Oh, The Difference a Prayer Can Make

I wish I could say I was as thrilled as Kory about all this, but it seems God has provided us with a place to live. Yes, it’s a miracle, but it’s also sinking. If you read the blog from a few days ago you know what I’m talking about.

I’ll spare the details for now, but this is how it came about: Kory’s cousin Odd (who we are staying with) is a doctor. One of his patients is the attorney handling the settlement for the owners of the duplexes where the ground is sinking not far from where Odd lives. (The houses are sturdy, but the ground is not.) Kory’s other cousin, Axel, knew about these places because he lives just down the street and he is a surveyor for the Aalesund Kommune (who is one of the parties involved in this disaster), so he told us about them.

All of the owners of these buildings (there are actually three duplexes all next to each other), just moved. There has been about three million dollars paid out so far in buying the home owners out, putting them up in temporary housing until they found suitable replacement housing, and various reports done for insurance purposes. There is still a chance there is some value to these properties but it’s uncertain at this point, as the ground keeps sinking around them.

Odd called the attorney last week to inquire about the property because Kory thought it would be a good investment to buy them. They aren’t ready to be sold yet and they can’t rent them out, but the attorney called back today to talk with Odd. Odd told him the situation with us and explained Kory and his construction background and the attorney said he would LOVE to have us live there – for FREE no less, if Kory could just keep an eye on the place. They are worried rocks may go through windows and trash may get dumped there. Also, the attorney has to pay big bucks for an inspector to come out every week or month or so to check how much the ground has sank, so if Kory were there, he could just measure it himself and send a report to the attorney.

I can’t even describe how deliriously happy Kory is about all this. It’s like getting a job that takes an hour a month, at most, and getting paid $1,500 for it (which is what they would rent for… maybe more.) Plus, I think it also includes utilities and electricity (which is another $700 a month), and, we don’t have to buy appliances, heaters, window coverings, closets, lights or a vacuum (there is one built in). I don’t think either of us would need to get a job now, and if we did, we’d have more than enough money to live here, so that’s the up-side. The down side is it’s so far to walk to the school or store; we’ll need to keep adding steps to get in and out of the doors, and I’m sure we’ll be the laughing stock of the neighborhood. No respectable Norwegian would live there (although they are cute places inside and extremely high quality). The yard needs a lot of work. It is on the bus line. It’s in the neighborhood where Odd and Axel live (so there are relatives nearby) but it isn’t Solevaag. I’m a bit distressed today thinking about not living at Solevaag, when my heart was so set on it. Plus, the other five units there will be empty – so no neighbors, which could be good or bad. Kory will be the “manager” of the place so we’ll have all the keys and Kaleb can certainly play in the empty units, which might be handy in the long dark winter ahead of us… and the car can’t make it into the garage (unless it spouts wings). I’m just rambling here. (The unit we’d live in is the middle building and in the photo, the unit on the right.) You can see the skirting that was added to the foundation of the buildings – the ground used to be there instead, so it has sank a good three feet in the last two years. Uff da. And if they do manage to sell them in the next year, we’d have to move right away (another down-side.)

The attorney Kory talked to owns other properties and he was excited to hear that Kory is a “fix-it” kind of guy so he said he might have some jobs for him over the next year, so that’s a bonus, too. I’m sure once I’m living there, I’ll stop complaining. It really is a blessing beyond words that we can live in Norway for “FREE” as the cost of housing is right up there with the cost of food as far as big monthly expenses go. And Kaleb would attend the Blindheim Skole – the very same school he attended with his cousin, Hege, for a week, two years ago, when we were visiting in May. At least it’s someplace familiar. Kaleb did give two thumbs up to this place (he’s way more flexible than I thought he’d be), so I’m obviously outnumbered. I think we move in on Friday.

Sundays in Norway

Kaleb went with us to church today – with three books under his arm. Good thing, as the service was two hours long. An evangelist was visiting Filadelfia Kirke (Church) so there was a lot of time spent in prayer and singing and preaching. The speaker was very good and he even got a few HALLELUJAHs out of Kory --although the guy said they weren’t loud enough. Imagine that - someone around here who welcomes the HALLELUJAHs.

After church we went for a visit to Solevaag (pronounced Soo-la-vogue) to some of Kory’s mom’s cousins. They are such nice people but their Norwegian is so different than anyone else’s that I can never understand a word they say. They slur their words together, have a heavy dialect, and use a lot of local slang so the whole conversation was lost on me. We told them we hope to buy a place just down the street and they were thrilled beyond words. Kaleb is also thrilled as he would be related to so many people in that area that he’d have the run of the place. It really is an ideal setting and would fill Kaleb’s head with many memories of his year in Norway. (The photo above is of Solevaag from a different angle than the one a few days ago. The place we hope to buy is in the distance, smack dab behind the red barn in the middle of the photo. The house where Kory’s mom was born is the white house, toward the right, with the highest pitch.) Instead of being close to all the commercialism (library, swimming pool, shopping mall), where our condo is, we’d be close to the best in nature that Norway has to offer – farms, mountains and the sea.

With everything closed in Norway on Sunday, options are limited, which is probably a good thing. There is a kind of freedom in having limited options that I’m sure I’ll come to enjoy over the year. I wish I could have taken a nap as we are up til after midnight every night (we don’t even eat dinner until around 11pm). The timing of things is very different for me, but it’s more the custom of the cousins we are staying with than all Norwegians. But there are some differences that all Norwegians do – like keeping all the doors to all the rooms closed at all times. Every room has a door (to retain heat in the winter?) and it’s weird to always close the doors behind me. Electricity is very expensive here and most people spend about $600 a month on it, so I can understand retaining the heat, but they do it even in the summer when the heat isn’t on.
Most every bathroom in Norway has a heated floor. The bathroom in our condo at Moa is as big as the bedroom. From looking at floor plans of places for sale around here, that is not uncommon. People have washing machines in the bathroom, but most don’t have dryers (which are very different than ours). The reasons the bathrooms are so large is because everyone has an indoor clothes line and they hang up the clothes to dry – year round. I’m doing a few loads of laundry right now and the clothes have been in the dryer for over two hours… as there is minimal heat to it – it’s more like a water extractor so you have to keep emptying the water bin when it gets full. I guess the design of that kind of dryer works when there is no place to have an outside vent for the heated air. I think it’s a bit strange, but if we don’t get a dryer I think I’ll just be a lazy American and lay all the clothes on the bathroom floor and they’ll be dry in less than two hours, I’m sure.

