Trusting God

We looked at a few places today and made an offer on a house (half a duplex) at Moa (where our condo is). It’s in God’s hands as we offered 15% less than they were asking. Our offer was for 2,000,000 kroner (that’s $400,000 to me and you). Another person had offered the same price a month ago but the owners turned it down but we’re hoping they’re more eager to sell by now. They are asking 2,290,000 kroner ($60,000) more than we offered, but it’s a slow market for sellers as the interest rates in Norway are climbing and many people can’t afford these prices. We can only manage it if we get an interest only loan at the bank, which we were told we could get. (Kory’s old childhood neighbor is the president of a bank here and he can fix us up with whatever we need. It is nice to know the right people.) But it’s all a bit scary as we have tried so hard to get OUT of debt, now we’re going back in. And the house is about 920 square feet– tiny thing, but really cute inside.

Anything we rent would be 10-12 thousand kroner a month ($2,000-$2,400) so we figured we might as well “rent from the bank” as our payments would be about 12,000 kroner. It’s a bit of a risk that in a year we can maybe break even, but at least we get the tax advantages of owning and being able to deduct the interest from our income. We gave the seller 20 hours to make up his mind so we’ll know by noon tomorrow (3am Seattle time). We are nearly out of options. School starts in less than 3 weeks and we must know where we are living in order to know where Kaleb will go to school. He’s already registered with this school district and this house is almost as close to our condo as the house where we were going to rent – it’s just a few doors down from it and right in the same neighborhood.

I told Kaleb today about the housing dilemma we are in and he was more than excited that we might have a place of our own, so he took the news rather well. Thank you, God. There is a little girl, maybe 6 or 7 on the other side of this duplex and a boy about 7 or 8 in front of it – and there are several trampolines in the neighborhood, so it’s rich with socializing opportunities. We are praying God softens the hearts of the people with the house and they will be willing to sell at our price. The best thing is – it’s not sinking!

On the way home from the “megler” (real estate) office, we stopped by Odd’s other brother’s house to look at some furniture. He’s moving in with his girlfriend and they are each throwing out all their stuff and getting new furniture together. So, assuming we get a house soon, we will also have a nice couch, love seat, coffee table, and dining table with six chairs to go with it. Other cousins have been holding beds and dressers for us, knowing we are coming. They don’t do much recycling here – or trying to sell things used (it’s a little bit beneath them to take hand-me-downs) they’d rather just throw the stuff out. But we’re Americans and we have no shame.

Hopefully our search for a house will end tomorrow and we can start looking for jobs. We are trusting God for all our needs….

Downtown

Kory is an alien in his native land. We officially registered today with the “alien” office downtown Aalesund (at the police station). We also applied to get a new ID number so at least we will be marked as “residents” and can get all the benefits of a full-fledged Norwegian citizen (except vote). I was worried about the rule they have that we need to produce a signed lease within seven days of arriving to show where we are living, but we explained the situation and the woman just nodded her head and said when we find a place, let them know our new address. First miracle of many more to come, I hope. I was worried we’d be tossed out of the country if we didn’t follow the rules to a tee, but apparently there is a heart somewhere in the government here. HALLELUJAH! So the initial pressure is off – Praise God! But we still need to find a place to live before we over-stay our welcome with Odd and Turid.

We left Kaleb in the downtown library for about 40 minutes today. He wasn’t too pleased with their English book selection but he managed to keep himself entertained while we went to the employment agency. (It’s so cool to not worry about someone stealing your kid. Life is definitely different here.) The man at the employment agency seemed rather pleased we came in. He said there is a LOT of work and he perked right up when Kory said he had a background in construction, and also when he heard I had a background in computers. He seemed to think finding work would not be a problem. I think our problem will be that we will need to turn down work as we don’t want to work more than 20 hours a week (maybe 10 for me).

Odd’s brother, Ketil , came over this morning for coffee. We visited with him a while and got to talking about God things. (We were engaged in his house on New Year’s Eve 1990 here in Aalesund.) He used to be on the board of directors at his church but when he got caught embezzling from his company and put in jail… he pretty much gave up on God. He lost everything – including his house and wife… Kory was telling him how godless this country seems to be now and Ketil said if you asked, most people would say they are a Christian but “they don’t take it personally” – meaning they believe in Jesus and the truth of the Bible, but they don’t do anything to live it out. I had to laugh at that expression, “I’m a Christian, but I don’t take it personally.” What a good way to put it, but also, so sad.

We are seriously considering buying a place to live for the year as rental options are just not there. It seems we will pay 10.000nok ($2,000) a month if we rent, and potentially we could pay less than that if we bought something. Even if we had a mortgage of $2,000, we could sell it in a year and at least break even, if not make a little money. So tomorrow we will go look at a few places. There aren’t many houses available within our price range (the cheapest townhouses start at $300,000 and you can’t even touch a stand alone house for under $500,000.)

