Reluctantly and yet to make my Norwegian wife happy I now leave for Norway for some uncertain period.  My wife drives the car mostly - she loves that!  Reluctantly still because I like a hen would rather scratch food to my hungry chicken from Iran.  So a warm "Auf Wiedersehen" to them.

I have the same feeling now as when I  go to the U.S. time and again,  I´m starting again from scratch.  There are not many friends anymore to hang around with.  Family ties are still there, but they don´t always fit in with my mission as an ambassador for Him who said, "Go into all the world..." and do what?  To go sighteeing? Fishing?  To bask in the swimming pool at some tourist resort?  No, "... and preach the gospel to every creature".

So I´m not called upon to just "hang around". None of us are.  I´m as excited as when I´m on American soil humming the words,   "Lead me to some soul today and teach me, Lord, just what to say..."

I´m not too keen on hanging around with stagey and streamlined church programs either, though we don´t have that here on the same scale as in the churchy America.  Religious people are not my target, though a religious Nicodemus may show up in the dark to have presented the must of a new birth.  Christ died for religious people too.

I don´t make up to the rich either, though the free course of the gospel transcended the capitalist world when I suddenly found myself witnessing and singing to astonished listeners at my great grandfather´s old, successful bread enterprise last Wednesday.  Despite my limping frailty I was by God´s grace one of His very small princes with a royal mission.

So I go to Norway not only for the sake of my dear wife, but indeed there is a promise connected to the precious phrase "diffusing the fragrance of His knowledge IN EVERY PLACE." (2 Cor. 2:14). -  Don´t you think?

May 21, 2015 - jn