author: Kevin Whittingham

Our last day in Norway consisted of a morning meeting at the Oslo Temple corps & the last chance for sightseeing before our evening departure back to the United Kingdom. With it being Father's Day back at home, a number of the dads in our Band had received cards & presents to open. This must have been tough for some, having been away from families & loved ones for over a week particularly on a day like today. The time & sacrifices made by those closest to us while serving with our Band is never taken for granted.

The morning worship saw the hall full to bursting with many soldiers, visitors, and importantly for the future of the Army, a large number of young people. It is obvious that the Army is vibrant, alive & well in Oslo. Excellent unprompted testimonies from Brian, Tony Christopher (understood by Norwegians without the aid of the translator?!), Niall & Howard inspired our Norwegian hosts & band alike.

We had been very excited looking forward to hearing the world famous Oslo Gospel Choir as noted in our tour itinerary! It turned out that we would actually be listening to the Oslo Temple Gospel Choir, but they did not disappoint in their two songs. The recently formed group had feet tapping and hands clapping during their excellent contributions, dispelling any potential disappointments at the error in our programme!

The Band contributions included Agape, Prayer of Thanksgiving & My All is on the Altar which followed the message from Gilbert Ellis. During this particular address, the Band had the benefit of a translator to ensure we didn’t fall asleep due to our lack of norwegian vocabulary! He did a fantastic job converting Gilbert’s norwegian to help us get a grasp of the sermon. However, at one point due to Gilbert’s slight english accent to his norwegian, our translator just turned to us, shrugged and said, “I have no idea what he just said!” This led to much hilarity within the Band of course!

After words of thanks, and the congregational singing of Lord I Make a Full Surrender, the final benediction was an emotional reading of I’ll Walk With God, with the large broad final chord ending our playing in Scandinavia in style. The van was packed and a final dinner provided by our hosts, before David Wilkinson & Wayne Nock departed in the van for their lengthy European road trip via Eurotunnel home to England. (As I type this blog on Monday evening they are stuck in Germany due to accidents blocking their route. Safe trip home lads, and hopefully you will arrive with our instruments before thursday; otherwise our practice for Christchurch Priory might involve a lot of singing and whistling!)

With a late evening flight booked back to London, we had the afternoon free and were treated with a visit to the Holmenkollen ski jump which towers over one of the hills overlooking Oslo. Coffee and cakes were provided at an attractive old ski chalet café further up the mountain offering stunning views over the city & harbour as the clouds & mist cleared into a beautiful sunny afternoon. As our coach took us back down the mountain, we stopped at a fantastic viewing point overlooking lakes and wooded mountains to take final band pictures. The front and back row cornets & horns all took the chance for sectional photos for posterity! However, poor old Trevor Smith looked lonely & was unable to have a trombone sectional picture due to his two colleagues being on the road already!

As we departed Oslo towards the airport to catch BA769 flight to London Heathrow, we also said goodbye to people who have assisted in making this tour so memorable. We have been looked after fantastically by each corps and country we have visited. Particular thanks though were given to Major Jan Harald Hagen (Norwegian Territorial Music Secretary), who accompanied us and assisted with translating Howard’s music introductions. A particular highlight being the confusion of Men of Harlech as Men of Garlic! Our coach driver Bo (previously an S.A. Bandmaster) also received the grateful thanks of our Band, having driven for many hours and miles to ensure we kept to our at times punishing schedule. He gave compliments to our Band for our fine playing, but also stated that he had never travelled with a group that had such a good spirit off the concert platform.

The flight home was pleasant, watching the sun set over the North Sea as we approached Heathrow, flying directly over the new Olympic Stadium, London Eye, Big Ben & Buckingham Palace which ended the tour fantastically.

We hope that Boscombe Band have made our Corps family & the Salvation Army proud with what we have strived to achieve during our time abroad. Our Corps mission statement which was included on the front cover of our tour brochure is To Know Christ-To Live Christ-To Share Christ. I hope that throughout our visit to Scandinavia we have managed to stay true to this sentiment. I believe we have aimed to bring this mission statement the full circle, as Salvation Army bandsmen knowing Christ and people seeing this in our lives while sharing  in the concert hall or streets we can bring more people to know him.