There is one duplex not far from where we are staying now that we walked over to see. They call it the “sinking house” because, well, the land is sinking all around it. When the builder built it he drove pilings into the bog to keep the house stable and things were fine for a while. (They would never allow building on such wetlands in America.) But later, another builder downhill from there, blasted out some rock to put in a house and apparently the rock was the cork that held back the water table. Water came gushing out of the side of the hill and the bog where the sinking house sits, drained. Now the sinking house is a good four feet above ground as the bog just keeps draining… it’s a funny sight. The house sits on stilts so it isn’t really sinking just yet, but the ground sure is. All geological reports say the ground will never stop sinking so at some point there will be big problems with the building slanting and possibly cracking in half. Naturally, Kory wants to live there. Actually, he wants to buy the place! (He thinks he can fix the problem??!!!) The owners are long gone and the builder had to pay back their money and now some attorney is handling the paperwork. Kory sees opportunities in other people’s disasters (and obviously, it would be cheap), but this is one disaster I’m not feeling too good about. This all reminds me of when Norway was short on housing after World War II because the Germans had bombed out so many buildings and people were living crammed together wherever they could, sloping floors and all. I hope we can do better than to live in a house that needs a new step added every other day just to get in and out the front door. What is he thinking?

It Was a Beachy Day

The clouds are supposed to move in tomorrow so before the sun disappears, we went to the beach for the afternoon. No need for the French Riviera when you have days like today in Norway.

This morning we got cell phones! Anyone can call us now and all incoming calls are free to us, so we won’t mind a bit if you call (but remember there is a 9 hour time difference and time happens here first). Here are our numbers (I put in all the numbers you dial to reach us) :
My number is 011 47 904 1 9060
Kory’s number is 011 47 904 1 9004
If you call from your home phone you can dial 10 10 297 FIRST before all those other numbers and then you get to talk to Europe (or anywhere in the world ) for 3 cents a minute (but you are charged for a 39 cent connection fee.) We used that system all the time to call Norway – the bill comes on your home phone bill and it’s a super cheap way to keep in touch with those you love around the world (or maybe people like us that you may not love so much but you want to talk to anyway…).

Our cell phones were $200 each (the cheapest you could get as they go all the way up to a thousand dollars). If I initiate the call and don’t talk for more than 20 minutes a month TOTAL on those calls I made, the cost is only $6 a month. I wonder if I can be that disciplined? I know Kory won’t have any problems keeping his conversations to a minimum….but Kory and I can talk to each other unlimited – for free - which is good. The only way we could get such a reasonable plan is because Turid put us on her account and used her Norwegian ID number to set it up (our numbers identify us as “aliens”). Since we aren’t official Norwegian citizens, we would not have this option and our bill would be over a hundred dollars a month. So I’m wondering the same as I did about the SAS flight, if somehow the citizens are subsidized or if they just like to tax the heck out of foreigners. No clue.

We stopped to get gas today – not quite a full tank and it cost $170 to fill up. Gas is down to $12 a gallon (from about $15). I bought food for dinner and a little bit for lunch and it was $110 – so my estimate that we would spend $3,000 a month on food is pretty close. Lord help us.

No progress on our housing dilemma today. Apparently in Norway your word is your bond so everyone that hears about what happened to us is personally offended and they feel it gives a black eye to the whole of Norway. They don’t have law suits here like in America but they do have some easy system to take people to court and it’s been suggested by more than one person we do just that. According to the law, the woman who initially told us we could rent her house would be forced to move out of her house and we would have full rights to live there for three months. When you promise something to someone, if there is a witness, you MUST carry through with your promise or suffer the consequences for it. Good to know, but we won’t be taking anyone to court. Our God supplies all our needs.

Several people I talked to today felt confident I could get a job either teaching English in the high schools around here or proof-reading English for an international company (there are several based out of this area.) I would be thrilled to do either so tonight I worked up a resume. (A weird thing to do when I haven’t worked much in ten years!) Tomorrow I’ll go talk to an employment agency. The reason prices are so high here is because the dollar is so low. But that works in our favor if we are making money and not just spending it. The minimum wage here is 125 kroner an hour – which currently translates to $25 an hour so you can see if we’re able to earn kroner, things aren’t nearly as expensive for us. To think I can get a part-time job working behind the counter at a mini-mart here and make $25 an hour gives me second thoughts on the value of my college education. Tee hee.

We Have Wheels!