When people move from place to place here in Norway it’s common to take EVERYTHING with them – all appliances (frig, stove, dishwasher, washing machine), all light fixtures and all heating elements. A central source of heat is unheard of. Each room has a radiant heater that plugs into the wall so they detach easily – as do the ceiling light fixtures (they put plug-ins in the ceiling). So when you buy or rent, you get a place that is stripped naked. It can add thousands and thousands of dollars to the cost of moving when you have to buy all that stuff the first time (most appliances cost around a thousand dollars with today’s exchange rate) and heaters and lamps aren’t cheap either. At this point, I’m getting numb to how much things cost. I just want a place to call our own. Keep praying!

A Road Trip (or as the Norskies would say...Kjøretur)

Since nothing new showed up in the paper today for us to go look at to either rent or buy, our host cousins, Odd and Turid, decided, rain and all, we should take a road trip. The Tall Ships Race had landed in the town of Måløy, several hours south of here, and it was decided we should go see the ships in port. Just as I woke up and before I understood the plan for the day, we were out the door in a caravan of cars full of cousins heading south. I lost track of how many ferries we were on or how many tunnels we went through, but I know we went through the world’s deepest tunnel (nearly a thousand feet under the water through the bottom of the fjord). There was a sign before entering the tunnel that said they would send us a bill for 79 kroner ($16) in the mail for the privilege of going through it (it just opened up three months ago.) I guess they send you the road and tunnel tolls the same way they dish out traffic tickets via the road side cameras.

In Norway, the final destination is NEVER as important as the trip itself, as the landscape that unfolds around each corner is worth every penny we spent coming here. I had several great “drive by shootings” as I call them – where I hold the camera out the car window going 50 miles per hour past some incredible landscape, and shoot. Today was a bit more challenging because I was in the backseat and my window doesn’t roll down so I had to hold my camera out of the front seat passenger window and couldn’t even see what I was aiming at. But it rarely mattered as any old “point and shoot” in this part of the world generates a photo worth framing (the above photo is proof of that but maybe we were only going about 40 mph.) There never seems to be time to stop and properly frame a shot, as most ferries are timed so that you can catch them all perfectly if you go the speed limit between them (and there’s nowhere to pull over anyway).

We left around 11:00 this morning (yes I slept in as I was up til 2:30 last night trying to get the blog posted… the internet here isn’t working anymore on my computer…) and it’s now 10:00 at night and we just got home. We stopped to see the tall ships for only about 90 minutes – if that gives you some clue as to how much we were in the car today. We went all the way to the next “state” so it would be a similar day trip going from say, Seattle to Salem, Oregon and back again… except that there are no freeways and you’re on a road that if you drift off just a snitch to the right, you’d go crashing down to your death at the bottom of the fjord. Some of the roads are only wide enough for one car so I’m glad I wasn’t driving as there are often no guard rails, either.

Kaleb cried today because he is out of books to read. We were hoping our boxes would be here by now (I shipped four boxes of books and I know it won’t be enough) but they won’t show up until the 14th (we hope). He’s read every book we brought at least three times this week but I had a few surprise books tucked away in some suitcases, so that pacified him for now. I doubt he saw much of the scenery as he was perfectly entertained reading books. He did ask me to tell him before we entered a tunnel so he could hold his breath, but when the tunnels here go through several mountains and can be over five miles long, that childhood entertainment becomes downright impossible.

The ships were beautiful and the town was jammed packed with people. Even hearty northwesterners might have been deterred by the hard rain we had all day -- but not Norwegians. They have a famous saying that, “There’s no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothes,” so they were out in droves. Kory felt the trip was worth it because he got to eat one of his favorite Norwegian foods – whale! He found a street vendor making whale stew and he dove right in. Norway is so proud of the fact that they kill those majestic creatures that one of their politicians designed a T-shirt with a drawing of a whale on it that says, “Intelligent people need intelligent food.” Kory bought ten of them a few years ago and gave them to the Makah Indians to wear when they go out on a whale hunt (he had a co-worker friend that’s from that tribe.) I haven’t noticed that eating whale meat has made him any smarter, however.

Plan B

The sellers of the house we wanted to buy didn’t accept our offer. When God closes one door, he opens another. We’re back to square one, regrouping, and trying to figure out what to do now.

Before we came here we were told by the consulate that we can only live in the Aalesund “kommune” (county) because that’s where our condo is, but as it turns out, we can live outside that area if we just register with the police when we move. So, knowing that now opens up at lot more possible places for us to live. Hallelujah! And the further away you get from Aalesund, the cheaper the housing prices and the more things are available.

The most beautiful place I’ve ever seen in Norway is the area where Kory’s mom comes from – Solevaag (That’s it in the photo – her birthplace is a white house on the grassy slope on the right side of the photo.) It doesn’t get any more picturesque. It’s just outside the Aalesund Kommune so we didn’t consider living there before, but now with the closed door on the only house that would work for us in Aalesund, we feel we can consider it. We took Kaleb over to Solevaag today (he’s actually been there many times) and we checked out the one and only place for sale in this ideal setting (one of the buildings on the left side of the water in the photo – if you double click the picture it will get larger so you can see the details) and he decided it would be OK to live there. Hallelujah! (We were so worried he wouldn’t want to be so far from a library, but there were other things that changed his mind – like three dogs next door, boys his age behind the place and all that water to splash around in.) Oh how I wish we could have bought that condo on the spot, but once again, the systems they have in place here are far different than anything we know about in America.

