Our 2 Brothers from Norway-Patrick and Ruben!

About a month or so ago at a staff meeting, Gloria Bostrom was presenting on the direction of our Global Impact ministry at Eagle Brook Church. In that conversation she discussed a group of 30+ coming from Norway where less than 10% of the country even goes to church (I was shocked at that one!). They were in need of host homes for these visitors. I would say that Heath and I truly enjoy hospitality and were on board right away to make our home available. It was right up until the day they arrived before we even knew the names of those staying with us: Patrick and Ruben. Between our own stereotypes of Norwegians combined with a few things told to us, we did not expect what was going to land on our doorstep. As you can see on looks alone that the tall, blond hair, blue eyed wearing a colorful sweater Norwegian that you might expect was not who we found on our doorstep! :) The first night they rolled in around 8. We ate dinner and quickly started getting to know each other. They were not tired, in fact were looking to get out and do something. So we went to St. Paul and Minneapolis by night on a "Jill" tour which ended at Psycho Suzies-which they LOVED! Their schedule was jam packed with tours and church sessions until their departure on Tuesday, but we managed to squeeze in some time staying up at night chatting, going to Chatterbox to sing some karaoke and to a Saints game.

I truly think this was a match from God as Patrick and Ruben had GREAT senses of humor. My brothers would have been proud of these Norwegian brothers for how much I was made fun of. We laughed a lot and just enjoyed getting to know about each other's lives. They were so good to Brevin and he totally dug the Norwegian vibe in the house. We were surely sad to see them go, but so glad they had the opportunity to come here and learn from our great leadership at EBC. In concluding discussions-both felt like they had a lot of nuggets to bring home to accomplish their mission-to reach more people for Christ right in their hometown.

Some funny moments:

• Driving with Patrick in the mini-van as he tried to full fill his STRONG desire to be a "soccer mom."


• Spending time on the web punching in how much things cost there vs here in dollars. (Gallon of gas was $12.00 and a Target priced pair of jeans were $100.00)
  
• Singing "We Are the World" as a group of 7 at Chatterbox


• Discussing different American and Norwegian stereotypes


• Laughing non-stop

Brevin is excited to go visit our Norwegian brothers at the "tall mountains." We hope that will happen in the near future or we will be on their leg of American travels again very soon.