Author: Velkommen

Mom passed away this morning at 12:49 AM, Sunday, Nov. 12, surrounded by Dad; my sister, Elenn; and me. The final days were filled with love, comfort, and peace. Earlier in the evening, we had a visit from my brother, and my sister, Faith, was able to say goodbye over the phone from San Diego (she spent 8 days here last month), and Anya said goodbye over the phone from Sweden.

She leaves a life-giving legacy of love for Jesus, a passion for life-long learning, a deep appreciation of other cultures, a spirit of service, an abundance of generosity (evidenced by all the direct mail appeals! Her name must be on every non-profit fund-raising mailing list!), and a zeal for adding “-ly” when words are in adverbial form.

Thank you for all your prayers. It was a blessing to spend these past 5 days with her.

With blessings,

Beth

Every hospice story is different. Mom’s story is much different than Eric’s. While there are things in common, the differences are great.

I’m staying in her room and spending the nights as well. I’m learning the techniques to get her to swallow a small spongefulls of fluids without coughing or aspirating. Her nutrient intake these past two days is negligent. Her fluid intake is not enough to sustain her for much longer. I can get about 4-5 spongefulls max at a time before Mom won’t continue to take more.

On Wednesday, Mom wasn’t hungry, so we stopped the spoonfulls of a nutrient-enriched dessert. Yesterday early morning, Mom was chewing on the sponge, so I asked her if she wanted something to eat. I heard a pretty clear, “Yah.” We got about 3 small spoons of nutrition in her, but then she was done and having difficulty swallowing without choking with the thicker, more viscous fluid.

She likes her hair brushed and I can give her mini-facials and hand massages with a warm washcloth and moisturizing lotion. It is wonderful to see her smile with the comfort of the warm washcloth.

My sister, Elenn, arrived from Michigan yesterday evening. As a physician, her medical expertise is welcome. Earlier in the day, Dad and I were asked by the nurse whether we thought that morphine or Ativan would be the best med to help Mom with her discomfort. Dad was uncomfortable with the morphine use, so I suggested Ativan. I don’t even know this drug by this name. but the nurse described it as an anti-anxiety med, and later I looked it up and realized I know it as lorazepam from days with Eric. Later, Elenn relayed that this was the better choice as morphine can slow down the bowels, which we are trying to avoid.

Later, the morphine was given, so while Mom was comfortable through a procedure, it meant that Mom was still medicated and not alert when Elenn arrived. Mom started perking up a bit before she went to sleep.

Dad is exhausted, and fortunately the roll-a-way bed provides a reasonable place for him to nap a couple times during the day. I’m also napping during the day, as I have the night shift. Coming from Sweden, I’m halfway on the night shift timezone anyway. With an eyemask and earplugs, I’m getting a reasonable amount of sleep.

The focus is on comfort for Mom, so I try to swab her mouth every 20-30 minutes and see if I can get a spongefull or several spongefulls of water in her.

Anya is quite stressed with some papers due and the studying with only 1 week to go now before exams. Please keep her in your prayers, especially at this stressful time when I can’t support her well. We have some Face-time, video chats, but it is not like being there. Then the freezer stopped due to accumulation of ice. I didn’t have the time to defrost it before I left. So, the water running on the floor added to the stress. Thanks to Donna and Lennart, friends from church, who came to help with the clean up.

Finally, I relay the travel complications to Duluth and the kindness of a stranger.

I had been able to use frequent flier miles on Delta, which is the only commercial airline that flies to Duluth. The frequent flier award only gave me first class tickets, but at least I had enough miles. I stayed in the Boston airport overnight, as I had planned a 3:55 check-in/drop bag time. It didn’t make sense to get a hotel. At 2:55 am, the Delta app sent me a notification that my flight’s departure would be delayed 2 hours. This would mean that I would not make the connecting flight to Duluth. Delta only flies twice a day to Duluth, and the afternoon flight would get me there 6 hours later. I could rent a car for 10 days for a reasonable amount and be there in less than 3 hours. But the Delta agent said that she could route me though Detroit and still make the Duluth flight, albeit with about 45 minutes to transfer in Detroit and only a 30-minute connection time in Minneapolis. She recommended that I take my rolling suitcase on board, as it was within the size limitations; it most likely would not make the 2 adjoining short connections with me. I had planned to check it, because my back has been a little sore, and it lightens the load. At least it was a bag that could be brought on board. I had thought of bringing a bigger bag to haul a few more things back to Sweden.

