Kristi Himmelfartsdag

Another Holy day has come and gone.  It never gets old to say “himmelfartsdag” (heaven speed day), the day Norway celebrates Jesus’ ascension into heaven.  Some churches have services today, some don’t.  Everyone has free from their jobs and everything is likewise, closed.  It worked well for us today.

My friend, Kristin, who hosts a weekly prayer meeting I attend, invited Kory and Kaleb and I out to her husband’s family cabin on a nearby island.  I couldn’t pass up the chance to go, even though we had guests coming for dinner tonight.  So I got up early and prepared everything for dinner before we left so we wouldn’t be rushed.

Kory got a ride from Inger to go pick up our car.  We had to go get Kaleb from Daniel’s house on our way out of town.  He cried and carried on and did NOT want to go with us, but I insisted.  I told him it’s a “typisk Norsk” experience to go to someone’s cabin and we can’t pass up this opportunity.  I also knew it would be better for him than just sitting around playing electronics all day.

So we were off early, driving about 30 minutes away to a small boat harbor in an area we’d never been.  Kristin and her husband met us with their boat as they’d spent the night out there.  The island his grandfather comes from even now only has three cabins on it.  His grandfather used to have to row across the fjord, then walk a kilometer to school each day.  They grew everything they needed and fished from the sea.  It was an idyllic Norwegian life back in the day, but now it’s just a place for people to have a summer cabin.  Only one 85-year-old man lives there year round. 

The cabin looks very modern but they have to collect rainwater to take a shower or wash dishes, and they need to bring drinking water with them on their boat.  There is a pit toilet inside the house but they use some kind of bacteria that keeps it from smelling up the place.  They have electricity and a fantastic view, so life is good there and the feel of nature is everywhere around them.  The wind was blowing something terrible all day but at least it didn’t rain.  We had a rough ride over to the island but it was fun - like a roller coaster ride - so we didn’t mind all the tossing and turning.

Kristin is quite the cook and she had homemade cinnamon rolls and a hot cup of coffee waiting for us when we got there.  She has class, that woman.  It was the first time I’ve met her husband and he’s a pretty friendly guy, so it was nice to get to know him a little.  He’s been going to that island all his life as there have been several generations before him living there.  His last name is the name of that island and at one point, his grandfather’s family owned the entire island, along with the small one next door.  He said his grandpa used to row his cows, goats and sheep over to the other island and let them graze there all summer long.  The image of a cow in a rowboat is just not something I can visualize.

We took a little tour with them around the island.  The wind was so strong, Kaleb used his jacket as a sail and tried to fly away.  He ended up grounded many times but had a blast catching the wind and getting tossed about.  I’m sure he’s never experienced anything like it before.  He was laughing himself silly and rolling in the tundra as he lost his footing time and time again.  It was fun to watch, but also hard to stand up straight because even without a “sail” above our heads, the wind was pretty strong.  We walked to the other side of the island and saw the city where Kory was born in the distance.  There were beautiful views everywhere we looked.  Norway is like that when the sun peeks out.

We were hoping to find some seagull eggs as many nests are there, since it’s so sparsely populated, but we could see that the ravens had beaten us to the task and had eaten all of them.  We only found broken shells.

Down by the water’s edge were many sea scallop shells, which trilled me to no end.  I love any kind of natural souvenir so they were happy to have me clean their beach.  Kory isn’t so happy to have our house filled with even more stuff, but I couldn’t help myself.

We had a late “grill” (BBQ lunch) with them before they took us back to our car.  Kaleb wanted to stay on the boat just because it was so fun to be tossed about with the wild ride on the waves.  He never complained once all day about being bored or missing his friends, so I’m sure he had as good of time as we did.  I only wished it could have lasted longer, but we had to get home and get dinner cooking.

Kory invited a few guys (and their families) he knows from Seattle for dinner tonight.  Josef Kloven’s dad was good friends with Kory’s dad.  Josef’s mom just arrived from Seattle, so she came along, too.  The other guy, Byron Eggehorn, his parents in Seattle are old friends of Kory, so he was also invited.  He lives about a block from us but I’ve never met him before.  Both these guys married Norwegian women they met after they came here to study with Youth With a Mission, so it was funny we had a house full of people from Seattle but we all spoke Norwegian together.  We had a nice visit. 

