A Heart for Sverige

"What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?" Matthew 16:26

This verse in Matthew will always remind me of Sweden.  This country is one of the richest and safest in the world, yet what good is it if the Swedes don't know Christ?  They may have such a great, comfortable life, but the majority of them don't think about God.  The long-term team here (pictured above) is helping make God known in this country.  It's been neat to see our students and staff realize that God is here in Sweden.  Lauren, a senior at N.C. State, shared how when she was getting ready to come to Sweden she imagined we were all bringing the gospel to this country.  But, as she's been here, she's realized that God has been here way before we came.  He has been working in the lives of the Swedish students we've met, preparing them to hear about Christ and want to learn more.  God has been moving here in this country, but there is so much more to be done!

Years ago, Barrett said the Christians here began to back off from sharing their faith, as people in America can tend to do right now.  In a lot of ways, spending time in Sweden made me wonder if our country's spiritual climate will be like Europe's in the years to come.  The long-term team here embraces a vision of being "bold in word and in deed" with the gospel.  They want to not only show the Swedes Christ's love through sharing their lives with them and spending time with them, but also to be bold in speaking about Christ and sharing the gospel. It's so encouraging and comforting to know that the Swedish friends we met will be followed up by one of the members of the long-term team who live over here full-time.  Many of our friends are curious and interested in talking with people about Christ and through that team, those relationships are able to continue to grow.  

As we spent time with the team our last night in country, we prayed together for Sweden.  It was such a sweet time with God and each other.  At the beginning of the summer, I prayed God would grow these students and my heart for the Swedish people, and to see tears in their eyes as we asked God to move in this country showed me He'd done it.  He's given this team of 20 a heart for the Swedish people to know Christ.  As I come back to UNC this fall, I'm continuing to pray that students and staff would come on next year's summer project and the Sweden legacy at UNC would continue.  Would you pray with me that more students and staff from UNC would consider coming to this country next year? 

there's no place like home

I love traveling all over the world and getting to see and meet people from different countries. But my second favorite thing to traveling is coming home!  I've been gone for the past six weeks and gotten to experience living life (or at least in a short-term basis) in Sweden, Germany and Italy.  I'm so thankful I have the opportunities to be exposed to different parts of the world because it opens my eyes to how people live other than what I'm used to in the U.S.  We have a saying on project as we encounter new cultures that "it's not wrong, it's just different!  There was nothing like coming home to my own bed last night, though!  Today, I'm experiencing the normal effects of jet lag and a general sluggish feeling that I've found normal when I come back to the fast-paced life in the U.S.  Life is simpler overseas: there were only 20 people for me to spend time with and a limited number of people I could communicate with!  

Before our students head back to the U.S., we always have a few days of debriefing from project to help them think through things they might experience once they leave their time overseas.  We spent a few days in Munich, Germany this year for debrief and had some meetings and some fun times sightseeing together.  After a month together as a project, it can be hard to leave each other, so they had a great time hanging out one last time.  We took a train through the German countryside to Newshwanstein, a German castle in the Bavarian Alps that was the creative inspiration for the Sleeping Beauty castle.  We were really sad when we got there and stepped out onto the bridge and saw they were renovating the back of the castle!  Oh well, I guess renovations have to happen sometime...

We also toured Dachau, the concentration camp a few miles north of Munich.  That w

as really sad, especially because the audio guided tours had survivors' personal testimonies 

about life in the camp.  One of the most moving quotes for me was from

George Tievsky, who was part the liberation effort.  Upon arriving at the 

camp and seeing the crematorium, he said, "I got the feeling that this was another planet.  This could not be.  It was unreal."  

Looking out the window of one of the recreated prisoner bunkhouses.

The inscription on the front gate of Dachau that reads "work will set you free" in German.

