Author: Velkommen

We began with a beautiful service with the liturgical music from Missa in C (KV 317) the “Coronation Mass” by Mozart. The City of London Sinfonia with choir (including the Cathedral Boy Choir), and an exceptional organist wowed Scott, who has a professionally discerning ear. I appreciated it. The music isn’t Anya’s cup of tea, but all the comments helped her understand what a superb gift of music facilitated a moving worship. While I’m not a high church person, I was moved to tears several times by the beauty, message, and the congregation of people from around the world gathered in worship together.

Pictures aren’t allowed inside, but the tourism website has a wonderful picture.

The afternoon included a bit of shopping, but Anya got out of Selfridge’s with less than $10 of purchases. She actually found something for only 1 pound ($1.50)–a sheet of stickers with the London Tube (subway) stop names–at one of the most high end department stores in the world. (I’m actually a bit disturbed by the decadence.)

After a diet Coke at a coffee shop to rest our feet, we walked over to Hyde Park and caught a glimpse of the Speaker’s Corner, where free speech is practiced, but it isn’t so beautiful. The yell-ers I saw were all men, and all sounded fundamentalist Christian with messages like “Repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.” It made me reflect on my theology of mission course where I was impacted by my professor’s comment, “Faith comes before repentance.” Most people respond better to love and listening rather than condemnation and yelling.

We got back on the Tube and returned to the St. Paul’s area to walk over the Millennium Bridge to get to the Globe Theatre. We previously purchased tickets for Shakespeare’s play, Measure for Measure. We had Gentlemen’s Box seats, because they were the ones left, but they came with cushions and art on our walls.

Scott teaches at the UW School of Drama, so he is a professional in theatre arts. So, we were blessed with his insights to Shakespearean plays, the history of the theatre, and his detailed appreciation of the actors. How cool!

Our walk back to the Tube had some beautiful pictures as the sun was going down.

A blessed day! Thanks for your prayers and/or thoughts about our journey today.

With blessings,

Beth

We “celebrated” the 4th of July (shhh, our Independence Day from Great Britain) here in London. The special moments were:

Seeing Benjamin Franklin’s house. It had red, white, and blue balloons for the day.

Seeing George Washington’s statue (a bit unceremonious for the day) in front of the National Gallery.

And eating at our beloved and dearly missed Chipotle restaurant!

Here’s a summary of our day…

We had a great day filled with walking and getting our bearings. We took the Tube to the city center (only 20 minutes) with a walkabout starting at St. Paul’s Cathedral,

tourist info office, the Millennial Bridge,

Thames river walk (north bank), Egyptian obelisk, the Benjamin Franklin house (above), Trafalgar Square,

St. Martins in the Fields, Edith Cavell memorial (You need to check out her story at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edith_Cavell)

theater street, Chipotle, I bought an 1806 map of Africa at Storey’s LTD.,

M & M World,

Leicester Square, Piccadilly Circus, Cath Kidston designer store, coffee at Cafe’ Nero, The Green Park, Buckingham Palace (the standing of the guard!),

the Canada Memorial back in The Green Park, and the Tube back to Shepherd’s Bush. After a rest, we headed the three blocks over to Westfield Mall by the Tube stop for dinner and browsing. Wow! This is an upscale mall!

We started the day at St. Pauls and ended our ventures at s’AINT Westfield Mall of Commerce. Scott and I closed the day reflecting on the impacts of this mall on society, a community, the economy, and the soul. Will we “sell” ourselves out?

It was a day of history, beauty, and great reflections (thoughtful AND ancient building facades on new buildings).

With blessings,

Beth

Anya has now visited 10 countries! We only count countries if we get out of the airport, so there would be 1 more if we counted airports. And Anya is so excited to check out London.

We made it on the train to Paddington Station, despite a lack of information and signage.

Then, Anya deciphered the Tube (subway) map and heroically got us to our destination. I had a map on my phone that got us to our Air B & B house rental. We are in a nice neighborhood which is out of the beaten path, so not so noisy, but close enough to the Tube stop and a mall.

We went out for dinner after the demands of travel. I saw an interesting booth.

