Christian's Memorial

On November 4, 1976, a nurse approached my husband in the OR waiting room with a new born wrapped in a pink blanket and said, Dr. Nordberg, "here is your little princess." And 31 years later on November 4, 2007, her prince walked into a crowded restaurant and gave her the best birthday present that year, himself. She was prepared to spend this birthday without him, he was on a mission far away, and could not get home. Her friends decided to take her out to eat but he, liking surprises as he did, rented a car and drove many hours to surprise her at the restaurant and spend the day with her. It was a wonderful benediction to their 16 months of marriage.

When our son, Jon, went to Wheaton he joined the hockey team as an exta curricular activity, along with a big 6 foot 4 guy from Wisconsin. They developed a fast friendship and the rest of the Nordberg clan met him at several parents weekends and at various hockey games. They graduated and went their seperate ways but stayed in contact. Before Christian's first tour to Korea, he visited Jon in Texas where Jon was then living with his sister, Elizabeth and brother, Christian. Although Elizabeth and he had met before a relationship was started on the way to his first tour of duty. The following summer Jon tells me that Christian Skoglund will join our family reunion at our camp for 5 days before going home to Wisconsin. He showed up straight from Korea, and despite minimal sleep was one of the first ones up in the morning to get started with this thing that we call camp. We were all there, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins siblings and friends. My Dad was a WW2 B 17 pilot and Christian spoke with him for a long time about their similar passion, flying. Dad had health issues but Christian treated him with respect and honor and I think it was the first conversation my Dad had really been interested in for a long time. I was so appreciative and blessed by that interaction. Unexectedly, I had to take my folks to the airport during the reunion and while I was gone Christian, the new guy, organized the whole crew of young people, and they totally cleaned the camp,the refrigerator was emptied and cleaned, rugs went out and floors swept, and bathroom sanitized. And I thought wow, he must have a great mother. He was thinkng about what would please his mom and doing it for me. And I was hooked. He then proceed to take over the cooking of the bacon, the making of breakfasts, the bon fires and scattagories, canasta and scrabble games and he became the sole driver of all of our water craft. He was one of us immediately. The aunts liked him, the cousins thought him handsome and strong, Greg, our honorary brother, idolized him, the grandparents thought he had great character, the brothers thought they inherited another sibling and Rob and I prayed, is this the one Lord? Is this the one for our beloved daughter?

Their relationship developed mostly through long distance phone calls over the next year, at least one a day. He sent her international calling cards, "call whenever you want". And they developed great communication skills. They spoke about their families, their friends, their Christian commitments, their churches and ministries, their interests, hobbies, their travels, their occupations, their plans and future, their hopes and dreams. Letters began to arrive with Christian's handiwork inside, oragami animals. And soon she had a menagarie. Creative and unique gifts came. Photo albums made from old army uniforms, a purse which was originally a gas mask carrier, Mashi, a little white Korean cartoon bear, which she still sleeps with. She went to Korea for three weeks. Could she do this military thing? Then he was stationed in Alabama for 6 months and I think he must have spent his whole pay check on airline tickets each weekend to South Carolina, for time at the beach, New Years in New York and Boston for the marathon. Where ever Liz was on the weekend, he was there. And then a deployment to Kuwait.

Sometime during that period everyone knew this prince had found his princess and we were happy . Elizabeth and Christian planned a wedding for over 15 months, a long time even by the most conservative of wedding planning books. The whole wedding week was like a fairy tale. We all had so much fun. Many of you were present and we enjoyed meeting Christian's family and friends. During the rehearsal brunch, Phil asked for people to share and many of Christian's friends and family share snippets of his life. Joy, fun, adventure, embracing life and people were prominent. And I thought there is something redemptive about joy and happiness and being a people person. People are drawn to it and all different sorts of people were drawn to Christian. And I remember thinking and saying "I wonder what God could do with a helicopter pilot and a nurse". On July 2, 2007, their first anniversary, Elizabeth wrote on her blog one sentence. "I love being married!" Christian was a wonderful husband, lover and friend.

When something like this helicopter crash happens we all are rocked, staggered and tramatized, the very core of our being is assaulted. And we know that it is not right. We all know that verse in John that says, the devil comes to kill, steal and destroy and yet we are surprised, shocked and angered when it happens to us personally. We don't want it to happen to us. And we have never believed it could happen to us. No, but, somehow we get a fresh awareness that we are at war here in this earth, we have an enemy and we are in his sights. It's been this way since Adam subjegated himself to our Father's supreme enemy. But we also have a supreme commander who has a victory plan for this battle and it works. Our weapons are not carnal He tells us, but mighty to the pulling down of strongholds and every high thing that would exalt itself against the most High. He has given us a plan of attack and a perscription and health care plan for the wounded. He is aware of our heart and the issues of our hearts, he knows our pain. He has given us the knowledge of the beginning from the end. He has given us a Comforter, one to heal our hearts and show us the way. He has given to those of us who remain a hope and purpose for our life, even though Christian has gone before us, too soon.



Our experience with the military these past few weeks,and how they honor their fallen brothers, was amazing and awe inspiring. They are a band of brothers, a family of sorts,united by singleness of purpose. The ceremonies and comaradrie was wonderful to witness, but it would and could never take away the pain that Elizabeth is experiencing with the lose of her husband. However, Elizabeth reminded us at the Ramp ceremony that Christian had deep faith, not only in his Savior but also in us who remain. He would want us to lift our heads, she said, and go forward in faith and victory. He would want us to remember that we are not a people without hope and he would want us to be victorious and take on this battle, even though he is not here to help us. And he would want us to stand on the verse from Nahum, "The Lord is good. a refuge in the time of trouble. He cares for those who trust in him."