Author: Velkommen

Tomorrow, I go to London for 2 nights.

I’m bringing 2 rolling duffel bags that Anya packed before she left, a carry on (with mostly Anya’s stuff), and a small personal item. I’m traveling very light personally, though it won’t look like it. Thus, I’ll need to get a taxi to the airport, as I won’t be able to manage the baggage by myself. This was still the best way we could figure out how to get the most luggage to London. Now, we are smarter and would have done it differently!

I will have a 4:00 am taxi pick up, so I’ll try to head to bed early, though I’m not sure I’ll fall asleep right away.

While I am not looking forward to the hassle of international travel, I am looking forward to seeing Anya in her world there.

Here are previews of other coming attractions: I would like to see the King’s College chapel again.

I would like to see the King’s College library too.

I’ll appreciate your prayers for good travels and nice visits. It will be good for me to get away for a bit, as I know I’m in a bit of a funk. Yes, I’m adjusting to Anya being gone, but I think I’m mostly weary of not being fluently functional in Swedish.

With blessings,

Beth

It was only 4 days ago that Anya left for London. It seems way longer. Yet somehow, the days seem to fly by without getting enough done.

So, yes, I’ve been keeping busy. There was a Bible school overnight retreat on a lake about 30 miles north of Uppsala. It was quite nice weather, but not enough time to enjoy it.

My time was a bit shorter, as I had to teach on Tuesday morning and then go to the retreat center by bus. At least it was a change of pace and a good opportunity to get to know the students a bit better outside the classroom.

I confirmed with a couple students that these two sentences:

• What is the boy eating?
• What is eating the boy?

are translated the same exact way in Swedish:

Vad äter pojken?

My reading recently includes:

• Decolonising the Mind: the Politics of Language in African Literature (Heinemann Educational, 1986), by Kenyan novelist and post-colonial theorist Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o.
• Vanhoozer, Kevin J. “Truth”. S 818-823 i Dictionary for Theological Interpretation of the Bible. London: SPCK, 2005.

The first is for a paper I’m co-writing with a student to present at the Society of Biblical Literature in Denver in November. It isn’t a major part of the paper, but I want to address a bit of the dilemma of under-represented languages (and under-resourced) in a world where English is so prevalent. There is a deeper issue related to my inability to teach in Swedish at my current capacity. While some students prefer the broader theological vocabulary (and resources) in English, I wonder if my English instruction is reducing the effectiveness of future pastors (they call them “priests” here) in being able to “translate” the OT Hebrew into concepts that preach well for their parishioners. I ponder on.

The second article is in preparation for the hermeneutics course (a beginning meaning of “hermeneutics” is the philosophy of interpretation) that I will teach in the second block of the fall term. I only have 6 hours of lessons, as Sweden does not have a requirement of so many hours of lessons per credit. (I’m not a fan, but then I figured out that can end class early and invite students to stay for a “reflection” time that integrates life, faith, and ministry into the conversation which—by law—cannot be engaged in an “academic” course).

So, the deep thought of the day occurred at my colleague’s sessions at the retreat. In her lesson, she asked the students to identify their 5 closest human relationships. Sigh. I realized that all of my closest relationships are far away. Anya is the closest in London.

Anya is doing well. She had her math department orientation today and went to Starbucks with 2 other new students that she just met there. So, she is connecting with others, though she is still waiting for a roommate to arrive (which is encouraging her to continually keep the room orderly, as she could arrive anytime!).

So, we continue on (håller på).

With blessings,

Beth

For the past week, Anya has been seriously sorting and figuring out what to pack for her year of studies at King’s College London. The ping pong table was part of the collection area.

Then, she asked former-missionary-mom,—with the spiritual gift of packing—to put things in the rolling duffel bags. That means that we hit the weight limit before the space was maxed out.

