Travel Day

I was expecting it to be a brutal travel day, but it turned out not to be so.  Perhaps that’s the power of prayer.  We were up at five this morning, taking the airport shuttle at six.  Our flight didn’t leave until nine, so we killed a few hours at our local airport, just meeting the others in the group and chit-chatting. 

Our first flight was only 50 minutes to Oslo, where we then had a four-hour layover.  We hung out in a café.  Some played cards, others talked.  I sat on my laptop and worked on a photo book of our trip to Turkey.  The time went faster than I expected.  The rain in both Aalesund and Oslo are now far from my mind as I sit in the heat of Tel Aviv at two in the morning.

We had a two-hour flight to Vienna at 2:30pm.  Fortunately, we flew right over the city so I got a pretty good overview of it out the window from not that high up (see photos below).  It was hot when we arrived there so all of us were suffering, since we were dressed for weather in Norway.  None of our family have ever been to Austria before.  Kaleb has a map back home in America he likes to color in the countries where he’s been.  I told him it doesn’t count if he just gets off one plane and into another and his only experience of that country is the airport.  My rule is, he must walk on the ground of that land, before it counts.  Lucky for him, when we got off the plane, we had to walk a ways before we got into the airport terminal, so he was gloating that he can now count Austria as a county he has step foot into. 

We were at the airport in Vienna over four hours before our flight to Tel Aviv.  Others have traveled that way before, I could tell, because the leader of our group made a bee-line for concourse C where there is a Starbucks.  Everyone just had to have a cup of coffee from Starbucks!  What is it with the world’s fascination with that place?  When we were in Turkey, it was the same thing – they just gotta find a Starbucks!  I will say though, that it provided a comfortable setting in which to kill some time and Kaleb got to recharge his Nintendo, so he was happy.

There were a few shopping places near us in Concourse C so I went looking to see what there was to see.  I found a “Mostly Mozart” store and then remembered he was from Vienna.  Classic music lovers would have enjoyed that store.  They sold Mozart tea, Mozart chocolate, Mozart doilies, Mozart purses, you name it, they had it with Mozart’s face plastered on it.  I settled on a $5 coffee cup with Mozart’s profile, since all I did in Austria was drink a cup of coffee at Starbucks.  I refused to buy the Starbucks specialty mug from Vienna because it was nearly $20.   They both will break the same, I’m sure.

We left Vienna just as the sun was setting over the airport.  Simply gorgeous – perhaps because of the ash in the stratosphere from the volcano in Iceland.  Who knows, I’m just thankful all our flights were on time, our luggage wasn’t lost and we arrived safely.  I was able to sleep a bit on that last flight so I’m not as weary as some of the others in our group.  And the flight wasn’t full so we all had plenty of room to stretch out a bit.

This is the first group tour Agape Church has taken.  Pastor Mark and our leader, Rune, took a trip last year just spying out the land, trying to make connections and to see what would be of most interest to their church members.  Mark comes from a Jewish background, even though he was raised in England, so he loves this land.  Unfortunately, his back problems didn’t improve enough for him to feel comfortable in joining us so it’s a bit sad for us all that he’s not here. 

Our family represents the oldest and youngest in our group, with the other twelve most all in their 20s.  Agape Church is like that – very appealing to the younger generation.  We are hoping not to be a burden to them with having the only kid along and the only senior citizen, and then there’s me.

The tour guide for our group is a retired college professor from Minnesota with Norwegian roots.  His name is Halvor, same as Kory’s dad and Kaleb’s middle name.  We knew right away he was from Telemark, since nearly half of those from that area have the name Halvor.  Names are very regional in nature in Norway.  So Halvor has been living in Jerusalem for 45 years.  He came to learn Hebrew and ended up teaching it to other Christians who wanted to read the Bible in its original text.  He’s got a degree in Biblical Archeology and he knows everything there is to know about the places we shall see, so I’m looking forward to picking his brain a little.

He told us tonight that there are four categories of sights we will see.  Category one is a place that has documented proof of its origins, like the city of Jerusalem and Solomon’s Temple, for instance.  No one can deny its location is original to the Bible’s mentioning of it.  Category two is a place that “tradition” says it happens and everyone is pretty sure it happened there but no one is able to prove it for sure.  Unfortunately, both places where tradition says that Jesus was buried, are in that category, so I guess if we see them both, we will have seen the place were he was indeed buried.  Category three are places that “folklore” says something happened there and it’s questionable but it can’t be disproved.  Category four says it’s hogwash, that there is enough evidence to prove the event happened in another completely different location, but some like to make money off these Biblical sights so they create a business around them, etc.  He put it like this, there are places that are “proof positive, probable, possible, and preposterous.” So we will be seeing these sights and being told which category they fall under so we know how to digest it all.