Then, just as they were all getting ready to leave about 9:30, Cousin Odd and his wife, Turid, dropped by.  They were out for a walk and decided to come check on us and ask about our trip to Israel.  They were happy to eat up our leftovers once they arrived, so it’s a good thing I made extra food.  We had a nice chat with them, too but then it was past time to get Kaleb to bed, so we all called it a night. 

Our house feels like it has a revolving door sometimes, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.   Except for feeling a bit exhausted right now, it was a wonderful day and the kind of day I’ll relive in my mind once we return to the states and settle into our boring routine where no one drops by and everyone is too busy to even come over for a cup of coffee.   I just love the life we have here and I will miss it terribly when we are gone.

A Better Day

I had to redeem the feeling that I can’t afford to buy anything in Norway, so I went shopping today at three different second-hand stores. I got so many lovely things for such cheap prices, it was a fine day for me even though it rained non-stop. I so love buying all the handmade Norwegian “pynt” (decorations). I even scored on a 19” second-hand flat screen TV. It wasn’t at one of the stores, but was advertised in Norway’s version of Craigslist (finn.no). I paid less than a hundred bucks for it and I couldn’t be more pleased. Now assuming tomorrow we get it hooked up, we can watch the final competitions for “Alt for Norge.” I’m not much of a TV freak, but that show has me hooked.



Before I headed into the city this morning, I managed to unpack a few more boxes I’ve had stuffed down in our storage unit. I still have plenty of boxes to unpack that are earmarked for Kaleb’s room, but his space is limited, so I’m not sure how we’ll handle that. Perhaps our storage unit can become his annex.



I had a few things to do downtown, so I spent the afternoon there shopping, having coffee with The Good Teacher Inga, and going to the bank. It was great to see Inga again. We only had an hour together, but she invited us over Sunday for dinner, so we’ll have more of a chance to catch up then. Her life is pretty busy, and today she had an appointment to be Vestina’s model for a haircut. Inga loves to keep tabs on her students.



Kory worked on house projects all day. He got some of the trim up around the new wall and he met with an electrician (his cousin, Ketil) to figure out why our bathroom floor doesn’t heat up. Turns out, it was a bum control panel. We are thankful for Ketil’s expertise in the matter and his ability to buy the new part at wholesale prices for only a hundred bucks. He did the work for free, but Kory promised him a good dinner before we leave. Fair enough.



I only saw Kaleb for a total of about ten minutes today. He got up late for school and ran to the bus stop, then came home while I was away, and went right back to his friend’s house. He didn’t get home until after ten tonight because I had a Bible study at our condo, so Kory and Kaleb needed to be gone. Kory went to a men’s small group meeting and Kaleb went to Andre’s house, since Andre’s mom was at the Bible study with me. He’s going to be super tired tomorrow but he sure loves hanging out with his friends.



At our Bible study tonight I asked the women what it meant to have “childhood faith” (barnetror). It’s a common expression around here that I’ve heard a few people use and I didn’t fully understand its meaning. I’m not sure I even understand it now, but it was a good discussion. Tante Berit, in Spain, was talking about her husband dying two years ago and she sounded almost proud when she said that, “He never lost his childhood faith.” Tante Kari said almost the same thing about her daughter that died over fifteen years ago. Her daughter was not in a good place with God when she died, and Kari has been haunted by that a lot, but her son, Odd, reminded her that his sister “still had her childhood faith” when she died.



Basically, what the women at the Bible study told me, was that people are looking for some way to be comforted in their grief. They know that each child raised in Norway, attending public schools, has been taught that God created the universe and then sent His son to die on the cross as forgiveness for our sins. They were taught that, therefore, it’s assumed they believe that, and having that knowledge, somehow makes them think the deceased are now in heaven. Weird. If that’s the case, then every person lucky enough to be born and raised in Norway, is in heaven, but unfortunately, that’s not what the Bible says… so I was even more confused after the conversation. I guess those grieving are just glad someone told the person who died, about God. Whether they had a personal relationship with Him or not isn’t really the point, it’s that they died, knowing there is a God who loves them. Okay, then. That’s not a bad thing to focus on - God loves everyone - but what we do with that love, is the point. We live with all kinds of choices, but when we die, there are no more.