Together For Europe

Other Developments

Ministry

Our bi-weekly spiritual gathering is called Impressions.  We are working through the Gary Thomas’ Sacred Pathways.  This Sunday night, we will practice loving God through solitude and simplicity - asceticism.  Our other bi-weekly gathering is called Expressions.  It is more of a low-threshold time to invite those to our community center for the first time.  Last Sunday we had a You-Tube Night where we shared memorable broadcast events and significant videos. 

New

In addition to the regular rhythm of Impressions, Expressions, Medvandrarna, Faith Factory (youth), and football nights, our team members have initiated a number of “out in the community” groups.   One is a wine and discussion night, another is an evening in the Sauna - I’d say cool but the latter is anything but! Finally, they’ve begun a women’s breakfast as well.   

Team-Building Weekend

We recently had a great team-building weekend with several members of Christian Associates from around Europe.  While it was a busy time, it was an excellent time to focus, affirm, and set goals. 

Thanksgiving

In two weeks, we will have two new families over to our house for Thanksgiving!  It’s a great event to reach out to our contacts.  They come curious and hungry and leave satisfied and with a new perspective on thankfulness. 

Family

In our recent update, we mentioned some issues that have been challenging to us.  We would appreciate your prayers.  However, we do have some good news in a few areas. 

My (Luke’s) teaching is going great!  It’s great fun and fulfilling.  Kirsten continues to wow the neighborhood with her cooking, hold us all together, and has flown way past me in her Swedish!  Jonathan recently won the last two competitions he competed in.  This weekend he competes in Stockholm against all those in Sweden.  It will be a tough competition! Lilia continues to make great friends and to grow in leaps and bounds (literally) with her gymnastics.  Interestingly enough, so does Owen!  He’s just had his first couple of competitions. He also excels at football (soccer) and making people laugh.  Finally Oliver, the one who comes to all these activities, is still the burgeoning artist and dancer. 

Elvis, Sun Storms, and Surprises

It's wonderful when God surprises us, isn't it? Before the summer, life was so busy that it seemed difficult to even breathe. While life has not slowed down very much, something is different. God seems to be in the neighborhood.

I know this might be a strange statement; still that's how it feels. In Sweden, one of the most secular societies in the world, it's hard to imagine this. There are very few surprises here. God seems to be buried under a blanket of materialism, denial, depression, and loneliness. It's much like being in the middle of a rainy day - no end in sight. Of course, we have known that God has been there theoretically. Yet until now, we've not seen the clouds parting and sunshine envelop the landscape.

We've been having some weeks of passing storms, torrential rains, wind, and darkness. However, punctuating these are brilliant "sun storms". Several times a day there is a bright revival. It's not unusual in Gothenburg to see a woman on her way to the market buffeted by the wind and rain. It is however unusual to see her bathed in glowing warm light at the same time. Everything and everyone glistens. As we scratch our heads, the kids point out the multiple rainbows.

  In the middle of these storms, Elvis has shown up. Don't worry, the Swedish language hasn't made me too crazy. Not "the King". No, Elvis is a feline who came sauntering up our road a few weeks ago. A short-hair, has four legs, black and white fur, and a purr that is audibly heard.  He's a charmer with incredible affection, people skills, and loyalty. Named by our neighbor, he spends his days sleeping on our porch, getting food from down the road, and rolling around under the loving hands of our children.

The reason I mention Elvis is that we are beginning to expect the unexpected. Surprise is becoming the norm. Not just in our neighborhood but in our project. I won't go into detail now but unique events and "coincidences" are putting shivers down our spines. They suggest that God is either trying to get our attention or we have our eyes and ears more open. Maybe both! It's an exciting and messy time. We don't know what coat to wear out each day, who's going to come up the drive, or what will happen next.

For now, we wanted to say hello, let you know we are doing well and we'll keep you updated.

Blessings in Christ,

Luke & Kirsten Meisel

News

Ministry

Last weekend, we spent a few hours practicing a special spiritual exercise.  We are studying Gary Thomas’ Sacred Pathways and have spent each Impressions (our bi-weekly “church” service) practicing different ways of approaching God.  Last time it was meeting God through the senses.  This time it was meeting God in nature.  Together, we walked out to a beautiful lake, grilled hotdogs and bread, and spent some great time with God and each other.  It was a marvelous time! Here’s a look. 

 

Looks fun, doesn't it?

This term, we have a very busy schedule.  As we have some excellent structures in place and many missional contacts, we’ve been working to provide more opportunities to invite them to become part of our community.  Here are just a few of them:

• A bi-weekly Sunday gathering
• A bi-weekly Sunday social event
• Frequent events watching soccer together
• A bi-weekly youth event
• Weekly Saturday-morning outreach
• Quarterly marriage and pre-marriage courses
• An annual Serve the City week
• We would really appreciate your partnership in prayer as we move through this term!

Summer

How was our summer?  Well, thanks for asking! :-)  Surprisingly (again) it went quite well.  We had a great time with my parents and my youngest brother Seth.  We traveled to Stockholm and enjoyed a beautiful week. We also had many weeks at home.  Overall, they went well.  Towards the end of the summer, we had a nice trip to Hungary for our annual conference which was extremely encouraging!

Kirsten & I

This term I will continue to work mainly with Faith Factory, making missional contacts, playing and watching soccer, and teaching English part-time.  The biggest change for me is that I’ve been find time in my schedule for a concentrated time of prayer, scripture, and worship.  It’s done wonders for me, my sanity, and I think for my family.   :-)

Kirsten continues to have her hands full with running kids around, holding down the fort, keeping us fed, and doing a million other things.  In addition to this, she has begun contributing in our team more having finished Swedish school.   

