In Norway with the Rosviks

Here we are in Norway - the country that is known for its beauty and taking such good care of its citizens. Ragnar had been here several times during his fishing career, but it was my first time. Here was our opportunity to enjoy the beauty together, while spending time with friends, attending the Norwegian celebration of our friend's marriage and seeing the NTM part of Norway too.

Lots to fit in this week - we are ready to go!!
Sunnmore Alps
We have been blessed that the Rosvik family has been part of our lives for the last few years.

Markus & Sarah were our co-workers on our flight center in the Philippines our last few years there. (Sarah's grandparents were on staff in Durham when we were there years ago, and her dad was still in High School then! Just to give you a hint of our age.)
Erlend and Anne, the newlyweds, are here with us at North Cotes. We felt like we knew Erlend the day we met him - as well as knowing his brother, his fishing career gave us many similarities. He had even been into port in our home town in the Faroes. Anne is always the life of every party and a joy to have in our home. It was wonderful to see them meet, fall in love and make those precious vows.
Grete took a big load off our shoulders when she volunteered to come here for a year as our Graphic Designer. We see her in our office building every day, as well as in our home each Monday, just to name a couple of places. It just seemed like one more link with this family when she recently became engaged to James, who had visited us in our tribe when he was a 'wee lad'.
Now we would be with the Rosvik family for a week and get to know their parents as well as the other siblings.
What better way to begin the trip than being met at the airport by our friends holding the sign, 'Fisherman with the Best Catch of his Life'?! This fisherman got back into that mode quite quickly - bright and early the next morning, he was out in the Norwegian Sea coming home with some cod for us to enjoy later that day.

As Erlend and Anne were showing us around their town in the afternoon, we were peeling freshly caught and cooked on the spot shrimp.

Wow - much better than popcorn or peanuts!!

While strolling around this beautiful town of Alesund, which lies on 3 islands, Erlend was explaining how it was destroyed by a great fire in 1904. Almost all of the town's old timber houses were rebuilt in stone!

The next day Markus and Sarah thoughtfully gave us a tour of a different area.

I just had to ask Markus to stop so I could take a picture of these boat houses.

How could I be sure I wasn't in the Faroes?

Actually I wish I could remember how many times I thought to myself, 'This reminds me of the Faroes.' The food and the way it was served - expressions - many similar words - the way people are so laid back - layouts of towns and on and on.

A chapel, partly built of white marble - thought to date from the 12th century.

Bunkers from World War II.

The Fisheries Museum was closed the day we choose to go there, nevertheless we enjoyed walking around the beautiful grounds, seeing all the old buildings and landscape.

Markus - in the NTM office, where he spends most of his days.

Just a few minutes walk behind the Rosvik's home.

It was beautiful in every direction - the ocean or the little village with beautiful mountains in the background.

Trying some Norwegian pancakes...

Norwegian salad...

and Chinese food with a beautiful background view of the ocean.

There were many activities that week - this time lots of Grete's friends had been invited to meet her finance, James.

I am sooooo glad I got to go with Sarah to Levi and Emma’s group at church on Friday night, before we went to decorate another church for the reception the following day.

Sarah simply amazes me! She accompanied the kids on the piano while they were singing songs - that is songs that Sarah was not familiar with before she moved here.

Guess who was teaching the lesson? Sarah kept the kids attention while she taught them a story from the Old Testament - all in fluent Norwegian.

This city girl from hot sunny Florida, has moved to the country in Norway where the winters are all but warm. She has learned the language and speaks like a native. She has adjusted to all the food changes and serves it like that is what she grew up with. She can find her way around like a pro, even navigating her way through sub-sea tunnels to get to town. She made a big impression on me. But why should I be surprised when I saw how well the youngest missionary who ever came to the Philippines did!!

A question and answer period about the Philippines, in the Rosvik home. Ragnar is pointing out various places, explaining the still many needy areas.

The couples politely listening to all the information.

I am saving the 'Wedding Reception' for my next post.

This however is the following day, when the whole family got together to eat what was left from the reception. Markus and Sarah are excellent hosts - they so easily added another table to their dining room area to accomadate over 20 people.

Don't you just love the big mirror on the wall?

