Thought it would be good to write a short journal entry to update everyone on what has been going on lately here in Sveden. I spent all day yesterday at an Easter Conference put on by the church that I go to in Halmstad. It was held out at a campsite about 20 minutes south of Halmstad, right by the coast. The day started off with a typical church service, with some good worship and then a sermon. Both were in Swedish, yet a friend of mine, Martin, helped me out by interperting for me. The worship was led by this great folk/rock singer and guitarist that i guess used to tour with Matt Redman in the states. Her story was that after touring for a while and really getting caught up in the whole life, she felt a calling to get back to her roots in Sweden. So she came home, bought a small cottage with her husband in the depths of Smalland woods and has been loving life ever since. It was pretty neat to listen to her sing, even though it was in a different language, it was so moving.
After the Sunday morning service we walked across the camp to get some lunch. We sat outside and just took in the sun, for it was so nice outside. Easily the warmest day yet. Not a hint of humidity, just pure, crisp air. If this is a forshadow for what the summer is going to be like... bring it on! We ate a little bit and then headed out to a beach that was close by that Martin knew about. Even the walk to this place was cool, becuase I started to notice, now that all the snow is gone how different the landscape here is then back home. I think the biggest difference is the trees. They are all white birch and most of the grass and other lower stuff is pretty sparse. This allows for tons of room to just run around amongst the trees. I love it, perfect for mountain biking.
So, after about 10-15 minutes of walking, we came to the beach. Martin said before that 'It isn't that nice of a beach.' Yea right... it was beautiful. You could see sweeping coasts off to either side. One marking where Malmo was, the other the Halmstad coast and just a little bit of Tylosand. We walked around for a while, playing around on some big boulders that jutted out into the sea on the far end of the beach, and then headed back to camp for some seminars.
I got the chance to go to one lead by an American, from South Carolina. It was great talking to him, and just seeing another American that I didn't really know that well. Someone that when you said where you where from, you didn't have to go into the whole geography of the US to make them understand. Even though, I did have to explain what 'KU' meant... oh well. But that is beside the point, because he talked about some great stuff. About how the youth (who he was talking too) is responsible to reach people. That this could be done by either being straight forward with someone about what they were doing, or just by showing grace to them. He backed this up by talking about Jesus' handling of different situations like the Pharises, and then the opposite with the prostitute that he talked to and was gentle and showed grace and love. It was a powerful speech and I was amazed at his ability to really engage the listener in his stories. His final point that reaching youth, your friends was so important because these are the times that a lot of people choose either to turn away from God or to devote their life to him.
The night ended off with a 'send off' worship and sermon. It seemed pretty good, yet Martin was having a hard time translating because the guy speaking was so fast. He was literally yelling at some times, and it was almost more interesting to listen to Martin try to replicate in English what this guy was saying.
Overall I am so happy that there is a church here that I really feel comfortable in because of the views and the people. People like Martin, Jonathan, and the youth leader Magnus, who are always having to take extra time to explain to me what is going on in English, yet never complaining, usually just apologizing for their English or something of that manor.
I hope everyone had a great Easter, and is enjoying the Midwest spring weather. I'll probably update in a week or so, after a class trip to the southern part of Denmark.
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