On Kling Lefse... and a man called Odd

You don’t expect to experience culinary surprises in church; but at Christmas, in a church in Skien, Norway – while outside the snow fell lightly and horizontally – my tastebuds discovered the hard way that the ‘pitta bread’ I dipped into my chilli con carne was, in fact, a classic – and very sweet – Norwegian cake.

Skien (pronounced ‘share’n’) is in the Grenland district of Telemark, lying some 130kms southwest of Oslo. You’re never far from water – most of which was frozen and, in some cases, blanketed in snow. (This wasn’t the first year we walked across a lake we previously swam in).

In the heart of Skien, a group of Christians of many nationalities have met in a distinctly unchurchy building for the last two years. Grenland International Church is led by Jeremy Siebert, an American married to Lisbet, a Norwegian. They have been in ministry for 24 years and left the US in mid-2021 to plant the Skien church.