Life in Sweden (or what I've noticed so far)

I thought I'd list some things that will always remind me of Sweden. Here goes:

1. Lilacs (they smell great and are in full bloom now in white, light purple & deep purple)

2. Bikes & Bells-Swedes ride these amazing, vintage bikes everywhere & when you're

accidentally walking in the bike lane, they ding their bike bell to signal someone's coming behind you and move out of the way!

3. Squeegies-your shower and bathroom are all one room, so after you shower, it's polite to squeegie the floor to get all the excess water up!

4. Fika-complete with large mugs of tea or small cups of coffee, kloddkaka (chocolate cake) & tea cookies that are like Moravian ginger cookies.

5. Beautiful Graveyards-I'm not sure if this is all of Sweden or just Uppsala, but the graveyard here is gorgeous! It's perfectly manicured and every grave has a small garden, 

planted and tended by the family.

6. Scarves, leggings, & other 80's styles-the fashion here in Sweden is hit or miss in my opinion. Swedes are definately decked out and look great, but sometimes I find myself wondering, "Did that girl just wake up and make that shirt a dress by putting on leggings underneath?!"

7. Swedish mentality-I wish I knew the Swedish term for this thinking, but my friends here have told me it's common to not want to stick out or draw attention to oneself through achievements, large purchases, etc. It's considered rude. So different from America, where we celebrate individualism and everyone wants to get ahead and make it to the top!

8. Windows & Architecture: clean lines, large windows that open out really wide, tile roofs, bright, sunny colors for houses like yellow, red or creams.

9. Ikea, H&M, & Volvo-just a few of the contributions the Swedes have made to home furnishings and design, clothing for young adults, and car lovers all over the globe!

10. Food-I've tried and/or often eat yummy salads w/ lots of vegetables and feta, sandwiches, Swedish meatballs w/ Lingonberry jam, and pasta. I've stayed away from the seafood, however!

That's all I can come up with for now. I'm sure the list will grow, though! Hope that gives you a better picture of life over here!

Vikings, Helsinki & Stockholm

Having tea in Gamla Stan square, the old part of Stockholm.

After Helsinki, Eden and I visited Stockholm one last time!

We were so tired after running around Helsinki all day!

My roommate Eden modeling some fur for sale

Flowers for sale in the Helsinki market

Cute Bike

Helsinki streets

Finland Bound

Today, our team heads to Finland for a mid-project retreat! We've been going strong for the last few weeks and hopefully this will be a time of refreshment for all of us! We're headed on a boat for an overnight trip and land in Helsinki on Monday morning. I've heard from my Finnish friends I've met that Finland is known for their saunas. Apparently you sit in a steam room and beat your back with branches, then jump into a pool of cold, cold water. I'm not sure I'll be trying that this trip, but you never know what will happen! I always like to experience the culture to the fullest. We catch the boat in Stockholm, so we'll get some more time in the city on the way back, which is great because I really loved the part in the old town (Gamla stan) called Stortorget (it's a medieval square).The weather is supposed to still be cold and rainy, so I may spend some time holed up in a coffee shop and journal some. I'll be sure to post some more pictures when I get back! Enjoy the warm weather in America for me! It's been a cold June thus far!!

So what IS your job?

It's always difficult to answer when people ask me what I do for a living. If I say I'm a missionary, that conjures up all sorts of images, namely of me living in a hut in Africa somewhere. If I say I'm a counselor on a college campus, I imagine having a couch in my nonexistent office for students to come sort out their lives and talk about their future. The truth is, I wear a lot of hats in my job working for a college ministry. As soon as I nail down a job description in my mind, another responsibility comes along that totally shakes my description! I constantly have moments where I'm thinking, "Is this my job? Wow, it's crazy!"

Just this week, I was at a local Italian restaurant in Uppsala trying to secure a location for our movie-themed party for our Swedish friends. We decided to throw a huge party towards the end of our time here so our Swedish friends could meet the rest of our group, as well as the long-term team here in Uppsala. As we've been meeting Swedes the past few weeks, we've been inviting them to come party with us! So there I am in the resturant, talking with the owner, booking a party venue in a country I've only lived in for three weeks, trying to communicate with a man who speaks a language I don't even speak! All in the hopes that this party and others we have would provide opportunities for our Swedish friends to be exposed to other Believers and hopefully see the gospel living and active amongst our group of American Believers. So this week I wore the "party planner" hat...

