All the snow in the lower elevations has melted again and the sun was so bright and the day so warm, I had to open doors and windows to cool down the house as it got to be 74 degrees inside. What a day – no coats required.
Kaleb woke up with a bad cough and a little sore throat and tried his darndest to stay home from school, but I kicked into selfish mode and made him go. I was already stressing about how I’d get my Bible study prep work done with Kory in the house, but having Kaleb home would have made it impossible. So I had a twinge of guilt as he rode off on his bike to school – knowing he wasn’t up to par, but he didn’t have a fever either. He came home complaining bitterly about his cough and the sniffles and swore he only had energy to lie on the couch and moan – until the doorbell rang and Tobias showed up to play with him. Then he found some energy and was off riding bikes with him once his homework was complete.
Kory was very respectful of my “quite time” and he didn’t make a peep all day. He crawled under the sinking houses again and measured everything. He doesn’t have anyone to give his monthly reports to now, but he wants to do them anyway so he feels less guilty about us living here for free. He called the attorney today to ask if he should send him the report, but the attorney said the Kommune is now the rightful owners and he should wait until he hears from them – whenever that might be. If they are typical governmental agencies like in the U.S. – we might live here for years before they decide to do anything about us, but we only need four more months.
I spent the day praying, reading my Bible and a very good commentary on the book of James. I thought of a few things today I hadn’t thought of before regarding Chapter 2, so I was excited to be able to share it with the Bible study group tonight. I love those “ah-ha” moments – especially when they have to do with scripture. Ledto, the woman in our group came early tonight so we had a chance to talk to her a little more about how things were for her in Eritrea before she moved to Norway. She said in the years 2000-01 there was a huge Pentecostal revival in Eritrea and many people were being miraculously healed and even Muslim were converting to Christianity because of the “signs and wonders” being performed. The church was strong and growing rapidly. The government became afraid of the Pentecostals because of this, so they imprisoned all the pastors of the Pentecostal churches, blocked access to all the money in their bank accounts and boarded up the church buildings. They made it illegal to meet together to worship God, to have a Bible or to share the gospel in anyway. They did nothing about the Orthodox (Catholics) or Muslims – just the Pentecostals. She said the church went underground and they started meeting in people’s homes but now they must be very careful when they arrive at a home, with just one person per hour showing up, as everyone now is an informant and will call the police to report a gathering. The miracles haven’t stopped, nor has their gathering together. But if someone gets caught with a Bible or worshipping God in any way they will go to prison. She said the first time someone gets caught, they put them in shackles out in the middle of the hot sun for the entire day. If they get caught a second time, they go to prison for months (but mothers of little children will get out in 2-3 weeks). She said she read just this week that the government has now imprisoned the leader of the Orthodox church in Eritrea too so they are cracking down even more on any type of Christianity, but they continue to do nothing about the Muslims because half the country is Muslim and the government is afraid of retribution from Arab nations. Amazing. We have it so good.
Cousin Odd and Turid came over tonight to talk to Kory about his trip to Trondheim next week for the angiogram. They offered to take care of Kaleb for us, as we might be gone for four days. We are so praying that the test shows NOTHING other than God has healed Kory completely, but short of that, we are still at a loss as to what to do. Kory doesn’t like being on drugs of any kind, and he most certainly will have to be on them if he gets a stent put in. Odd read the preliminary reports that were done here in Norway and he said it doesn’t show Kory has any HUGE problem, but just “something” that needs further investigation. That’s sure a far cry from the “you’ll-be-dead-in-six-months-if-you-don’t-have-surgery” routine we heard from the American cardiologist - so either that guy was exaggerating, or God really has been doing a work on Kory’s heart these last four years. I’ll always choose to give God the glory, no matter what the outcome, however.
Kaleb woke up with a bad cough and a little sore throat and tried his darndest to stay home from school, but I kicked into selfish mode and made him go. I was already stressing about how I’d get my Bible study prep work done with Kory in the house, but having Kaleb home would have made it impossible. So I had a twinge of guilt as he rode off on his bike to school – knowing he wasn’t up to par, but he didn’t have a fever either. He came home complaining bitterly about his cough and the sniffles and swore he only had energy to lie on the couch and moan – until the doorbell rang and Tobias showed up to play with him. Then he found some energy and was off riding bikes with him once his homework was complete.
Kory was very respectful of my “quite time” and he didn’t make a peep all day. He crawled under the sinking houses again and measured everything. He doesn’t have anyone to give his monthly reports to now, but he wants to do them anyway so he feels less guilty about us living here for free. He called the attorney today to ask if he should send him the report, but the attorney said the Kommune is now the rightful owners and he should wait until he hears from them – whenever that might be. If they are typical governmental agencies like in the U.S. – we might live here for years before they decide to do anything about us, but we only need four more months.
I spent the day praying, reading my Bible and a very good commentary on the book of James. I thought of a few things today I hadn’t thought of before regarding Chapter 2, so I was excited to be able to share it with the Bible study group tonight. I love those “ah-ha” moments – especially when they have to do with scripture. Ledto, the woman in our group came early tonight so we had a chance to talk to her a little more about how things were for her in Eritrea before she moved to Norway. She said in the years 2000-01 there was a huge Pentecostal revival in Eritrea and many people were being miraculously healed and even Muslim were converting to Christianity because of the “signs and wonders” being performed. The church was strong and growing rapidly. The government became afraid of the Pentecostals because of this, so they imprisoned all the pastors of the Pentecostal churches, blocked access to all the money in their bank accounts and boarded up the church buildings. They made it illegal to meet together to worship God, to have a Bible or to share the gospel in anyway. They did nothing about the Orthodox (Catholics) or Muslims – just the Pentecostals. She said the church went underground and they started meeting in people’s homes but now they must be very careful when they arrive at a home, with just one person per hour showing up, as everyone now is an informant and will call the police to report a gathering. The miracles haven’t stopped, nor has their gathering together. But if someone gets caught with a Bible or worshipping God in any way they will go to prison. She said the first time someone gets caught, they put them in shackles out in the middle of the hot sun for the entire day. If they get caught a second time, they go to prison for months (but mothers of little children will get out in 2-3 weeks). She said she read just this week that the government has now imprisoned the leader of the Orthodox church in Eritrea too so they are cracking down even more on any type of Christianity, but they continue to do nothing about the Muslims because half the country is Muslim and the government is afraid of retribution from Arab nations. Amazing. We have it so good.
Cousin Odd and Turid came over tonight to talk to Kory about his trip to Trondheim next week for the angiogram. They offered to take care of Kaleb for us, as we might be gone for four days. We are so praying that the test shows NOTHING other than God has healed Kory completely, but short of that, we are still at a loss as to what to do. Kory doesn’t like being on drugs of any kind, and he most certainly will have to be on them if he gets a stent put in. Odd read the preliminary reports that were done here in Norway and he said it doesn’t show Kory has any HUGE problem, but just “something” that needs further investigation. That’s sure a far cry from the “you’ll-be-dead-in-six-months-if-you-don’t-have-surgery” routine we heard from the American cardiologist - so either that guy was exaggerating, or God really has been doing a work on Kory’s heart these last four years. I’ll always choose to give God the glory, no matter what the outcome, however.
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