Month: June 2018

On the 26th, I arrived in Duluth, Minn, to help my dad prepare for a move. He will move in with my physician sister and her husband, who live in Michigan, not too far from Ann Arbor. There is a lot of stuff, and then, more stuff.

I spent the day with some cleaning, sorting, and taking breaks that are filled with reading for next week’s Bible teachings at Mount Carmel family camp in Alexandria, Minn. The morning was mostly in the kitchen, but I also pulled up a few of the floor rugs to reduce the tripping/fall hazard. My dad took a fall about 4 weeks ago (at the Walgreen’s parking lot), and his right hand is now in a cast. Fortunately, the fall wasn’t worse, as he hit his head with the fall, resulting in a wicked black eye and mashed glasses. We are glad there was no head injury or internal bleeding. So, I’ve been focused on reducing risks.

After dinner and a short nap for Dad, we tackled the refrigerator. It is drastically better, and I’m glad that one thing is put in good order and beautifully clean. Tomorrow, we’ll do the freezer.

My sisters have both spent time with the decluttering and sorting, as I did for a few last November after my mom died and a few more in January. My physician sister told me to make sure I stop to laugh, in order to help the coping with this herculean project. So, I share my moments of laughter.

This might make more sense in context. My maternal grandparents owned a jewelry store in Williston, No. Dak. So, there are collections of things from the store. Yes, it should read “Men’s odd rings.” (Which makes me think of the ELCA conference for missionaries each summer, which is called, “The Summer Missionary Conference,” which literally indicates that the people who attend are missionaries during the summer. Yes, it should be “The Missionary Summer Conference.” Right?)

To give you a sense of how much stuff is here, consider this example. This toilet-paper tube art has a note inside written by my mother, “Faith, Original idea & own effort: Oct. 1968.” Yes, we are approaching the 50th anniversary of this toilet paper tube. In 1968, my family lived in Hong Kong. Subsequent moves included, St. Paul, Minn.; Hingham, Mont.; Proctor, Minn.; Erskine, Minn.; Woodland Ave, in Duluth, Minn.; and finally, Mississippi Ave, in Duluth, Minn.. This toilet paper tube made 6 moves.

Anyone have expert ideas on how to downsize books? There is no Half Price Books for selling and recycling in Duluth. There are probably 1,000 books just in this one bedroom!

The Swedes have a word that literally means “death cleaning.” When parents become empty-nesters, they are culturally encouraged to downsize and minimalize. I totally support this!

Finally, Anya has learned that she does not like to stay in hostels. Her first experience had 18 people in one room, and half of them came back drunk after midnight. Then others had their alarms going off before 6 am. So, she is tired which magnifies other travel frustrations–like someone absolutely incorrectly accusing her of ticket fraud. So, pray for a good night’s sleep, and a good, joyous day tomorrow.

With blessings,

Beth

Tomorrow morning, I take off very early in the morning to fly to the USA, Minnesota to be more specific. I’ll end up in Duluth to help my dad pack up and move to live with my sister in Michigan.

From July 7-13, I’ll be teaching the Bible studies at Mount Carmel family camp in Alexandria, Minn. The theme is the Mission of God in the Old Testament.

Anya’s good friend, Annaliese, arrived yesterday. They explored Uppsala in the afternoon and early evening. Today, they are exploring Stockholm. Soon, they take off Eurailing through Copenhagen, Denmark; Frankfurt, Germany; Zurich, Switzerland; Paris, France; and Barcelona, Spain. They will be staying with Annaliese’s aunt and uncle in Zurich and family friends in Paris. They have reservations on trains, hostels, and one Air BnB, which have all be confirmed recently. Still, I welcome your prayers. Please pray that they will be safe, healthy, and enjoy their trip. Pray that my mother’s heart will be at peace. The late Erma Bombeck wrote, “Motherhood is a life sentence of worry.” But I remind myself what my former pastor, John, said, “Worry is prayer to the wrong god.”

Please join me in prayer for these young women.

With blessings,

Beth

It was an exciting game to watch. We were hosted by our German friends, so I said that I would cheer for whoever feeds me. Though my nature is to cheer for the underdog, which was Sweden. It was an exciting game, watched by 3 Germans, 3 Americans, 1 Afghani, and 1 Swede. We are grateful for friends who share life–and food–with us. Though Anya made chocolate chip cookies, which we brought with the ice cream. A good night was had by all, even for those who were cheering for Sweden.

With blessings,

Beth

With the wonderful fullness of hosting friends and then catching up after they departed, I’m now getting around to posting about Anya’s graduation, called a “studenten.” (I also had a seminar in Norway to prepare for and travel to, so things were a bit busy.)