Fortunately, our host had an offer for us. He could provide us with a SIM card with unlimited data, 3000 texts, and more phone calls than what would be needed for 30 days all for only 15 pounds. (So why is this so expensive in the USA?)

After dinner, Scott and I walked to get some groceries, which made us curious over several items that were new to us.

I’m tired, but Anya is too excited about being here in London. She told me she isn’t going to leave–ever.

We’ll, Anya, good luck with that.

With blessings,

Beth

Scott was off to visit his second cousins and other extended family today. He was able to visit the home that was in his family for 300 years and see a road sign that identifies his family name. Pretty cool!

Anya and I were off to see friends who came into the harbor on a HUGE Disney cruise ship this morning. They were able to enjoy a Lysefjord cruise on a small ship on a beautiful, but windy day.

Anya was in elementary school and middle school with these friends. Their mom was her wonderful rec league soccer coach, and we have become dear friends. We were able to be together for close to an hour showing them around and catching up.

The rest of the day was preparations for Tanzania and London. I need to crash, so I won’t be able to get to the Norway travels yet! Hang in there!

With blessings,

Beth

I had a package waiting for me at the post, so morning tasks included a walk to the post office to sign for the package. I helped secure a copy of Die Masai for Dr. Parsalaw, Vice Chancellor at Makumira Seminary. I will bring it to him in Tanzania later this month.

My wonderful adviser, Knut, had a final dinner together for all of the Maasai and African biblical interpretation students. So, I took the bus into Stavanger on the warmest day of the year. It reached the mid-70s on a beautiful day.

His wife, Berly, is a gracious hostess, and she was so kind to send the left over meringue and creme “cake” home for Anya. Berly knew that Anya swooned over the last left over piece. Yes, Anya enjoyed it again! Berly has said she’ll share the recipe with me, but it may be dangerous to have it!

Knut had a time sharing some Hassidic proverbs and teachings. He is also known for interesting stories and humor. He is a blessing to us all.

We had a nice time of conversation and then good byes. I’m not sure I’ll see Alemu again before he returns to Ethiopia. Our projects have some similar themes, and we were enriched by talking together. It is probable that he will end up teaching at the seminary in Addis. Perhaps when I am in Sweden, I’ll get a chance to visit him, as Johannelund has a long-term relationship with the Mekane Yesus church in Ethiopia.

Knut drove us home, including me back to campus. This provided a time of debrief of our time here in Stavanger and the reviewing our next connection in Atlanta in November at the Society of Biblical Literature conference. He then came in and said goodbye to Anya with kind words and well wishes.

I have high regard and deep appreciation for Knut’s supervision. What a blessing!

More on our recent travels tomorrow!

With blessings,

Beth

Yes, we’ve been out seeing BEAUTIFUL Norway. The next few days will have reflections and some photos of highlights of the stunning beauty. Here, I will address our last day.

Yesterday, we boarded the Hurtigruten ship called the MS Kong Harald (Kong = King in Norsk), which with a Roman numal V is the current King of Norway.

If you look to the right of the large ramp, you will see a row of room window in the white row just on top of the red windows.

This is the view from our window.

This means that despite the ear plugs, I was awakened during 3 of the 4 overnight cargo loading/unloading times. My iPhone decibel meter hit a 92 dbl in our cabin upon the closing of the ramp doors.

However, it was a beautiful journey from Tronheim to Bergen. I would recommend the trip. We saw stunning vision, sometimes so close to the rocks it was amazing.

We arrived in Bergen, and walked very quickly to our first night hotel, the Thon Hotel Bristol Bergen, because Anya left her iPhone there the first day on the reception area couches. It was kept safe for her! We were relieved to pick it up! So, my deepest commendations for the Thon Hotel Bristol in Bergen! (They also had the best bacon of our journey!)

Then we walked very quickly to catch our bus to Stavanger. We had seats on the 3:45 bus and arrived at 3:30. We ended up taking the 4:15 bus, which was a direct bus to Stavanger, and so would arrive a bit earlier than the 3:45 bus. All went well. This is a beautiful drive with snow capped mountains in the distance, and fjord views that deserve to be in coffee table books. We had two ferry rides that had picturesque views on a calm night at sea.

Then we hopped on the city bus to Sandnes and was home at about 10 pm.