The tight connection time in Detroit meant that I was one of the last to get on the plane. I had asked for a seat close to the front, so that I could get out quickly and make the next very short connection time in Minneapolis. When I tried to put the wheelie suitcase in an overhead bin, all the bins in the front of the plane were full. I could only find space 5 rows behind me. I knew that going against the exiting flow to get my bad during unloading would be very difficult and time consuming, so during the flight, I asked a flight attendant for help. She was looking for space in the bins around my seat–which I was unsuccessful finding–when my seatmate said that he would take his bag down and put it under the seat in front of him. Yes, Minnesota nice. He gave up legroom for a complete stranger. I thanked him as much as I could without sounding unhinged. I responded beyond that with my quiet prayers of blessing for him.

Then, I saw he was checking the weather in Duluth. Yes, he was going to Duluth too. Because he travels a lot for business, he knows the airport well. I asked him if it would be OK to tag along to find the next gate. He welcomed me. He even got my wheelie bag down from the overhead bin as we departed. What a Providential seatmate!

We walked fast from one end of the airport (G2 gate) to almost the exact opposite wing (B16). He commented that he doesn’t run anymore, but if he misses the flight, he just rents a car. Then he remarked that I walked faster than he did. I relayed that my mom is on her death bed, so I’m really hoping to catch this flight. Yes, Minnesota kindness without pity. We made it to the flight! I didn’t see him at the departure, but I am grateful for the generosity (giving up leg room) and helpfulness from a stranger, Tom from Duluth.

So, today, I am grateful for the kindness of others, Tom, Donna, Lennart, and the gracious staff here, (though I have mentally ranked the most to least helpful aids). Tonight, I’m grateful for the aid named Jenn, who is very diligent and kind.

With blessings,

Beth

I am now in Duluth with my mother.

First news of my mother, then the travel challenges and blessings getting here.

My mother is in hospice care at a nursing home that she moved into a few weeks ago after being discharged from a rehab center (from her fall down the stairs and broken fibula and tiba mid August). Mom recognized me with a smile, and I recognized the Tarangire Safari Lodge T-shirt she was wearing (one of my favorite places in the world!).

We can get some smiles and fewer understandable words. We’ve figured out a sign for wanting lip balm, but most of the communication is trying to figure it out. Yesterday, Dad and I arrived about noon. Dad and I fed mom some enriched ice-cream-like dessert. She had about half of it over the afternoon. We add water either by a little sponge or the tip of a straw releasing a bit of water held in by the vacuum from our finger at the other end. The challenge is to know how much to give as her body is slowing way down. She went to the hospital 1.5 weeks ago for being severely dehydrated. She is still not well hydrated, so I continue with the little sponges in what seems to be a reasonable frequency, but I’m not quite sure.

Generally, Mom is peaceful and comfortable. There are some basic discomforts of dry lips and mouth that I keep attending to. I found some special lotion and gave a bit of a face and hand massage. I gently brushed out some snarls in her hair, as I told stories of my memories of her brushing my hair in Hong Kong. The rule was, then, that you could only say ouch 2 times. On the third ouch, she would quit. However, I remember saying the 3 ouch once. I didn’t go to school with only 1 pig tail though. She took compassion on me a 5 or 6-year-old. I think she would not have for my older sisters who were more capable in doing their own hair. Her smiles and sighs of satisfaction are some of her strongest communication tools.

I face-timed (video chat on iPhones) with my two sisters. Elenn, in Michigan has been here at least 3 times in the 3 months, and she’ll come again on Thursday or Friday. Her physician expertise is only a text or phone call away. Faith was here from San Diego for 8 days last month and gave a huge amount of support for Dad.

I spent the night here, and a roll-a-way bed was made available, which was better than my first attempt to sleep in the arm chairs. I’m still jetlagged, so I’m going to take the night shift as Dad and I will start the vigil. I don’t want her to be alone.