The condo we saw at Solevaag just came on the market a few days ago and is advertised to have an open house this coming Thursday. It’s the law that the real estate agent cannot accept any offers until 24 hours after the end of the open house. So that means we have to wait an entire week to make an offer on this place and for me, it feels like an eternity. The start of school is fast approaching and we need to know where to register Kaleb. Pressures are mounting but I can’t even say how thrilled I would be to live at Solevaag. There is water all around, mountains behind and relatives in every house in the neighborhood. Kaleb would go to school at the same place Kory’s mom went. The views from there are breath taking. And it’s a ten minute drive to Moa, where our condo is located. We need to keep looking for places to live but we trust God to lead us to the right place (and oh how I hope it’s this place!)

Today was a very full day. We found out while we were visiting Solevaag that one of Kory’s mom’s cousins had died and the funeral was going on at that moment. The man who died is one of those old men that give all Norwegians the reputation for being hard headed. He was never married and was difficult, to say the least. We decided to crash his funeral and got there just in time for “coffee” afterwards. Kory wanted to see some relatives he hadn’t seen in a while so it was a good opportunity for that, and I got to see how Norwegians do funerals. I didn’t see the church part, but the reception afterwards was quite interesting. It was a formal sit down meal (Norwegians are VERY formal in all they do). It was catered, so after we all sat at a fancy table, platters of open face sandwiches were brought out and passed around. I wish I had my camera. The sandwiches were a work of art themselves and they couldn’t have tasted better. The pastor made some comments about the deceased and then offered anyone who wanted to talk about him to clink their wine glass with a knife and stand up. So, for at least one hour we sat there and ate food and drank coffee (some yummy cake was served after a time) and occasionally you’d hear the clinking of a glass and then someone would stand and tell a long story about this man who was their neighbor or old childhood friend. No family spoke of him that I am aware. Then someone played the piano and sang a beautiful song about heaven and then we all sang a song from the songbook and it was over. Lots of informal visiting of relatives followed and then we took Kory’s aunts home.

We had to rush from the funeral to catch a ferry as we were invited to dinner tonight across the fjord at the banker’s house (Kory’s old childhood friend). We had a delicious meal sitting out on their deck overlooking the fjord – you just can’t beat the views around here. After dinner they drove us into the mountains to have cake and coffee at their cabin. Kaleb was in heaven as they have many secret passages around their cabin and he loves to disappear through one of them and reappear in another. They were so kind to indulge him. On the drive up in the mountains we had to stop more than once because cows were wandering in the road; their bells tinkling a beautiful rhythm. Then after cake and coffee, as the sun was starting to sink in the horizon (around 10pm) we drove another road back to the ferry and stopped off to watch some fishermen catch fish at a rather historic old port. A cat was there jumping up trying to be the first one to get the fish off the line (very funny to watch.) Dolphins were swarming all around in the fjord just off shore. The setting sun was turning the sky shades of pink and lighting up the rock faces by the water. I took so many photos today that it was hard to decide which one to use for the blog. Everywhere I looked was like a postcard.

Some friends are coming from Seattle next month and the woman asked me what there is to do in Norway. “Just drive around and look at everything,” was my answer. How true that is. It’s such a beautiful place.

Trusting God

We looked at a few places today and made an offer on a house (half a duplex) at Moa (where our condo is). It’s in God’s hands as we offered 15% less than they were asking. Our offer was for 2,000,000 kroner (that’s $400,000 to me and you). Another person had offered the same price a month ago but the owners turned it down but we’re hoping they’re more eager to sell by now. They are asking 2,290,000 kroner ($60,000) more than we offered, but it’s a slow market for sellers as the interest rates in Norway are climbing and many people can’t afford these prices. We can only manage it if we get an interest only loan at the bank, which we were told we could get. (Kory’s old childhood neighbor is the president of a bank here and he can fix us up with whatever we need. It is nice to know the right people.) But it’s all a bit scary as we have tried so hard to get OUT of debt, now we’re going back in. And the house is about 920 square feet– tiny thing, but really cute inside.

Anything we rent would be 10-12 thousand kroner a month ($2,000-$2,400) so we figured we might as well “rent from the bank” as our payments would be about 12,000 kroner. It’s a bit of a risk that in a year we can maybe break even, but at least we get the tax advantages of owning and being able to deduct the interest from our income. We gave the seller 20 hours to make up his mind so we’ll know by noon tomorrow (3am Seattle time). We are nearly out of options. School starts in less than 3 weeks and we must know where we are living in order to know where Kaleb will go to school. He’s already registered with this school district and this house is almost as close to our condo as the house where we were going to rent – it’s just a few doors down from it and right in the same neighborhood.

I told Kaleb today about the housing dilemma we are in and he was more than excited that we might have a place of our own, so he took the news rather well. Thank you, God. There is a little girl, maybe 6 or 7 on the other side of this duplex and a boy about 7 or 8 in front of it – and there are several trampolines in the neighborhood, so it’s rich with socializing opportunities. We are praying God softens the hearts of the people with the house and they will be willing to sell at our price. The best thing is – it’s not sinking!

On the way home from the “megler” (real estate) office, we stopped by Odd’s other brother’s house to look at some furniture. He’s moving in with his girlfriend and they are each throwing out all their stuff and getting new furniture together. So, assuming we get a house soon, we will also have a nice couch, love seat, coffee table, and dining table with six chairs to go with it. Other cousins have been holding beds and dressers for us, knowing we are coming. They don’t do much recycling here – or trying to sell things used (it’s a little bit beneath them to take hand-me-downs) they’d rather just throw the stuff out. But we’re Americans and we have no shame.

Hopefully our search for a house will end tomorrow and we can start looking for jobs. We are trusting God for all our needs….

