Norway

There are plenty of reasons for the British to be envious of the Norwegians. The kind of landscapes that we travel to the corners of our island to see are found everywhere in Norway. When it comes to Oslo, the capital city, you have on the face of it an orderly, clean city typical of Scandinavia yet with the added attraction that it is based in a pretty fjord of its own. So the view from one side of the City square (think Trafalgar Square in London perhaps) is this:

That it is a fantastic land is not very surprising because Norway is also one of the richest countries in the world, courtesy of oil wealth and a sensible attitude to saving it. You should probably stop reading now if you are in the USA or especially the UK - Norway has a national debt of (wait for it) nil. That is, it doesn't have a national debt.

And it gets better (worse if you're looking from the UK): Norway also has - and expects to continue to have even this year - a budget surplus of 11%. Got that? It takes in 11 % more money than it needs as a nation and has no debt. Americans and Britons alike will never live to see the day when that is true of their nations. Indeed the Norwegian Sovereign Wealth Fund is one of the world's largest - possibly second largest - and yet the nation has less than 5 million people.

So what interested me most about my recent visit to Norway, apart from trying to keep my eyes from watering at the prices of everything, was that there is another story. Being on Sabbatical, I was not there to ferry across fjords, even if I could afford it. Rather, it was to taste the Christian ministries and their settings.

And out of those visits came these kind of pictures. One taken from the doorstep of an Oslo Church after the man who had been there for me had left for his next appointment.

Another taken from round the corner of a Baptist Church in as seedy a city street as you would find anywhere.

They won't make it on to the 'Visit Norway' website. But, if you imagine the scenes and add in some menacing groups of people hanging around (whose pictures I felt would best not be taken!) you will be reassured that humanity can make a mess of things in the face of even the greatest natural and national advantages.

And these were the places that Christ's people were ministering. Even if the sordid streets were a shock, that God's people were there serving was not a surprise!