It amazed us that Emma and Levi, at thier young age, remembered us. It was so fun to have time with them - 'reading' Norwegian books; walking up for a veiw of the ocean behind thier home; going to their kid's group at church; learning bits and bobs of Norweigan culture and watching them switch from speaking English with thier mom to Norwegian with their dad without blinking an eye. Such sweet, cute and well behaved kids - a pleasure to be with 'em again.

Could it be possible that I pronounced something wrong?!?!

On Sunday afternoon when all was quiet, I took a leisurely stroll through the neighbourhood. Many of the things along the path reminded me of the rural area where I grew up in Nova Scotia. This house in peticular reminded me of my childhood home - not exactly, but the colours, size, surroundings and 1 1/2 stories.

The chuch and Prayer House.

Lovely cool weather and a fantastic view of God's creation.

The best choice in the world for our last meal before we left for the airprot - SHRIMP and more SHRIMP!!!

We so much appreciated the way Markus and Sarah opened up their home to us, even giving us their bedroom for the week. Our time together (often into the wee hours of the morning) viewing pictures and reminiscing about our work in the Philippines was very special. We have tons of great memories, plus had lots to catch up on. Who would have dreamt that when we said our sad good byes to them on our flight center in the RP and began that sad journey away from our home and co-workers, that exactly 3 years later, we would be together again in Norway??

Thank you ROSVIKS for a wonderful time!!!!!

Prayer Morning

I have come out of hiding!! We recently had a fantastic week in Norway and I have been wanting to write about it, but have been waiting for a few spare moments. Of course work always piles up when you are gone, and on top of that our journey was delayed by one day. When we were dropped of at the airport in Alesund and looked for our flight details on display, we were surprised to see 'canceled' by our flight to Copenhagen, Denmark. We had been booked on from there to Manchester, England. Then we would catch the train across the country - 3 hr. ride, and had made arrangements to be picked up on the other end.

Suddenly we found ourselves rerouted to Oslo, Norway, then Frankfort, Germany and arriving in Manchester too late to catch the last train. Thus one more sleep in Manchester before completing our journey the next day. (Piano lessons began within a couple of hours after unlocking our front door.) We are still working on reimbursement for that Hotel bill - our travel insurance wouldn't cover it, and we are still waiting for word back from SAS airline. Oh the joys of traveling!

Anyway, I was talking about the delay in sharing about our Norwegian trip. On top of regular catch up, I had a yearly 'project' that I needed to dive into right away. since it was due this past Monday. I remember last year I roughly calculated the time it took me to get ready for it and it was approximately 90 hours. I knew I couldn't find that much time this year, but I would squeeze in all the extra minutes I could.

The students set aside one morning each month to pray for our missionaries around the world. This year, the March Prayer Morning was dedicated to the Philippines. I wonder why in the world we 'just happened' to be the ones asked to share info on the works there!?!?

The preparation began by writing each of the 70 plus families in that beautiful archipelago in South East Asia, asking them for a short update on their work, recent photos and specific praises or prayer requests. As can be expected, many of them responded right away with exactly what we needed; others wrote that they would do it as soon as possible while still more sent me their latest updates or gave me links to their Websites etc. Quite a bit of correspondence went back and forth until I had the needed info. After looking up Websites, downloading photos and organizing the info into categories, (I choose to do it by Island groups), I was ready to put all of this info into 4 Power Points. Most of this had been done before going to Norway or during our time there.

So now this old country hick from rural Nova Scotia began getting Power Points ready to share with a group of young Techie Europeans!! It is great to have humbling tasks from time to time! On the other hand, however, it truly is a fantastic way of keeping up to date with all of our friends and former co-workers in the Philippines.

I had plans to work morning, afternoon and evening all last week in order to be ready (letting my regular work continue to pile up.)

Monday

Morning - besides taking the time out for a special meeting, I was able to get a good start on it.

Afternoon - thought I would just rush home and quickly get ready for our Bible Study with the Volunteers that night - make a dessert, run a dusting cloth over a few areas, get the lessons ready and rush back to the office. Oh - while I was home, "I'll just bring in the laundry - it looks like it might rain; I'll just get the veggies ready for supper, so I can stay in the office longer. Oh, the phone is ringing, I better answer it in case it is important. And then I'll just wash those few dishes so they drip dry and be ready to put away when I come back." Oops - I better get back to the office before it is time to come home again.

