Chick Trip

Cousin Kari and I headed for the airport early this morning and flew to Oslo for the Jesus Women conference. Several others from Filadelfia Church were on the same plane so it fun to meet up with so many women on the same mission. We were the lucky ones, taking the first flight out. The ones that took the next flight didn’t make it on time to attend the evening meeting. I guess Norwegian Airlines doesn’t have many extra planes lying around and when the one broke down in Ålesund, they had to send for the mechanic in Oslo to come fix it. Everyone who thought they were flying out at noon, sat in the airport the entire day waiting for the plane to get fixed. So much for budget airlines in fairly remote locations. I’m glad it wasn’t us.

We got to Oslo with plenty of time to do a little shopping and eating before the event started. I had a few wedding gifts to buy so we went into a store that was celebrating its 270th anniversary because everything was about 30% off. I could have sworn they were going out of business because it was a huge department store and nearly all the shelves were empty. Kari said it was because things were on sale all week and this was the last day of the sale. They apparently don’t restock. Too funny. But I’m still scratching my head over the fact I was shopping in a store that is older than America itself.

After dinner at a Thai restaurant (I just ate a yummy friend banana as I wasn’t that hungry), we headed to the conference. I was hoping to use translation headphones so I wouldn’t miss a thing tonight, but as it turned out, they had problems with their equipment, so I just had to concentrate and do the best I could to understand the message. I didn’t understand everything, but what I did pick up was very good.

The woman that began Jesus Women seven years ago looks like a young Glenn Close, only prettier. She is a woman full of joy, that’s for sure and she had a lot of energy, which she pours into this ministry. There are two special speakers tomorrow, some woman from France that was a very powerful political figure for many years, and the woman in charge of the Moms In Touch ministry, which is International but I’m sure is based in the US. They both gave a little blurb tonight, but the main speaker was Anne Christiansen, the founder of Jesus Women. Her talk was based on the scripture that says “You are the salt of the earth” and I thought how appropriate that is for Norwegians, since salt is such an important part of their food chain. In Matthew chapter five, verse 13 it says “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.” So it was pretty funny when Anne said she was thinking about that verse and decided to call up someone in the salt industry and ask them how salt can lose its strength. They said it can’t. Salt is salt and it will always be salt. So then she said to the guy on the phone, “Then what do you think Jesus meant when he said…” and she quoted the verse. Pretty funny, I thought. But then the guy told her that the only way salt can become weak is if it gets mixed with other things and it isn’t just pure salt anymore because it’s diluted. So she reminded us that we are who we are, and that’s the way God made us and we shouldn’t get mixed up with other things or we’ll lose the flavor of what God has put in us…. It was a pretty powerful message even for a Norwegian audience.

A few of us went out to eat some late night snacks (see photo of Tina and cousin Kari) before we called it a day. We walked down Karl Johan’s Gate, which is the big main street running through the center of Oslo. It goes from the train station straight down to the King’s castle (seen in the background of the photo). The city was alive and full of peddlers, street artists and musicians and people out celebrating the end of the week. It wasn’t dark, even at eleven, but the streets smelled like cigarette smoke, alcohol and urine. The heart of downtown just ain’t what it used to be. It looked more like I was walking through the streets of Northern Africa, than southern Norway. At least 25% of this city’s population is foreign born. The times they are a changing Norway. Tina was so excited we were in the city so we could take in a good restaurant called T.G.I. Friday’s. Uff da. I come to the Big City for that? (Yes, I did.)

Kory and Kaleb had a good day today (mostly because I wasn’t there, I’m sure). They left me love notes in my Bible and suitcase just so I wouldn’t forget them. I think they forgot me though because our neighbor invited them over for dinner and when I called at midnight, they were still there having a good time. Someone is going to be crabby tomorrow, and this time, it won’t be me.