Print
ADRA Norway Meets with 2011 Nobel Peace Prize Winners
The following is an excerpt from Adventist Development and Relief Agency—Norway board member, Geir Olav Lisle:
Last Friday myself, along with the widow and daughter of Kåre Lund (slain ADRA worker) and country director of ADRA Liberia, had the pleasure of meeting the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize winners from Liberia, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Leymah Gbowee. Our request to meet the Nobel Peace Prize winners was not only to congratulate them but to offer them an opportunity to meet Christel Lund, Kåre’s widow, and insure ADRA’s support and continued commitment to Liberia despite the events of 2003.
As a board leader, I was prepared to present the ADRA work in Liberia and hear Nobel Peace Prize winners present their achievements, political victories and visions for Liberia's future. But I was emphatically put in place by these women. The meeting turned out to be rather a close and personal encounter between women that in different ways had struggled for peace in Liberia. It turned out that both President Johnson Sirleaf and Leymah Gbowee were well acquainted with the events that had shaken ADRA and the families of our men back in 2003.
In the meeting President Johnson Sirleaf explained that the killing of ADRA staff and other similar events was carried out by coked up-soldiers with neither money nor discipline. She told of a very difficult year for Liberia, affecting also all people who visited and worked within the country. Liberians killed their own people, raped their women and children, and attacked those who tried to help.
But it was Leymah Gbowee who gave us new perspectives on the loss of our employees. Her amazing story was that she and her staff had met the three ADRA workers in the field the same day they were killed. They had met at the same checkpoint and had been addressed by the same soldiers. That evening, when she arrived in Monrovia, she heard the news reports that the ADRA workers were missing.
Gbowee then expressed that the horrible killing of ADRA workers was a direct inspiration that culminated her work as a social worker and caused her to sincerely devoted all her strength to work for peace and women's rights. The killing of aid workers from ADRA gave peace efforts a new momentum and this inspired peace movement was recognized through the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo City Hall this weekend.
Photo: Tor Tjeransen. Also, thanks to Gry Haugen.
User login
Recent
- victor Kinship International Responds to British Union Conference Statement on Same-Sex Marriage
- WC Kinship International Responds to British Union Conference Statement on Same-Sex Marriage
- victor Kinship International Responds to British Union Conference Statement on Same-Sex Marriage
- Rescued LSU Responds to Biology Professor Lee Greer
- Defender of THE Faith Kinship International Responds to British Union Conference Statement on Same-Sex Marriage
- Roger S The Dark Fantasy World of Walter Veith
- Maggie Ethics, Evolution, and Ben Carson
- George Tichy Pacific Union Conference Calls Special Constituency Meeting to Authorize Equality in Ordination
- Maggie Ethics, Evolution, and Ben Carson
- dl LSU Responds to Biology Professor Lee Greer
Newsletter
Organizations
Sat, 09/08/2012
|
San Diego Adventist Forum
Sigve Tonstad, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Religion, Loma Linda
University
Current Issue
Not yet a subscriber? Subscribe today!
What an inspiring story! Thanks to Geir Osle Lisle for sharing these details.
I met Kåre and his wife Christel at Newbold College in 1972. Of all my colleagues in the SDA church, he was the most cheerful. He was one of a rare breed who had no interest in theological jingoism or the acquisition of power. He wanted to be of use to others, and he paid the ultimate price in doing so. It was unreal hearing about his violent death in Liberia nearly 10 years ago. When I feel tempted to judge the SDA church by its worst manifestations, I think about Kåre and people like him. Groups of people should be judged as much by its best representatives as by its worst, whether that group is the RCC or the SDA church. His death was a real loss, not only to the church, but to all of us who knew him.
Aage
Having watched Jon Stewart interview LeymaGbowee and her book "Mighty Be Our Powers" I immediately order her book. Her story was the most inspiring I have heard in many years. Her attitude in the face of horror was something few have ever demonstrated.