This morning, I got up with Anya early to catch the 4:05 am bus to the central station, and then we caught the bus to the airport. We know this system. It takes about an hour, but it is the most affordable way.  It is only $12.26 for both of us to get to the airport. If we took the bus-fast train, it would have cut off 20 minutes, but it is 3 times as expensive. A taxi would have been half the time, but about 5 times as expensive. So, we took the bus to the airport, which was amazingly full at 4:30 am.

It was a good thing that we arrived early, as the security line was the longest one I have EVER seen! I stayed with Anya in line until she entered a turnstile, which was perhaps 40 minutes of waiting.

Anya took the train from the London Gatwick airport. She had planned to order an Uber car from the train station to get to her new home, but there was no WIFI at the London station. So, she ended up taking a taxi waiting out front.

However, somehow in the payment, she either forgot or lost her debit card. Fortunately, she could call me, and I got her USA debit card shut off (with 0% international exchange rate), without any unauthorized charges. She’s now using her Swedish debit card, and I had secured a back up credit card for her just for international travel. So, she still has access to funds (with 1.5% international exchange rate), as well as some British pounds that were a graduation gift from Jean and Marv last June.

After the unfortunate start with the loss of a debit card and the resulting stress, she is now back to her eagerness for being in London. Her housing facility is nice. She has 3 meals a day on the weekends, and breakfasts and dinners on the weekends. She said that the dinner tonight was really good, with lots of food dished onto the plates. She said that she’ll have to be careful not to gain the “freshman 15.” I told her especially in the metric world, as 15 kilograms would be 33 pounds!

We FaceTime called after dinner, and she showed me what the rooms look like. However, most of our conversation was her stories about who she met at dinner, mostly the grad students, as most undergrads arrive next week. But she said is was so easy to talk with people, who were so nice. Instead of awkward small talk, it was the first time in her life where she felt really comfortable talking with new people.

After a long nap, I spent my day with trying to figure out why her data doesn’t work in London, and getting her financial matters straightened out, like getting the credit card functioning for internet purchases to set up a British phone account. The rest of the day was cleaning the house after the packing process. Even the refrigerator is cleaned out (one of my least favorite tasks)!

So, perhaps I am coping by cleaning—keeping busy with things that show progress. Yes, my life just changed. I’ve been dreading this. Even back when Anya was in probably 4th grade, we read the Anne of Green Gables series. (We read perhaps 70 books together from 4th grade until the start of our time in Sweden.) When Anne went off to college, I cried, imagining the day when Anya would go off to her college. Well, I didn’t cry today. I will see her next weekend when I will bring more luggage. She will meet me at the airport to help wrangle two rolling duffel bags through public transportation.

I am not looking forward to dealing with being an empty-nester by myself, while still in a land where I do not have deep roots nor speak the language well. There is plenty to do, just not friends to do them with. Yes, I will figure out how to manage.

With blessings,

Beth

Classes started last week. They continued on Monday after I preached for the opening worship service. I focused on the power of paradox to avoid the pitfall of reductionism as we engage both head and heart–as well as hands and lips–in the development of discipleship at our transformative learning community. This sounds a bit heady, but Christ is our primary example of teaching using paradox, so it connects with things we’ve heard before.

The last couple days have included some landmarks in preparation for Anya going to university: housing deposit paid; visa application paid; forms submitted. We still need a place for Anya to live for one week prior to official move in date. Former missionaries that I met in Ethiopia emailed today indicating that may have place at their B and B, if she can’t get a room at her housing facility. Then we can get airplane tickets. Hopefully, this will be determined tomorrow. I also need to figure out payment to Kings and which method has lowest fees. Anya will go to Stockholm next week for fingerprinting and things related to the visa application.

When we finally arrive in London, we will connect with family friends from the Hanson side of the family. Paul, Eric’s spiritual mentor growing up, is with Jesus, but his daughter and husband moved to London in April. The mother, whom I know a little bit, will be visiting about the time Anya moves in. So, it will be a great way to introduce Anya and be able to hear some stories about Eric’s spiritual mentor. That will be wonderful for Anya.