Today was the day for freedom… we got our van registered, licensed, and insured and now we can run ourselves around town doing errands. I am so thankful for that as I often feel like I’m inconveniencing Turid with our endless trips, but she’s always so gracious and says it’s no problem. Bless her. Kaleb got a new (used) bike today, too. His grandma Adeline gave him $75 before we left home for “spending money in Norway” so he spent half of it on the bike and we chipped in the other half of the $100 purchase price. (New kid bikes here are around $500). Now he is as free as we are to make his way around the neighborhood. (That's our new van and Kaleb's bike in the photo).

I changed some dollars into kroner today and got 5 kroner for each dollar. That’s up from the 4.6 I got when I wired money over before we came. A few years ago you could get 10 kroner for the dollar but the normal range is around 7. Converted to dollars, it was $983 for the tabs for one year on the car and at least that for the insurance for one year (but we haven’t gotten the bill yet.) When we went to register the car we were given a piece of paper and told to go to our bank and pay the bill, bring back the receipt to show it’s paid and then they will give us the license plates. How bizarre is that? They don’t do check writing here and the only way to get money in and out of accounts is to do electronic transfers, so, we had to go to the bank to do it. Talk about a run-around (and lots of standing in line). And we got back the exact license plates that were on the car before. When your tabs expire you must turn in your plates if you aren’t going to renew them. They hold the plates until you come back in or you sell the car and the next person comes in to register it. How funny is that? And it took all day to get insurance as the country is nearly shut down this week and next as it’s high season for summer vacations and EVERYONE goes on vacation in the summer. We had to go register with the “folkregister” people to get our ID number before we could get insurance. It was almost a comedy of errors going through the steps to get the car details figured out and even funnier to watch Kory and Odd try to get the license plates attached back onto the car. I felt like there was a joke in the making… how many Norwegians does it take to put on a license plate?

We still haven’t heard anything about a place to live, but everyone we know and everyone they know have been on the phone today calling everyone anyone knows to see if they know of a house or apartment for rent. The housing situation is so desperate that even people who come here to work for just a few months a year, keep their apartment and pay on an empty place all year, just so they know they have a place to live when they return. It’s nearly impossible, but again I say, “with God, all things are possible“ (oh wait, I didn’t say that… the Bible did!)

Kory is losing faith a little in the whole housing situation, but I maintain God will see us through just fine. We went for a prayer walk through the neighborhood where we were supposed to live and prayed for the houses as we passed them by and also that God would open doors for us to live there -- it’s ideal for Kaleb. Kory and I could live anywhere, but this is all about him right now so we just keep trusting God will provide. Odd thinks we should keep fasting and praying and not get up from our knees until God notices us and answers our prayers. He’s quite the skeptic so it will be fun to see his reaction when God gets us out of this mess!

A Day of Rest

We went to the Filadelfia Church (the local pentecostal church) this morning. There were about 50 people there. Last time I went, several years ago, there were hundreds. It was a good sermon encouraging everyone to “be an answer to prayer.” But it’s a dying church – too many people get lazy, they say, and quit coming. The pastor greeted us, introduced us to the congregation, and announced that we needed housing. I was amazed that I understood so much of what was being said. HALLELUJAH! Afterwards several people greeted us. Some remembered Kory when he was a boy living here. One woman told me she was friends with Kory’s mom before she was ever married (back in the 1930s). I need to talk more to that woman as I’m sure she has stories we have never heard, and I love stories!

This afternoon we took a walk then had a much needed nap. Kaleb and Hege picked wild raspberries and red currants on the walk. It was a hot day, but nice. Kory and I are fasting and praying today for God to provide us with housing by Friday. We have faith, and that is so helpful during times of (otherwise) stress.

Kory and Odd are at a soccer game right now (7pm) and Kaleb and Hege are playing together outside. Turid and I are sitting on the deck, each with a laptop, enjoying the breeze. Sundays are quiet in Norway. Not many things are open (maybe a gas station here or there). No one works (except emergency personnel). Many people are on vacation this week so even the neighborhood is quiet and not many cars pass by. Earlier Kory shouted HALLELUJAH! to break the silence and Odd told him someone might call the police to take him away – he must be crazy in the head, they will think. No one shouts here (unless they are at a soccer game and apparently that is why Odd took Kory with him – maybe hoping to get out all his enthusiasm there so he’ll be quiet at home??) It’s a good thing our church prayed for Norway before we left – to prepare them for our arrival – as nothing we have done so far is “typisk norsk” as they say (typical Norwegian). HALLELUJAH!

(The photo is taken near Odd and Turid’s house. Kaleb and Hege are picking berries and Odd and Kory are walking the path next to the road.)

WE MADE IT!

We arrived just after midnight on Friday night (Saturday morning July 26th). All our luggage made it safe and sound and the cousins were at the airport waiting to pick us up in our new van. We are so happy to have a good vehicle to drive. When they went to start it up and drive it to the licensing bureau to get temporary tabs for the weekend, the battery was dead so the original owner bought a new battery and put it in (which saved us $300!). Such integrity. But the temporary tags were $100 for 2 days! We will register it Monday.

