It's warming up inside and out. For some reason, which I’d like to attribute to answered prayer, Kaleb woke up in a much better mood today and was as pleasant as he could be and fairly cooperative. We rode the bus down the street together this morning since the roads are still a bit slick (but the snow is melting quickly). This afternoon Kaleb said he had a good time at school – especially at recess when the kids all participated in a covert snowball fight. Such things are not allowed, but the teacher, as Kaleb and the other kids discovered, doesn’t have eyes in the back of her head, so wherever she WASN’T looking is where the snowballs went flying. Kaleb thought it was pretty fun, even though a few hard packed ice balls smacked him upside the head. (They don’t call them hard-headed Norwegians for nothin’.) He spoke to me only in Norwegian today, and I returned the courtesy. I’m so relieved my sweet little boy is back. He had me pretty worried, but perhaps he was just homesick or lonely or tired or overwhelmed or something else that has moved on. As my Daddy used to say, “This too shall pass,” and thank you Jesus, it did.
Today was a little busier for me than normal. After school I cleaned house and made banana bread for the Bible study we had tonight for the refugees. I helped Kaleb with his homework, made dinner, taught Bible study and left early to go to the “Jesus Kvinne” (Jesus Women) meeting at Filaldelfia Church. I took Ledto with me (she’s a woman that attends our Bible study) so Kory stayed behind and finished up the first half of James chapter 2 with just the men. Ledto is from Eritrea, a very small country in Africa that borders Sudan. Eritrea has become communist and will not allow Christians to practice their faith. All the staff from Ledto’s church back home are in prison. She and her husband, Emmanuel, escaped Eritrea just over a year ago. She told me they had to “run away in the night” and it took them 10 nights of walking and hiding (up in trees or in bushes) during the day to get to a place in Sudan where they knew they were “safe,” although she said, they weren’t really. They had to take a lot of money with them (her husband was an engineer in Eritrea), to pay off all the right people to get refugee status in Sudan. We ran out of time before I could hear the rest of the story, but she told me those ten days of escape were very frightening and they didn’t know if they would live or die. She said her husband had been imprisoned for his faith, so that’s why they left. All their family is back in Africa and she’s now seven months pregnant. They don’t know if Norway will accept their application to continue to live here as refugees – they could easily be denied and have to go back. All the refugees here live with such uncertainty, as sometimes it takes years before the Norwegian government approves their application. The refugees in our Bible study have such a peace, and such a handle on the providence of God, that to them, it’s all just part of the process of living a life of faith. Lawrence, the man from Darfur in Sudan, made the comment tonight that ALL Christians are refugees here on this earth, because this isn’t our homeland either. I love that guy. He is so positive and so knowledgeable about the Bible and wavers NOT in his belief (he’s the one whose parents and other loved ones were murdered by the Muslim Jihad.) It’s humbling to be around people with REAL problems and REAL pain and yet I’d never know it unless I’d asked (but I’m learning not to ask too much, which is hard because I’m so curious.)
So today shaped up pretty well but now I’m tired and want to sleep and I haven’t done a lick of homework (I have plenty.) Besides all my regular assignments, I’m supposed to read a newspaper article and be prepared to discuss it in class tomorrow. We are on the topic of the “media” right now and so far I haven’t been able to participate in the discussions because they have revolved around certain TV shows or movies and I’m oblivious to all that since we don’t have a TV and the only movies I’ve seen for the past 10 years have been rated G. I did find out today though that Norway’s government heavily subsidizes all the newspapers, which explains why they aren’t full of advertisements. But I also found out that the biggest newspaper in this country, in the last four years, has lost over a million readers (they had 1.4 million and are now down to 300,000). A sign of the times, they say, with the internet increasing in popularity. But what’s strange is that that newspaper has NEVER had subscribers. Each and every day, people must go to a kiosk or store and buy the paper if they want to read it. If that newspaper want to survive in these “tough economic times,” maybe they can learn a thing or two from the pizza guy because at least he delivers.
Today was a little busier for me than normal. After school I cleaned house and made banana bread for the Bible study we had tonight for the refugees. I helped Kaleb with his homework, made dinner, taught Bible study and left early to go to the “Jesus Kvinne” (Jesus Women) meeting at Filaldelfia Church. I took Ledto with me (she’s a woman that attends our Bible study) so Kory stayed behind and finished up the first half of James chapter 2 with just the men. Ledto is from Eritrea, a very small country in Africa that borders Sudan. Eritrea has become communist and will not allow Christians to practice their faith. All the staff from Ledto’s church back home are in prison. She and her husband, Emmanuel, escaped Eritrea just over a year ago. She told me they had to “run away in the night” and it took them 10 nights of walking and hiding (up in trees or in bushes) during the day to get to a place in Sudan where they knew they were “safe,” although she said, they weren’t really. They had to take a lot of money with them (her husband was an engineer in Eritrea), to pay off all the right people to get refugee status in Sudan. We ran out of time before I could hear the rest of the story, but she told me those ten days of escape were very frightening and they didn’t know if they would live or die. She said her husband had been imprisoned for his faith, so that’s why they left. All their family is back in Africa and she’s now seven months pregnant. They don’t know if Norway will accept their application to continue to live here as refugees – they could easily be denied and have to go back. All the refugees here live with such uncertainty, as sometimes it takes years before the Norwegian government approves their application. The refugees in our Bible study have such a peace, and such a handle on the providence of God, that to them, it’s all just part of the process of living a life of faith. Lawrence, the man from Darfur in Sudan, made the comment tonight that ALL Christians are refugees here on this earth, because this isn’t our homeland either. I love that guy. He is so positive and so knowledgeable about the Bible and wavers NOT in his belief (he’s the one whose parents and other loved ones were murdered by the Muslim Jihad.) It’s humbling to be around people with REAL problems and REAL pain and yet I’d never know it unless I’d asked (but I’m learning not to ask too much, which is hard because I’m so curious.)
So today shaped up pretty well but now I’m tired and want to sleep and I haven’t done a lick of homework (I have plenty.) Besides all my regular assignments, I’m supposed to read a newspaper article and be prepared to discuss it in class tomorrow. We are on the topic of the “media” right now and so far I haven’t been able to participate in the discussions because they have revolved around certain TV shows or movies and I’m oblivious to all that since we don’t have a TV and the only movies I’ve seen for the past 10 years have been rated G. I did find out today though that Norway’s government heavily subsidizes all the newspapers, which explains why they aren’t full of advertisements. But I also found out that the biggest newspaper in this country, in the last four years, has lost over a million readers (they had 1.4 million and are now down to 300,000). A sign of the times, they say, with the internet increasing in popularity. But what’s strange is that that newspaper has NEVER had subscribers. Each and every day, people must go to a kiosk or store and buy the paper if they want to read it. If that newspaper want to survive in these “tough economic times,” maybe they can learn a thing or two from the pizza guy because at least he delivers.
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