This morning, I showed some pictures of Sweden and Norway on my laptop. She seems to enjoy the pictures. I just raised Mom’s hospital bed and put her glasses on her so she can see the beautiful sunrise out the window.

She has a nice view of woods and a peek of Lake Superior in the 3-year-old Benedictine health care center that is just 1 mile from my parents’ home. Dad will come today, and I’ll do some work by email and grade some papers.

Time for a nap. More later.

With blessings,

Beth

The past week has been full.

In addition to teaching, I gave one final exam and one mid-term (for the Hebrew course that is going “half speed”). The last day of Intro to the Old Testament included a “Gallery,” where student had 4 minutes to present their creative interpretation—after completing 10 steps in traditional inductive exegetical methods. It was fun, with a wonderful representation of many different ways of expressing an interpretation, including, music composition, Lego dioramas, paintings, photography, PowerPoints, plaster face masks, poetry, drama, food, and interpretive sign language (of Hannah’s song celebrating her pregnancy by a woman 8 months pregnant!). A couple were over the top amazing video animations! It was celebratory, exciting, and at times funny. Here are some examples.

Video animation link (2:15) Totally worth the 2 and a quarter minutes, even if your don’t understand Swedish!

It took extra work, but it was worth it!

I had notified my boss over the weekend that I was trying to arrange an extended time after the conference in Boston (16-21 Nov) that I had planned to attend since last spring. However, the days after the conference are American Thanksgiving time. There were no plane tickets available for rescheduling, even with all the first class tickets I checked. Then on Monday, the email came stating that my mother was declining fast. By Tuesday, she was no longer speaking. On Wednesday, I talked with my boss about leaving early. My colleague, with whom I’m co-teaching a course, was gracious to rework the schedule and flip our teaching times, after I discovered that I could arrange my ticket to fly out earlier. So, then there was the flurry of trying to prepare everything before I left for Oslo for the weekend. It is wonderful to be part of a compassionate community. My colleagues were encouraging me to go and not worry about things, as they shared hugs and even tears.

I decided to keep the plans to go to Oslo this weekend, because Anya was coming along. It is impossible to make every right decision, but I know that it was important to have this time together, as this last year before she goes off to university.

We arrived on Friday, and we walked through the city center, through some interesting places and stores, and on to the harbor. (Norway is expensive, so we aren’t doing a lot of shopping.) We ascended the amazing Oslo Opera and Ballet House. It is a white marble mountain that arises out of the water.

On Saturday, I walked 32 minutes to Menighetsfakultet (“MF”), or the Oslo University theological faculty, for the seminar.

I presented half of what I presented at Lund University, a bit tailored for this context. The response was actually better than I expected, in comparison with Lund. The one guy who was pretty harsh at my mid-way evaluation was first to compliment my approach for integrating western traditional methods with other ways of knowing in a cogent framework. Another reflected that I am laying out what they are now expecting to be wrestling with in the next generation of biblical studies.

Tomorrow, Anya and I fly back to Uppsala. I will prepare for travel to the USA on Monday morning, and try to grade as many papers as possible in the limited time. I hope to avoid carrying about a ream’s worth of papers to grade to and from USA.

Please add a little prayer for a gracious transition for my mom in her last days on this side of eternity with Jesus and comfort for my dad.

With blessings,

Beth

The Swedish higher education system is a bit strange for me and my academic administration sensibilities. In the economies of scale, it is easier to have fewer terms to schedule and to process registration. Yet, here, we have 2 terms (like semesters, but semester here means vacation), and each term has two, 10-week blocks. And there are summer reading courses. So, basically, we have 5 quarters with 4 periods to schedule.

The first block is coming to an end this next week. I had one exam last Friday, for the first course on computer-aided biblical research where we learn Accordance software. Before this course, no one besides me owned a biblical research software program. Now, we’ve entered the 21st century! (But not yet on our academic learning management system. UGH!)

This week, I have more exams in Intro to the Old Testament and biblical Hebrew. However, in the Intro to the OT, there are 4 students who couldn’t make the mid-term, so they will take the mid-term and the final consecutively. Also, any students who did not pass sections from the first mid-term will retake those sections. Then, students who didn’t pass the exam last year can show up to take it. I have one who notified me, but I could end up with more. So, I have to give 3 different exams for 1 course. Each exam that is given has to be offered 3 times in the first 12 months! Students have 5 times to pass the exam (or portions of the exam connected to a course goal). If they don’t pass the 5th time, they can ask for another adjudicator to check their exam. If not earning a pass, then they have to take the course again. As tuition is free, they don’t have to pay again. So, there are lots of carrots but not a lot of sticks.

