30 Years of Seeing God at Work

Astrid and Karen at the Home of Tink and Gus Linder where the Jorgensen's have stayed since 1985


When Jens-Petter and I first met in Kenya he asked what I did. That is never an easy question to answer. When asked that question by old friends my mother would simply say, "Gary is a teacher" or "Gary is a preacher".

                            Jens-Petter and the Bishop of the African Inland Church in Nairobi 1983

I am that and more. I told Jens-Petter of my Counseling and Education background along with a focus on releasing the gifts of the Spirit in all of God's children. He replied, "In Norway you would need to belong to four different churches.  One for Evangelicals, one for Charismatics, one for Counselors and one for Educators."

The next day he said at breakfast, "God spoke to me about you". I thought, "Oh, no! They have found out I am a lousy Christian. Then he said, "You are God's man for Norway. You must come to Norway and teach us how to integrate all these biblical ideas."

A couple of years later he and Astrid came to Cincinnati and we discussed how to integrate God's Word, His Love, His Gifts and His Power in one church not four churches with one for each aspect of God's works.

 Two years later a small group of us flew to Oslo and spent some ten days sharing and celebrating the goodness of God. That trip proved the word that Jens-Petter received outside Nairobi, Kenya. From the beginning an unusual anointing of the Holy Spirit was upon our little team.

As Ron Peake says, in some places and some times God decides to us with insights, wisdom, power or love in a unique manner. It is not us or our preparation or our brilliance but God's timing. My times in Norway proved to be God's place for me at that time. As He said in I CO 1:1 Common English Bible (CEB)

Human wisdom versus the cross
¹⁸ The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are being destroyed. But it is the power of God for those of us who are being saved. ¹⁹ It is written in scripture: I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and I will reject the intelligence of the intelligent. ²⁰ Where are the wise? Where are the legal experts? Where are today’s debaters? Hasn’t God made the wisdom of the world foolish?  
 
 ²⁴ But to those who are called—both Jews and Greeks—Christ is God’s power and God’s wisdom. ²⁵ This is because the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.

²⁶ Look at your situation when you were called, brothers and sisters! By ordinary human standards not many were wise, not many were powerful, not many were from the upper class. ²⁷ But God chose what the world considers foolish to shame the wise. God chose what the world considers weak to shame the strong. ²⁸ And God chose what the world considers low-class and low-life—what is considered to be nothing—to reduce what is considered to be something to nothing.  

³¹ This is consistent with what was written: The one who brags should brag in the Lord!