The Miracle of the Norwegian Bus

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The Miracle of the Norwegian Bus

It was about noon, a beautiful spring day in a valley outside Nesbyen, Norway. There was snow in the mountains, but here, just outside the Nesbyen train station, it was sunshine and dry. Why was I walking down a country road, having no idea where I was going or what I was going to do, and why were there 22 young people waiting back at the train station, waiting for the results of whatever I was going to do?

It was the Spring of the year 1981. I had been living in Oslo, Norway for almost 2 years, overseeing the home-based Bible fellowships associated with a certain international Christian organization. Two years before, when I’d first arrived, there had been 3 or 4 people involved. Now, at this time, there were 3 home groups in the Oslo area, one about an hour away in Porsgrunn/Skien, 1 in Gothenburg, Sweden, and one starting up in Ribe, Denmark (a college town). Each had 6-12 young adults involved.

I’d helped plan and organize an Easter getaway in the mountains, about halfway between Oslo, in the south of Norway, and Bergen, on the west coast. It was right in the middle of the southern portion of the country. I’d managed to locate a cabin that could could handle 24-30 people, and we had 25 of us planning to go. Mostly Norwegians, but a Swedish girl, and a couple of Danish girls too.

One thing you should understand about Oslo, Norway is that it becomes like a ghost town during Easter week (the week after the holiday, as I recall). I mean, literally 1/3 of the city of (at that time) 500,000 people leave the city and go to the mountains, or the beaches of southern Europe.

I felt good about the upcoming trip, having located the cabin, and looking forward to spending a whole week together with the exciting group of young believers I really enjoyed. We were going to study all about the Holy Spirit that week. We’d ski during the day, sun ourselves in the welcome Spring sunshine, have great meals together and get into the Word of God with no distractions…..for a whole week! The cabin was remotely located, and the mountains of Norway are just so beautiful!

About 2 weeks before we were to leave, the realization came upon me that we had no way of getting from the train station to the cabin, which happened to be about an hour’s drive away. I got a hold of a taxi service by phone, and found that there were, in all, 4 taxis for the whole area of Nesbyen, which was the small town/train stop nearest the cabin we’d rented. 4 taxis, and they’d been booked for that day, the first of Easter week, since the year before!

I was able to speak with one taxi driver, who said that he could take our group, 4 at a time, up to the cabin, beginning at 8pm that evening (our train arrived at noon). That would be 6 trips up, 6 trips back, a total of 12 hours of travel.   And….because he’d have to sleep after the first couple of trips, it would mean that all of us would not get up to the cabin until a full 24 hours after we first arrived at the train station.   And, that also meant, we’d have to start returning to the train station a full 24 hours before the train departed a week later.

Well, I really thought that God had to have something better, so I told the taxi driver “No, thanks.” In doing so, I eliminated any chance of having the taxi being our way up to the cabin. Because I didn’t book the taxi at that time, if we got to Nesbyen, and God couldn’t provide a better way, then the taxi would not be available until the next day!

There had to be a better way to get everyone to that cabin….I just didn’t know how. So I left it in the hands of God, and we all took the train to Nesbyen without the benefit of having any way to get up the cabin in the mountains once we got there.

I have some pictures from that trip. One is at the East Train Station in Oslo……23 people, including me (2 more were to come midweek). Lots of luggage, for the whole week, including food, bibles, clothing and skis. And I have a picture of everyone sitting on the concrete train platform, on the side away from the tracks, many with legs dangling off the raised platform, leaning against piles of luggage.

Nesbyen Train Platform

When we arrived at the train station, it was in the country. Wherever the actual village of Nesbyen was, I didn’t know. After we’d piled everything over on the one side of the platform, I remember how beautiful a day it was. It was in a valley in the mountains, the sun was shining, it was fairly warm. it was noon, and I had not a single idea of how we were supposed to get up to the cabin, an hour’s drive away.

I had not really communicated this to everyone, that I didn’t know how we were going to get to the cabin. I suppose they thought it was all arranged. And I didn’t talk much about how I didn’t know how we were going to get there.

So after everyone and everything was situated on the platform, people started to ask me, “How are we getting to the cabin?” And I told the group….”You sit here, and pray, and wait and see what God will do for us.” I think they only then began to realize that I had no idea how we were going to get to the cabin.