It’s late and I wish I were more tired.  It will be a long day tomorrow but I'm excited for what the days and week will bring. 

The lobby hotel in Tel Aviv.

The Rain in Spain Falls Mainly on the Plane in Norway

We made it! We were up at four this morning and out the door 43 minutes later. I only slept about three hours so I was pretty rummy, but I made up for it later on the plane. It was a six and a half hour drive (locals said it would take at least eight, but they always factor in lots of stops to drink coffee along the way.) Kory drove the first two and a half hours and we ate and drank coffee American style, while we were driving, then I drove the next two and a half. We finally stopped to stretch our legs for half an hour next to a lake and had a little food, then ninety minutes later we were at the airport – more than three hours before our departure time. It’s never a bad idea to allow some flex time, especially when driving over three hundred miles to get to a destination. We decided to drive to Oslo, rather than fly, because it cost as much for us to fly to Oslo from Aalesund, as it cost to fly to Spain from Oslo (we got a screaming deal on those tickets – under $500 for round trip for all three of us). And because of the volcano’s uncertainty, we thought it best to have just one flight cancelled, rather than two. It was a good decision.



Kory and Kaleb both slept a little on the drive to Oslo, but even though I was tired, I just couldn’t bear to close my eyes and miss any of the Norwegian landscape. It’s not like I haven’t been on those roads before, but every time we drive them, it’s a different time of year, or day, and the lighting changes things so much, I still wanted to take it all in. The saddest part for me was we couldn’t stop to take any pictures. I did my usual “drive-by shooting” out the window, but not often, as we were going pretty fast. There wasn’t another single car on the road for the first four hours. Unfortunately, there were several traffic speed cameras so we couldn’t go more than fifty miles an hour, but that wouldn’t be smart anyway because then one would miss all the landscape. (See photo of our drive through the ultimate “Grand Canyon” in Norway about 5:30 this morning – with steep mountains all around – those are tall tree tops at the bottom of the photo, to give some perspective – I pointed the camera UP, not OUT. )



While we were driving we saw several deer and elk and even a moose right next to the road. I’ve seen hundreds of warning signs for moose, but never once seen one in Norway, but sure enough, they aren’t just an advertising prop. We even saw what looked like wild emus. It’s hard to believe they are just roaming around Norway, but I think they are. The places we saw them were far from any farm land so they couldn’t be pets. We also saw two red foxes, which got Kaleb excited – both times they were crossing the road. Unfortunately, we killed two birds on our trip. Life is tough in the fast lane.



Our flight to Alicante, Spain was about three and a half hours long. We arrived tonight right on target at seven – no ash came our way so everything was as smooth as it could be. Thank you, Jesus! Kory’s Tante Berit met us at the airport and drove us forty minutes to her house in Torreviejo in Southern Spain, right next to the Mediterranean Sea. She left Norway several years ago in favor of the year round sunshine and warm weather this place offers. It was nearly 80 degrees when we landed and she is sporting a rather dark tan for a Norwegian.



Aunt Berit is now a widow and lives alone with her little pup, Carmen. Carmen took to Kaleb right away, which was a good thing for both of them. We don’t know Berit too well, as she is a half sister to Kory’s mom; the daughter of Kory’s grandfather he never knew. His mother was illegitimate and she never knew her father – she was raised by the father to her other sisters, Ruth, Kari and Aslaug. So this is branching into a whole new world for us to meet people Kory is closely related to, but has no history with. Berit couldn’t be nicer or more hospitable and we are looking forward to our days with her – and the sunshine and warm weather. So what do you call a vacation, when you are already on one? I feel guilty sometimes our life is so good, but when God says he will pour out so many blessing we cannot contain it, He really means it.

Picnic (and Rain) in the Park

It’s amazing how long we can sleep in when Kaleb doesn’t come crawling in to our bed in the morning. I’m sure I could have slept all day, but got up at ten anyway to make it to church on time. We went to Filadelfia this morning and heard a wonderful sermon on Pentecost (which is next Monday and another National holiday in Norway). The pastor read the words of Jesus, telling us it is BETTER for us that he doesn’t stay on earth because after he leaves, he’ll send the Holy Spirit, which is much more powerful. It was such a thought provoking and inspiring talk, and I understood most everything he said without using the translation headphones, so that was cool. It was such a great sermon everyone applauded afterwards. That was a first, and a little odd in church, but nice at the same time.