The challenges for me is that the exams are written in Swedish. So, I have to make 3 exams different and in Swedish. I’ll have to ask colleagues to proof them tomorrow for Tuesday’s exam.

Last week, the last session in Into to the OT was the book of Esther. So, we had some fun in a “competitive story telling” engagement of the book. I put the numbers of the 9 chapters on plastic bottle tops to pick randomly out of a basket. (With all my plastic tops, Anya said, “Sometimes I don’t know if you’re teaching college or kindergarten).  Then, pairs of students had 8 minutes to prepare their retelling (in Swedish, so I miss quite a bit of the humor). Everyone voted at the end for the best storytelling, and we had a tie. It is a good thing I had 2 bags of chocolates. And yes, they all shared. Here are some highlights.

It was a fun end of the lessons.

My former PhD advisor was in town that afternoon for a conference at the University. The Nordic Institute for Mission and Ecumenical research partnered with the exegetical theology departments. Knut read a paper. Not only was it great to be there and support him, I keep on learning and being inspired by his work–as were the others.

In the evening, we were all invited to a Chinese hot pot dinner that was paid by the university! I was fortunate to sit across from the senior statesman of the Old Testament department at Uppsala University. We had met before, but on this day, he invited me to give a seminar at the university. He heard that I had presented a seminary at Lunds University, which hopefully was for good reasons—not because I’m some sort of a loose cannon.

I presented part of what I gave at Lunds University to my colleagues at JTH on Wednesday. We have quarterly research seminars where faculty members share what they have been working on. It was good to share my theoretical framework for multi-epistemological exegesis. I learned more about the history of theological education in Sweden and what has influenced the continuation of traditional of historical-critical exegesis. My colleagues are very supportive of my perspective of trying to broaden the conversation, especially including Majority World voices. They said that it is probably easier to have an American do this than it would be for a Swede. So, perhaps I’m contributing to the scholarly conversation that may put a crack in the research milieu which does not currently allow for any theological interpretations.

This next week, Anya is on a fall break. She will be having a change of pace, but with only 3 weeks until exam week, she will be studying quite a bit. However, we have plans on Friday to go to Oslo. I’ll be presenting a paper as part of Knut’s Maasai and the Bible research group, so I’ll see Knut again. Anya and I will have two nights in Oslo, and providentially, we are booked into the same hotel as my former PhD student colleague, who is now teaching OT in Stavanger. She was the bright one of Knut’s students. She is teaching both Greek and Hebrew along with OT book courses.

I am teaching Hebrew, but I’m feeling a bit sorry for my students. I don’t think I am the best Hebrew teacher, and 6 weeks into the course, I realized that I need to prepare a Hebrew to Swedish vocabulary list each week. Oops. I haven’t found a Hebrew-Swedish lexicon in the library, so I’m slowly compiling an Excel spreadsheet from a Swedish Hebrew grammar book.

Today, I opened our apartment door for Anya and I to go to church (an hour later, because we just are adjusting to daylights savings this weekend), and we had a reminder that we are in student housing. There was a broken beer bottle just outside our door.

I swept it up for safety sake, and headed off to church.

A colleague from work who also attends that church asked me if I’d be interested in leading an English Alpha conversation group. For a university town, I’m a little surprised that this church doesn’t have other English ministries besides translation of the morning services into English. Perhaps we are a bit too far from the university (1.5 km), though we are not too far from student housing (.5 km). This seems like it would be a mutual blessing, so I said yes.

I also spent some of the day figuring out if I can go to Minnesota after the Society of Biblical Literature conference in Boston in mid-November. My mom’s health is deteriorating quickly. We did have a very nice week together last July, but I would also like to say goodbye and be there to support my Dad a bit. However, I haven’t been able to find an available flight back on the dates I need. I am flying British Airways, but all the economy, deluxe economy, and even all of the business seats that I checked were sold out. I’ll have to see if there are any options to make this work. I have my Christmas-New Year’s tickets set, and we’ll be in Duluth in the New Year, but my physician sister doesn’t believe my mom will last more than a month. So, say a quick prayer for my mom. We know she will be with Jesus. I’m just praying for a transition that is as gracious and painless as possible. There still is loss, but there is comfort knowing that she will be free at last.