I set off walking, through the parking lot, down the short drive and to the small country road. Should I turn left or right? I had no idea. Which way was town? I had no idea. I turned right (it turned out to be the way away from town). I could see the country road stretch maybe a mile in front of me. On the left were telephone wires, and a range of hills running parallel with the road, only a couple of hundred yards from the road. On the right, a field of perhaps a quarter mile in width, running parallel with the road, with the tracks about 100 feet in, a fence on either side. On the far side of that field, the mountains began, steeper than the hills on the left and heavily wooded.

There was no traffic on the road. So I just walked and prayed. After I’d walked maybe a quarter mile, I saw a dump truck approach. I flagged it down. I talked to the driver, wondering if perhaps he could take 23 of us with all our gear, standing in the back of his dump truck up into the mountains. He laughed. “No,” he said, “I can’t do that.” Well, I asked him if he had any ideas. He apologized, said he didn’t, and he drove away.

I continued walking, seeing no more traffic on the road. Maybe a couple hundred yards more. To the right, on the other side of the field and at the foot of the mountain, were 3 or 4 houses, with what looked like a gravel road leading to them on their far side. I saw someone moving, and so I decided to head over there. I crossed both fences and railroad tracks and traversed the quarter mile of field, making a beeline to the single living soul I saw.

The man saw me approaching, and stood there waiting. I can’t imagine what he was thinking. He was about 50 years of age. Here’s this individual, trotting toward him from across a field….no car in sight. But he just stood there, waiting for me to arrive. When I reached him, I told him my predicament.

“Jeg er her sammen med 22 andre mennesker, og vi har leid et hytte opp i fjellene, kanskje en time borte. Men vi har ikke noe maate a greie hyttet paa.   Kan du hjelpe?”

He looked at me for maybe 5 second after I was finished, and then told me to follow him. He went into his modest house and got on the phone. I remember it was a wall phone with a long coiled wire between the phone set and the hand set, allowing him to walk into the other room as he spoke. He made one phone call, and I couldn’t hear what he said. Then he made another phone call. After 3 minutes of talking, he hung up and turned to me.

“I don’t know how you found me,” he said, “but I’m in charge of transportation for this whole province. (larger than the size of Connecticut).  I want to do a favor for a certain bus driver, and so I’ve arranged for him to pick up some money on the side and drive you and your group up to the cabin. You pay him directly, and there’ll be no charge for the use of the bus. Furthermore, you arrange with him when you and your group want to come back down, and he’ll bring you all back too.”

He continued, “A regular bus won’t make it up that switchback road to the cabin you’re talking about. In fact, a week ago, no vehicle would have made it up that road. But we do have half buses which can make it….and they carry 24 people. Now you just go on back to the train station, and the bus should be there about the time you get there.”

So I walked back to the train station. I’d been gone a half hour. When I got there, everyone looked expectantly at me, wondering how we were going to get to the cabin. I had this big grin on my face and I said, “Just wait and see what God has done.”

THE BUS

The miracle bus

Five minutes later, up pulled a half-sized bus that had enough room for 24 people with gear.   Now though there were 23 of us going up, there were going to be 24 coming back down.  Another couple was coming up mid-week in a taxi, and I had to leave the day they came, for meetings in Germany.   So, 23 up, 24 down.  We paid the equivalent of $240.00 for both trips, half of what the taxi would have cost.  And the trips were a lot more fun!  We sang, we talked, we laughed……we were like little kids on an exciting adventure!

It was the start of a fantastic week of spiritual fellowship. The weather was great, there was a big living room with huge fireplace. We ate well, we sang, we skied, we studied God’s Word, we prayed and we enjoyed the warm and loving provision of our heavenly Father. WOW, the miracle of the Norwegian bus!  How did I find that guy!!!????!!!!

Morning sunshine at the cabin

This is why Norwegians love the mountains in the Spring. Lots of sunshine, beautiful scenery. Nothing to do but “slapp av.” (Laze around and do nothing).

Kirsten & Steve

This is me and Kirsten.

View from the cabin

View from the cabin at sunset

See other true stories:
The Resurrection of Jesse James
MMFN – The Man No One Knew
A Few Miracles
Some More Miracles
And these miracles.
The Miracle of Corkscrew Mountain

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