A Hallelujah Day

We had nothing but miracles happen today so I’m still shouting Hallelujah from the mountaintops. 

First off, Bent-Jarle took Kory into the nearest town early this morning to see who had the time to put his tires on our old van.  Turns out they had to go to the next town over in order to get someone who could do it before noon.  They left the van in town then BJ came back and got Kaleb and Amanda and I, and ever so kindly, took is to the biggest city around here so we could go shopping at the thrift store.  Wonderful treasures awaited us there, so we were happy campers while we waited for the car. (Our old tires below - more than dangerous!)

So the first miracle of the day was that BJ’s tires actually fit our vehicle and the second miracle was actually getting those nice tires on our van so we knew we wouldn’t have a blow out on the five hour drive back home.  We felt so blessed.  It was also slightly miraculous that BJ has the time off work to be helping us, as his two days off this week happened to be yesterday and today.

We had a little more time to kill so BJ took us to an old Stave Church, built in 1140AD(above), and we sat outside a nearby barn and had coffee and homemade baked goods while we waited.  The sun was shining and life was feeling pretty good at that point in the day.

Once the tires were done, we shouted Hallelujah because the guy only charged us a hundred dollars for their installation, which around here, is pretty darn cheap.  Considering the tires were free, we felt blessed beyond words.

We said our goodbyes to BJ, thanked him for all his hospitality and kindness, and off we went – heading further east up the fjord to find the farm where Amanda and my great great grandfather had grown up.  We stopped so often for photo opportunities it was hard to make good time.  Things were just so beautiful everywhere we looked.

By the time we got out to the farm, we were hungry, so as luck would have it, there was a very cool picnic spot, complete with flush toilets and hot water to wash our hands, right next to the fjord.  Kaleb skipped stones and we all enjoyed lunch and God’s creation.  We also stopped at the church where our grandpappy, Nils Johnson Roisen was baptized and confirmed.  More great photo opportunities availed themselves.

The farm where Nils came from (below) is a place called “Hengesteg” which means “hanging place” and it was obvious why it had such a name as the hillside it sat on was steeper than steep and yet the farm just hung up there like it was floating on air.  The small “husman’s” place where he lived was further down the hill, but also precariously positioned on a steep embankment held together only by retaining walls. 

It’s really a beautiful place, and even thinking he was an indentured servant on that farm, it brought a smile to my face, since he got to live surrounded by such beauty.  The actual building he lived in is only memorialized by the stone foundation which sits overgrown by all kinds of greenery, but the little cabin and outbuilding there  are quite picturesque.  The retaining walls are older than the hills so they certainly were there when we was growing up.  

Many photos later, we were heading back down the hill and on to our next destination, which today, was supposed to be our condo in Aalesund, five hours away, via a few picturesque drive over the mountains.  But that’s not exactly how the day turned out.

We stopped at the end of the fjord to fill up our gas as the road we were going over is very barren and we wanted to be sure we needed nothing on the journey.  It’s the highest road in all of Norway and there’s nothing there for miles and miles and much of the road is one lane with dangerous switchbacks and steep drop-offs - white knuckle driving all the way.  I’ve never been on that road before and it’s supposed to be spectacular, so I was pumped to go, but not so pumped about the driving conditions.

As it turned out, I’m not sure I’ll ever be on that road.  Without thinking, Kory accidentally put the wrong type of gas in our car.  I’m not sure why, but in our town, the diesel gas has a green handle, and at this gas station today, the regular unleaded gas had a green handle, so he just looked at the color without reading the label and pumped a hundred dollars of regular unleaded gas into a diesel tank.

About a kilometer or so up the road, as we were ascending this very steep mountainside, the van sputtered, blew smoke out the back and just died, right in the middle of a one lane road (up past where Kaleb is standing) with no possible way for anyone to get around us.  There was a sharp corner in front of us and a sharp corner behind us and we were nothing but trouble between the two – so we prayed.

God was watching out for us and it was truly miraculous that just a few yards downhill from where we died, there was a small house with a tiny patch of grass the van fit snugly onto.  Any further up the hill and we would have been in big trouble as the road has major switchbacks and no pull-outs.  We blocked traffic both ways while we were backing up.

Kory hitched a ride back down the mountain, to the gas station where we’d filled up.  Amanda, Kaleb and I sat in the van and prayed.  Then we praised God and decided it was best to just trust Him to work everything out, than to get upset, scared or worried.  We were at least five hours from home, and in such a remote part of Norway that even getting a place to sleep, a meal or a rental car were pretty much out of the picture.  All kinds of scenarios ran through my head, but the best one was to just praise God through the “storm” and let him calm the seas.

Kory had suspected he got the wrong gas, so he was anxious to confirm it once he was back at the gas station.  He was right.  It was also 4:30 and the repair guy went home at five o’clock but God gave him mercy on us and he agreed to work late.  He also had a tow truck, which was another miracle in the making.

Looking at where we were on that mountain and how narrow the road was, I couldn’t imagine how he’d get the tow truck up there and turned around, but just before the hairpin turn below us was a wide spot in the road, so he was able to turn around there.  Kory then just let the brake off the car and it rolled back quite a ways but then right up onto the flatbed of his truck.  It felt like God’s hand was guiding it the whole way.

He only had to tow us about a kilometer (less than a mile) so we were thankful for that, since the tow bill was nearly two hundred dollars and he commented how “lucky” we were it wasn’t further.  Yes, thank you Jesus!

We waited for a diagnosis from him, to even see if he could fix the van or if he had needed parts, etc., so it gave us lots of time for prayer and also for praise as we knew God was in the details.  Kory sat and drank a cup of coffee at the gas staion while we walked down the mountain and through the little town at the bottom.  Really a pretty place, but way too isolated for me and lots of empty buildings, dead businesses and even the only little B&B had a sign on it that it was “closed today.”  The grocery store closed at five o’clock and there was nothing left but the gas station opened til six.  Yikes. 

So many things could have gone so wrong, but the mechanic was able to drain out that gas, clean the fuel filter, blow out the lines and by six o’clock Kory was filling the tank afresh with diesel fuel and we were on the road again.  It was nothing short of miraculous that there was no damage to the vehicle in the process.  So Hallelujah for that, too.

I didn’t want to go over that scary road since it was so late in the day and getting back home would have been impossible before nightfall.  I called BJ again to see if we could just head back to his house and crash there for the night, then drive home tomorrow.  He was more than accommodating and welcomed us back anytime.  Whew. 

It felt good to get back in the land of the living, in the sunshine and with family again.  It took me hours to just relax and know that the car is fine, the tires are fine and we’ll be just fine, too. What a day.

We stopped and got frozen pizza (not Kory, of course as I had food in the car for him), but we watched the sunset again over this finger of the fjord and thanked God that He is with us always, even unto the ends of the earth and especially if that end is called Fortun.  Kaleb pointed out “Fortuna” is the Roman goddess of “luck.”  I’m not sure we had much luck with us today, but I sure know God was there and for that, I’m most thankful.