What a full trip with so much that we saw in natural beauty, architecture, history, and art. Come back and get the more highlights.

With blessings (but glad to be home),

Beth

We had a beautiful day in Stavanger that almost reached 60 degrees! I walked Scott around some favorite places. Here are highlights in photos.

This was Anya’s last day in school. They were at a part for a scavenger hunt in groups. Her classmates said goodbye and gave her a group hug along with a journal that each had written in for her. We celebrated by going out to our favorite restaurant in Sandnes. The evening was spent packing for our trip tomorrow to Bergen.

With blessings,

Beth

In the morning, Anya was off for her second to last day of school, which was turning in books. I was off to the last Hebrew reading at my school. Knut had the Maasai Research Group read Hebrew all semester as we are all doing Old Testament projects. This keeps our Hebrew functional, but also to expand our knowledge of aspects that aren’t generally covered in master’s level Hebrew. With each past session, we did quite a bit of analysis of the variant texts, and today, we read from the Mishna, or the rabbinic literature.

At the weekly employee lunch and meeting, there were a few of us who were ending our stay at MHS. Tina, has finished her PhD dissertation and submitted it. She will defend it sometime in the early autumn. I am ending my stay here and this six month research fellowship. So, they had Belgian waffles, ice cream, strawberries, and chocolate syrup to eat for everyone, and flowers and kind words for us who were leaving.

The rest of my day was digesting other PhD dissertations and scanning a few pages from a few library resources to have access to them later in the summer.

Anya came with me to pick up our guest, Scott, from the airport. Scott has family nearby and will spend some time with them. We used to work together when Trinity Lutheran College was Lutheran Bible Institute. We both are INFJs in the Meyers-Briggs temperament indicator, so we think alike–sometimes too alike–so we have a pleasant platonic friendship. We are conveniently collaborating for some travel in Norway, and later a short trip to London, as this is a way to see some places that we wouldn’t otherwise make the effort to see. With a guest room, it makes hosting easy for us and affordable for guests.

We caught the #9 bus from the airport, but silly me, I didn’t notice that this was going TO Stavanger instead of FROM Stavanger to Sandness. So, we took the scenic route home. It really is a nice little loop past the North Sea, some inland harbors, and back to the Stavanger center. Then we switched to the #3 bus for a more direct route home.

I promised a few pictures from the monastery visit yesterday to spread the wealth of pictures. I’ll get a nice picture of my gift of flowers for tomorrow.

Have a blessed day.

Beth

Melanie and Joseph were so kind to pick us up for church today, where an American mission team to Norway was leading in music and preaching. They were from Georgia and closed with “hillbilly” music.

The preacher was an apologetics guy, and in reality, few are impacted by losing an philosophical argument compared to the many who are drawn in by the love and care from the faithful. I believe that love is that best apologetics.

Anya took off after church as she had plans with one of the Norwegians who was at the Norwegian immersion language camp that Anya attended last summer. So, I accepted Marta’s offer to visit the Utstein Kloster or monastery. It was a beautiful day, but still not warm. (Tomorrow we might break 60 degrees!)

Utstein Abbey (in Norwegian Utstein Kloster) is Norway’s best-preserved medieval monastery. The abbey, dedicated to Saint Laurence, was founded in its present location during the reign of King Magnus VI of Norway (1263–1280).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utstein_Abbey

Today I’ll share pictures of the outside, and I’ll share more tomorrow of the inside.

Afterwards, we were hosted to dinner at Marta and Kjell’s home. They have a wonderful gift of hospitality. However, it was a good thing that Anya didn’t come along as the two guests were even more bent toward theological conversations than I am!

Marta is a gift for me in this place. We have some similar aspects to our stories as MKs and adult missionaries trying to mother kids through life.

I returned home to an email from Eric’s Aunt Donna sharing the updated web post for Eric at findagrave.com.

I shared it with Anya for the celebration of American Father’s Day. It isn’t a thing here, which is probably easiest for Anya.

I’m grateful for my Dad, who prays for us daily. What a blessing! The daughters got together and bought him a tablet for Father’s Day. Now he can have fun with a renewed eye after cataract surgery and enjoy it.

With blessings,

Beth