Adapting to the Climate

 The weather in Bergen had made a decisive turn toward spring. Sun dresses came out from dusty closets and tulips shone bright hues basking in the sun. We started to get little sun burns.  So, of course, it was time for us to head north. 

First by train and then by boat, we crawled slowly towards the Arctic Circle. The views were stunning, to say the least, even if at this point in the Sabbatical we are all getting worn out and more than a little ready to be home.

 After more than 24 hours on a train we arrived at the end of the rail line that the Germans had extended in the 1940’s to bring iron ore from the far north to feed the hungry beast of war. Fortunately, as United Methodists we have friends everywhere we go! With a five hour wait in the Arctic town of Bodø before we departed on our boat the local United Methodist Church was kind enough to open its doors to us and give us a place to rest and recover while we waited.

 The Bodø UMC building is not an unusual type of building for Norway. Many other churches exit in simple storefront settings. Indeed, it is a small church with about 20 members and only about 12 older worshippers any given Sunday. Nonetheless, the lady who opened the building up for us also had her walking group in the fellowship area for snacks after their walk that day and they had nearly 20. It was difficult to miss the beautiful missional expression this represented and even more difficult not to appreciate the hardy faithfulness of this little group of folks insisting on pressing on for Jesus and the world, even if they only see their pastor once monthly for communion.

 Maybe their hardy faithfulness is the result of a long memory of what hard times really look like. In 1941 the Nazi war machine destroyed much of Bodø including its Methodist Church (pictured here which had been built in 1891).  It would take nearly a decade for the new building to be built. It was a freezing, starving time for many people who already knew hardship as a way of life, making their living from the sea. Not only was the town destroyed during the war years, but other hardships occurred as well. To avoid service with the German army many fathers and sons took their boats to Scotland. This left wives, children, and the elderly largely on their own to fend for themselves. While there were fishermen who’s stayed and risked the danger of fishing in mined waterways, they also had to dodge German patrols which discouraged boats from going too far out to sea, fearing they would act as spies on Nazi naval actions for the British and Americans.

At any rate, while I suspect it is discouraging for the little cadre of worshippers to have such a slim attendance, I imagine they also have some perspective. They’ve seen bad times and they know that it is possible to adapt- and if adaptation fails- to be faithful to the end.

The lady who opened the building for us was more than kind and hospitable, she was an admirable demonstration of faithfulness and the small adaptations the Kingdom of God requires especially in this era. We were  glad to know her and just the same quite glad when the boat came for a 36 hour haul to 300+ miles north of the Arctic Circle to Hammerfest. 

Hammerfest is the northernmost  “town” in the world. There are smaller towns farther north in places, but these places mainly are better categorized as villages. It was incredible on our journey to see the trees disappear. Trees don’t grow this far north very well! The town lays dropped seemingly into a snowy cleft in the rock at the edge of a frigid foreboding sea. In days gone by Hammerfest was the typical departure point for Polar Bear hunting on Svalbard and the Arctic Ice sheet. For this reason, of course, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to become a member of “the Royal and Ancient Polar Bear Society” or Isbjornklubben. While membership is open to anyone, you do have to physically be present in Hammerfest to join! It’s crossed my mind often that as a pastor in a mainline American denomination that a polar bear may be my spirit animal. Change is occurring rapidly around the Bear and myself. Survival in one form or another is hopefully likely, but thriving is another matter altogether in a warming world and a secular age. 

 It was not the ice bear, however, that drew us to Hammerfest. The northernmost UMC in the world is also there! This too is a congregation whose building was destroyed during the Second World War. In this part of Norway the Nazi’s were in retreat from the Russian border 150 miles to the east (yes, this same border means this region is a geopolitical hot spot currently and we’ve seen plenty more NATO naval vessels to prove it). Not wanting to leave anything the Russians might find useful the Germans simply torched and destroyed absolutely everything as they retreated. Thousands of Norwegians and Sami (the indigenous people of Northern Scandinavia) were left starving and homeless by the March 1945. By the early 1950’s reconstruction of Hammerfest and its environs was well underway and that included the construction of a new Methodist church building.

Of course, the long term survival of the congregation was no guarantee. By the 1990’s and early 2000’s the congregation had dwindled to just three little old ladies who kept the lights burning. They considered closing the church but one of them had a dream in which the building was full of people again. The dream and persistent prayer led to continued effort. Today, the dream has been fulfilled. 

Rev. Per Bradley came to Hammerfest almost 10 years ago. While he has led the church has experienced a renewal and, though still a small congregation, is an exciting and viable witness in Hammerfest. A part of the recipe for the church’s renewal is Per. Certainly a part of it was also the population growth facilitated by the oil and natural gas exploration which has boomed in the area in the last 2 decades. 

 Per and his wife Hanne were gracious enough to have us to their home while we were in town. While their 5 children and our 4 kids had a bit of a language barrier they all enjoyed playing chess and legos together and found ways to ease their communication with the help of an iPad and Google translate (which they all figured out with no help from the grown-ups 😂). With 9 children and two adults it was not only a full house, but we also had full stomaches. Hanne and Per served us the flavors of the north, a delicious reindeer stew for supper. Cloudberries and whipped cream for dessert topped it off! It was delicious! This is a good place to note that Hammerfest is overrun with reindeer that eat everyone’s garden and even the flowers at the church. They are tasty at any rate, even if they can become a pest of sorts for those who deal with them full time.

 The story of the Methodists of Hammerfest is far from over. Currently they are preparing to launch a coffee shop in a part of their building which was previously a storefront which extends from a walkout of the church’s basement. The space right now is pretty rough, but eventually the plan is to include a coffee bar, offices for counseling and a conference room for community groups to use (and the local church ). Thanks 

The vision for this ministry happened the way most adaptations do, slowly and at first by accident! One of the members of the church decided to go down and start to clean when the man who had operated a shop in the space retired. She had only been a Christian for a couple of years and her ambitions were small. She set out washing windows and sweeping sure of nothing but that God had asked her to. As she cleaned people walking by began to drop in! These folks, not by any stretch part of the church or even religious started suggesting uses for the space as the days and weeks passed. This, the current vision was born with a special focus for ministry likely being focused on women with addictions and youth ages 14-18. In Hammerfest the high school dropout rate is nearly 30% and youth struggle especially with meaning, hope, and economic opportunity. It will be exciting to see how God uses these adaptations in the years to come. It is even more exciting to know that even if the church is small that the Holy Spirit can lead adaptations in nearly limitless ways if God’s people will only just continue in their faithfulness.

That’s enough to give this polar bear some hope🐻‍❄️!