One More Japanese!

I promised a Hungarian friend to write my next blog in English, so that's why I don't write in Japanese or Norwegian this time.

From March 19-24 I had one more Japanese visitor. Kaori is one of my students from my time in Matsue. She comes from Oda city, but now she is a student at Hiroshima University. Kaori used to cook dinner for Bible Club the two first years, and she also cooked for me when she was here. You can see more further down.

On Saturday we visited my home place before going to Sykkylven.

Kaori and my sister's cat soon became friends.

After having visited my mother we continued to Sykkylven Church, where we attended a gospel concert with a local band called Blue Horn Jazzband, the local singer Margrethe Velle Ødegård and a special guest from the USA, Marilyn Keller.
- If you don't know "The Old Rugged Cross", you are not a real gospel singer, someone once had said to Marilyn. - And if you don't know the way to the cross, you are not a real gospel singer, Marylin added, confessing that she believes that Jesus came to earth, that he died on the cross, rose again on the third day and is going to return to this earth one day.

It was a wonderful concert, and in my heart I had a vague hope that she also might take part in the service on Sunday morning. And my dream came true!

We stayed over in Anne Marie's house in Sykkylven. It's always good to meet people who love Japan and who can speak Japanese!

We woke up to a sunny morning with blue sky and a feeling of spring in the air.

Here are Kaori and Anne Marie before going to church on Sunday. Can you hear the church bells in the background?
Watch the video!

Beautiful Sykkylven from Inger Valbø on Vimeo.

In church we got a seat near the piano, and Marilyn Keller was there just a couple of meters away. Here she sings accompanied by Halstein Kurseth on guitar. Please listen to the prayer "Precious Lord, take my hand"!

Precious Lord from Inger Valbø on Vimeo.

Precious Lord (continues) from Inger Valbø on Vimeo.

After the service we had a chance to exchange a few words with Marilyn Keller, and organist Rose Iren showed Kaori how to play the pipe organ. This organ is quite different from the old reed organ Kaori plays in Oda Church when she is home from Hiroshima!


A beautiful weather for a walk in the afternoon.

On Monday Kaori and I went skiing. It was her second time to try skiing. The first time she was 10 years old. But she did quite well!

Norwegian outside, Japanese inside.

In the evening 10 high school students came to my house to eat and make sushi. They seemed to enjoy it. See the school's homepage below:

Sushi party
More pictures

On Wednesday it was time to leave Stranda.

Just before getting on the bus.
Kaori wonders why there is a hole both in the 1-krone coin and the 5-krone coin? In Japan only the 5-yen coin has a hole...

I heard that Kaori arrived safely in Bergen last night. Thank you for visiting, and have a nice journey from Bergen to Oslo, Göteborg and Spain!