BBC Sweden Project: Uppsala

After arriving in Sweden over several days this week, our team gathered in Uppsala, a city filled with history. It is notable as the site of the cathedral where Sweden's kings had their coronation ceremonies and also the location of one of Europe's oldest universities. We met today with the Agape Campus Ministry group, which works on both the Uppsala University and Västerås University campuses (Agape is the Swedish name for the Cru ministry organization). The leaders we met included Aaron and Whitney. We also had the opportunity to meet two students, Anna-Karin and Wilma, who have been a part of Agape's ministry in Uppsala over the last couple years. We had a time of singing, sharing from the leaders and the students about recent work and activities of Agape, and a time to pray for this team. It was interesting, and somewhat disheartening, to hear how difficult it is to be a Swedish teenager or young adult who is a Christian, because of the potential to be ignored or dismissed by friends. After our meeting we were joined by Aaron's wife Kristen (also part of Agape) and their new baby, August, and we shared a meal together with the two teams. Specific prayer requests for this group include: raising up more student leaders at both campuses; new ideas to make bible studies relevant for the students; finding more ways for Christians and non-Christians to interact on campus; praise for a number of Afghan students who have become Christians; battling against spiritual darkness that seems to descend at the end of the school year, even though it is light in the sky almost all the time; strength for Aaron and Kristen as they figure out how to be parents of their newborn.