Kids

• Jonathan continues to both do well and struggle, a real picture of the sunlight amidst the storm.   We will elaborate in a future email.  For now, we would appreciate your prayers for him and for us.
• Lilia is enjoying life as always.  Busy with school, gymnastics, and swimming, she is really starting to mature into a beautiful young woman. 
• Owen continues to love life as well.  Kirsten has been working with him extensively and it is starting to really show.  He is constantly reading things around him.  He also plays soccer, does gymnastics, and swims. 
• Oliver continues to try to keep up with everyone.  Biking, coloring, doing IPad…you name it…he’s always in the middle of things. 

 

Prayer Requests: September

We covet your prayers!  Thank you!

Community – pray that we would honor God with our concerted attempts to gather our missional contacts together to form a stable community of spiritual seekers and Jesus-followers.  

Team – pray that as our team grows we can continue to work well together and value people as much as programs. Pray that we will find time for each other in our busy schedules as well. 

Family – pray that we would be filled with God’s strength, patience, in working together as a family.  Please pray especially for Jonathan and our relationship with him.

Marriage - pray for Kirsten and I this term to be able to focus on God and on each other. 

 

Home Exchange?

Interested in coming to Sweden?  We have friends who are looking to either do a house exchange or rent someplace in the United States that is warm. 

While we don't have too many contacts in warm US locations (though there are a few of you!), we thought we would pass the word along for them.  They have a lovely home near Gothenburg and would be either willing to exchange homes for a vacation or rent your place while you are on vacation.  They would love a place in Florida, California, or Hawaii.  Drop us a line if this is of any interest to you. Thanks!

What is Serve the City?

Here is a quick video from last years' Serve the City!  It illustrates well what we do during the project. 

 

Serve the City

Yesterday began our bi-annual Serve the City project!  We would appreciate your prayers.  We've already had a few ups and downs, cancellations and disappointments.    Fortunately, we realize that the "roller coaster" often gives opportunities for the "Operator" to show up in unique and exciting ways.  Pray that our anxiety will turn to anticipation and that we will cooperate with what He wants to do in our city this week. 

Besides Serve the City, there is a great deal that has happened since our last update.  Here's a quick run-down.

• Kirsten passed her last language class with flying colors!  She worked incredibly hard this past term and we're really proud of her! 
• Faith Factory (our youth program) has had a good first term.  We look forward to launching it in September to a wider group.
• Our soccer outreach has been quite fruitful this term and we look forward to watching the Champions League Final tomorrow night with a substantial group!
• Jonathan placed 2nd in his gymnastics group at the national finals with two silvers and two bronzes in the event finals.  It was a challenging competition this year but a rewarding result!

 

 

• Lilia just placed 5th in a huge competition (from a field of 30 girls!).  She is really becoming quite a gymnast! 

 

 

• We just had a great visit from Kirsten's parents, Jim and Carol Dayton! They were very helpful with many things but most appreciated - projects we don't have time to get to.  Thank you Jim and Carol! 
• Our good friends Erwin and Maria just had their third child yesterday! Welcome Silas!  Everyone is healthy and happy! Yeah!
• Marcus and Karen, our team leaders, have been leading a pre-marriage course at the community center.
• We have a short-term missions team from Pennsylvania here for Serve the City.  A great bunch of people!  

If you don't remember, Serve the City is a concerted effort between as many different churches and volunteers as possible to reach out to those in our community and to help those inside the church move outside the walls.  We envision a movement across our city in the months and years to come!

We hope you are doing well - shoot us an email update if you think about it - and thanks for being a part of our team! 

Blessings in Christ,

Luke & Kirsten Meisel

Sweden: 4th Largest Asylum Country

A very interesting article from the Swedish Migration Authority talking about Sweden's role as an asylum country. Something we are seeing here, especially in our community. 

Read

Glad Påsk!

Happy Easter to everyone!  After almost four years in Sweden, we still have few ideas of why children dress as witches and old men.  Obviously, the meaning has been lost over the years.  Regardless, here's a picture of Oliver coming back from such a celebration (we included the bunny ears!)

Blessings to you this weekend as you wade through the bunnies, witches, candy, and general fluffiness and get to the amazing and wonderful truth of Christ cruficified and risen again! :)

(P.S. Tentatively speaking, Spring has now arrived!)

April Update

 

 Hejsan från Sverige!   

Many of you have already tasted Spring this year.  In Gothenburg, it is - oh, so close!   

In many ways, the feeling is much like our project.  We've made some excellent progress through a long and hard winter (not only this last one) and it feels like things are right about to "pop".  (For our readers outside the States, that's a good thing!.)     

 In Sweden, a sign of Spring is called a vårtecken, perhaps a unique flower, a tree bud, or just the ability to see the grass.  Spring is here!  For our project, some signs of our church truly blossoming are...    

• Relational growth: more and more spiritual conversations with our friends 
• Personnel growth: another couple already here (and is fluent in Swedish!) is most likely going to join our team.
• Ministry growth: regular bi-weekly Sunday get-togethers and a regular bi-weekly youth event and much more. 
• Network growth:  more and more churches and organizations are getting to know us and Serve the City, including continued opportunity to utilize the facilities we current are in.     
• Family growth: No, not that kind! :) But we vaguely see the light at the end of the tunnel called "really-young-kids-and-exhausted-etc."    

Still, statistical estimates for the time between friendships leading to spiritual conversions in Sweden are nearly seven years, approximately the same amount for a Muslim to become a follower of Jesus.  Fortunately, it seems like the necessary ingredients are in place to see things happen.  We continue to pray and seek God's guidance, knowing that only He can truly "build the house". 

Will you pray with us as well?    

In Christ,

Luke & Kirsten Meisel