Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Mysen, Norway

Pictures of Mysen

If you click on the link above you can see pictures of the beautiful town of Mysen.  There is even a pic of the white steepled Methodist Church that we will be moving to this summer. Unfortunately, I remembered my camera about two hours after we left home!   I know many are wondering how our trip to the great white North was.  Well, it was simply great!

I actually have a funny story for you...which my husband might kill me for, but here goes.  A few days before we went to Mysen, we first traveled to Grebbestad where Andreas' parents have a home.  It is only an hour and a half from Mysen and we thought that would be better for traveling purposes.  Those few days, my normally laid back husband, was anal about his kahki pants.  He wouldn't hold David with dirty shoes, he got uppity when something got on them and so on.  Those were the only pants he brought and he wanted them clean for our meeting in Mysen with the church.  On the way to Mysen we stopped to get a drink and a little sweet snack.  He bought little round chocolate pieces thinking that they wouldn't get him as dirty as a candy bar that might drop little pieces of chocolate on his pants. Well, we get to the church and Andreas gets out of the car.  All I remember hearing is OH NO!!! I looked down at the drivers seat and there is melted chocolate all over it...which meant...there was melted chocolate all over my husbands pants.  Yes, one of those chocolate bits had gotten on the seat and with the seat heater had quickly melted.  The irony of it all.....

We met Andreas' new district superintendent right outside our car.  So as Andreas was introducing the family I was quickly using David's wet wipes on the backside of my husbands pants.  What a great first impression! Luckily, wet wipes are stinking amazing at getting stuff off of material (although it makes me wonder if I should be using them on David's skin).  I was able to get enough off so that no one would notice...or if they did, they were definitely too close!

So the moral of the story is...God has a sense of humor, so should we!  Or another moral could be, it doesn't matter what you are wearing we should look at the persons heart.  (that one is good for me because I am always dropping food on myself or the kids are wiping their hands on me...when did I become a napkin?)

Okay, back to the other highlights of our trip.  The church people were amazingly nice.  We stayed with one of the couples that kindly let us sleep in their basement, made us breakfast, helped with two lunches and even scraped the snow off of our car in the morning.  Hans and Kari, if you are reading this...thank you from the bottom of my heart.  Then there was Mona and her family that made a huge dinner for about 20 people at her house so we could get to know everyone better...and her children really made Samuel and David feel at ease.  Sam is so excited that he already has two friends in Norway.  Again, if you guys are reading this...thank you, it made us feel extremely welcome.  Everyone was positive to our coming and ready to help.  It really felt like God had opened hearts immediately...but then again, meeting these amazing people I can not imagine that their hearts were ever closed.  I am really excited to make new friends and see where the ministry goes.  I loved that showing Jesus seemed to be a lifestyle and not a side note with this congregation.  The congregation has several internationals (which my whole family will be also) and has old, middle aged, youth and children.  I can only say that I am overwhelmed at the blessings that God seems to be providing left and right.

I understood about 60-70 percent of the language and when I need to lapse into English, they all understood.  Of course we will deal with some culture shock, but that seems to be our lives...we just go with it and move on.

So all this to say, thank you for your prayers, but keep praying also.  I think the whole family is looking forward to seeing what our future holds in Norway.

Blessings,
Laurie

3 comments:

Cydil said...

God is good. Your new church family sounds lovely!
So happy for you guys! When do you move?

Kjernald Family Adventures said...

We will be moving in August, I believe. Now we need to find a place to live, but not so worried about that. I think what I most think about is a good school for Sam and good specialists for the boys and their special needs.

Hey we have youth in our church. I would love to start mission trips with them. I think Albania would be a great place to do missions...know any great missionaries we can connect with in a year or so?

Mona said...

Hei Laurie!

Det gleder oss at dere hadde en fin helg her sammen med oss :)Skal hilse så mye fra de andre, og Kaisa og Jørgen sier hei til guttene!

Vi holder øynene åpne for hus, og ber om at det må ordne seg bra for dere!

Vi gleder oss stort til dere kommer!!

Klem Mona