Return to Borås in 1978
In the chapter 39 I already partly told of this. At first I moved to live at my mother' apartment, but then, with the help of my brother Klaus, I searched for a rental home on Brynolfsgatan. It was a detached house with a large apple garden. Klaus owned a car painting firm, Dannike, about 12 miles from Borås. The company name was Lackans Billackering. He had two subordinates there, one of whom was finishing up and moving to Finland. Klaus asked me to work there and I agreed.
I started work there on October 16, 1978. The car painting company was located in an old henhouse. There were no social facilities and so we had to visit the nearby woods for our needs. It was really primitive way to take action! Once I got severe diarrhea and had to run into a spruce forest for my needs in the snow about 50 cm thick and just in time to pull the trousers down!
My job there was to roughly polish the surfaces of the rusted cars so that another worker could put plastic padding (the gluey putty) on those spots and sand them with a sanding wheel, ready for painting. Klaus did car paintings downstairs. My work was very dirty and unhealthy.
Disposable respirators did prevent only little to fine dust and rust from entering the lungs and hair. There was no shower or toilet at the workplace. When I went in the barber shop, I said I came straight from a car painting firm and polished cars there. The barber said, "I see the car was green!" She was right, the base of my hair and my hat were colored green.
I missed believers contact. I was led to Borås's Finnish Maranatha congregation. I joined it because it was closer to my apartment than Borås's Finnish Pentecostal Church, and I did not liked the fact that my respected Juvonen, who was a shepherd there, was dismissed from his work, because he had rightly criticized the parish elders for the hysteria created by Niilo Ylivainio.
He said that the Bible teaches us to stay strong and upright in our faith and not seek the experience of a lose balance and crash like a drunker. He was right, because far too many were just looking for that experience. Through the prayers of faith, many were healed by Niilo prayer. I knew two of them: One woman in Bible circuit at Orion and myself, because I also was healed once at his meeting in Helsinki.
Depressing evening at Maranatha meeting
That Finnish Maranatha congregation had about 10 members. I was the youngest of them, then 29 years old. Because too old songs were sung there, I didn't want to lead anyone from the youth there because I was sure they wouldn't want to be there until the end of the meeting.
I was reprimanded for not bringing anyone with me to meetings and it depressed me so much that after that weekend I was even more tired than before the weekend started! However, the church should be the place to be refreshed!
I got help from heaven again
It was late January, but the snow had melted away. I was the only passenger in the bus, in the back seat, on my way to Dannike to work. I was very depressed because of the weekend meeting, the rainy weather, the water came in full swing, and also because I remembered the kind of work that awaited me on Monday morning: a Volvo station wagon, with its base rusted through many places.
It was dark and rainy weather and the double doors on the second floor to that old hen house, where part of the auto repair company was located too, were often opened during the day. I worked there too. As I lay on my back under the car on a cold concrete floor, the cold breeze swept so I shivered properly! I was still halfway to work that morning, and as the only passenger in the back seat of the bus I began to speak to Adonai in my heart.
I said in my heart: "O my dear Savior, I am very disappointed in to my life in this my little brother's firm. It is not only humiliating but also unhealthy. I don't want to live that kind of life. My heart is crying." Tears ran down my cheeks.
Suddenly my ears were opened and I heard a large celestial orchestra start playing a song I was familiar with, joined by a large choir. Its words were: "Only the way of the cross (on Calvory) leads to happiness and peace. Yeshua has shown it to us. Only the way of the cross brings to heaven and to joy, to the company of the saints, and rest." The song brought heavenly love and peace into my heart!
Then my bitter crying stopped and I started to cry for joy. I realized that once again, heaven was watching me and my anxiety. My Savior saw fit to organize such a great orchestra and singing choir for me. That song was playing in my heart and I started singing it as I walked after the bus had stopped and left me. I walked for 500m along a dirt road full of small puddles. I jumped over the water puddles and screamed loudly HalleluYah!
Humming that song even warmed me physically in an otherwise freezing cold work environment where the radiators didn't provide any heat. Humming that song even warmed me physically in an otherwise freezing cold work environment where the radiators didn't provide any heat.
They were of no use because the double doors upstairs were opened frequently during the day and then the wind could blow straight in and onto the floor where I was working lying on my back. Thomas and Klaus worked downstairs where there was no such problem. Thomas and Klaus worked downstairs where there was no such problem.!
Direct speech contact to Heaven!