We finally got to sleep around 3am Norway time (6pm Seattle time so we were up about 36 hours straight). We slept in until 11am this morning and within an hour after waking up we got the news that the woman who was renting us her house CHANGED HER MIND! So currently, we are homeless in Norway!!! (We are staying with cousins this week so it’s not a desperate situation until Friday.) We just had to laugh and shout HALLELUJAH because after the taxi driving away in Seattle and the airlines saying there was no way we could get to London, and now the house deal falling through – well, it’s more than obvious that this is spiritual warfare at its best. Satan can’t take anything away that God won’t provide something better. We do have the time pressure that we have to report to the police by Friday with our permanent address and a signed lease to prove we have a place to live, but as I’ve heard, “God is rarely early, but he’s never late.”

So, we are facing an unknown future at this point. (We haven’t told Kaleb yet because he’s just warming up to the idea of being here and was actually enjoying himself today.) We did meet with the woman who was going to rent to us so she could tell us what happened. It’s a complicated situation with the house and her son and which school he wants to go to. We understand why she changed her mind (on Thursday no less – as we were flying here). She was heartbroken to tell us, but we told her about the taxi driving off and the flight over being canceled but we have a God that supplies all our needs so she shouldn’t worry. (She felt so bad about it she even put an ad in the paper for us today saying “housing wanted” as she was trying to find another place for us.) So we prayed with her and for her and left it all at the feet of Jesus. She was quite relieved that we took the news so well so we feel it was our first opportunity to show “Norway” how it works to be walking with God (she is a Christian also). I know it made an impression on her, as well as the cousin that we were with, so we thank God for even things that seem disastrous at the time. But now what?

We looked in the paper today and tonight went to see a studio apartment for rent in the basement of a house in a neighborhood a little ways away from our condo. It was the strangest thing, as when we arrived, the couple living in the house invited us in to the house (the floor where they live), showed us around (but not the basement), made coffee and invited us out to the table on the deck. We sat there and had coffee and talked – for two hours! Finally after much conversation and a few good laughs, they showed us the place for rent in their basement. They were the nicest couple (but not married – so typical of Norway these days) with a three year old daughter. During our visit with them they caught on that we were Christians (maybe Kory shouting HALLELUJAH in the middle of the conversation gave them a clue?). The woman asked, “are you VERY Christian?” to which Kory answered, “I didn’t know that there was a scale.” She answered, “Well, I’m a little Christian,” and I said, “But you’re not married” and she laughed. So then we had a great time telling them about how we were sent by our “Swedish” church to be missionaries to Norway and the trouble’s we’ve had getting here but how God is with us every step of the way. They found it all quite interesting and entertaining and we were thankful that we had a chance to visit with them (and amazingly, I spoke quite a bit of Norwegian in those two hours and they understood every word I said – HALLELUJAH!)

When the hours had passed and we finally saw the studio apartment and realized it wouldn’t work too well for us, the man got on the phone and called his uncle who had a house in the neighborhood where our condo is to see if it was available. It was not, but he said his uncle had already heard about us – that a couple from America was coming with their 9 year old son to live in that neighborhood – so apparently we are big news for this area. How funny. Then the man said he would see what he could do to help us find a place. It was very nice to meet this couple and I’m sure we’ll run into them in town during the year. (Maybe I will call them back to see if they want to attend my Bible study. )

It was about 90 degrees (record heat) today so Kaleb went to the beach with our incredibly gracious host cousins – Odd (pronounced Ode), Turid (pronounced Turrey) and Hege (pronounced (Hey-ga). Hege is four years older than Kaleb and she has done a great job making him feel welcome (now, and every year in the past). Kory and I went to visit the “old aunts” (“gamle tantes” as they say here) and they are just downright giddy that we are going to be here for a year. “We never have to say good-bye!” was one of their first comments. It’s good to feel welcome.

So that ends “Day #1” of our year in Norway. Uff da. We’re holding on tight to God because I think it’s going to be a wild ride.

Traveling Light

We're now done with our "second leg" of the journey... and we’ve been told by more than one airport employee that we should learn to “travel light” (OK, so I understand that 13 bags total (including the two we are each carrying on) is a bit excessive but we ARE staying for a year… which I must explain over and over again or it would be just downright embarrassing to have so much “stuff”.) And here’s the other part of the fatal flaw in my travel plans by buying the tickets separately: Alaska Airlines only charged us $25 for our extra bag, but once we got to London it’s been a whole other story.

