It seems Norwegian phone companies have learned a thing or two from American ones – they said they would be out today to fix our home phone, but no one showed up or even called. I stayed home from school today to prepare my Bible study lesson, but also because I wanted to get the phone line fixed. At least I got one thing crossed off my to-do list. Ugh. I had all the dinner dishes from last night washed and put way within an hour of Kaleb leaving for school. Kory was at work today so I had the house to myself and I just sat in the corner and enjoyed the cleanliness of it all. For as long as it lasted… and now it’s just sweet memories because it's dirty again..Kaleb and I are getting pretty good at understanding each other now that we are speaking just Norwegian between 8am and 8pm. (But neither of us fully understand Kory, unless he talks very slowly as he slurs his words WAY too much!) I’m so good now, I can even yell at Kaleb in Norwegian. And he’s so good, he can talk back to me with the same disrespectful tone he uses in English. That kid is something else. Now I know why homeschooling became such a challenge – because he just likes to challenge every task given to him. He wants to weasel out of everything and he can argue for an hour as to why he shouldn’t be doing his homework– when if he would just do it he’d be done in half the time. It’s so exhausting some days to deal with him and his bag of tricks. He can wear me out in five minutes flat just with that nasty attitude.
Kory came home drenching wet. I thought he worked outside today as we had rain off and on but he got that wet just walking in from the car. When it rains here sometimes, it really rains. It’s supposed to snow tonight, but I’m thinking the weather report is all wet.
We had our Bible study with the asylum seekers from Africa tonight. We continued our study in James and tonight we talked about chapter 3 and all the verses pertaining to the evils of the tongue. It was such a good discussion and both Kory and I continue to be so impressed with these guys and how well they know their Bible. I’m sure they have the whole thing memorized, chapter, book and verse. We’ll read one verse and they know all the other Bible verses that say something similar – even the scripture reference for it. It’s really unbelievable. They put us both to shame. It’s fun to learn from each other – and the Bible.
Satan’s biggest tool for destroying lives is the tongue, and I’m as guilty as anyone for not having a “guard” over by mouth. Not only do we destroy our own lives by things we say, but words from others can also destroy our lives if we “take in” what was said. As I shared tonight, when someone is sick and another person prays for them and they are healed, the sick person doesn’t think even for a second, that the person who prayed is the one that healed – they were just the vessel that God used to say the prayer, but the healing came straight from God himself. But it’s so strange to me, that when one person says something to another that cuts to the bone and causes a real injury to their soul, the blame always gets put on the person who spoke the words – not on the source of the evil – the devil himself. So we recognize that good things come from God, but we blame people for the evil, when in fact, Satan is as much behind the injuries with words, as God is behind the healing of the sick. We had a good discussion around that one. Emmanuel (one of the guys) brought up the verses that say our mouth brings death and life, curses and blessings… and he said he understood it to mean that it is through the mouth that death entered in (Eve eating the forbidden fruit) and it is with the mouth when we confess that Jesus died for our sins, that we have life again. I had never thought of it that way before. These guys are good and we so enjoy getting together with them. It breaks my heart that they suffer so much discrimination and prejudice here. I’m not even sure our neighbors like that we have them coming to our home. One elderly neighbor told me she saw “a black man” walking around our house and she thought he looked very suspicious. I told her he was just coming to our Bible study and he was a good guy. I’m surprised she didn’t call the police. The whole prejudice thing is hard to take but they have their reasons, I guess. Not all the immigrants from Africa are here because of religious persecution. I think something like 80% of the prisoners in Norway are non-white. Norway had such a low crime rate twenty years ago, but once they had to start allowing in refugees, their country started changing – and not for the better. It’s weird to live in such times of change – not just here but in the U.S. too. It makes me all the more comforted that the promises God gives us in the Bible are the same yesterday, today and forever. That’s one thing that will never change.
