Out of the blue.

Anders Eskeland was born and brought up on a small farm on an island off the west coast of Norway. His parents were hardworking but poor. Their highest wish was a good education for their children. There was little talk of God at home, and it was a teacher at high school who first introduced Eskeland to the idea of a God who `spoke' and might have things to say about a person's path in life. `He used to invite some of us to his home where he would speak to us about literature, philosophy and religion. It was a new world to us. One of the ideas he introduced was that of being quiet and listening to God.'

Eskeland experimented, and felt that he must apologize to his history teacher about cheating in a test. `I was very fearful as I did not want to lose marks. In the event he simply looked up and thanked me. I was enormously relieved. It was my first step in finding a faith.'

When Eskeland discovered that the teacher had learnt the ideas he was passing on at an MRA conference at Caux, he made up his mind to go there himself after he finished school. `I worked for my grandmother, painting her house, to earn the money to go,' he recalls. He had not been out of Norway before and remembers the shock of seeing the ruins of post-war Hamburg from the train.

One morning at Caux he had the clear thought-- `right out of the blue'-- that he should give his life to God. `I had never thought in that way before. I had been reading a passage in the New Testament and the thought just came into my mind. The experience of that moment has never left me.'

Eskeland spent the next nine months working with MRA in Great Britain. This took him among other places to Glasgow, where he met workers in the shipyards and docks. He returned to Norway to do his military service and then spent another year getting experience in a mechanical workshop. It was 1955 and he was 22 before, much to his parents' relief and joy, he finally started his Civil Engineering Studies at the Technical University in Trondheim.

That winter, a touring MRA play was performed at the university. It caused quite a stir among the students as it challenged its audience to apply moral and spiritual values in their lives and to the situation around them. Eskeland saw this as a test of his readiness to stand up for what he believed in and got involved right from the start. He was so convinced about the play's message that he decided to break his studies and travel with it to other venues.

He never returned to college. This was a hard pill for his parents to swallow. `Coming as I did from such a poor background, leaving behind a career was a very big thing,' he says. `But I've never regretted it for one day. It took several years however for my parents to accept the decision and give me their support.'

In 1957 he and a Norwegian student were invited to work in South Africa. `Apartheid was at its height,' he says. `Our aim was to work for reconciliation and change in what seemed like an impossible atmosphere. Those three years gave me a lasting love for the African continent and its people.'

Instead of Civil Engineering, Eskeland has devoted his life to helping young--and older--people to make life choices based on more lasting values than money and success. It has meant getting involved in national affairs, meeting people from all walks of life and helping them to relate to world issues. Eskeland and his colleagues have been working with the police and local authorities to create understanding and respect in Norway's increasingly multicultural society.

His work has taken him back to Africa several times, more recently to Tanzania, which he has visited five times since 1984. He is part of a cooperation link-up between four Nordic countries and Tanzania, which takes many practical forms. They have sent out used equipment--such as wheelchairs and an ambulance to centres for the disabled, tools to schools so that students can learn a trade, and sewing machines to women's groups.

They have also met many of the country's leaders in an effort to strengthen the moral and spiritual climate. Tanzania's former President, Julius Nyerere, told a Danish member of the group, `I thank you not only for the material, but also for the moral, aid.'

Eskeland's African involvement has also led him to make friends with scores of African scholarship holders at Norway's Agricultural University.