SAS Airlines’ policy is that when traveling within Europe you can only check one bag no more than 40 pounds and carry on one bag. I knew we were in for it, but I was hoping I could show our international ticket and beg for mercy that they wouldn’t charge us for the excessive amount of luggage. I spent a good time in the airport chapel praying about this very thing – that God would lead us to the right employee who had compassion for our situation. And as it turned out – he did just that! I can only say HALLELUJAH! because once he weighed all our luggage and we were SSSSSSOOOOOOOOOO far over the amount allowed, he just looked at me and said “I will only charge you for 20 kilos (about 40 pounds) but you have way too much here! And am I ever thankful, as that extra 40 pounds cost $277! (more than we paid for all 3 of us to go to Aalesund). So after I did the math I realized that he could have charged us $1,183 MORE!!!! Holy cow… so he was another angel sent by God to help us with this journey as that was significant savings…. (I had no idea how much the extra luggage would cost) so now is a good time to shout HALLELUJAH!

Can you say HALLELUJAH?!

We just finished the first LEG of our journey (hence the silly photo).

Let’s just say the day could have started a little smoother than it did, but we are shouting HALLELUJAH nonetheless.

We spent the night with Grammy J in Mountlake Terrace – up at 6am, off by 7am to get to our apartment building in Seattle by 8:00. We scheduled a limo ride to the airport (knowing a cab could never fit all our luggage). When the limo showed up, he didn’t even TRY to get our luggage in his car, he just said, “no way” and drove off! Here we were – the height of rush traffic, with no one to call and no backup plans on how to get down to the airport within an hour. Panic nearly set in at that point.

I called a few friends in Seattle only to be greeted by answering machines. We found a phone book and called a few taxi companies but when they answered with the “automatic greeting system” (aka VOICE JAIL), I hung up as I have no time for pressing option buttons when I’m trying to get to the airport ASAP. So then my brain scanned other options and landed on the one where we bother one of our tenants to take us in our van down the airport. We actually woke up Otto and Sarah to explain our dilemma and they came to our rescue! (Otto has lived in our building for over 20 years and all I can say is “we know how to pick ‘em”). So Kory drove us down in our van and Sarah returned the vehicle to the garage at our apartment building and there our van will sit for a year or so until we return (as planned). I told Sarah she was our savior, but Kaleb piped up and said that only JESUS is our savior. I stand corrected, but she was at least an angel.

When we got to the airport we were told that US Airways had a delayed plane coming into Seattle so our flight out was delayed and we’d miss our connection to London. We only thought we were stressed at that point dealing with the taxi and all… but more stress was yet to come.

I pride myself on getting the best fares possible when it comes to our many travels over the years. I’ve discovered that SAS gives deep discounts to Norwegian residents but you have to have a Norwegian bank account to pull it off. I’m not sure if they are just ripping off Americans when they fly SAS or if they are subsidizing Norwegian citizens. (We have a Norwegian bank account so there’s no problem with getting the discount.) I booked our flight from London to Aalesund, Norway separately as I paid for the trip to London with dollars, and the trip to Aalesund with Norwegian kroner. I now know this has a potential for disaster so I don’t recommend this money saving tip to anyone – ever – and I promise myself not to do it again. (But I will say that I saved over $1,500 in doing it this way).

So what happened was that USAirways said they couldn’t get us to London to catch our flight to Aalesund until the next day. I booked the connections 12 hours apart but that didn’t help in this case. They had many people who were going to miss the same connection and they were fresh out of options for us as “all flights are full” to London (even on other airlines). They said they would get us to Copenhagen but then we were on our own. I called SAS and the tickets to Aalesund from Copenhagen were $1,500 so there would have gone my savings… except that I had to eat the $250 I paid for the tickets from London to Aalesund, which I was willing to do at that point…. So when we went back to the counter to book the tickets to Copenhagen, the supervisor nixed that idea because she said she is only obligated to get us to London, which they could do tomorrow. Big problem. I called SAS again to find out how much it would be to change our tickets to the next day and when they told me it would be over $1,000 PER person (3k total), I nearly cried. And all US Airways could say is “you shouldn’t have booked your tickets separately – we are only obligated to get you to London…” so there is the fatal flaw in my plans.
I am fairly confident that Satan does NOT want us to go to Norway at this point – which can only be interpreted as a good thing. So, we prayed. I told God I’m not asking him to part the sea, just find a way for us to fly over it. It’s all his money anyway if and he wants to spend it so frivolously then that’s his business. I know Satan comes to lie, steal and destroy (according to the Bible) … and I really didn’t want to feel like I was being ripped off to the tune of $3,000 just to get from London to Aalesund so we left it in God’s hands and we shouted HALLELUJAH!

