Skip to main content

Getting a wee bit overwhelmed.

Life goes on. I am still settling in here in Kansas City. I looked at a room to live in last week and decided to take it. It’s only 4 minutes to walk from the prayer room, has nice wooden floors and is a lovely house. I signed the contract yesterday and will move today. I feel peace yet a bit sad to leave my friends’ house. It’s been so lovely to live with people I know and be a part of life here. It’s funny how you get to catch up on a different level when you share day-to-day life. And being a good walk away from the prayer room has given me a chance to let others bless me with lifts. Other then my friends how live here, a couple of other people have kindly given me rides. Yesterday a lovely lady who was on her way in the other direction turned around and came back to give me a life because it was raining, and yesterday morning a lady stopped as I was walking to the prayer room at 6 am and gave me a lift. So I have been very blessed. It has also been quite nice to walk when it’s been warm and sunny, but cold and rainy is another story.

As I’d signed the contract for the house I’m moving into yesterday I suddenly felt all overwhelmed by everything. Suddenly it was like I just felt so alone and surrounded by strangers. I think it was triggered by the prospect of moving into a house with 3 girls I haven’t met yet, and moving away from my friends. And also the fact that I’ve been here for a week now and want to get a routine, yet knowing it’ll be another few weeks till I do get a routine. I did expect to go through culture shock. So far everything’s just been so lovely and “rosy” I knew I’d come out of the famous “honey moon phase” of culture shock, I just didn’t know when it was going to happen.

This morning I decided to just hang around the house and watch the web stream of the prayer room. It’s been good to have a slow morning and I can go to the prayer room this evening from my new home.

Now I have packed my bags once again (knowing I’d be moving when I arrived I never really unpacked, but obviously stuff kind had kind of flowed out of my suitcase and bag as I have been looking for stuff). It’ll be good to finally unpack, although I think I need to see if I can find a used bookshelf of desk or something for my room as the room I’m moving into only has a chest of drawers and a closet in addition to the bed and bedside table. All in due time- one thing at a time.
Well, I continue going through the days, one day at a time, and as I live, I write. It’s good to have a space to channel the happenings and a space where they’ll remain to look back on.

Popular posts from this blog

Tuesday children's prayer | Handing out shoes and feeding toddlers.

No day is the same here. After getting up early (which seems to be what I do here), and eating breakfast which was bread with butter (accompanied by an amazing cup of coffee given me by an American friend), I headed to the prayer room for children's prayer. This is a prayer time where the children come voluntarily to pray before school on Tuesdays and Fridays. Entering the room I was so impressed by how it was full of children eager to pray. There were probably 60 or 70 children there, and it was amazing to see one after the other choose to pray for their families and people who are sick, and other subjects on their little hearts. It was so great and an experience that I will carry with me for a long time. After prayer it was "Shoprite" time, which meant piling into a bus with other visitors and missionaries for the weekly shopping trip. I didn't quite know what to expect, but I had a few items to buy and hoped it would be a stress-free experience. As we drove along ...
Read more

It’s been one week.

A week ago we were sitting at work talking about how quickly the Corona situation was escalating. News of closed gyms and limited gatherings were there, and we were wondering what now. Only the day before we’d been open, and while taking the hygiene precautions and reminding each other to not hug or shake hands, there was a sense of support in each other, and normality was still there. Then suddenly it all changed. From being a crisis in China and Asia, then Italy, it had well and truly arrived in Norway. Friday morning we sat in our staff meeting. News of the closing of all schools and kindergartens for two weeks had come the evening before. We sat there with so many questions and few answers. The one thing we knew for sure was that this was a time to be available and present. A time to be proactive, and to make sure our people knew that we were there even if we weren’t open. That day we made many phone calls and sent messages and emails. Some were worried and needed reassurance,...
Read more

At a crossroads yet again.

This evening feelings of weariness flood my soul. Weary of not knowing. Weary of choosing to trust. Weary of waiting. Weary of walking yet not knowing what I am walking in or towards. Weary of figuring out life on my own. This past month the reality of crossroads in life has hit me yet again. I knew it was coming, but suddenly it was there and I just had to go with it. There’s not much more I can do...except waiting and trusting and choosing. Choosing to let God be the One who guides and fights and prepares the path before me. My crossroads is “do I stay or do I go”? From Kansas City and IHOP-KC. In October I’ll have been here two years, which feels like 5 years and at the same time 6 months. In December I go home for Christmas. It’ll have been a year since last time and I’ll be seeing my niece who’ll be 3 instead of 2 years old, and my little nephew who will be 1 year already, and I’ll get to meet little Julie who is only three weeks old as I write this. She’ll be 4 months when I meet...
Read more