When the writing is in Italics it is the comments or questions of the author who is the grandson of Svante and Sven´s brother
It is impossible not to think that God has a plan with every man, when you listen to grandpa´s story (Svante Norburg). The different parts fit really well into the big pattern. You can really grasp the whole piece. Not many people have the possibility to live such a long life and despite of high age remember evere little detail.
I visited him at Varnamo hospital, where he was due to heart problems (he is 88 or 89 years when this happened). He is happy and positive. Especially when some relative is visiting so he gets the opportunity to tell…
I was born in Odensjo parish. My father was Noak Andersson and his ancestors came from the Black Sea and that made my folk unlike the other people who came from Smaland. They had black hair, black eyes and sharp faces and they were a bit fierier than people in common. My mother was born in Smaland and she was a big and white Smalander. I looked like my mother and my oldest brother looked like my father.
After the confirmation, I started working in the forest like my father. I worked in different places and was sent around by my company. And so I came to Gnosjo together with other workers. It was difficult with lodging. The railway was recently built (by Gustav!) and the railers had frightened the people (!). But we got a place to stay. The neighbors told that we were staying with believers and advised us to be peaceful, so we were. Selma had recently come back home after having served as a maid for three years for a railway engineer (this must have been around 1900). She came into the room where we sat and I thought: "This was a nimble girl. I will try with her and see if she is interested." I had come to the home where I would live. We got married.
In Sweden, the most usual place to gather for services was the Lutheran Church. But there were some homes that invited preachers for meetings. And Nils Peter was one of the believers who invited people in this way.
- When I came to Norrebo I was not converted. My wife and mother-in-law (Johanna) prayed for me together with the other believers. This influenced me and I got very distressed but I could not believe. I prayed, cried, but nothing happened. A beautiful fall evening in 1905 I went out and knelt down and asked God for assurance about forgiveness of my sins. When I came home and went through the door I was very troubled. I went into the bedroom to lay down. But as I started to undress God began to speak: "You should not think that your prayers should be answered thanks to a lot of words because before you have prayed God knows what you want." I got so happy that I made a leap. Now it was impossible to go to bed. So I sent for the believers and gave them my testimony and then we had a prayer meeting.
In 1906 we started Norrebo Mission Assembly, and another decision was to start a Sunday school. I was chosen as one of the teachers. We teachers practiced on each other before we met the children. We had a clergyman in the Lutheran Church who was a believer (not all were believers) and he thanked us for having started the Sunday school.
Grandma and grandpa got married in 1904 and took over the farm. Both the main building and the cowshed needed repair. But where to get the money? Between 1869 and 1954, 266 persons from Gnosjo moved to America. From 1900 to 1920 71 persons emigrated. Grandpa was one of them.
In 1911 I left for America. There was no work and no money in Sweden. As I had the habit to move from one place to another before I came to Gnosjo I was not afraid to leave. My wife’s relatives (the Hallgrens) came from America. The thought I should go by myself first. And Selma agreed with me to stay home. If I would not get along I could come home again and if she did not get along alone home she could come over to me. Selma´s uncle was a wealthy man sent me the ticket and the necessary money. I worked and got along well. And Selma took care of the farm and also got along well. Thus I stayed for 5 years.I went back during the First World War. I saw in a magazine that a Norwegian boat was due the 12th of Dec. I booked a place on it. We could not go straight over the Atlantic Ocean due to the war so we went to Iceland and Faroe Islands toward Northern Norway and then along the Norwegian coast to Bergen . From there I went by train home. The evening before Christmas Eve at six o´clock I came to Norrebo. The Christmas tree was all done and the candles were burning. When I entered the door Selma said:" Are you coming now?" The two boys George 10 years and Bror 7 understood that something strange was going on because I had knocked on the door before I entered. People from the village never did so. We had written each other every other week. So when I left America I had left a letter to be mailed on the right day. So nobody expected me home. (Then there is a little about the assembly, which I don´t translate.)
Life has brought both happiness and sorrow. My wife and three of my sons I have had to bury. When my son Bror was 10 he got polio. We made his bed on the floor so that he could start crawling. When Bror got better so he could get up by the help of a chair and walk a little, Harold got very ill. I thought it might be the same illness. I cried to God. I cried fiercely that He should help. "Take him! Use him! Heal him!" He was healed and he was not old when he said that he was called to be a preacher. I knew what I had promised and I was happy.