Ruth Kristin

After having spent my christmas holiday with family and friends in Bergen and Stavanger it was time to travel home to the north yesterday. My journey started in Bergen with a fantastic view of the sunrise from within the airoplane. Some time later we landed in Trondheim, where I had to wait for about one hour before I took a new plane up to Bodo and finally Tromso. When I looked out onto the sky in Tromso I saw it was filled with beautiful and flaming red colours - giving us a great view. After some hours on the airport I travelled by bus to Hansnes, the sentre in the commune where I live. Not long before we arrived there I saw some of "the northern lights" when I sat in the bus, and I felt happy that I was back in the north and could see this special phenomenon again. When I finally was safe out of the bus with all my five collies, I was met by a beutiful view on the sky: I saw "the northern lights" right next to the moon on a dark blue sky, and it was really nice. I grabbed the opportunity to make a lasting memory out of it all, picked up my camera and took a photo of the fantastic scenery I was shown. Some minutes later I travelled with the ferry to the island called "Vannoya", a very nice and big island with majestic mountains, lots of reindeers and many other specialties. Vannoya (literally meaning "Water island") is where I have my home, but I had to get into a new bus after arriving on the island, and there I sat talking with a lady I had just gotten aqainted with until I after about half an hour had reached the house I live in. The bus driver was so kind that he took a little extra drive for my sake and stopped the bus right outside my home. I went out of the vehicle, and soon my friendly neighbours came out to help me. I was happy to see them again, went over to them and gave them hugs and wished them a happy new year - "Godt nyttaar!" in Norwegian. The evening went by with different activities, some neccessary and some not so neccessary.

Today I was "back in buisness" and had a full working day as a teacher. During one of the breaks between the lessons I was blessed to be the one having "the inspection" (watching over the kids) and being able to watch a magnificent scenery on the sky at the same time. We saw many beatiful red colour beems, lying on top of and sometimes mixing with the very nice and clear blue colours in the sky. That's how one could describe it, but it's of course too beautiful to manage to explain it fully in only words.

The weather yesterday and today was really wonderful, and it was good to be back in this beautiful part of Norway - where both the nights and the days are filled with majestic beauty given us from our wonderful and creative God. I love you, my Creator and my God! Thank you for creating me, Lord! And thank you for saving me through Jesus Christ!

Ruth Kristin on Vannoya, Tuesday 6/1-04.