Before the sermon began a group of kids from Youth With A Mission (YWAM) made a presentation about their two month mission trip to India. The YWAM base in Ålesund is called “Creative” Discipleship Training School because all the kids that go there have some artistic gifting they want to use for God’s glory. The coolest part about their presentation was the music video they made while in India. It looked like it was cut right from MTV, as they knew the song they would use ahead of time and they set different stages for the messages they were trying to convey while filming it. It was all very clever and a great way to display their mission. They are indeed talented folk.

After church we stayed for coffee and cake and sat with Tone (pronounced Tone-ah) and her husband (she is one of The Praying Women). Her husband became a politician after he retired from banking. When he was first running for office, the week before the election, he came down with a severe case of Chicken Pox, which nearly killed him as it spread internally as much as externally. He was actually on life support the day of the election, and when he won, he didn’t know about it for weeks afterward because of how sick he was. Tone was sure he would lose the election because all the newspapers and TV were reporting he was on his death bed, but they voted him in anyway. Gotta love that.

We picked Kaleb up from his friend Andre’s house after church and he was just gloating. I had taken away his Nintendo privileges yesterday because he disobeyed me. His friend Andre had a Game-boy system so he played that all night instead, and felt so triumphant that he was still able to play video games while not disobeying. I am trying to help him understand the difference between the letter of the law and the spirit of the law, but I’m not sure I’m making progress. We headed right for a park to go to a church picnic with Agape Church this afternoon and as everyone was packing up and leaving, I noticed a lot of garbage on the ground. I asked Kaleb if he could go around and pick up all the garbage he saw, so he started walking away with his eyes closed then came back and reported he didn’t see a thing. Not funny.

The reason I asked him to pick up litter was because when he was playing volleyball I was watching him from a distance and saw him wrestle the ball out of a kid’s arms and then start throwing sand at the kid. I was so disappointed to see him behave like that and then he wouldn’t fess up to doing it when I talked to him about it later. Not good. I’m so miffed with him and not sure how to handle this behavior. I don’t know what’s normal and what’s not, but I certainly don’t like some of the things he’s been doing lately.

We weren’t sure we were going to go to the picnic because it was raining a little this afternoon, but wouldn’t you know, that doesn’t stop a thing here. We showed up a little late and the picnic and games were in full swing. Norwegians have a very cool invention they use for beach parties called an “engangsgrille” which literally translates as “one time grill.” It’s basically just an aluminum lasagna pan with charcoal in the bottom and a light metal grill over the top. With one toss of the match, the coals ignite and after a few minutes, the grill is ready for hot dogs or burgers (see photo). But we provided the ultimate entertainment for the day when we showed up with our full sized BBQ. We are so American. Kory just had to have his barbequed potatoes and didn’t know how to do them on those little grills, so we got several snickers as we pulled up in the van with that big BBQ. We have no shame. The park was empty except for our church party, so there was lots of room to play volleyball, croquet and another lawn game (Kubb) that came from the Vikings that involves throwing sticks of wood at other sticks of wood in a strategic way. Any game that involves throwing objects is a hit with Kaleb and he did very well playing it his first time. Now if he could just focus that precision towards being obedient, we might have a little more peace in our household.

Banking

Two months and counting… I got an e-mail this morning from Turid that we were overcharged for our condo dues at Moa so the association is sending back roughly $800 – so that will pay for most of our tabs for a year for the van (the registration is over a thousand dollars a year!). God is good.

They have an interesting banking system over there – far more advanced than ours. No one writes checks – everything is done over the internet and they just do direct deposits into the account of the person they owe money to. When you pay a bill, it gets to the company instantly. When you send someone money – it just posts that second. So, now that we are getting a refund – they will just deposit the money directly into our account at Sparebanken Møre. I need to learn that system when I’m there so Turid won’t have to pay all our bills anymore.

We got an e-mail from Lars, the one who is selling us the van. He is getting something fixed on the steering, but he said the brakes will soon need to be replaced. Good to know.

I packed up 4 boxes last night – so I’m ¼ of the way done. It’s amazing how much I can get in a box with the vacuum sealed bags! I used it for bedding and Kaleb’s clothes and coats. I’m glad we don’t get charged for the weight of the boxes because they are all stuffed to the brim and weigh a ton.