Clay and I wish that you all were here to witness the beauty of Trondheim.  It is simply gorgeous…the mountains, the fjord, the colorful houses and the cobblestone streets of downtown.  As I mentioned in my blog from yesterday, Tim fixed us a Norwegian dinner Saturday night, which consisted of karbonater (like salisbury steak), sausage, broccoli, and mashed vegetables (rutabaga, carrots, and potatoes).  The picture probably doesn’t do justice for how tasty and filling the meal was.

This delicious meal was followed by a great night’s sleep.  We went to bed around 9 and despite a couple of snoring issues (yes, your pastors snore!), we got up at 10 the next morning.  I think the last time either one of us slept that much was as teenagers.  In fact, we slept so late that we almost missed the morning worship service at Tim’s church.

When we walked into the sanctuary we were greeted by the pastor, Ulf Magne, who actually will be leaving this church for a church in Lillehammer soon, and Tim.  Not knowing where to sit, we did a very un-Presbyterian thing and headed up front and sat in the corner.  We hadn’t been there for more than 5 minutes when Tim came over and told us, you might want to move as this is the Russian corner.  We had a good laugh and thought, no matter where you go, you always have to be careful where your sitting in a worship service.  It turns out that this church has a very international feel.  There is a contingent of Russians, actually Ukranians and Lithuanians, who sit in that corner and have the service translated for them.  You also have some Iranians, Burmese and a few other nationalities worshipping there.  We were grateful to have had the service translated into English for us by David’s father, Don, who is one of the leaders in the church.  So you have the service spoken in Norwegian with two sets of translations going on at the same time.  Incredible!  The service was joyful, the singing was heartfelt and the preaching gospel-centered.

Following the service, we enjoyed a time of Fellowship over coffee and cakes, Tim took us on a 2 mile walk up to a revolving restaurant at the top of the city.  Not only was the food excellent, we got to see the entire city, and it was even more beautiful than what we saw driving through town.  Following our lunch we walked over to the university where Tim and members of the church as well as a mission team from the US, will be holding a week-long outreach called, Skeptics Week, next week.  We prayed in front of the main building that the Lord would use this week to draw many to himself.  From there, we walked into downtown Trondheim and walked around many of the cobblestone streets before finally landing at a coffee house, where we had one of the best chai lattes we’ve ever had.  We ended the night back at our hotel where we talked about the last couple of months for Tim here and then spent some great time praying for Tim and his transition back to Lynchburg.

Tomorrow, we take a plane to Stockholm from Trondheim where we’ll be with the Bakers for a couple of days.  Ray has asked us to lead an Open Forum for one of his classes on Tuesday.  The Open Forum is a time for discussing a number of topics not generally covered by Ray but the students are interested in. Our topic is predestination, so that should hopefully provide for some interesting discussion.

Thank you for continually lifting us up in prayer.  We are blessed and encouraged by them.

Pastor Brett, along with Pastor Clay

The Sanctuary of the Church