I found out this week that in Norway, spring begins on March 1st. Here I was thinking I had a few weeks to go before I could start feeling so springy, but I’m right on schedule – and so are all the flowers that are popping out of the ground and the birds that are chirping madly whenever I walk. I hope winter doesn’t return as spring is just lovely right now.
We arranged a play date for Kaleb today with a friend from school so Kory and I could run some errands. He absolutely loved being with his pals, as he gets a 4-for-1 deal as so many boys in his class live in the same neighborhood. He just went from house to house and was gone the entire day. They all have a love for Pokemon and Ninetendo, so he was in hog heaven when he came home.
While Kaleb was gone Kory and I went to buy some supplies for the car wash next week and then we visited the Aunts and gave them each a scarf we bought them in Rome last week. They squealed in delight (they are so easy to please.) Tante Ruth is doing very well and she continues to amaze us. If she were in the U.S. she’d be dead by now, I’m sure. The doctors there just wouldn’t be able to leave her alone since she is full of cancer. But here, they take a minimalist approach to everything, and they know at her age, any medicine or intervention would diminish her quality of life, so they just let nature take its course. She has a high quality of life and is able to take care of herself and our condo. She’ll probably live five more years. Sometimes it angers me that in the U.S. doctors insist on doing so much to old people, when often, it’s just not necessary. It’s sure nice to get another perspective on things.
Kory and I had a long talk today about the possibility of selling our apartment building in Seattle. The first rule in investments is that one should never be married to them. Kory is in even deeper than that with Lunde (the apartment building). I made a list of all the reasons why NOW is a good time to sell (income taxes will go up, rents are going down, values are going down, we are not totally free owning it as it’s an on-going responsibility, we have a lot of equity in it that isn’t doing us any good just sitting there, and on and on.) Kory’s reason to keep the building is “because I want to.” It makes no business sense now to keep it. Before it did, when it was an inflation proof source of income, but I feel now we are in a time of deflation and the market is going down and will continue to decline and none of us might live long enough to see it take an upturn. He is so adamantly against selling it but at least he agreed to pray about it and let God tell him what to do. It’s the first glimmer of hope I’ve had as I’m so tired of it and I can’t see any benefit in leaving it to Kaleb. I’m feeling a need to simplify our lives, but Kory is pretty stubborn, so I’m not holding out much hope my desires will prevail. I’ll be praying, too!
We all went to Filadelfia Church tonight to hear Egil Svartdahl preach again. He’s so funny, and sincere. He preached more on the story of the Prodigal Son, but this time on the older brother who never went astray. I hadn’t thought about it so much but that son was the one who was really in trouble. He related the older brother to all the legalism that’s found in religion and how far that keeps one from God. He showed a video clip of an interview he did with a State Church bishop (of sorts) and the guy he interviewed not only was a State church pastor, but leader over several other pastors in an entire area. The pastor being interviewed said he believed Jesus was real, that he died for his sins and is the son of God but neither he, nor anyone else he knows, “takes it personally.” Living their life intimately connected to God just isn’t on their radar, but they show up to church every Sunday. It was so sad, but so true of many, many people that are called Christians - but whether they are called “children” or “friends” of God, is another story. (I’m glad I’m not the judge of that one.)
We stayed for coffee afterwards and talked with people we know from Agape Church. The whole “coffee” after church here is a HUGE thing and every church has a café and they ALWAYS have coffee and cakes afterwards. Coffee is often free, but a piece of cake costs a buck or two (and is so worth it). It’s just part of the Christian culture here to have a long social time after any kind of meeting. I like it a lot. And I found out tonight I’m invited to speak again on Christian radio next Saturday. Kory will be doing the car wash with the refugees that day so I’ll have to go it alone. I need prayer, but I’ll trust God on this one. (I’ve yet to have a day when I didn’t have something to say about something.) Hallelujah!
We arranged a play date for Kaleb today with a friend from school so Kory and I could run some errands. He absolutely loved being with his pals, as he gets a 4-for-1 deal as so many boys in his class live in the same neighborhood. He just went from house to house and was gone the entire day. They all have a love for Pokemon and Ninetendo, so he was in hog heaven when he came home.
While Kaleb was gone Kory and I went to buy some supplies for the car wash next week and then we visited the Aunts and gave them each a scarf we bought them in Rome last week. They squealed in delight (they are so easy to please.) Tante Ruth is doing very well and she continues to amaze us. If she were in the U.S. she’d be dead by now, I’m sure. The doctors there just wouldn’t be able to leave her alone since she is full of cancer. But here, they take a minimalist approach to everything, and they know at her age, any medicine or intervention would diminish her quality of life, so they just let nature take its course. She has a high quality of life and is able to take care of herself and our condo. She’ll probably live five more years. Sometimes it angers me that in the U.S. doctors insist on doing so much to old people, when often, it’s just not necessary. It’s sure nice to get another perspective on things.
Kory and I had a long talk today about the possibility of selling our apartment building in Seattle. The first rule in investments is that one should never be married to them. Kory is in even deeper than that with Lunde (the apartment building). I made a list of all the reasons why NOW is a good time to sell (income taxes will go up, rents are going down, values are going down, we are not totally free owning it as it’s an on-going responsibility, we have a lot of equity in it that isn’t doing us any good just sitting there, and on and on.) Kory’s reason to keep the building is “because I want to.” It makes no business sense now to keep it. Before it did, when it was an inflation proof source of income, but I feel now we are in a time of deflation and the market is going down and will continue to decline and none of us might live long enough to see it take an upturn. He is so adamantly against selling it but at least he agreed to pray about it and let God tell him what to do. It’s the first glimmer of hope I’ve had as I’m so tired of it and I can’t see any benefit in leaving it to Kaleb. I’m feeling a need to simplify our lives, but Kory is pretty stubborn, so I’m not holding out much hope my desires will prevail. I’ll be praying, too!
We all went to Filadelfia Church tonight to hear Egil Svartdahl preach again. He’s so funny, and sincere. He preached more on the story of the Prodigal Son, but this time on the older brother who never went astray. I hadn’t thought about it so much but that son was the one who was really in trouble. He related the older brother to all the legalism that’s found in religion and how far that keeps one from God. He showed a video clip of an interview he did with a State Church bishop (of sorts) and the guy he interviewed not only was a State church pastor, but leader over several other pastors in an entire area. The pastor being interviewed said he believed Jesus was real, that he died for his sins and is the son of God but neither he, nor anyone else he knows, “takes it personally.” Living their life intimately connected to God just isn’t on their radar, but they show up to church every Sunday. It was so sad, but so true of many, many people that are called Christians - but whether they are called “children” or “friends” of God, is another story. (I’m glad I’m not the judge of that one.)
We stayed for coffee afterwards and talked with people we know from Agape Church. The whole “coffee” after church here is a HUGE thing and every church has a café and they ALWAYS have coffee and cakes afterwards. Coffee is often free, but a piece of cake costs a buck or two (and is so worth it). It’s just part of the Christian culture here to have a long social time after any kind of meeting. I like it a lot. And I found out tonight I’m invited to speak again on Christian radio next Saturday. Kory will be doing the car wash with the refugees that day so I’ll have to go it alone. I need prayer, but I’ll trust God on this one. (I’ve yet to have a day when I didn’t have something to say about something.) Hallelujah!
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