(I dressed up as Alice in Wonderland for our movie party)

It got me thinking, though, what other roles our staff and I have found ourselves in these last few weeks. This week, Steph and Reece and their community team headed up a wonderful breakfast for our project. Cooking for twenty people in America is definately a challenge, but imagine the creativity and flexibility that is required in a foreign country! I've never used my math skills so much to convert to litres and such then when I'm cooking here!

These are just a few examples of the somewhat unexpected "hats" I find myself wearing on staff overseas. Of course, I still get to spend the majority of my 

 meeting Swedes and asking them what they think about spiritual things and especially God. I've also enjoyed getting to know the girls I disciple each week a bit better. Mindy, Emily and Georgina are great and it's been so encouraging to watch them encounter the Lord in Sweden through conversations they've had with Swedes, as well as in their personal times with God. These women are learning a lot about themselves and how God sees them this summer!

(from left to right: me, Georgina, Emily & Mindy)

Windows to the Soul

Tonight our group gathered together to sing praise songs and share the things we've gotten to see God do in the lives of Swedes we've had conversations with. We sang the words, "Shine a light and let the whole world see, for the glory of the risen King" and I couldn't help but think how we are here to have God use us to shine a light here in Sweden. The first day we were here, the long-term leaders Barrett and Victoria Hawkins, told us the spiritual climate in Sweden can be difficult and disheartening at times. Many Swedes just don't think about whether or not God exists, let alone contemplate if He did exist, if they'd want to know Him. The reality of ministry here has been discouraging for us from day to day or sometimes hour to hour!

It was great to hear from each other the traces of God's Spirit working in the lives of Swedish students each of us have encountered thus far. One of the main ways we initiate spiritual conversations is through a tool called "Soularium." Soularium is a collection of fifty pictures of different images and a few questions that help us get into the lives of people around us (in Sweden and back at UNC). We ask them to pick images that describe what their life currently looks like, what they wish their life looked like, what image they think best describes God to them and what image best describes what their spiritual journey has looked like thus far in their life. Ralph Nichols once said, "The most basic of all human needs is the need to understand and be understood. The best way to understand people is to listen to them." This is so true when we're talking to Swedes using Soularium. Pictures themselves evoke more emotion and cause people to open up more about things in their lives they might not share using just words. This tool also helps us grow in listening more to the Swedish students we meet, which builds report with them and, I believe, can make them be more open to asking us what we think about the questions. This has, time and again, given us opportunities to share the hope we are each experiencing in Christ in our own walks with the Lord.

Tonight Emily, a junior at UNC-Wilmington, shared about a student she and Amber met at the English faculty on campus. As they began asking her the Soularium questions, they were encouraged by what Nina shared. She chose a picture of a statue with cobwebs to describe how she sees God right now. When they asked her why she chose this image, she told them it was because the picture looked blurry and out of focus, and she felt like it was hard for her to see or know God. Emily asked Nina if she could share with her how she began to see who God was more clearly in her life and had the opportunity to share the gospel, as well as her own personal story of how Christ is changing her life right now.

Light is pretty important in Sweden. In the summer, the sun shines from 3am to 11pm and in the winter, it only shines for an average of three to four hours! As we talk with Swedes each day, one thing they've told us consistently is that the weather and light greatly affect Swedes. One girl I met doing Soularium by the river told me she would have answered completely different on a winter day! Not only do Swedes literally want light, I keep praying that God would open their eyes to see their great need for Christ in their spiritually darkened lives. Only until He moves in their hearts will they be open to talking with us and hearing the gospel. We are continuing to pray that God would shine a light in this country.