Lund

Today our team was in the historic city of Lund for the entire day.   We began the morning finding a parking spot for the Mega-Van, which was a difficult task in a city with many walking areas, old and narrow cobblestone streets, and parking garages with 2.0 meter height limits.  After a brief tour of Lund, we parked and met two sets of people outside the Lund Domkyrkan (the Lund Cathedral, which is a state church building that has been standing in Lund since the 11^th century).  We met Bryan and Lindsey, who are part of the leadership staff for Agape Sverige.  We also were joined by Daniel and Joel, who are children of an old friend of Paul and Karin, from their early days in Sweden.   Daniel (22) and Joel (20) were with us for part of the day in Lund.  They are college students from the U.S. with dual citizenship (U.S. and Sweden) who are playing baseball for an elite team in Sweden this summer; then, in August, they will be playing for the Swedish national team in the European Championships in Amsterdam.

After getting all the groups together, we walked to a local church, where the Agape Sverige staff hold bible studies for students at Lund University.  We were given an overview of the effort that is ongoing with Agape.  There are significant outcomes to be thankful for in their work in Lund: they have seen more students (8) become believers this year than any previous year; they have a strong student and staff leadership; the student believers are starting to disciple other students who are newer believers; they are expanding their outreach to the University in Malmö, which is a larger neighboring city.  Specific prayer requests for this group include: approval of applications for visas to stay in Sweden; support raising for a group going on a summer project to Iceland; growth in believers at the University in Malmö; reaching more students through evangelism outreach on the campus in Lund. 

Our group did a prayer walk across part of the campus in the afternoon.  We prayed for the students and faculty within the specific buildings that we would pass by on our walk.   We also had some good personal prayer time with three other members of the Agape staff (Emily, Rachel, and Thomas).  We separated into small groups and had this prayer time within the walls of the medieval cathedral, which was a very moving experience.


Paul with Lindsey and Bryan (Agape Sverige staff)


Daniel and Joel and Andrew

The Lund Cathedral (Lund Domkyrkan) (and Darcy…)

Thomas (Agape staff) and Andrew

Interior of Domkyrkan

Lindesberg and Lund

Today (Sunday) was a day for worship at church, meeting with church leaders, and a long road trip.  We began our day with a worship service at Kristina Kyrkan (The Kristina Church) in the town of Lindesberg.  This church is also experiencing a growth in attendance and membership, primarily due to recent immigrants to Sweden.   There are members and attenders from: Pakistan, Afghanistan, Burma (there is a large community of Karen people from Burma living in Lindesberg), and Ghana, among other countries.  Our service included the baptism of two young men who were previously Muslims.  One was from Afghanistan and one was from Pakistan.  The sermon focus was the difference between the secular world and the Christian world:  in the secular world, you do something good, and then you receive your prize (medal, award, recognition, raise, etc…); in the Christian life, you get your prize (salvation from Jesus’ work), then you are able to do something good.  There was a wonderful spirit and joy in the congregation during the service, with a variety of praise and worship songs.  It was also Mother’s Day here in Sweden, so one of the immigrants sang a song to the mothers in the congregation.

After the service, we enjoyed Fika with the congregation, giving us the opportunity to meet many native Swedes as well as a number of the immigrants.  Following the time of fellowship, we met with the leadership of this particular church to listen to their needs and concerns and to have some focused prayer time with them.  As a special treat, we also had some time to meet with and pray with Markus Sand, who is the pastor of the Rinkeby International Church back in Stockholm.  Our prayer team has met with Markus the previous two years we have been in Sweden, so he has become an “old friend” now.  His church is located in a neighborhood in Stockholm that is very similar to the neighborhood around Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis.  Rinkeby is primarily home to Muslim immigrants, and most of them are from Somalia.  We shared a meal with Markus after the meeting time at a local restaurant.  We then began our journey to Lund, which is in the south of Sweden near Malmö (in Sweden) and Copenhagen, Denmark.  We arrived at about 10:00 PM after about six hours on the road.  Tomorrow we plan to meet with the leadership of Agape Sverige (Cru in Sweden) at Lund University.