Downtown

Kory is an alien in his native land. We officially registered today with the “alien” office downtown Aalesund (at the police station). We also applied to get a new ID number so at least we will be marked as “residents” and can get all the benefits of a full-fledged Norwegian citizen (except vote). I was worried about the rule they have that we need to produce a signed lease within seven days of arriving to show where we are living, but we explained the situation and the woman just nodded her head and said when we find a place, let them know our new address. First miracle of many more to come, I hope. I was worried we’d be tossed out of the country if we didn’t follow the rules to a tee, but apparently there is a heart somewhere in the government here. HALLELUJAH! So the initial pressure is off – Praise God! But we still need to find a place to live before we over-stay our welcome with Odd and Turid.

We left Kaleb in the downtown library for about 40 minutes today. He wasn’t too pleased with their English book selection but he managed to keep himself entertained while we went to the employment agency. (It’s so cool to not worry about someone stealing your kid. Life is definitely different here.) The man at the employment agency seemed rather pleased we came in. He said there is a LOT of work and he perked right up when Kory said he had a background in construction, and also when he heard I had a background in computers. He seemed to think finding work would not be a problem. I think our problem will be that we will need to turn down work as we don’t want to work more than 20 hours a week (maybe 10 for me).

Odd’s brother, Ketil , came over this morning for coffee. We visited with him a while and got to talking about God things. (We were engaged in his house on New Year’s Eve 1990 here in Aalesund.) He used to be on the board of directors at his church but when he got caught embezzling from his company and put in jail… he pretty much gave up on God. He lost everything – including his house and wife… Kory was telling him how godless this country seems to be now and Ketil said if you asked, most people would say they are a Christian but “they don’t take it personally” – meaning they believe in Jesus and the truth of the Bible, but they don’t do anything to live it out. I had to laugh at that expression, “I’m a Christian, but I don’t take it personally.” What a good way to put it, but also, so sad.

We are seriously considering buying a place to live for the year as rental options are just not there. It seems we will pay 10.000nok ($2,000) a month if we rent, and potentially we could pay less than that if we bought something. Even if we had a mortgage of $2,000, we could sell it in a year and at least break even, if not make a little money. So tomorrow we will go look at a few places. There aren’t many houses available within our price range (the cheapest townhouses start at $300,000 and you can’t even touch a stand alone house for under $500,000.)

There is one duplex not far from where we are staying now that we walked over to see. They call it the “sinking house” because, well, the land is sinking all around it. When the builder built it he drove pilings into the bog to keep the house stable and things were fine for a while. (They would never allow building on such wetlands in America.) But later, another builder downhill from there, blasted out some rock to put in a house and apparently the rock was the cork that held back the water table. Water came gushing out of the side of the hill and the bog where the sinking house sits, drained. Now the sinking house is a good four feet above ground as the bog just keeps draining… it’s a funny sight. The house sits on stilts so it isn’t really sinking just yet, but the ground sure is. All geological reports say the ground will never stop sinking so at some point there will be big problems with the building slanting and possibly cracking in half. Naturally, Kory wants to live there. Actually, he wants to buy the place! (He thinks he can fix the problem??!!!) The owners are long gone and the builder had to pay back their money and now some attorney is handling the paperwork. Kory sees opportunities in other people’s disasters (and obviously, it would be cheap), but this is one disaster I’m not feeling too good about. This all reminds me of when Norway was short on housing after World War II because the Germans had bombed out so many buildings and people were living crammed together wherever they could, sloping floors and all. I hope we can do better than to live in a house that needs a new step added every other day just to get in and out the front door. What is he thinking?

It Was a Beachy Day

The clouds are supposed to move in tomorrow so before the sun disappears, we went to the beach for the afternoon. No need for the French Riviera when you have days like today in Norway.

This morning we got cell phones! Anyone can call us now and all incoming calls are free to us, so we won’t mind a bit if you call (but remember there is a 9 hour time difference and time happens here first). Here are our numbers (I put in all the numbers you dial to reach us) :
My number is 011 47 904 1 9060
Kory’s number is 011 47 904 1 9004
If you call from your home phone you can dial 10 10 297 FIRST before all those other numbers and then you get to talk to Europe (or anywhere in the world ) for 3 cents a minute (but you are charged for a 39 cent connection fee.) We used that system all the time to call Norway – the bill comes on your home phone bill and it’s a super cheap way to keep in touch with those you love around the world (or maybe people like us that you may not love so much but you want to talk to anyway…).

Our cell phones were $200 each (the cheapest you could get as they go all the way up to a thousand dollars). If I initiate the call and don’t talk for more than 20 minutes a month TOTAL on those calls I made, the cost is only $6 a month. I wonder if I can be that disciplined? I know Kory won’t have any problems keeping his conversations to a minimum….but Kory and I can talk to each other unlimited – for free - which is good. The only way we could get such a reasonable plan is because Turid put us on her account and used her Norwegian ID number to set it up (our numbers identify us as “aliens”). Since we aren’t official Norwegian citizens, we would not have this option and our bill would be over a hundred dollars a month. So I’m wondering the same as I did about the SAS flight, if somehow the citizens are subsidized or if they just like to tax the heck out of foreigners. No clue.

We stopped to get gas today – not quite a full tank and it cost $170 to fill up. Gas is down to $12 a gallon (from about $15). I bought food for dinner and a little bit for lunch and it was $110 – so my estimate that we would spend $3,000 a month on food is pretty close. Lord help us.

No progress on our housing dilemma today. Apparently in Norway your word is your bond so everyone that hears about what happened to us is personally offended and they feel it gives a black eye to the whole of Norway. They don’t have law suits here like in America but they do have some easy system to take people to court and it’s been suggested by more than one person we do just that. According to the law, the woman who initially told us we could rent her house would be forced to move out of her house and we would have full rights to live there for three months. When you promise something to someone, if there is a witness, you MUST carry through with your promise or suffer the consequences for it. Good to know, but we won’t be taking anyone to court. Our God supplies all our needs.

