Packin' Up

It was the big Norsk Prøve 3 day today so I didn’t go to school since I wasn’t taking the test. It was so nice to have yet another day off! And Kory didn’t have to work today either because they were doing some heavy roof work and his bosses know by now it’s not wise to have him do such things. They told him he could stay home if he wanted. So he did. Actually, he was at Odd’s house all day installing the new interior walls, so I didn’t see much of him. After Kaleb was off to school, I took the bus to the mall and bought Tante Kari some flowers to welcome her back home from the rehab center. She still has pain in her hip, but she says she feels much better now that she is home. We had a nice visit but it would have been better if she was back to her old cheerful self again.

I stopped in to see Tante Ruth too but she was having a heck of a time. She didn’t answer her door so I had to have Tante Aslaug unlock the door to let me in. Ruth was laying all curled up on her bed as her hearing aid had broken and she couldn’t hear a thing and with her glaucoma, she is nearly blind anyway so she was in quite the pickle. Tante Aslaug has lost most of her patience with Ruth and she went out the door in a huff saying “Now she’s completely deaf and nearly totally blind, what more can happen….” (Well, she can’t walk without a walker, and she is full of cancer, so there are a few more things that could go wrong.) Tante Aslaug went and got some spare parts from her own hearing aid to try and fix Tante Ruth’s but had no luck for the hour I was there. If it weren’t all so sad it would almost have been a comedy routine as these two old ladies sat yelling at each other, one because she couldn’t hear a thing and the other because she kept trying to fix the hearing aid and wanted to see if it was working. I gave up trying to help and just went to the mall to do my shopping. Aslaug called me later to say she took the hearing aid in and got it fixed on the spot and now Ruth can hear again, thank God. When I think about it, I try not to laugh, but it was one of the more hopeless situations I’ve experienced in a while. I pray I don’t live THAT long.

I spent an hour on the phone today just making two calls – one to the phone company to schedule our phone and internet disconnection for the 26th (sad day) and one to the Dell support center to get my laptop picked up again and hopefully repaired for good this time. Telephone support is as bad here as it is in the U.S. Ugh. I also packed up a few more boxes, which made me even sadder as I’m so not ready to leave. I guess we will have to though if we ever want to see Kaleb again. He is heading for his friend’s houses the minute he is done with his homework then heads back again right after he finishes dinner. He’s on a roll and expanding his friendship base with each day. I’m so thankful for that, but also a bit worried for the fall out when we get home.

I went to another Bible study tonight by the same group I met with two weeks ago. They invited me back again so I suggested we talk about the book of James, since it is all still fresh in my mind from last night’s study. It’s such a good book to discuss because there are so many powerful words in it. The ladies gave me flowers as a thank you for coming, and they said they will be setting a place at the table for me until I come back again next year. I’m not sure what it is that makes such an impact with these women but they seem to really like me, so that’s nice. The group broke up at ten o’clock and some wanted to stay an extra hour and soak and pray, so we did that, (and it was good) then everyone left but me because the hostess wanted to talk to me privately. I guess last time when I prayed for her, it was very meaningful and she wanted to tell me why. I am so amazed I understood her because she used so many Norwegian words I didn’t understand fully, but I knew exactly what she was talking about. It was almost like Pentecost when people were speaking in other languages but others were able to understand. She told me about how her step-father had molested her many times as a girl and that she kept it a secret for 15 years before she finally told her husband and her mother. Her mother divorced him because of it but it broke up her family for a while because her siblings didn’t fully understand. She has never wanted to forgive her step-father but she knows she must, so when I prayed for her two weeks ago I could sense that she had an important decision to make and I asked God to help her make the right one. First she had to choose to forgive. She was also wondering if she can just tell God she has forgiven him or if she must go directly to her step-father and tell him he is forgiven. She was totally hung up on the thought that if she forgave him, she might have to face him again and she didn’t want to do it. I told her that forgiveness is a process and it won’t happen over night. She will have to choose to forgive him each and every day until one day she won’t have the pain inside anymore. I suggested if God so leads, she maybe should wait to face him until she knows in her heart she has forgiven him. We talked and prayed until nearly one in the morning and it was good for both of us. What Satan meant for harm, God meant for good, so we focused on the good.