Worship at Kristina Kyrkan


Baptism during the service


Fika (coffee and conversation).  Karin, Kjell (leadership at Kristina Kyrkan), Paul


Per and Paul (leadership at Kristina Kyrkan)


Marcus Sand discussing Rinkeby International Church (with Andrew and Paul)

Lindesberg/Hällefors

Today our group travelled by “minivan” (more like: “mega-van”) from the Stockholm area to the town of Lindesberg, which is about 150 miles west and north of the city.  Our first responsibility, however, was to pick up Darcy at the Arlanda (Stockholm) airport, as she was flying in from her previous mission trip to Uganda and Congo in Africa.   Darcy arrived only a few minutes late after three flights, which was cause for praise.  We left from the airport and drove directly to the small town of Lindesberg, our hotel location for Saturday night.  After checking in, we continued on directly to the town of Hällefors and Korskyrkan (Cross Church), where we participated in a service of praise songs, testimonies, and sharing of our group’s plans for our time in Sweden.  The church, which has both Baptist and Pentecostal connections, is currently serving many recent immigrants to Sweden, from a variety of countries (including Pakistan, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Congo).  These immigrants have had the opportunity to learn of Christianity and become believers either on their way to Sweden from their home countries or after arriving in Sweden.  We are unable to share photos from our time at this church, because some of the immigrant church members face personal risks for turning to Christ.  Prayer requests include:  continued growth of the immigrant population at the church and integration with the long-standing members of the church; safety for members and staff; additional opportunities to support and care for the recent immigrants to Sweden.

The Mega-Van…(and Karin and Kristi)

Fridhemskyrkan

Today the Prayer Team met and prayed and shared a meal with David, Laura,  Eric and Anissa at Fridhemskyrkan in the Kungsholmen area of Stockholm.  These two couples are working to grow and multiply churches in Sweden (as well as across Europe).  The Fridhemskyrkan is currently located in a long-standing Baptist church building and is a recent (2013) church plant connected to New Life Church in Stockholm.  Specific prayer requests for this church include: growth in leadership; growth in members/attenders (currently, about 40 adults and 8-10 children at a Sunday service); more connections to the neighborhood; and further outreach to immigrants (for example, currently, there is a significant number of members at the church from the Mongolian immigrant community).  In addition to our time with David, Laura, Eric, and Anissa, we also had the opportunity to meet one of the pastors from the church, Jenny.


Laura, Jenny, David, and Caroline (member at the church)

David, Laura, Anissa, and Eric reviewing books received as gifts.

We celebrated David’s birthday with a cake made by Anissa (Andrew is at left).

Traveling Mercies

Hi Faithful Prayer Warriors. I am helping with the blog from "home base" : ) My plan is to take the emails Paul (the project leader) sends out and upload them here. My apologies if you are on Paul's email list. HOWEVER, Aron and Caroline will be adding to the blog from Sweden as well - so you may still want to check in : )

Paul and Karin left Monday, one team member (Karen G.) is already in Sweden doing research for spiritual mapping, four more will depart Minneapolis today (Andrew, Kristi, Caroline and Aron) 

and then we’ll all meet up in Stockholm on Thursday.  Another team member (Darcy) will join us on Saturday traveling to Stockholm from a missions project in the Congo.

We are grateful for smooth check ins and getting through security easily and quickly - not something we take for granted!

Here are some prayer items for the next couple of days:

• Journey mercies for all team members and home mercies for family and friends who are sending them off.

• Agape Sweden (Cru) board meeting (Wednesday): for a productive time that honors God and leads us forward in giving oversight to the ministry.

• Jim & Lynn Jarman - Converge Worldwide and ReachGlobal missionaries in Stockholm (Wednesday evening): we are looking forward to re-connecting with the Jarmans.  Pray that we can be an encouragement to them.  The whole prayer team will meet the Jarmans on Friday June 3.

• Logistics Set Up:  that we can be as prepared as possible for the team when they arrive on Thursday.

Thank you so much for your prayers! We are excited to see what God will do through this team (and IN each of the members!).

Blessings,

Marci

2016 Sweden Prayer Team on the Move

Greetings faithful Prayer Warriors! The 2016 Sweden Prayer Project Team is on the move! Here is a quick overview of the itinerary and prayer points for you (thanks Paul!).

Thanks so much for your support!