So, we walk by faith, not by sight.

Beth

I learned this week that I wasn’t saying that “My life is full” in the best way. I was saying, “Mitt liv är upptagen,” which—I now understand—relays a sense of occupied, like a restroom is occupied. At first, it was recommend that I say, “Mitt liv är stressad,” yes, stressed. But I said that I wasn’t really stressed, just busy. So, the phrase is now, “Jag har mycket att göra,” or I have much to do. (Though sometimes, saying that I am stressed would be an appropriate response.)

Last weekend, I accepted a couple social invitations. On Saturday morning, Anya and I went to see our friend’s daughter’s ice skating competition. It was great to support her.

Afterwards, we went out for fika with another couple, Donna and Lennart, and then Anya went with Donna to a special yarn store.

Last Sunday, I went with Donna and her goddaughter to Österbybruk, which is about 1.5 hours north–a beautiful drive on a sunny fall afternoon. This small city was a bustling ironwork area since King Gustav Vasa (think military armaments for the 30-years war) through much of the 20th century. They had an early Christmas fair with over 80 vendors selling handcrafts and artisan foods, including cheese, chocolate, jams, and smoked salmon. The free samples were great!

The manor house also had many artisan booths, but here are pictures of the outside.

A few other features of our visit:

Other fall images of Uppsala:

In October 9th’s posting, I told of the sewage back up into the Johannelund basement. I since have learned that there the lowest part filled up with sewage 80 centimeters (31 inches) deep! All week, there were workers ripping out all the damaged things: furnishings, walls, flooring, etc. The dumpsters were piling up.

At times, the smell was horrible in the hallways. We kept classroom and office door closed to keep the smell out. The smell is much better, but it still lingers.

So, the chaos went into crazy proportions. There was already stuff going on with a remodeling project, such that our entrances looks like this in September:

The changes are not only physical. On the 11th, there was an announcement regarding our rektor, Kjell (like a president and academic dean combined). He works 50% here and 50% as a professor of history at Linköping University (LU), 3.5 hours to the southwest by train, where Kjell lives. LU told him that Kjell has to decide to either work at LU 100% or leave. So, Kjell has asked the faculty at Johannelund if we want him to stay. These important conversations are in Swedish, which makes it more frustrating.

This past Thursday, I was headed to Västerås, about 1.5 hours west of Uppsala by bus. I was biking to the bus station when a group of about 5 teenage guys were walking out of the grocery store by the station. It is a little plaza, but there is a clearly marked bike path down the middle. However, one of the guys was walking backwards while he was chatting with his friends, and he didn’t see that he was walking right into the bike lane. I had slowed down in this busy area, and I tried to ring my bell, but with my big winter gloves, I couldn’t get traction on the bell. So, I ended up in a controlled fall to avoid missing him. I don’t know if he realized what happened or just tried to ignore that he caused a problem, as he walked on with his buddies. Fortunately, two others stopped and asked me if I was OK. Yes, I wasn’t hurt badly, but I did come away with a big bruise on my ankle. I was so glad that I had my shearling boots on that have thick leather and wool padding. Otherwise, I would have been really hurting. (Yes, I wear a helmet.)

At night, as I rolled into bed, I discovered a sore hip. So, one more—though smaller—bruise. My back is a little tender too, so perhaps that is from the fall.

The adult ed class at Västerås went well. I sat with 4 Syrian refugees during the supper time. We are all working on learning Swedish, but of course, they are here with horrible stories of fleeing war. But this church is providing a warm welcome and a caring community. There is a significant portion of the Syrians who come from Christian backgrounds, and one had a beautiful cross that he wore prominently. In Sweden, wearing a cross is a faith statement, neither a tradition nor a decoration. I really enjoyed experiencing this vibrant church.