Tomorrow is  the eighth anniversary of Eric’s death. In some ways it seems so long ago, especially when I see pictures of Anya when she was only 10. We’ll go out for dinner and celebrate his life and thank our God for carrying us along the way these past eight years.

With blessings,

Beth

This is my Mom’s birthday, and the first birthday without her. Last year, I sent her a box of my favorite Belgian chocolates. Mom loved chocolate.

So, I pause a moment with memories of eating chocolates with Mom. One time, she visited me in the Seattle area. We stopped at Bohem’s Chocolate Factory in Issaquah. I knew that the mixed broken chocolates were the cheapest, so we bought a bag. I was amazed to see Mom eat as many as she did! Fun memories.

The great news from yesterday is that Anya received word that she has housing when she goes to Kings College London. There is a shared room for her with a board plan (minus lunches on workdays) at Lee Abbey. She got the last shared room with 2-to-a-room. This is a Christian student housing facility that is connected to the Anglican Church. And for being in the Kensington area of London and providing meals, the price is reasonable.

My cup of Sweet and Spicy tea (from the USA) has a saying on the tea bag tag (fob?). “The problem is not the problem. The problem is your attitude about the problem.” Can you guess the source? Captain Jack Sparrow. That’s all it says for a source. So, I’m pondering if this is the movie version, a book, or some other quasi-historical account. Hmm.

However, the quote did smack me upside the head. This evening, I left work frustrated. My all-afternoon meeting with two Bible school teachers makes me feel that I’m failing to understand. I’m trying, but it is harder than nailing Jello to the wall. I thought I heard one thing from our previous meeting, but now the understanding isn’t that. Did I misunderstand or did the circumstances change?

The Bible school isn’t an “academic” program but a folkhögskola, which most students (or shall I call them participants) do in a “gap” year, usually a year between high school and university. Because this is not an “academic” program, there are no “required” readings, papers, or exams. So, I can recommend that they read, but there is no accountability. I have a schedule with suggested Bible readings prior to each lesson and options for reflection and spiritual practices afterwords. I assume that most don’t do anything. Thus for me, Bible school is like Bible camp on steroids–as it goes for a full “academic” year.

I have them do two 5-10 minute presentations, one in the fall on the judges, and one in the spring on the minor prophets, in order to help make all the different characters more memorable by making associations with the presenters. (For example, Habakkuk is the prophet Lena talked about.) They do this, and because it isn’t too often and they get to be creative, it is fun for them.

For a few students, it is important to engage faith questions without the pressure to perform academically. For others, they are less motivated and fine with just being there and engaging when things are interesting.

But I can never seem to understand my Bible school supervisor’s nuanced instructions: No, don’t require 30-minutes of work outside of class; Yes, make them read and write outside of class; No, papers aren’t what is wanted by the högskola board, as it is to NOT be an academic program; Yes, you can expect them to write things; Yes, that would be good to use the reflection group structure to rotate responsibility for generating stimulating question; No, the reflection groups are not to be used for things related to class lessons. Ugh. I know this isn’t a Swedish issue, because my supervisor lived in the USA and has exceptional English.

The other teacher is the most laid back on the faculty, rarely contributing to the faculty meetings. No problems for him. My sense is that for him the problem isn’t the problem. The problem is getting stressed over the problem–or anything.

Perhaps if I wasn’t so discouraged with my language learning, the challenges of navigating never ending apologies to new students, and being a spectator in so many Swedish conversations this week I wouldn’t be dealing with the problem of my attitude to the problem(s).

So, I invite your prayers for my attitude.

I also invite your prayers for the logistics to find housing for Anya at university. Anya will end up at Kings College London, missing the London School of Economics by 2% on her math exam, which was a great disappointment. She could only have housing lined up at her first choice, so now we have to scramble for housing at Kings just a month before things start on the 17th of Sept.