Several people I talked to today felt confident I could get a job either teaching English in the high schools around here or proof-reading English for an international company (there are several based out of this area.) I would be thrilled to do either so tonight I worked up a resume. (A weird thing to do when I haven’t worked much in ten years!) Tomorrow I’ll go talk to an employment agency. The reason prices are so high here is because the dollar is so low. But that works in our favor if we are making money and not just spending it. The minimum wage here is 125 kroner an hour – which currently translates to $25 an hour so you can see if we’re able to earn kroner, things aren’t nearly as expensive for us. To think I can get a part-time job working behind the counter at a mini-mart here and make $25 an hour gives me second thoughts on the value of my college education. Tee hee.

We Have Wheels!

Today was the day for freedom… we got our van registered, licensed, and insured and now we can run ourselves around town doing errands. I am so thankful for that as I often feel like I’m inconveniencing Turid with our endless trips, but she’s always so gracious and says it’s no problem. Bless her. Kaleb got a new (used) bike today, too. His grandma Adeline gave him $75 before we left home for “spending money in Norway” so he spent half of it on the bike and we chipped in the other half of the $100 purchase price. (New kid bikes here are around $500). Now he is as free as we are to make his way around the neighborhood. (That's our new van and Kaleb's bike in the photo).

I changed some dollars into kroner today and got 5 kroner for each dollar. That’s up from the 4.6 I got when I wired money over before we came. A few years ago you could get 10 kroner for the dollar but the normal range is around 7. Converted to dollars, it was $983 for the tabs for one year on the car and at least that for the insurance for one year (but we haven’t gotten the bill yet.) When we went to register the car we were given a piece of paper and told to go to our bank and pay the bill, bring back the receipt to show it’s paid and then they will give us the license plates. How bizarre is that? They don’t do check writing here and the only way to get money in and out of accounts is to do electronic transfers, so, we had to go to the bank to do it. Talk about a run-around (and lots of standing in line). And we got back the exact license plates that were on the car before. When your tabs expire you must turn in your plates if you aren’t going to renew them. They hold the plates until you come back in or you sell the car and the next person comes in to register it. How funny is that? And it took all day to get insurance as the country is nearly shut down this week and next as it’s high season for summer vacations and EVERYONE goes on vacation in the summer. We had to go register with the “folkregister” people to get our ID number before we could get insurance. It was almost a comedy of errors going through the steps to get the car details figured out and even funnier to watch Kory and Odd try to get the license plates attached back onto the car. I felt like there was a joke in the making… how many Norwegians does it take to put on a license plate?

We still haven’t heard anything about a place to live, but everyone we know and everyone they know have been on the phone today calling everyone anyone knows to see if they know of a house or apartment for rent. The housing situation is so desperate that even people who come here to work for just a few months a year, keep their apartment and pay on an empty place all year, just so they know they have a place to live when they return. It’s nearly impossible, but again I say, “with God, all things are possible“ (oh wait, I didn’t say that… the Bible did!)

Kory is losing faith a little in the whole housing situation, but I maintain God will see us through just fine. We went for a prayer walk through the neighborhood where we were supposed to live and prayed for the houses as we passed them by and also that God would open doors for us to live there -- it’s ideal for Kaleb. Kory and I could live anywhere, but this is all about him right now so we just keep trusting God will provide. Odd thinks we should keep fasting and praying and not get up from our knees until God notices us and answers our prayers. He’s quite the skeptic so it will be fun to see his reaction when God gets us out of this mess!

A Day of Rest

We went to the Filadelfia Church (the local pentecostal church) this morning. There were about 50 people there. Last time I went, several years ago, there were hundreds. It was a good sermon encouraging everyone to “be an answer to prayer.” But it’s a dying church – too many people get lazy, they say, and quit coming. The pastor greeted us, introduced us to the congregation, and announced that we needed housing. I was amazed that I understood so much of what was being said. HALLELUJAH! Afterwards several people greeted us. Some remembered Kory when he was a boy living here. One woman told me she was friends with Kory’s mom before she was ever married (back in the 1930s). I need to talk more to that woman as I’m sure she has stories we have never heard, and I love stories!

This afternoon we took a walk then had a much needed nap. Kaleb and Hege picked wild raspberries and red currants on the walk. It was a hot day, but nice. Kory and I are fasting and praying today for God to provide us with housing by Friday. We have faith, and that is so helpful during times of (otherwise) stress.

Kory and Odd are at a soccer game right now (7pm) and Kaleb and Hege are playing together outside. Turid and I are sitting on the deck, each with a laptop, enjoying the breeze. Sundays are quiet in Norway. Not many things are open (maybe a gas station here or there). No one works (except emergency personnel). Many people are on vacation this week so even the neighborhood is quiet and not many cars pass by. Earlier Kory shouted HALLELUJAH! to break the silence and Odd told him someone might call the police to take him away – he must be crazy in the head, they will think. No one shouts here (unless they are at a soccer game and apparently that is why Odd took Kory with him – maybe hoping to get out all his enthusiasm there so he’ll be quiet at home??) It’s a good thing our church prayed for Norway before we left – to prepare them for our arrival – as nothing we have done so far is “typisk norsk” as they say (typical Norwegian). HALLELUJAH!

(The photo is taken near Odd and Turid’s house. Kaleb and Hege are picking berries and Odd and Kory are walking the path next to the road.)

WE MADE IT!

We arrived just after midnight on Friday night (Saturday morning July 26th). All our luggage made it safe and sound and the cousins were at the airport waiting to pick us up in our new van. We are so happy to have a good vehicle to drive. When they went to start it up and drive it to the licensing bureau to get temporary tabs for the weekend, the battery was dead so the original owner bought a new battery and put it in (which saved us $300!). Such integrity. But the temporary tags were $100 for 2 days! We will register it Monday.