Last week, my mother was moved from the rehabilitation center into a nursing facility. Fortunately, there was an opening in a facility that is close to dad. One sister was there to help with a week of work, and another sister is there continuing with the support. I’m trying to figure out if I change my flight after a mid-November conference in Boston to visit and help too. It would be a bit complicated on this side with some meetings and classes to accommodate, so I’m waiting for wisdom from my sister who is there now. I do plan to visit after New Years as well.

Oh, I almost forgot (really). My book came from the publisher. One coworker asked me about buying one and providing a receipt. I had to think about how to do this, because I didn’t think anyone would actually want to buy one at $85! I suggested that he just borrow the one that I will donate to the library. Yet, he was persistent, so I’ll figure out a receipt.

With blessings,

Beth

Today is Eric’s birthday. He would have been 53. Anya celebrated the day by wearing one of his sweatshirts. The University of Wisconsin’s Bucky Badger was at Katedralskolan today.

On Saturday, Anya had some dim sum (Cantonese Chinese food) in Stockholm with friends after the SAT exam in the morning. Eric and I would often celebrate birthdays with eating dim sum at the Noble Court restaurant in Bellevue. Yes, sometimes I’m a little lonely, but I figure it gives me more time for grading papers.

This past weekend, I spent most of it on grading papers and preparing for class. I won’t bore you with the all the details, but I’m initiating a new process here to equip students with the exegetical methods (inductive study skills, a.k.a., “Keys”) that I did at Trinity, and I want it to go well. Serving both campus and distance students in the same course (not by my choice) means figuring out ways to communicate and respond to distance students meaningfully. I’m also preparing my summary handbook to be bi-lingual. So, I have to prepare the translation (starting with a Google Translate draft—which is quite rough) and ask for help from a native Swedish speaker for checking the translation.

Today, I arrived at school to teach and was confronted with an overwhelming sewer smell. With all the rain, the storm sewer backed up, and spilled sewage water about a foot deep throughout the basement of the building. There were 2 septic suction trucks working most of the day, making many trips with full tanks.

Because the clogged sewer was not on our property but in an area the is controlled by the city, the city had to be involved. The good news is that Johannelund will not be the responsible party, but will have to deal with the clean up crisis. Fortunately, the smell wasn’t in the classrooms and there were bathrooms available in the church, which is connected to Johannelund.

Last week, the big event was the Exegetical Day. The Old and New Testament teachers and researchers from all over Sweden gathered for a day of seminars and an evening dinner. Two of the seminars were in Swedish, so I opted to work at home during those and attend the two seminars in English. There was a Dutch expert on the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Old Testament) who talked about some interesting translation issues. I don’t know too much about the Septuagint, so it was quite interesting and helped to fill in a gap in my knowledge. The information helped in a discussion time today in class. There was a whole bunch of thoughtful question on the different canons.

In the evening, there was a dinner. James, my New Testament colleague at Johannelund, also attended, as he has done every year for the past 15 years. However, this dinner was different. We met at one of the “nation” houses, which would be a bit like a fraternity house. During the evening, there was entertainment as well as everybody joining in classic Swedish university student songs (think drinking songs). So, I had a taste of the university life, though without the drunkenness that is infamous at Swedish university student gatherings.

Yes, life is busy, but there are some meaningful moments with students and friends that give me some hints that I’m being a blessing.

With blessings,

Beth

This week, I had two big presentations. The first was an academic presentation at Lund University in southwest Sweden. I flew there, which made it only a day, but a very long one, especially because I was at the airport quite early. I’m still new to catching the bus and figuring out domestic air travel logistics, so I’d rather be early and wait a bit rather than stressing about missing my flight.

The weather was wonderful in Lund. I complimented my host, Fredrik, on his arranging great weather. We walked the 10 minutes from the bus to the campus, passing the beautiful library. This is one of 2 libraries in Sweden which is required to hold every book printed in Swedish. Thus, it is a great library for Swedish church history PhD research.

After lunch with the dean and 2 Old Testament teachers, we had the seminar. Because of some illness and conflicts, there ended up only to be 4 people, 3 teachers and 1 PhD student. This made for good conversation after my 50 minute presentation with plenty of time allotted for conversation in the 1 hour and 45 minute seminar.