Anya has applications in at Kings, but the options are some combination of either not very close to campus, more expensive with a private room (she wants a roommate in order to save money), or not with “catered” service–or partial board. A co-worker told us about Lee Abbey, a Christian student housing complex about 25 minutes by subway (the “tube”) to Kings. This sounds like the best option, but we are waiting to hear if there is any room for her. Each day that passes tests my sense of peace. Even if she gets a room at Lee Abbey, there is very limited housing during Anya’s orientation week, so we may have to scramble to find something for a week. So, perhaps Anya goes off by herself with one suitcase of stuff to survive a week while she is in temporary housing. Then, I come later with more bags after its available to move in, rather than transitioning from temporary housing to her dorm room by trying to haul way too much luggage on public transit by herself. This sounds so sad, sending her off to the big city in another country all alone for this momentous step. She does have a male friend from her high school who will be at the London School of Economics, so at least there is someone in the city in a pinch.

So, please join me in prayer that a good housing option opens up soon. Then, we can plan the next steps and buy plane tickets before they are ghastly expensive. This UK last month university housing scramble is frustrating!

With blessings

Beth

I have so much to write about:

• Summer in Minnesota pack up at my Dad’s;
• Two back-to-back conferences in Helsinki, Finland, with a presentation at each;
• Two couples visiting back-to-back, including my dear mentors from Fuller Seminary;
• The start of the fall planning with employee workshop and faculty meeting days (with so much Swedish); and
• Anya’s university in London.

All these will have to come later. Tonight, I share about a wonderful surprise.

I was in my office, where I had placed a little, cheap plastic frame with a little saying by the missionary, C.T. Studd. It was my mom’s, and it was a saying that has impressed me in my life. I thought about throwing it out, but I kept it, even though it had little value.

The cardboard backing had a little pull out stand, which had a writing under the flap. It was a gift to my mom from her pastor, Pastor Brandt (the one who paraphrased the Psalms for the book Psalms Now!) and, I believe, later officiated at Mom and Dad’s wedding. But the stand was upside down, so I thought I’d turn it around.

Pulling off the back, there was a crumpled piece of thick paper. But this was not a scrap for tension within the frame, as I originally thought. It was a picture of my mom, her mother and brother, and I think her aunt.

Here’s a close up.

I have never seen a picture of my mom as a girl after age 3 (with her new glasses). Anya and I figure that she is about 7 years old here.

In the chaos of sorting and packing, the treasures were finding pictures of my mom that we had never seen before. I don’t recall seeing any pictures of her between 3 and after high school! These were wonderful.

I wonder what did get thrown out.

With blessings,

Beth

With the approval of my work permit renewal application, Anya and I need to get new pictures taken and fingerprinted (again, perhaps they changed!?!). I mentioned in yesterday’s blog post that I snagged two cancellations, one for me in Uppsala, and I sent Anya on a 4 hour train ride north to Sundsvall (62°24′N 17°19′E), which is just a little shy of the farthest north she’s ever been (in Tronheim, Norway, at 63°26′N). She has not been out and about in Sweden much with her demanding studies, so this was a bit of an adventure. It turned out to be a bit stressful as the train was delayed along the way. She was thinking it would be impossible to get to her 12:50 appointment. As the immigration office closes at 1:00 pm, would this be an 8 hour trip for nothing–other than the sightseeing? I suggested that she try anyway, perhaps if they are running late with appointments, the door may not be locked, and she could kingly ask to have a 5-minute appointment.

The train stopped, and she ran to the immigration office, which should have been a leisurely 11-minute walk. She arrived at 12:52 and apologized to the receptionist, explaining the train delay. She was well within the 15-minute acceptable late time and the photo station was open, so she was directed to just step up to it.

She got her photo taken, though she says that with the running and being sweaty, it won’t be a great picture! The good news is that the card should come in the mail before she heads off to university. Whew!

