A Day With NO Rain!

God must have surely heard my whining and was getting as tired of it as I was of the rain, so today we had very little of both.  It was heaven, even if the skies were only blue for a little while.

Our morning at Agape Church (above) once again fed my soul.  Pastor Mark is one incredible preacher.  Afterwards we fed my compulsion by stopping at the expensive loppamarked we were at yesterday, just to see what was left.  It was still 90 minutes til closing time, so I was shocked when they said they were selling the “fill all you can get into this bag” for 100 kroner (about $17).  I didn’t think they’d have that deal so early, so I was more than pleased to play the game and see just how much I could get in a bag.  Kaleb was a big help, spotting many small things, and figuring out if we cram the smaller things inside the bigger things we could actually get quite a bit in that bag, and we sure did.  I was beaming all the way home.

Turns out we got 49 different items (below), so that averaged about 2 kroner (about 35 cents) for each item, which by anybody’s standards, is one heck of a deal.  I smiled for hours over those bargains.  Woo hoo!  Now I’ll be paying for extra luggage to get it all home, but what the heck, it’s worth it, and I didn’t even break the bank today with my whopping $17 splurge.

We had a late lunch then decided, since the rain seemed to be holding off, to go out to a beach we hadn’t been to this year on an island about 30 minutes away.  It was heaven.  I could have stayed til the sun went down.  Kaleb jumped on rocks while Kory and I both took photos and breathed in deep.  We’ve been cooped up in the condo for far too many days and just sitting at the beach watching the waves roll in was healing to my soul.  The wind was strong enough that Kaleb tried to fly, holding his jacket above his head to catch the breeze.  It was so good to get out and just be near nature and not get rained on.  Hallelujah for that!

The only thing that kept us from staying there for hours was that we have committed to attend the Bible study at the B&B with the British couple.  We are the only ones that show up and they so need some encouragement, so we set aside our selfish ways and thought of them.  It was tough though, as I really wanted to stay at the beach.

Clive and Carol were glad to see us.  We had quite the discussion tonight about “reasoning with God” and whether He changes His mind based on our prayers, and of course, He does.  Afterwards we talked a lot about Norwegian culture and their view of God.  Norwegians have their own special bent on things, that’s for sure.  At least we were comforted to know we’ve observed similar peculiarities, so there was some validation going on anyway.

The sun is setting so much earlier now and it’s dark by nine o’clock.  It makes it easier for Kaleb to get to bed, since he has to go to school in the morning.  We have just four weeks and a day left here and I know they will go by far too quickly (unless we get rain everyday).  I just hope we can make the best of them.  It doesn’t feel like we’ve done much since we got here.