We finally got to sleep around 3am Norway time (6pm Seattle time so we were up about 36 hours straight). We slept in until 11am this morning and within an hour after waking up we got the news that the woman who was renting us her house CHANGED HER MIND! So currently, we are homeless in Norway!!! (We are staying with cousins this week so it’s not a desperate situation until Friday.) We just had to laugh and shout HALLELUJAH because after the taxi driving away in Seattle and the airlines saying there was no way we could get to London, and now the house deal falling through – well, it’s more than obvious that this is spiritual warfare at its best. Satan can’t take anything away that God won’t provide something better. We do have the time pressure that we have to report to the police by Friday with our permanent address and a signed lease to prove we have a place to live, but as I’ve heard, “God is rarely early, but he’s never late.”

So, we are facing an unknown future at this point. (We haven’t told Kaleb yet because he’s just warming up to the idea of being here and was actually enjoying himself today.) We did meet with the woman who was going to rent to us so she could tell us what happened. It’s a complicated situation with the house and her son and which school he wants to go to. We understand why she changed her mind (on Thursday no less – as we were flying here). She was heartbroken to tell us, but we told her about the taxi driving off and the flight over being canceled but we have a God that supplies all our needs so she shouldn’t worry. (She felt so bad about it she even put an ad in the paper for us today saying “housing wanted” as she was trying to find another place for us.) So we prayed with her and for her and left it all at the feet of Jesus. She was quite relieved that we took the news so well so we feel it was our first opportunity to show “Norway” how it works to be walking with God (she is a Christian also). I know it made an impression on her, as well as the cousin that we were with, so we thank God for even things that seem disastrous at the time. But now what?

We looked in the paper today and tonight went to see a studio apartment for rent in the basement of a house in a neighborhood a little ways away from our condo. It was the strangest thing, as when we arrived, the couple living in the house invited us in to the house (the floor where they live), showed us around (but not the basement), made coffee and invited us out to the table on the deck. We sat there and had coffee and talked – for two hours! Finally after much conversation and a few good laughs, they showed us the place for rent in their basement. They were the nicest couple (but not married – so typical of Norway these days) with a three year old daughter. During our visit with them they caught on that we were Christians (maybe Kory shouting HALLELUJAH in the middle of the conversation gave them a clue?). The woman asked, “are you VERY Christian?” to which Kory answered, “I didn’t know that there was a scale.” She answered, “Well, I’m a little Christian,” and I said, “But you’re not married” and she laughed. So then we had a great time telling them about how we were sent by our “Swedish” church to be missionaries to Norway and the trouble’s we’ve had getting here but how God is with us every step of the way. They found it all quite interesting and entertaining and we were thankful that we had a chance to visit with them (and amazingly, I spoke quite a bit of Norwegian in those two hours and they understood every word I said – HALLELUJAH!)

When the hours had passed and we finally saw the studio apartment and realized it wouldn’t work too well for us, the man got on the phone and called his uncle who had a house in the neighborhood where our condo is to see if it was available. It was not, but he said his uncle had already heard about us – that a couple from America was coming with their 9 year old son to live in that neighborhood – so apparently we are big news for this area. How funny. Then the man said he would see what he could do to help us find a place. It was very nice to meet this couple and I’m sure we’ll run into them in town during the year. (Maybe I will call them back to see if they want to attend my Bible study. )

It was about 90 degrees (record heat) today so Kaleb went to the beach with our incredibly gracious host cousins – Odd (pronounced Ode), Turid (pronounced Turrey) and Hege (pronounced (Hey-ga). Hege is four years older than Kaleb and she has done a great job making him feel welcome (now, and every year in the past). Kory and I went to visit the “old aunts” (“gamle tantes” as they say here) and they are just downright giddy that we are going to be here for a year. “We never have to say good-bye!” was one of their first comments. It’s good to feel welcome.

So that ends “Day #1” of our year in Norway. Uff da. We’re holding on tight to God because I think it’s going to be a wild ride.

Traveling Light

We're now done with our "second leg" of the journey... and we’ve been told by more than one airport employee that we should learn to “travel light” (OK, so I understand that 13 bags total (including the two we are each carrying on) is a bit excessive but we ARE staying for a year… which I must explain over and over again or it would be just downright embarrassing to have so much “stuff”.) And here’s the other part of the fatal flaw in my travel plans by buying the tickets separately: Alaska Airlines only charged us $25 for our extra bag, but once we got to London it’s been a whole other story.

SAS Airlines’ policy is that when traveling within Europe you can only check one bag no more than 40 pounds and carry on one bag. I knew we were in for it, but I was hoping I could show our international ticket and beg for mercy that they wouldn’t charge us for the excessive amount of luggage. I spent a good time in the airport chapel praying about this very thing – that God would lead us to the right employee who had compassion for our situation. And as it turned out – he did just that! I can only say HALLELUJAH! because once he weighed all our luggage and we were SSSSSSOOOOOOOOOO far over the amount allowed, he just looked at me and said “I will only charge you for 20 kilos (about 40 pounds) but you have way too much here! And am I ever thankful, as that extra 40 pounds cost $277! (more than we paid for all 3 of us to go to Aalesund). So after I did the math I realized that he could have charged us $1,183 MORE!!!! Holy cow… so he was another angel sent by God to help us with this journey as that was significant savings…. (I had no idea how much the extra luggage would cost) so now is a good time to shout HALLELUJAH!

Can you say HALLELUJAH?!

We just finished the first LEG of our journey (hence the silly photo).

Let’s just say the day could have started a little smoother than it did, but we are shouting HALLELUJAH nonetheless.

We spent the night with Grammy J in Mountlake Terrace – up at 6am, off by 7am to get to our apartment building in Seattle by 8:00. We scheduled a limo ride to the airport (knowing a cab could never fit all our luggage). When the limo showed up, he didn’t even TRY to get our luggage in his car, he just said, “no way” and drove off! Here we were – the height of rush traffic, with no one to call and no backup plans on how to get down to the airport within an hour. Panic nearly set in at that point.