After nearly three hours of all this monkey-business, the USAirways guy told us that he finally found a flight for us to Los Angeles and then we can go British Airways to London and we’ll get in 2.5 hours later than our original flight. The only hitch is we were flying in and out of Gatwick airport and now we are flying into Heathrow and out of Gatwick so we need to schlep our luggage from one side of London to the other and forego our planned day at the science museum. Kaleb is a bit upset by that but I taught him the Serenity Prayer and he’s been saying it over and over “God grant me the ability to change the things I can, to accept the things I can’t, and the wisdom to know the difference.”

We are now at the LA Airport awaiting our non-stop flight to London. We figure God doesn’t take away anything he doesn’t give us something better so my next post will be the blessings we’ve encountered along the way. HALLELUJAH! (So far this whole ordeal has saved us $25 as USAirways was going to charge $50 for our extra piece of luggage and Alaska Airlines only charged us $25.)

The Last Supper

This week has been insane with cleaning, packing, saying our goodbyes and training Laura and Ryan on the finer points of living in our house for a year. All the cleaning didn’t get done but OH WELL! It is what it is.

Monday we had the neighbors over for dessert to meet Ryan and Laura in case they need backup. It’s great to have a support system in place. Tonight we took Kaleb’s “grandparents” out for dinner to say good-bye to them. The one photo is Kaleb with three of his grandmas (my step-mom couldn’t make it). Adeline is on the left and we’ll miss her 90th birthday in March while we’re gone. I met Kory through her (she’s my grandma’s cousin). Her husband, Harold, is in the photo with Kory and Kaleb. I found out he graduated from the same high school I did – Issaquah. I graduated in 1975 but he beat me by a few years - he graduated in 1932 (he just turned 94!) We were lucky to get time with them because they have a social calendar like you cannot believe. Trude is to the right of Kaleb and we’ll be back just in time for her 90th birthday. I wrote a book about her husband’s life called “Built on Solid Rock.” She is one of the sweetest women on the planet and we’ll miss her. And then there’s our dear Grammy J on the end who we hooked up to Skype last week so we can video conference call her while we’re away. All these wonderful women of God will support us in prayer (and have for years) so we are confident all will go well. The Bible says the prayers of a righteous person avails much… And I say, HALLELUJAH to that.

Josh and Mary Ridinger

This is the reason we delayed our trip to Norway a month and it was so worth the wait! We were honored to attend the very spectacular wedding of Josh and Mary. You can’t even know how sweet this couple is or how much I love Josh and his brother Joe. We call them “The Bowler Boys” as they used to come to our townhouse in Seattle twice a year with several friends for weekend bowling tournaments. This went on all through their teenage years and early twenties. I never laugh harder than I’m with these guys and today was no exception. They are great kids – all grown up – and now happily married. Josh barely made it through his vows. As his voice started breaking up and he began to cry, Mary reached over with her antique handkerchief and wiped away his tears. Such deep love is a good thing.

The Ring of Fire

Kaleb is blessed to have so many people who love him – as am I. Here he is with his “Grandma Dorothy” who lives in Portland, Oregon. We stopped off at Multnomah Falls today for lunch on our way to her grandson’s wedding further up the Columbia River. Dorothy was my first Bible study and Sunday school teacher back in 1976 when I moved to Oregon. She’s been my “spiritual mom” ever since. We’re staying with her for a few days to get our “fix” before we leave. We had an awesome worship and prayer meeting last night at her house. Kory’s heart was physically touched by God and I had a vision of a ring of fire surrounding the neighborhood where we will be living in Norway. The fire of God fell on the perimeter of our block – from the Filadelfia Church on one edge, following the road along to our house and then on to the YWAM base circling the block on back to the church. It was a very exciting vision as I feel it’s my first “calling” in what to do when we arrive – to do prayer walks every day around that perimeter and pray for those who live within the fire ring. (I feel like I need to be playing Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire” song as I’m writing this.)

Kory always says we can’t help the whole world, but we are responsible for those who are in front of us, so it’s obvious that’s where we begin our ministry. Lord help us!

These are the faces I love...

Deanna, a girlfriend in Seattle (bottom right in photo), invited me over for lunch today to say good-bye. Kory and Kaleb and I were on our way to Oregon for a few days to attend a wedding this Saturday so it fit nicely into our schedule as we headed south. What Deanna didn’t tell me is that she invited a bunch of my other friends over as well – so I got a wonderful surprise good-bye party!

I met these incredible women through a Bible study we attended back in 1993 lead by Janet (first row, center, in photo – and otherwise known to Kaleb as “Grammy J”) and we’ve all been good friends ever since. Only one of our original group was missing but it was a great day to see their smiling faces again and give them a hug and hear their voices one last time before we go. And the coolest thing was, it was just like our old Bible study days where we sat around the table talking about things of God. These are the faces of some of the most spiritual women I know and I’m blessed to call them my friends.

The Starrs Have Arrived!