We were so glad to have dear friends, Jean and Marvin, and my former housemate, Janet, come to make the celebration special for Anya.

There is no formal graduation ceremony for family and friends in Sweden. The students have a gathering with speeches and some end-of-the-year traditions. Each one was given an “award.” Some were not really positive, so Anya felt that being awarded class perfectionist was actually one of the better ones! She was one of the ones who actually read all the instructions and guidelines for the International Baccalaureate assessments!

At 1:00, the family and friends gathered outside the front doorway of the school. (The Kathedral School was founded in 1246!) There is  typically a sea of people, so parents make signs so that their son or daughter can find them. The tradition is that the sign is a baby picture!

The baby picture tradition seems a bit weird to me, when this is a rite of passage into adulthood. I followed suit, but then, I put my American spin on it.

In addition to the flags, there were battery-powered lights! The back side of the poster was the collection of all her school photos to show that she’s come a long way!

Our friends, Donna and Lennart, joined us for fika to watch some of the excitement in the city center.

One tradition–that Anya did not choose to do–is for students to ride around the town in the back of a hastily-decorated truck with music blaring.

We went on to a nice celebration hosted by Donna and Lennart. Other friends joined us for real Mexican food that we had catered. We were so blessed by Donna and Lennart. They really rallied around us to make it a wonderful celebration.

Now, we wait for Anya’s final exam scores, which are posted on the Internet on 6 July. She will be traveling (Eurailing) in Europe then. Her dear friend, Annaliese, who comes on Sunday from the USA, also just graduated. They will be staying with some extended family and family friends in addition to a couple hostels and one Air BnB as they travel south from Sweden to Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, France, and Spain. Then, they fly back to Sweden. They have been planning for months, and the class perfectionist has carefully prepared spreadsheets and double checked all tickets and reservations. After seeing her navigate in London, figuring out public transportation in Norway, and thriving in Stockholm, I know they can make it work. Of course I’m consoled that she’s got a reasonable amount of wisdom and city smarts, but I eagerly welcome your prayers that everything goes smoothly and they stay healthy throughout their travels.

On 6 July, we’ll know where Anya will be headed to university in the fall. Her first choice is studying math with economics at the London School of Economics (LSE). Her acceptance is conditional upon earning the highest score, 7 out of 7, in math. While this is feasible, because several of the old exams she did scored sevens, however, it is not a guarantee. If she earned a 6 out of 7, then she will go to Kings College London. Both are great programs, so King’s isn’t a disappointment. The only glitch with Kings is that an applicant is only allowed to reserve student housing at their first choice.  So, there is housing for her at LSE, but nothing reserved at Kings. This means if she is going to Kings, we have to scramble for housing in London in mid-July for a mid-September start. And Anya will have to lead this effort from some guest room in the Paris area. Yes, again prayers are welcomed.

Thanks for sharing in a bit of my joy of Anya’s wonderful achievement after these especially challenging two years of diligent study.

With blessings,

Beth

Much to talk about, but not much time.

I will follow up with Anya’s graduation from high school, but things have been busy hosting friends from the USA through Monday, then 2 days of faculty meetings (in Swedish), and then off to Norway, where all the Norwegians in 2 days of seminars and gatherings spoke English for me, the only non-Norwegian speaker. No wonder I enjoy time in Norway, where I live in English-speaking contexts.

The seminar is an internal peer-review process for a book project that I am co-editing on “Classic Religious Texts in Global Contexts.” With topics beyond biblical studies, I get to learn new things from colleagues. As a co-editor, I had to read all the chapters prior to the seminar as part of the peer-review process. An external reviewer will be secured by the publisher for another round of  constructive criticism.

When I learned a couple months ago that I would be coming to Stavanger, I arranged this Saturday to hike with my former PhD student colleague, Tina. We were both supervised by Knut. She was the brilliant one, and I got through by being diligent. We both love to hike. She calls it hill walking, but 323 meters is more than a hill. My left knee agrees that it is more than a hill, as ibuprofen helps to calm its complaints of the day’s hiking.

A few days ago, the forecast predicted a lot of rain. As today got closer, the rain became delayed until this evening, and the sun icons started to appear on the weather app. It was a beautiful day for hiking! There was some beautiful blue sky with light clouds in the morning. The clouds started increasing, but still no rain.

For most of the day, Anya was with her friend from the school she attended when we lived here for 6 months in 2015. I failed in passing on a love for hiking to Anya. But, it was a nice day to spend with this friend, who also came and visited us in the USA.

Tomorrow, I preach at the international church here, have lunch with some wonderful friends, and then we head back to the airport to head home to Sweden.

This time in Norway has been “dawa kwa moyo,” a Kiswahili saying for medicine for the heart (with a sense of the soul).

With blessings,

Beth