I called a few friends in Seattle only to be greeted by answering machines. We found a phone book and called a few taxi companies but when they answered with the “automatic greeting system” (aka VOICE JAIL), I hung up as I have no time for pressing option buttons when I’m trying to get to the airport ASAP. So then my brain scanned other options and landed on the one where we bother one of our tenants to take us in our van down the airport. We actually woke up Otto and Sarah to explain our dilemma and they came to our rescue! (Otto has lived in our building for over 20 years and all I can say is “we know how to pick ‘em”). So Kory drove us down in our van and Sarah returned the vehicle to the garage at our apartment building and there our van will sit for a year or so until we return (as planned). I told Sarah she was our savior, but Kaleb piped up and said that only JESUS is our savior. I stand corrected, but she was at least an angel.

When we got to the airport we were told that US Airways had a delayed plane coming into Seattle so our flight out was delayed and we’d miss our connection to London. We only thought we were stressed at that point dealing with the taxi and all… but more stress was yet to come.

I pride myself on getting the best fares possible when it comes to our many travels over the years. I’ve discovered that SAS gives deep discounts to Norwegian residents but you have to have a Norwegian bank account to pull it off. I’m not sure if they are just ripping off Americans when they fly SAS or if they are subsidizing Norwegian citizens. (We have a Norwegian bank account so there’s no problem with getting the discount.) I booked our flight from London to Aalesund, Norway separately as I paid for the trip to London with dollars, and the trip to Aalesund with Norwegian kroner. I now know this has a potential for disaster so I don’t recommend this money saving tip to anyone – ever – and I promise myself not to do it again. (But I will say that I saved over $1,500 in doing it this way).

So what happened was that USAirways said they couldn’t get us to London to catch our flight to Aalesund until the next day. I booked the connections 12 hours apart but that didn’t help in this case. They had many people who were going to miss the same connection and they were fresh out of options for us as “all flights are full” to London (even on other airlines). They said they would get us to Copenhagen but then we were on our own. I called SAS and the tickets to Aalesund from Copenhagen were $1,500 so there would have gone my savings… except that I had to eat the $250 I paid for the tickets from London to Aalesund, which I was willing to do at that point…. So when we went back to the counter to book the tickets to Copenhagen, the supervisor nixed that idea because she said she is only obligated to get us to London, which they could do tomorrow. Big problem. I called SAS again to find out how much it would be to change our tickets to the next day and when they told me it would be over $1,000 PER person (3k total), I nearly cried. And all US Airways could say is “you shouldn’t have booked your tickets separately – we are only obligated to get you to London…” so there is the fatal flaw in my plans.
I am fairly confident that Satan does NOT want us to go to Norway at this point – which can only be interpreted as a good thing. So, we prayed. I told God I’m not asking him to part the sea, just find a way for us to fly over it. It’s all his money anyway if and he wants to spend it so frivolously then that’s his business. I know Satan comes to lie, steal and destroy (according to the Bible) … and I really didn’t want to feel like I was being ripped off to the tune of $3,000 just to get from London to Aalesund so we left it in God’s hands and we shouted HALLELUJAH!

After nearly three hours of all this monkey-business, the USAirways guy told us that he finally found a flight for us to Los Angeles and then we can go British Airways to London and we’ll get in 2.5 hours later than our original flight. The only hitch is we were flying in and out of Gatwick airport and now we are flying into Heathrow and out of Gatwick so we need to schlep our luggage from one side of London to the other and forego our planned day at the science museum. Kaleb is a bit upset by that but I taught him the Serenity Prayer and he’s been saying it over and over “God grant me the ability to change the things I can, to accept the things I can’t, and the wisdom to know the difference.”

We are now at the LA Airport awaiting our non-stop flight to London. We figure God doesn’t take away anything he doesn’t give us something better so my next post will be the blessings we’ve encountered along the way. HALLELUJAH! (So far this whole ordeal has saved us $25 as USAirways was going to charge $50 for our extra piece of luggage and Alaska Airlines only charged us $25.)

The Last Supper

This week has been insane with cleaning, packing, saying our goodbyes and training Laura and Ryan on the finer points of living in our house for a year. All the cleaning didn’t get done but OH WELL! It is what it is.

Monday we had the neighbors over for dessert to meet Ryan and Laura in case they need backup. It’s great to have a support system in place. Tonight we took Kaleb’s “grandparents” out for dinner to say good-bye to them. The one photo is Kaleb with three of his grandmas (my step-mom couldn’t make it). Adeline is on the left and we’ll miss her 90th birthday in March while we’re gone. I met Kory through her (she’s my grandma’s cousin). Her husband, Harold, is in the photo with Kory and Kaleb. I found out he graduated from the same high school I did – Issaquah. I graduated in 1975 but he beat me by a few years - he graduated in 1932 (he just turned 94!) We were lucky to get time with them because they have a social calendar like you cannot believe. Trude is to the right of Kaleb and we’ll be back just in time for her 90th birthday. I wrote a book about her husband’s life called “Built on Solid Rock.” She is one of the sweetest women on the planet and we’ll miss her. And then there’s our dear Grammy J on the end who we hooked up to Skype last week so we can video conference call her while we’re away. All these wonderful women of God will support us in prayer (and have for years) so we are confident all will go well. The Bible says the prayers of a righteous person avails much… And I say, HALLELUJAH to that.

Josh and Mary Ridinger

This is the reason we delayed our trip to Norway a month and it was so worth the wait! We were honored to attend the very spectacular wedding of Josh and Mary. You can’t even know how sweet this couple is or how much I love Josh and his brother Joe. We call them “The Bowler Boys” as they used to come to our townhouse in Seattle twice a year with several friends for weekend bowling tournaments. This went on all through their teenage years and early twenties. I never laugh harder than I’m with these guys and today was no exception. They are great kids – all grown up – and now happily married. Josh barely made it through his vows. As his voice started breaking up and he began to cry, Mary reached over with her antique handkerchief and wiped away his tears. Such deep love is a good thing.