Our house sitters, Ryan and Laura Starr came today! I tried not to overwhelm Laura with all the details about how to keep the house and yard up, but I think I did anyway. I made notes - perhaps that will help. It’s a lot of work to own a home, as they are soon to find out but I’m sure they will do fine.

I still have cleaning to do (closets mostly) but we only have one more day here before we leave for Oregon for a wedding… so tomorrow has the potential for being a very long day.

Tonight after dinner we went out to Delta Rock to show the newlyweds one of our favorite nearby spots to get romantic. They were not disappointed and it was a beautiful way to end the day. God is good.

On the way back from the hike we stopped off at Judi and Don Robinson’s house – a mile down our street. Their son was home from Chicago and it just so happens that his girlfriend and her parents were with him (who are from Michigan). Of all strange coincidences, the girlfriend is from the same church Laura grew up in and her family is good friends with … so here were two people from Michigan very coincidentally staying on the same street ( just for a night) in Skagit County. Totally weird, but then, once you start talking to people in the Covenant denomination, you find all kinds of strange ways the dots get connected.

Cleanliness is next to godliness...

The honeymooners (Ryan and Laura, our housesitters) are on their way! I was freaking out that the house wouldn’t be clean enough by the time they get here and God sent two angels by the name of Carol and Gail to my rescue. We cleaned all day and (except for my office) we made the house sparkle.

Carol and Gail are part of our home fellowship group. They say you don’t know who your friends are until you move… and it’s real clear I am blessed with true friends – they each scrubbed a different bathroom (toilet and all) while I was cleaning the kitchen. God bless them for their selfless giving of their time today! Hallelujah the house is clean!

And on a different note – Kaleb was on “my list” today as he was doing something I didn’t approve of in the least. I told him he couldn’t have a playdate on Wednesday if this behavior kept up. He then wrote me a note and disappeared. It simply said, “I will be living out in the fort until conditions improve.” It made me laugh out loud.

The Great Commission

We’ve taken on the “Great Commission” now as the Bible says – to go into all the world and preach the gospel! Our church, Bethany Covenant, officially commissioned us yesterday as missionaries to Norway! (When they were praying for us it felt like we were wrapped up in a warm love burrito.) Their motto is “People invited, encouraged and sent,” so yesterday we were sent. I’ll be teaching a Bible study at the Filadelfia Church just down the street from our house in Aalesund and I hope to be speaking again to the state church women’s group where I spoke a few years ago. We also will be living by the Youth With a Mission base and plan to be involved there – so the doors are definitely open for however God sees fit to use us.

Coincidentally (not) John and Letha Kerl were visiting our church yesterday. They are the Covenant Missionaries overseeing all the mission work in Europe. They live in France so we will be in contact with them throughout our time in Norway. God’s timing is always perfect.

I’m excited to be a missionary! I’ve never officially been one before but I think all Christians should be everyday wherever they are. Kory was a missionary to Paraguay in 1971 and he has some incredible stories from that time. I hope we come back with many stories as well because you know how I love to tell a good story!

(It’s kind of ironic that we are being “sent” to Norway as missionaries when our church was started by a bunch of Swedes. Uff da.)

More Good-byes

Monday our neighbor Joan had us over a for a neighborhood good-bye dinner. We played cards and had a many good laughs. Oh how we are blessed with good neighbors!

And I can’t say enough how much I’m going to miss our home fellowship group. Here’s the bulk of us (2 adults missing – as well as 15 kids). We all got together Friday night for a final BBQ. I hate goodbyes.

And then Saturday our beloved “Grammy J” treated us all to a nice good-bye event by taking us out to Northwest Trek to see the animals native to our area. What a great day. We are so spoiled.

I had a massage Tuesday to reduce some of my muscle tension (don’t know where that came from!). It happened to be by a Norwegian guy that came here 14 years ago from Trondheim. He said he doesn’t miss Norway at all – the people are too “closed” he said. They don’t share their feelings or emotions. I guess that’s why we will miss all our friends here so much – because we are all very good at sharing our lives with each other. It’s a richness that money just can’t buy.

Let's Play!

Here’s Kory and Kaleb at a Mariner’s game last Sunday. Kory won the tickets, otherwise he wouldn’t spend money on such a thing… but it was a good activity for a 4th of July weekend nonetheless. And while the boys were playing, I started cleaning.

When Kaleb was born I asked a few women old enough to be my mom, what was the biggest mistake they made in raising their children. They each said, “I kept my house too clean.” It was easy advice to take at the time and it took a lot of pressure off me and kept my focus on important things – being available to play and interact with Kaleb in all the various and sundry ways over the years. And the advice made sense at the time… but now, almost ten years into living in this house and not doing much house work, our house is just downright scary and now I’m paying for all that PLAY time! Some of the furniture hasn’t been moved in ten years -- yikes!