Evening - an encouraging time with the Volunteer girls - wonderful to have 2 new ones join the team since we last met.


Tuesday -

Morning - after taking care of regular emails, back to the PP

Afternoon - thinking this is going rather smoothly - I'll be able to get lots done if I stay until 10:00 tonight. Then Ragnar reminded me that there was a staff meeting that night. Oh well, at least we weren't involved this time - just attending.

Evening - not back to the office until 9:30, but then had a couple of quiet hours.


Wednesday

Morning - I better work on the Prayer Morning Schedule and get it out; talk to the Music group and get a song in our tribal language printed so we could teach it to them.

Afternoon - piano lessons until 8:00 - my last student patiently waited while I made a cup of coffee so we could walk back to the campus together. There were still a few more hours until midnight, so why not put them to good use? OK - got the computer up and running and starting into my first thoughts, when I heard tapping on my window. A couple of sweet young ladies, one visiting from Belgium, were on their way to our home for a visit, but saw the lights on in my office. OK - sounds great - just a couple seconds - I'll shut down the computer, lock up and have the pleasure of walking back with them.


Since there was already a room full of guys upstairs watching soccer with Ragnar, we would take a quiet corner in our lounge - light the candles, turn off the lights, get cookies out of the freezer - make some coffee to snuggle with while we dialogued for the next few hours. I LOVED my time with them.

Thursday - Maybe a whole day to dedicate from early morning to late at night to get all of my thoughts together and down on paper, divide the prayer requests up among the students and put letters in their mailboxes with the needed info for that morning which was getting so close. Only one short break when I received a phone call, "I was wondering if we could get together this morning to talk about....." Oh well, that could be my coffee break.

Bless Ragnar's heart - when 6:30 p.m. rolled around, he offered to go home and cook his own supper, letting me get extra uninterrupted time until 11:00. This was going to work - I would make it on time - I think.

Friday - We ate a yummy fish meal in the dining room at noon so no need to take a break to cook today. So I even surprised myself when at 8:30 p.m. I went home, basically feeling ready and thinking, "I'll just need to go over tomorrow for a full practice run, but I'll be able to get ready for our Open House."

Saturday - We still had planned to go ahead with our Open House in the evening, but I thought for once I wouldn't be able to have home made goodies as I can't be in the office and in the kitchen at the same time. Oh well, everyone loves Dorritos and Salsa anyway. However, now that I felt ready I still would have time to bake.

Just let me put together a slide show to have in the background for an Interview Ragnar will do with a Faith Academy graduate and then off to the kitchen while wondering how many to prepare for. 42 wandered over last week for chatting, games and food. Would it be about the same this week?

Our home is a good size - maybe even a bit big for only 2 people, but when you try to squeeze 30-40 people in, things can seem a bit tight.

So I love the way no one seems to mind - a group of 3-4 cuddle in one corner and a few others fit in a nick in a different room.
Another great evening of fun, food and fellowship. A few stayed on until after midnight, allowing us to enjoy a more leisurely chit chat than is possible with 2 digit numbers.
Monday - the day of the Power Point Presentations has come and gone. The day was special - each second put into it was well worth it. I am so thankful for how smooth everything went and am just trusting that all of my mistakes and things that could have been better were not the focus of the morning.
Interview with Faith graduate.
It was wonderful to see so many people willing to take part and their joy and interest in learning more of what is taking place in the Philippines.


We had been promising the Volunteer girls for quite some time a fun night out. However due to several different reasons it kept getting postponed. So this week we finally were all well and ready to go - a night of bowling and then out for coffee. A great way to get to know them even better, in a relaxing atmosphere.

Coconut ice cream served in a coconut shell - both yummy and well presented.

; So now it is time to play catch up again on my 'real' job before we go away for a 2 day Workshop on Short Termers next week; meet with a couple in the south of England who recently returned home from Guinea; invite a young couple over who are visiting from Switzerland, so we can meet her husband; get started on those bibs I wanted to crossstitch for 2 darling little baby girls before the Norwegian meeting is here at our house; get ready for the upcoming Literacy Course; rehearse my part in the Drama at Reach Conference; get some green shamrock cookies made for coffee break on the 17th; - oh yea, and write about our fantastic week in Norway!