Confirmation Day

Today was Tobias’ big Confirmation day (see photo above of him and his mom).  We were honored to be part of it.  We were up early and in our finest duds in order to conform to the standard attire expected on such a day as today.  We went to Agape Church for just the first half, then had to leave early to make it to the State Church to see Tobias get confirmed.  Agape showed a video of Kaleb being baptized in the Jordan River, so that was a nice surprise.  Pastor Mark talked on baptism too, but unfortunately, we had to leave before he gave the message.

We got the State Church (which is right next door to where we live), half an hour early and still had a hard time finding a place to sit.  That place was packed!  Kaleb’s nemesis at school, Morten, was sitting just a few rows in front of us with his grandparents and mother.  His older sister was being confirmed today, too.  We also ran into a few other people we know so it was a big social time, wrapped around many formalities.

Our guests from America chose to stay home this morning because they both were wiped out.  Stuart got a call early this morning that he had a little flood problem in his kitchen back home and Judi didn’t sleep more than two or three hours, so they just needed a day to relax at home.  It was good timing, since we had places to go and people to see.

After the Confirmation ceremony in the church we came home for a few minutes before heading over to Tobias’ house for dinner and cakes.  There were 24 of us for a sit down dinner, complete with place names at the table made from sand dollars they picked up off the Oregon Coast last year when they were with us for a visit.  The whole thing was very classy and formal and the food was yummy.  They had 13 cakes.  Every party in this part of Norway goes overboard with the cakes.  I’m still suffering, several hours later, because I had to try a little bit of nearly all of them.  Kory loosened his belt twice.

Normally, there should be many speeches and poems read to the confirmant on Confirmation Day, but Tobias wanted nothing to do with that.  So we all sat quietly and ate dinner and just watched him beam.  It’s kind of like a party that celebrates his entrance into manhood, and it comes with a lot of cash.  To date, he’s received almost eight thousand dollars (40,000 kroner).  This is no small celebration.  One set of his grandparents gave him a treasure chest full of 10 and 20 kroner coins ($2-$4), totaling over ten thousand kroner ($2,000).  He enjoyed the process of counting it, and he kept counting the paper money as it showed up in every envelope he opened. Neighbors were even knocking at the door during the party, just to drop off a card.  It’s not the norm to invite everyone you know to the party, usually just immediately family (with us being the exception), but pretty much everyone the kid knows will give him some cash or a gift of some kind.  We gave him a little cash and the photo book I made of his time with us in America last year.  Everyone took some time to look through it during the party.  And I embarrassed him by not honoring his wishes, as I stood up and read a poem I’d written for him on this big day.  He wasn’t too mad, it seemed.

We had gorgeous weather today, which was nice for taking photos and letting the kids run outside.  Kaleb was a particular pest because I wouldn’t let him bring his Nintendo along to play with in case he got bored.  Instead, he ran around shooting at people with rubber bands.  He’s currently on my “list.”  It’s a good thing we’ll be gone tomorrow so we can get a break from each other, otherwise he might end up with some severe consequences.  That kid knows how to push my buttons, and currently, they are all pushed.

Judi and Stuart both took sleeping pills tonight hoping to get their body clocks adjusted to local time.  It’s not an easy thing to do, but hopefully tomorrow they will be on the mend and ready for their adventures to start.  Our first stop will be the bank where Stuart has had an account for decades, set up by cousins of his dad.  Good thing it was on the schedule for tomorrow too, because Tuesday all the banks are going on strike.  He may fall in love with the beauty of this land, but sometimes the inner workings of it can get pretty ugly.

Alt for USA

All the boys were awake before Kory and me this morning. I’m sure they only slept about four hours. They were up playing a board game before we even had a cup of coffee. It’s was another gorgeous day, for which I was very thankful. Keeping those boys inside all day would have been no fun at all, as Kory was worried sick they would do something to hurt that otherwise unblemished cabin. I had them eat and drink everything out on the porch, and even then, I needed to wash down the deck. Boys can sure be messy.




I brought some props to the cabin to create a kind of birthday party feel for the weekend. Normally, for Kaleb’s huge birthday parties back home, we have several games and competitions. I didn’t plan anything ahead before we came to Norway, so I had to make do with things I found in the boxes we had left here. It worked out pretty well. I decided to copy some of the ideas from that “Alt for Norge” TV show and also do some standard American games. It took several hours, so it was good to give them a focus, and I think they had a lot of fun in the process. None of them liked losing, however, especially Kaleb.



I called it “Alt for USA,” and they competed in a watermelon eating contest, an egg toss, water balloon throwing, shooting hoops with balloons, English speaking competitions, little wind-up car races, a scavenger hunt and a lot of other things too difficult to explain. We never did have time to go for a hike. One boy, Henrik, was way behind in points, so that’s when I thought of doing an English speaking contest, because he’s very good at that. I took each boy aside and spoke to them very slowly in English, “If you can understand me, say ten words in English, not using any numbers.” One boy looked around and said things like, tree, rock, house, lake, sky, birds… things he could see. Another boy just repeated back my sentence, which I thought that was pretty clever. When I gave the instructions to Henrik, he responded in English, “Oh boy, this is going to be easy!” Then he proceeded to rattle off some story he had read, using very old and difficult English terms. It was pretty funny. There was such a difference in the boy’s English skills. As it is, Henrik’s parents are divorced so he watches a lot of TV, being that he’s home alone a lot. Most all of the TV shows here come from America and they have Norwegian subtitles, so the kids who watch a lot of TV, learn quickly. (For that portion of the contest, I made Kaleb give me ten words in Spanish, even though he’s never studied it. He did just fine.)



After serving them a standard party lunch of hot dogs and brownies, Kory took the boys down to the lake (see photo). Some jumped in the ice cold water with all their clothes on. I stayed behind to clean the cabin. We got on the ferry to come home at five o’clock, then had to rush to get to the store to buy food for tomorrow, clean up, and get over to Odd and Turid’s for dinner.



I was so thankful I didn’t have to cook, as I was pretty tired. Turid is such a good cook too, so it was a special treat. Kaleb fell asleep just as we were sitting down to eat, so he missed out on dinner. He curled up on the couch in Odd’s living room, and that was it for him. We all huddled out on the balcony, drinking wine and talking for several hours. Odd’s opinion is, “If it’s summer, we sit outdoors,” (no matter what the weather.) This is why their household has wool sox and wool blankets at the ready. It helps.



They days are so long now that when we were driving home at midnight tonight, there was a bunch of kids playing volleyball in the sand by the beach we passed. Summer in Norway does have its advantages. I’m so sad we are leaving in two weeks.

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.