My appointment was not such an ordeal. I checked in, and then I went to the bathroom to change my shirt. I wanted to have a nicer shirt for the photo than the sweaty shirt I had on from biking over on the beginning of a hot day. As soon as I came out of the bathroom, I saw my code on the monitor and heard my name called. I didn’t even sit down. I think they were a bit ahead of schedule or the person ahead of me didn’t show up.

While I was over in that area of town, I went to get a few things in the bigger stores with a bigger selection. I needed a 5 mm bolt to secure one side of a bike fender before returning it to the owner, and I needed a HDMI to VGA adapter for Helsinki’s conference. I will have a PowerPoint to help visualize my presentation, and the notification stated that we are not guaranteed access to both HDMI and VGA outputs from our personal laptops for the digital projector. I didn’t want to be stuck without this adapter.

The rest of the day was filled with editing a paper for presentation, a nap, and returning the bicycle (with the 5 mm bolt in place). My editing goal is to accommodate the session leader’s guidance while still saying what I want to say to get the feedback in a discussion time that I’m hoping to stimulate.

Anya crashed about dinner time, and she’ll be up in the middle of the night probably. At least it is cool at night!

With blessings,

Beth

After being in the USA for 1 month, I am back in Sweden. Anya traveled a different airline, due to her later arrival in the USA after 2.5 weeks eurailing from Sweden to Spain. While we both had delayed flights, we arrived within 1.5 hours of each other in the Arlanda/Stockholm airport. I waited, and we splurged for a taxi home, as we couldn’t figure out how to get all our suitcases from bus to bus and from the last bus stop to our apartment. After long travels, it was a welcomed closure.

The last month was full: full of teaching for 1 week (with quite a bit of preparation) and full of stuff, as we decluttered my parents’ home. Fortunately, Anya and I were able to stay at a friend-of-my-parents’ home on the shore of Lake Superior. It was an oasis from the chaos, though we only slept and showered there. I so appreciated our dear host, Shirley. We could have spent lots of time just enjoying deep conversation. Perhaps she will visit me in Sweden on her next trip to England to visit her pen pal that she’s had since elementary school!

The heat in Duluth was mitigated by mostly working in the cool of the basement. Now, we’ve returned to record heat in Uppsala–and no basement. Tomorrow, the forecast reads 91 degrees, which is almost the record high for the month of July in this region. Ugh.

Tomorrow morning, I have to bicycle to the immigration office at 9:00 am, when it already will be 77 degrees. I have to have my picture taken for my new residency permit card, so my sweaty head might make it a worse than usual ID photo!

Yes, this means that our residency applications have been approved for 2 more years. I snagged the one 5-minute appointment available in Uppsala through the end of the year! It must have been a cancellation. There are none of these 5-minute appointments available in Stockholm or Västerås, so I snagged one more cancellation for Anya tomorrow at 12:50 in Sundsvall, a city 4 hours by train to the north. She did want to see more of Sweden, so here is here chance. I would have traveled with her if I could, but I need to be at my appointment. We need to get these done before traveling to get Anya settled in university.

I needed to print out the confirmation codes (which I’m supposed to bring), but I couldn’t get my printer to work, even after reinstalling the print drivers. So I combined a trip for groceries and a visit to my office to print out the pages. As I was biking out at the end of the day (waiting till after the 90 degree heat to get into the low 80s), I was feeling alone. Anya had gone to Stockholm to see a friend, and she actually left before I woke up late. So, I hadn’t talked with anyone all day. So, I turn this sense of aloneness to practicing the presence of Jesus.

On the bike ride home, I saw a beautiful sunset with bright “God-rays,” so I biked up to the mound (an artificial sledding mound) nearby to look. Just then, my student, Victoria, and her husband greeted me. They were headed to the hill after their workdays to also look at the sunset. It was not only a nice chat but a Providential reminder that I am part of a community here.

So, there was a nice closure to the day—not including the taste of Anya’s popcorn and pear flavored drink (non-carbonated). Yes, really!

With blessings,

Beth

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