We own rental property and I HATE to have new tenants move into the old tenants “yuck” so I always clean with a toothbrush to get every speck of dirt in every little corner of the unit. I don’t live by that standard myself, but now that we have Ryan and Laura moving into our house next week, I feel like I need to get rid of the “yuck” that’s been building up for the last decade. So the sun is shining this week, and so are my floors.

We leave two weeks from today. I’m far from ready. Kory has spent all week at our apartment building in Seattle cleaning a unit that just became vacant and we are hoping to get rented out before we go. Kaleb has spent the week in Bellingham at Western Washington University going to science camp. He made a solar oven and a CO2 powered race car. He’s been in his element, for sure, but this is one week we are all happy to see end, as we are all very tired.

Wedding Bells

Eric got married today! He’s one of the kids we lovingly call “The Powerline Kids” because they used to live by the power lines where I walked my dog, Waldo. We met them in 1993 and they were all so little then – Eric just six years old. And today he got married to Lindsey, a beautiful young woman who I know will bring him a lot of happiness. But those kids sure grew up fast (that’s Sara, Evan & Eric in the photo.) They are the kids that gave Kory and I practice at being parents as we loved to have them come over to our house any chance we could. We took them camping and to baseball practices and even to Disneyland. They call us their “God parents” but to us, they are just our kids and we love them a lot. We’ll miss celebrating their birthdays and Christmas with them while we’re gone. Just one of the many things that will be different this next year. (I’m certainly glad we were here for the wedding though!)

4th of July

Sometimes Kory is just downright embarrassing. His patriotism is a bit over the top, don’t you think?

I had to be seen in public with him today looking like that! He kept shouting “Hallelujah” every chance he got. I’m glad this day only comes once a year. I have forbid him from bringing those clothes with us to Norway. He’d be the bull’s eye target for any terrorist activity, I’m sure.

I took the day off from packing/cleaning/purging to see the parade in Sedro-Woolley and have family time. We went and saw Wall-E (cute movie) and went to dinner. I’m trying to eat as many meals out as I can before we leave since we won’t be doing that at ALL in Norway -- it’s sooooooo expensive. Last year we went out for pizza and it was $167 – so it would be close to $300 now with the fallen dollar (for a pizza!!!). It’s just not part of their culture to eat out because it’s taxed so heavily by the government -- it’s considered a luxury they don’t need (and they don’t have a lot of restaurants either). We always take Odd and Turid out for dinner when we stay with them every year and we’ve yet to spend less than $500 on one meal for the four of us. That same meal this year would cost $750 so I don’t think we’ll be doing it until we earn some kroner to pay for it as the dollar just keeps falling….

Summer Fun

I am feeling much better, so after the lightening and thunder storm at home, we ventured over to the Johnsons to go see the fireworks up at Big Lake. Kaleb brought along his friend Riley and they had an absolute blast being pulled around the lake on one of those blow-up contraptions. Riley flew off shortly after this photo was taken as she let go in order to give the two thumbs up. Kaleb nearly fell in with her. What a fun memory for them to share. Riley will miss Kaleb the most when we’re gone as she is absolutely crazy in love with my boy.

Sick Happens

There are blessings even in sickness. First Kaleb came down with a bug on Saturday and caused us to stay home from a race he was going to enter (and several other activities that day), so I used the time nursing him to wash windows (which sorely needed it before we left). Then Tuesday I had big plans in Seattle for the day but I caught what he had and I wasn’t going anywhere. Because of that, our plans to go to Family Camp on Wednesday had to be cancelled because I couldn’t get out of bed and get things packed. Kaleb is still coughing and blowing his nose and said it was OK to miss Family Camp because there were other things going on this weekend he was looking forward to. So in the blessing of sickness…we get five extra days at home to keep on cleaning/purging/packing and taking care of the endless list of details that must be done in order to up and leave one’s life.

Yesterday, sick and all, I had to go to Seattle anyway and meet with my friend Ann that will take care of all the books for our apartment building in Seattle. Her and her husband John will manage things for us while we’re gone – for which we are eternally grateful. It’s nice to have such long term friends that you can trust to take care of things as if they are their own.

Happy Anniversary!

One of my favorite sayings is: “Attempt something so big that without God it will surely fail.” Well, that’s how life is these days. This trip to Norway certainly wouldn’t be on its way without God opening all the right doors at the right time. We are already two thousand dollars over budget to get there and at least a thousand a month over budget once we are there, but I have a God that supplies all my needs, so I’m not worried… just curious how he will do it! And yesterday Kory and I celebrated 17 years of marriage. Without God, that just wouldn’t have happened either. We’ve come a long way and we have much to be thankful for. Our God is an awesome God!