24 September 2024|Sigve K. Tonstad, Mjøndalen, Norway [Adventist Review with tedNEWS]
On Saturday (Sabbath) evening, 3 August, a beautiful chapter was added to an exceptional life story in Norway’s Mjøndalen Seventh-day Adventist Church. Jan Paulsen, president of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists from 1999 to 2010, baptised three of his grandchildren in a simple but moving service. Local pastor Reidar Kvinge and his wife, Lynn, led the service and shared the joy.
As an early chapter of the story, Jan and Kari Paulsen went to Africa to serve in educational positions, two years in Ghana and four years in Nigeria. Their oldest son, Jan Rune, was born in Ghana. Jan and Kari were 27 years old when they left Norway and would not return permanently for another 50 years!
Rein, Paulsen’s youngest son has carried weighty responsibilities in international aid work for many years. He has lived and worked for World Vision International in countries as diverse as Norway, Singapore, the US, South Africa, and Rwanda. While in Rwanda, he met his wife, Aimée, from the Democratic Republic of Congo, the second largest country on the African continent.
After the marriage, Rein’s family lived in Switzerland, Panama, and the Democratic Republic of Congo while Rein worked for the United Nations (UN) Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. He has taken on ever-heavier responsibilities in international aid work, and the family now lives in Rome, where Rein works as a director for the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.
The remarkable global and international feel was displayed during the baptism in a way rarely seen in Norway. The influence of mother Aimée on the sons’ upbringing was felt and acknowledged, with Aimée sitting in the front row and Rein assisting. Jan Paulsen did not attempt to hide that this was a special occasion for him. Sitting on a chair at the podium’s edge, he addressed himself directly to the three grandsons with a simple retelling of the story of John the Baptist and the baptism of Jesus.
When the time came for the baptism itself, Jan was assisted into the pool by Jan Reidar (21), the first and oldest to be baptized. He was joined by Hans Olav (19) and Tor Sebastian (14), all three of whom have Norwegian names, although they are multicultural and multilingual. Jan Reidar is studying literature at the American University of Rome, and, this summer, had a teaching assignment in Japan. Hans Olav studies psychology at John Cabot University in Rome, and Tor Sebastian will start high school in Rome this autumn.
As friends and family gathered together later that evening in Jan’s apartment, they learned that mother Aimée prays individually with each of the boys in the morning and evening. Most touching to all in attendance was the children’s display of affection for each other and, on this occasion, especially for their grandfather, with whom they have stayed in close contact while growing up, even though they live in diverse and remote locations.
Baptisms are special occasions, this time with touching elements that there was not a dry eye in the audience. It could hardly be otherwise at the sight of the grandfather hugging his three grandchildren in the baptismal pool after a long life of service.
The original version of this adapted article originally appeared in the Adventist Review
Video interview with Dr. Jan Paulsen with kind permission of the General Conference.
[Photos: courtesy of Sigve K. Tonstad]
