pastor at Osterøy and lately I have been working as a pastor at Geilo.”
My great passion is music. I listen to everything from heavyrock, ballads, pop music and hymns to classic music. Therefore I am excited about how we can use the music in more ways in the church. I developed a “Bob Dylan Service”, a “Retropop Mass” and a “Blue Christmas” – the latter was a Christmas service with alternative music for people who feels the Christmas time can be a heavy time.” I also created a “Mental Peace Service” in cooperation with Recovery and AA.”
“As a small child I lived in Congo and I have since lived, studied and worked in Israel and the United States. I enjoy learning new languages but I don’t know how it will be with Thai. Right now, I am taking a course on the Internet.”
“I love to go for long walks, train, travel and be in the nature be it at sea, on land or in the forest. My spare time I spend listening to music or reading books like Coello and Tolkien.”
The Norwegian Church in Pattaya extends their welcome to her and is looking forward to getting to know her better, the newsletter says.
Source: https://www.sjomannskirken.no/kirke/pattaya/kalender/ny-sjomannsprest-og-daglig-leder/