Here is the summary I wrote up for Knut, who was so gracious to read a draft of the presentation with constructive comments:

__________

 

There is a special clock there.

The clock was built around 1380! However, for many years, it was in storage, and then rebuilt in 1837. Elizabeth took her keys and went behind the railing to figure out on which day of the week I was born–a Sunday. I had been told that, but I didn’t realize I was born on a leap year! The sun, moon, and star movements are represented, and one can figure out the movable church-year holidays.

One curious bit from the day was an old manual Hebrew typewriter on Fredrik’s desk. Now it is for novelty, but he said that when he was preparing his PhD thesis, before the IBM typewriter with the movable type balls, he would leave blanks in his pages and then go to the library to use this typewriter to fill in the Hebrew. Now, with computers, it is so much easier (but still challenging). However, now I know why my biblical Hebrew keyboard has its layout; it matches this one!

On Saturday, I led a Bible study for a young adult conference that is co-sponsored by Johannelund, my church, and the EFS (Swedish Evangelical Mission). There were perhaps 150 people, and I taught from Exodus 34, “the long name of God” (with quite a bit of background for context). It is an amazing passage as well as the climax after the golden calf idolatry crisis. God’s steadfast love and forgiveness is described in 7 different ways. The reconciliation and renewal with God’s promise to create new, astounding wonders demonstrates God’s commitment to the people of Israel, who are the center of the Abrahamic covenant and God’s plan for rescue of humanity and creation.

One colleague said afterwards, “I can tell why you have received all those teaching awards.” I replied, “I actually haven’t received any awards, just a pedagogy grant (that helped develop collaborative teaching methods for biblical studies). But thanks for thinking that I did!” So, it seems that it went well.

Today, Sunday, I’m understandably tired. I’m enjoying a Sabbath rest. Though my rest included a long walk (8.2 km/5 miles) to Old Uppsala. There are bits of wood on the way. It was a rather nice day with some sun breaks, so many were out walking, jogging, biking, and picnicking.

This colony of mushrooms is thriving by a park bench in the graveyard by the old church.

Tomorrow is the “Exegetical Day,” a conference for all the Old and New Testament scholars in Sweden. I’m thinking about skipping the first session, because it is in Swedish. I can get other things done and hit the English sessions later.

With blessings,

Beth

I’ve been busy and haven’t made the time to write for quite a while. But today I had to share something a little bit exciting: an English language interface for my online banking! I chose my bank last year because it had English on its website. However, once a member, all the online banking was in Swedish, and most banking is online in Sweden and we rarely use cash. Today, when I went to pay my Swedish bills through my bank, there was a new interface. At first, I’m frustrated, because I’m trying to do the tasks I learned how to do with my limited Swedish, and my vocabulary does not have a lot a Swedish banking terms. Then, I found a little Union Jack British Flag and almost jumped out of my seat! Now I can do online banking in English! Yes, I won’t be needing to learn all those Swedish banking words, but when it is important transactions, like banking, I like to know what I’m doing.

I’ve been working most of my spare moments on a paper that I will be presenting at the University of Lund on Wednesday. I fly in and out the same day. Both the Old Testament and New Testament folks will be together for this seminar. I’m trying to graciously challenge the “science” paradigm that is required for all academic biblical studies. Then, I relay that this opens us up to merge different epistemologies (ways of knowing) that are able to engage the Majority World. I have quotes from three Society of Biblical Literature presidents spanning 30 years, so I know that I’m not alone in these concepts. But they don’t live in Sweden. I’m basically challenging the theoretical framework of the whole discipline! My call for multi-epiestemological exegesis not only allows authentic conversations with the Majority World, it also allows engagement with faith and supernatural aspects of Scripture that are downplayed or avoided in Swedish scholarship. I also think that my appropriation of Paul Hiebert’s “centered set” theory to evaluation of legitimate, valid, and plausible interpretations (using Daniel Patte’s terminology) is a contribution to the conversation. There are a couple students here who have heard of my pending presentation and have already started praying for me! How cool!

Then, when I was working on the paper last night, my “doctor father” (former PhD adviser) emailed with a question. I had been thinking that I would really appreciate some feedback on my draft, and so I replied that if he had time, I would welcome his critique, but I made it clear that he could easily say no with all of his busy life. He graciously and quickly gave feedback and encouragement. I am so blessed.