One most sobering revelation: Her son was murdered in the conflict some years before. Years later, her daughter who lived away was married and had children. She sent Leyma a picture of her family, Her husband and father of her children was the same man who had killed Leyma's son! If forgiveness was ever necessary, this is one of the most wonderful examples.
Elaine
I fully agree with Aage and his characterization of Kåre. He was like "what you se, is what you get", a brave and engaged man of integrity. He is missed by many, including myself.
Ole
I am absolutely irritated by the down arrows at the above comments. In fact, I am not sure what the down voters want to communicate. Perhaps they should explain. Thanks
Andreas
Indeed. You expect that kind of perversity coming from the Westborough (so-called) Baptist Church, but not from Spectrum bloggers (and somehow I find that hard to believe).
Aage
I find the whole voting on comments to be irritating, even though I'm guilty of it (guess I figure if we're going to have it we might as well have a little balance), if you don't put the time and effort in to write a reasoned response to a comment nobody should care what you think of it. The internet is anonymous enough and lacking of serious dialogue without secret voting on comments that amounts to no more booing and cheering. That said the down votes for the particular comment in question is particularly disturbing.
In this instance (and many others) it appears the voting has more to do with who posted than what was posted...
---
1 Corinthians 13:13
Pyalie
I think you're right. Fundamentalism is all about friends and foes, angels and demons.
Aage
"...it appears the voting has more to do with who posted than what was posted..." --Pyalie
Or just against Spectrum itself.
____________________________________________________
"be reverent in behavior, not slanderers nor enslaved to much wine, teachers of that which is good" titus 2:3
If you take a look at what gets down votes and what gets up votes it has everything to do with ideology. Conservative comments consistently get negative totals and liberal comments get positive totals. So it's not exactly like's there's some conspiracy of fundies voting against liberals they don't like... well there might be, but they're outnumbered by liberals voting against fundies they don't like.
John Mark
You may be right, but in this particular case somebody treated the tragic death of a very decent man as political punching bag, and most of us find that to be in extremely bad taste.
Aage
Aage Rendalen,
I am totally in agreement with everybody on that. That hit the bottom of the barrel.
To Alexander Carpenter,
Thank you very much for this significant contribution. I would like the privilege of using it in our South African Signs of the Times. I need to get a little more background on the events of 2003. Could you get in touch with me. My e-mail is ecw@new.co.za..
Thank you most sincerely. Eric
Kristen F. Jakobsen just sent this message about ADRA Norway:
I knew Kåre very well, he was a friend of mine. When I was a PDS he and his wife were with me visiting homes with literature. Later he visited our small church here in Bø i Vesterålen, promoting ADRA. The developement in the SDA church and the increased general and biblical knowledge, especially on my part, has given me the idea that the actual, at least the main raison d'etre for our church is the work ADRA perfoms, and similar activities. A couple of years ago a prominent economy magazine printed a long list of Norwegian operated charity organizations, with an evaluation of the effective percentage of collected money, and only two organizations turned out with 92 percent which were effectively used for the intended purpose. That was the Pentecostal "Evangeliesenteret" which operates domestically, and ADRA, which operates overseas. The other 19 organizations had figures from 32 to 87 percent, most of them were about 70 percent. This was a great encouragement for us in the ingathering campaign.
When Kåre and his associates died, we all asked Why? They were heroes who gave their lives for helping others in need, and they knew very well the great risk they were running. As far as I know, the robbers did not obtain anything because the money they wanted was already paid to the people in the camp they were oprating. There were no banks in the country, so they had to transport money themselves. But now we see that they did not die in vain.
Illegitimi non carborundum.
____________________________________________________
"be reverent in behavior, not slanderers nor enslaved to much wine, teachers of that which is good" titus 2:3
Is there any way that I can obtain a high-res jpeg image of the photo in this article? The picture was taken by Tor Tjeransen. I would like to use it for an article in the Signs of the Times. Thank you. Eric
Add your comment