The Ring of Fire

Kaleb is blessed to have so many people who love him – as am I. Here he is with his “Grandma Dorothy” who lives in Portland, Oregon. We stopped off at Multnomah Falls today for lunch on our way to her grandson’s wedding further up the Columbia River. Dorothy was my first Bible study and Sunday school teacher back in 1976 when I moved to Oregon. She’s been my “spiritual mom” ever since. We’re staying with her for a few days to get our “fix” before we leave. We had an awesome worship and prayer meeting last night at her house. Kory’s heart was physically touched by God and I had a vision of a ring of fire surrounding the neighborhood where we will be living in Norway. The fire of God fell on the perimeter of our block – from the Filadelfia Church on one edge, following the road along to our house and then on to the YWAM base circling the block on back to the church. It was a very exciting vision as I feel it’s my first “calling” in what to do when we arrive – to do prayer walks every day around that perimeter and pray for those who live within the fire ring. (I feel like I need to be playing Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire” song as I’m writing this.)

Kory always says we can’t help the whole world, but we are responsible for those who are in front of us, so it’s obvious that’s where we begin our ministry. Lord help us!

These are the faces I love...

Deanna, a girlfriend in Seattle (bottom right in photo), invited me over for lunch today to say good-bye. Kory and Kaleb and I were on our way to Oregon for a few days to attend a wedding this Saturday so it fit nicely into our schedule as we headed south. What Deanna didn’t tell me is that she invited a bunch of my other friends over as well – so I got a wonderful surprise good-bye party!

I met these incredible women through a Bible study we attended back in 1993 lead by Janet (first row, center, in photo – and otherwise known to Kaleb as “Grammy J”) and we’ve all been good friends ever since. Only one of our original group was missing but it was a great day to see their smiling faces again and give them a hug and hear their voices one last time before we go. And the coolest thing was, it was just like our old Bible study days where we sat around the table talking about things of God. These are the faces of some of the most spiritual women I know and I’m blessed to call them my friends.

The Starrs Have Arrived!

Our house sitters, Ryan and Laura Starr came today! I tried not to overwhelm Laura with all the details about how to keep the house and yard up, but I think I did anyway. I made notes - perhaps that will help. It’s a lot of work to own a home, as they are soon to find out but I’m sure they will do fine.

I still have cleaning to do (closets mostly) but we only have one more day here before we leave for Oregon for a wedding… so tomorrow has the potential for being a very long day.

Tonight after dinner we went out to Delta Rock to show the newlyweds one of our favorite nearby spots to get romantic. They were not disappointed and it was a beautiful way to end the day. God is good.

On the way back from the hike we stopped off at Judi and Don Robinson’s house – a mile down our street. Their son was home from Chicago and it just so happens that his girlfriend and her parents were with him (who are from Michigan). Of all strange coincidences, the girlfriend is from the same church Laura grew up in and her family is good friends with … so here were two people from Michigan very coincidentally staying on the same street ( just for a night) in Skagit County. Totally weird, but then, once you start talking to people in the Covenant denomination, you find all kinds of strange ways the dots get connected.

Cleanliness is next to godliness...

The honeymooners (Ryan and Laura, our housesitters) are on their way! I was freaking out that the house wouldn’t be clean enough by the time they get here and God sent two angels by the name of Carol and Gail to my rescue. We cleaned all day and (except for my office) we made the house sparkle.

Carol and Gail are part of our home fellowship group. They say you don’t know who your friends are until you move… and it’s real clear I am blessed with true friends – they each scrubbed a different bathroom (toilet and all) while I was cleaning the kitchen. God bless them for their selfless giving of their time today! Hallelujah the house is clean!

And on a different note – Kaleb was on “my list” today as he was doing something I didn’t approve of in the least. I told him he couldn’t have a playdate on Wednesday if this behavior kept up. He then wrote me a note and disappeared. It simply said, “I will be living out in the fort until conditions improve.” It made me laugh out loud.

The Great Commission

We’ve taken on the “Great Commission” now as the Bible says – to go into all the world and preach the gospel! Our church, Bethany Covenant, officially commissioned us yesterday as missionaries to Norway! (When they were praying for us it felt like we were wrapped up in a warm love burrito.) Their motto is “People invited, encouraged and sent,” so yesterday we were sent. I’ll be teaching a Bible study at the Filadelfia Church just down the street from our house in Aalesund and I hope to be speaking again to the state church women’s group where I spoke a few years ago. We also will be living by the Youth With a Mission base and plan to be involved there – so the doors are definitely open for however God sees fit to use us.

Coincidentally (not) John and Letha Kerl were visiting our church yesterday. They are the Covenant Missionaries overseeing all the mission work in Europe. They live in France so we will be in contact with them throughout our time in Norway. God’s timing is always perfect.

I’m excited to be a missionary! I’ve never officially been one before but I think all Christians should be everyday wherever they are. Kory was a missionary to Paraguay in 1971 and he has some incredible stories from that time. I hope we come back with many stories as well because you know how I love to tell a good story!

(It’s kind of ironic that we are being “sent” to Norway as missionaries when our church was started by a bunch of Swedes. Uff da.)

More Good-byes

Monday our neighbor Joan had us over a for a neighborhood good-bye dinner. We played cards and had a many good laughs. Oh how we are blessed with good neighbors!

And I can’t say enough how much I’m going to miss our home fellowship group. Here’s the bulk of us (2 adults missing – as well as 15 kids). We all got together Friday night for a final BBQ. I hate goodbyes.

And then Saturday our beloved “Grammy J” treated us all to a nice good-bye event by taking us out to Northwest Trek to see the animals native to our area. What a great day. We are so spoiled.

I had a massage Tuesday to reduce some of my muscle tension (don’t know where that came from!). It happened to be by a Norwegian guy that came here 14 years ago from Trondheim. He said he doesn’t miss Norway at all – the people are too “closed” he said. They don’t share their feelings or emotions. I guess that’s why we will miss all our friends here so much – because we are all very good at sharing our lives with each other. It’s a richness that money just can’t buy.