Tomorrow morning, I give a mid-term exam to my Intro to the Old Testament course. However, it has to be written in Swedish. I try my best to prepare a good version, and then I asked my colleague, Elin, to proof my Swedish. Wow, writing Swedish is humbling. Fortunately, Elin is a great help. (If only she could grade the essay questions too! But no!)

On the way to Elin’s apartment, I paused for a picture of some of the building in our neighborhood.

Here are some highlights of the last couple weeks.

A few quick notes about Anya. She has her countdown to test week outside her door. She is serious about her preparations with a plan for what to study each week. She was elected onto the CAS (Creativity, Action, Service) Council, and she is the coordinator of the tutoring program. With her focus on her studies and extra-curriculars to strengthen her university applications, she has decided not to continue with pole vaulting this year. It does make life less full. She bought a used knitting machine and is figuring it out. She makes great chocolate chip cookies!

Back to revising my paper with Knut’s recommendations.

With blessings,

Beth

The second Saturday of September is Culture Night in Uppsala. It actually is a full day of about 600 events with art, music, dance, fair food, and 175,000 people spread out through down town. It is also the day that the museums are free! I have visited some museums around here, mostly with visiting guests, but out of the 28 museums in Uppsala, there are a few that I have wanted to see. Today, I went out solo and saw 2 of them.

I made a bee-line to the cathedral to get one of the limited tickets for a free short tour of the cathedral treasury in English. With ticket in hand, I had about 40 minutes to eat at one of the food trucks by the cathedral. There was a Greek place, so I ordered a gyros. I should have been a little skeptical, when I saw the photo that showed that french fries replaced the lettuce and tomato. The meat, instead of rotisserie beef and/or lamb, was pork, to be exact, bacon.

The tour of the treasury was interesting. As you can expect, there were many gold communion chalices (the most ornate ones were war booty from Germany and Poland from the 30-years war) and old bishop chasubles and other liturgical vestments. The treasury also had the crowns and scepters that were originally buried with King Gustav Vasa (who was a victor in the 30-years war) and two of his three (consecutive) wives. (The third wife was only 18 years old when Gustav Vasa died.)

My favorite item was Nathan Söderblom’s Nobel Peace Prize.

There aren’t a lot of these in the world, and here is one before my eyes. He was awarded this for his work in the ecumenical church movement, as he is described as one of the founders of it. In light of changes in the world, I think this will not be another one awarded for a similar reason!

After the treasury, I wandered toward the river and decided to visit the Upplands Museum, which also is open and free today. The other benefit is that there are very few public toilets, but the museums (not in the cathedral) have free access. I am amazed that with and estimated 175,000 people, there aren’t rows of port-a-potties around. Perhaps, this a way to encourage everyone to pause for fika or lunch, and then take advantage of the restrooms.

The Upplands Museum had several exhibits related to the history of this area of Sweden, but especially Uppsala. This is the part I found most interesting. It included several maps over the time, with a miniature models of the city and a less miniature model of the cathedral.

Uppsala used to have a large bicycle factory that produced 300 bicycles a day. The first bicycle in Uppsala is on display, but the factory was later, producing the standard two same-sized wheeled bicycles.

I took a little walk through the main square and down the main walking street to check things out and pick up a few groceries. And then, I was ready to head home.

The events are still going on, but this was enough for me today, especially since rain was forecast for late afternoon, and I have things to do.

While I was away, Anya was with our German friend from church who teaches in the engineering department at the university. She had offered to meet with Anya and show here some things with Matlab (MATLAB [matrix laboratory] is a multi-paradigm numerical computing environment and fourth-generation programming language). This was what Anya wanted for her birthday, and she had been learning it, but with expert help, Anya was excited to develop a project for her school work. Cool!

I arrived home to an email from the editor managing my book production. The cover and inside printer’s pages are ready for proof.

This is the last step before going to the printing presses in Germany.

The other portions of the day included the morning work to confirm that I was one of the Equifax people with hacked information. It is harder to work on credit freezes and things from Sweden, as very few here have a landline to make a secure phone call.

I’ve got writing to do, so that’s planned for the rest of the evening.

With blessings,

Beth