Volunteering

Did you know that Norway is a very wealthy country? They are one of the largest exporters of oil. If needed, they provide housing and money for food to anyone, regardless of age... so there are no homeless. There is universal health care, and free higher education. I hope I have those facts right, but you get the picture.

When I originally planned to visit here, I searched for volunteer opportunities and couldn't find anything. So I reached out to the avenue of my previous successes with the Missionaries of Charity. If you have visited the Mali Journey, you know that they are the order of Sisters which were founded by Mother Theresa to give care to the poorest of the poor. They have one location in all of Norway, in Bergen, and there are four Sisters. I was very interested to learn what the needy of Norway were in need of. Finding the Sisters

Did you guess what it was? Drug addiction. And it's even more interesting, because Norway has a somewhat different stance on handling it. There is a different type of respect here that honors a person's right to choose. If someone wants to be drug addicted, then so be it. (That does not extend to the drug dealers though... which are arrested) According to the Sisters, even prisoners are given respect... the prisons are similar to resorts, and people are treated as if they deserve the same courtesy as anyone else while incarcerated.

So, on one end of a very large Bergan park is a section that the drug addicts have sort-of taken over.  They are together, safe, and can look after one another. On the weekends the Sisters create a warm meal and take it there to serve them. We did that on Saturday. I couldn't believe some of the things we saw. People were openly injecting themselves on park benches. There was one man laying on the ground, while another man straddled him and was injecting his jugular vein.

We dished out food on paper plates, and gave a cup of juice. It was almost entirely men, with only a few women. We served about 25-30 people, but could have done more. I am always so in AWE of these women who fearlessly walk into the midst of all kinds of suffering and offer their love and care... without any judgement. And people know that kind of genuine caring. They ask... "Sister, you are not afraid of us like everyone else."  "Sister, my family will not talk to me, but you are here."

Then you realize that it doesn't have anything at all to do with the actual food. It's about that consistent support, that says I'll be here, I'll listen, I care about you, I see you, I pray for you. There is all manner of suffering in this world... but here, like in many other places, it is more about the suffering of a person's soul. And it doesn't have to be drug addiction, or even poverty. Maybe it's just that person who feels entirely alone in the world. They could be in our own communities, or even our own family.

Sister Annett I'm so glad we could come here and have that experience. There wasn't much else to do. The sisters spend the rest of their week visiting sick parishioners, teaching in the school, and occasionally visiting at a prison. I know one of you is going to ask, so here they are: Sister Kefas from Poland, Sister Annett from Kenya, and Sisters Emerald and Jose-Theresa from India.