Even though that working day was the darkest day in terms of weather and work, it was still one of my most wonderful working days of my life. It was because the song I heard on the bus from heaven, just for me, it was sung to me repeatedly and was kept playing throughout the day and I was singing it all night long! As a result, I received a very valuable teaching:
Even if external circumstances do not change, our attitude towards them can change completely as long as we turn to our beloved Heavenly Father in our distress. The listening and singing of that song warmed me up, even physically in an otherwise chilling work environment where radiators didn't warm me up.
It wouldn't have been helpful because the double doors upstairs were opened so often and then the wind was blowing straight inside and on the floor where I was working on my back on the floor, under car. Kenneth and Klaus worked downstairs, which didn't have the same problem.
Unexpected phone call
I was amazed because I thought only my mother knew my phone number to work place. My father from Finland was a caller and he had a very special thing! He began by saying, "Leif, now is your life's chance to get a good job in Finland and hardly another opportunity will come to you!"
I felt the Holy Spirit flutter in his words and immediately realized that he was then acting as Adonai's prophet, prophesying to me. He went on to say, "A man named (alias) Majava from Aaltonen Tehtaat Oy Sarvis called me and said he had made many calls while looking for a technician named Leif Norrgård. He had noted your design skills and diligence when you worked in Tampere in the spring of 1978 under his supervision at a drawing office. He eventually found me and asked me to tell you to call him." Dad gave me Majava' phone number.
I called him. He said he had been in a men's sauna one evening where Matti Valanki, the technical director of Orion Corporation, said he was only through his friends looking for a reliable electrician to carry out technical projects for the Orion Group. He (Majava) then remembered me and recommended me to the technical director. He gave me Matti's phone number and asked me to call him.
I called Matti, who transferred the call to (alias) Ville Nuoranen, an machine engineer. He said that several applicants had already applied for the position, but that the decision had not yet been taken. He asked me to come for a job interview in two weeks. I said I didn't have any certificates of employment, not even a certificate from the Technical School, because they were too good, preventing me from getting any other job. That's why I tore them and dumped them!
So I told him that I had torn those papers, but I could ask for an official copy of the HTOL office and write down a list of my technical jobs out of memory. After hearing all this, there was a moment's silence in the wire and I thought, "The game has been lost," but Pertti said, "However, come to the job interview and keep your travel tickets as we will reimburse you and pay you for your travel expenses."
I replied to Pertti: "Please wait a minute, I will ask my boss if the day you are proposing is right for him, as we are now busy at work here in Borås." He said, "Ask, I'll wait!" I asked Klaus and he said, "Just go, for we will overcome this small congestion." I replied to Pertti that the time suggested was also suitable for my boss. The agreed time was about two weeks away on Monday, so I only had to be off for two days.
A trip to Finland to see my father
It was nice to go see my dear father after a long time. We exchanged news and I said I would make a list of the technical jobs I had previously worked for in order to get the job interview going smoothly. At that time, I did not even dare to tell my father what spiritual difficulties I was in. He would not have understood me because he had given up faith about 30 years earlier.
In the midst of the great tribulation, I had torn all my school and work certificates to shreds because I had been told several times in search of work in Finland that I had so good papers that I would probably leave immediately if I could get a job in my field. I did not get a job in my field because I had been in other jobs far too long and the technical field is evolving rapidly.
Before I went to bed at father' house, I prayed why Adonai would arrange a job for me from that particular company, because I was sure that real earthly work would not be the main reason for it. I fell asleep and saw a dream about it.
A prophetic vision that came true later
I saw a clear foresight dream that I understood to be related to my future job. I walked the trail in the summer landscape and suddenly it led to a big dump with debris and rubbish all over it. There was also a disgusting smell and I thought I wouldn't stay there longer and already turned back on my path. Then the white angel came and took me by the wrist and said, "Leif, don't go away, but come here in the middle of the landfill and I'll show you something."
Then I became curious and returned to the landfill with the angel. There was a cleaned area with a large table. It had a magnificent and large wooden frame erected on it with a white stretched cloth. The angel said, "Paint the painting!" Then, when I had woken up, I clearly remembered my dream. I was sure it meant something special and important! Later its significance became clear and I will return to it over time.
Sleep was, as was often the case, enigmatic, but when it was literally realized later in life, it was easy to understand. At the appointed time, I went to a job interview and my spiritual war equipments were: faith, under the guidance and assistance of Adonai, a by typewriter written list of my previous employment, and a certified copy of my HTOL school certificate.
I once again thought that this wandering in the faith is sometimes very exciting!
I once again thought that this wandering in the faith is sometimes very exciting!
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