Last weekend I went to the Heiberg's house with some of my friends from the Witness For Life group that arrived in April. Allie, Shannon and Ricky are all students from America who are here for the leadership course that we are having now. We headed out on Friday evening, and we had an awesome weekend hiking, and spending good quality "chum" time.
On Saturday night Ragnhild (a little homeschool friend from Fredheim) came over for her birthday and wanted to spend the night in the Heibergs Stabbur with me. A stabbur is a storage house that many Norwegians have on their property that is standing on poles so that mice and rats cannot get into it. Many Norwegians use the stabburs into guest houses, and the Heiberg's stabbur has some very old beds in them that are only about a metre in length.
I have always wanted to stay out in the stabbur, so when Ragnhild asked me to join her out there I jumped at the chance. We chatted for a while before going to sleep. I didn't see a lock on the door, but I didn't think that there would be any problem because the Heiberg's house was just across the lawn. I drifted off to sleep very comfortably situated in my bed hoping that nothing would go wrong.
For the past year at EBS I've been getting up whenever God wakes me up to read my Bible and pray and Saturday night was no exception. I woke up at 2 o'clock to see what new things were in God's word for that night. As I was peacefully reading I thought I heard footsteps. I brushed it away thinking that it was just the wind and it was all my imagination about the footsteps. I did however turn from Ezekiel to something a little more calming in the Bible. But for some reason I thought I could still hear footsteps. Then I heard scratching on the wall. My room at EBS has mice in the walls, so that was nothing new, but I thought it was odd because the whole point of stabburs is to keep mice out. I rolled over and tried desperately to quiet my imagination, but somehow it was getting a little more difficult for me to concentrate. Then I heard Mimi barking, and more footsteps, now I was sure that someone was in the stabbur. Visions of crazy rednecks in the backwoods of Norway drinking in "empty" stabburs rushed through my mind. I tried to see if Ranghild was awake but she was still sleeping peacefully. I was trying to figure out what to do. Since I was acting "big sister" to Ranghild I could frighten her about the situation, but now I was sure that people were in the stabbur. Then the door creaked open, and a form paused at the door. I am sure that if I was not trying to be brave for Ranghild's sake I would have either screamed or fainted... or both. Then three people came running in with sheets over their heads and yelling
and to my utter relief, I recognized... Robby, Shannon, and Ricky!
12 comments:
Ranghild slept through the whole thing! :-). God is good though, to quiet our fears, and make it easy to laugh about it later.
That was a blast :D!
You're a great story-teller Tee!
Tee, what's a stabbur?
Tee, I hope you don't mind me answering Lisa :):
Tee already wrote this:
"A stabbur is a storage house that many Norwegians have on their property that is standing on poles so that mice and rats cannot get into it."
In the old times in Norway it was generally a house where they stored the food (as they couldn't just go to the store any time as we can).
The reason for making it above the ground, were,
1) As Tee said, the mice/rats wouldn't have a chance to get in, and
2) It would be above the ground, and in that way it would hinder moist to come up from beneath.
You should come over and visit sometime Lisa! Then you could try staying in one as well -- and we might be able to scare you a little too :P
i wish I could have seen the look on your face:P hehe
lol - i thought robby was busy studying for exams...? but i guess he has time for extra curricular activities :-)
I don't study for my exams at 2am in the morning my dear brother :)
Robby, Shannon and Ricky should be sound asleep in their beds at 2 a.m. even on weekends.
Shame on them. Ha!
But I admire them for their good sense of humor - Norwegian style.
Farf
Robby, thanks for explaining! Sounds like fun though. When strike it rich somewhere, I'll make a trip to Norway. See you soon Tee.
It looks like there is still snow in the picture! Or is that an older shot?
that's an older picture, actually I think you took that one dad! Thanks!
We were hiking this last Sabbath though, and got to experience snowing - (on the 12th of May!)
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