Battle at School

In Christian circles, the religious movement called “Smith’s Friends” bore much reproach. Since this movement had started with our grandfather, and we carried the same surname, we were very aware of this reproach. At school we had to bear with a great deal of reproach from some teachers who mocked us and were quite evil toward the church and what they considered terrible heresy. As a result, I was fair game at school too. On many occasions I was beaten up and came home badly bruised. This taught me from an early age to fight for my faith and my Christian life. In the course of time, I learned some tricks about fighting, and eventually I could beat up every one of them. Then they finally left me alone, and no one dared to attack me anymore. I had a teacher whose name was Holtskog. One day he came up to me and said, “The church is good, Kåre—it is right to fight for it!” That was very comforting for me. He was my main teacher—strict, but also very good.

This story is incomplete without mentioning that my father met this teacher after he had retired, 10 or 11 years after I had left school. During a terrible rainstorm, my father gave him a ride home. On the way he asked my father with genuine inter­est, “How is it going with Kåre?” My father was able to tell him joyfully, “Well, it’s gone incredibly well with Kåre! He is now a missionary in Sweden and Finland and seeking to win people to Christ.” Then my old teacher began to weep and said, “Imagine that I’ve had the privilege of teaching someone who has become a missionary!”