Well, another football (soccer) injury. Fortunately, this was not my shoulder being dislocated again. But it was another freak accident. I don't remember any of it but evidently I was falling backwards and was hit in the head by someone's knee at full-speed. After lots of blood loss, thirty minutes unaccounted for, and a ride in the ambulance, I'm home and trying to recover.
After many months of preparation, prayers, and dreams, Serve the City in Angered (north Gothenburg) took place on Saturday. As I said above, it went extremely well.
With
about 80 volunteers from numerous churches from as far as Stockholm, we
were able to have 12 projects across the area. These included projects
for children, older people, teenagers, and the homeless. We also had
projects serving at a carnival cafe, cleaning, collecting food for a
food-shelter, and more. We began in the morning and ended with a
gospel concert.
One
the neat results is that the national Swedish Christian newspaper
(believe it or not, there is one), featured Serve the City. If you can
read Swedish, you can access this article here.
Overall, we were very, very pleased.
If you'd like to see some pictures, you can access them here.
While
Serve the City is only one part of what we are doing here in
Gothenburg, it was our first major public outreach. We continue to
reach out to the local community at the second-hand shop, hold a weekly
homegroup, and take part in many activities outside the church. Our
next phase will be building more community around these endeavors.
Again, thanks for your prayers!
Jonathan
competed at Swedish Nationals this past weekend. He competed against
fifty other gymnasts, a number of them who train much more than he
does. Unfortunately, we were not able to be with him but Kirsten's
parents were able to be there. Thank you Jim and Carol for taking such
good care of him!
In the end, he placed an amazing third
overall! When he competed in the event finals, he placed 2nd in rings,
3rd in pommels, 3rd in high-bar, and 4th in parallel bars. As you can
guess, we are really proud of him!
Serve the City was a spectacular success! More to come!
If you have not seen our updates recently, Serve the City, or TjänaStan,
is a one-day project which seeks to show people in our community that
God's Kingdom is much more than just people meeting inside a church on
Sundays.
Instead, his kingdom is a place where the homeless
are fed, children are treated as special, young people are respected,
and much more. We have ten different projects throughout the city with
over sixty volunteers from numerous churches.
Kirsten will
participate in a project with children and I will participate in a
project inviting young people to play soccer together. If you'd like
to have a look at the projects, you can view our TjänaStan website. It's all in Swedish, but it will give you an idea at least. Here it is: Tjänastan Website
While Serve the City
is only one day, we hope it's one of many for us and for those in our
community. We hope it's a beginning as we reach out to the community
around us.
If you'd like to see more about Serve the City, you can also check out the Serve the City projects in Brussels and Rotterdam.
The
big news is that Jonathan competes in the Swedish National Finals this
Saturday in Stockholm. Sadly, it was the same day as Serve the City so Kirsten and I will not be present. However, Kirsten's parents are with us now and will be accompanying him there.
Again,
we would appreciate your prayers for him. It's the most important
competition of the year and he's been working so hard. Please pray
that it is a great experience for him, no matter what the outcome. The
last competition he had in Malmo was good but he fell on a few events
and ended up placing third instead of higher.
Lilia
just had her first gymnastics competition. It went quite well. She
placed fourth. While she doesn't have the intensity of Jonathan, she's
strong, fearless, and just happy to be out there having fun.
Owen's
big piece of news was a train trip to Stockholm with Daddy. We had to
go to the embassy there to renew his passport. While it was a long day
(Owen wanted to go home 26 minutes into his two three-hour train
rides), it was a special time. He was quite a talker with the embassy
guards.
Oliver's newest developments are that he loves to play
with our next-door neighbors and loves to color, especially pictures of
balloons, airplanes, and the sun.
Kirsten and I are hanging
in there. I just finished my class until August. We've got lots to
figure out for this summer and next fall but right now we're just
working on concentrating on today. :)
We covet your prayers! Here are some specifics.
Things continue to progress for Serve the City. Our partnering church, Saronkyrkan, had a service last Sunday totally devoted to Serve the City. Afterward, we received about thirty volunteers for our many projects on May 30th. We're praying for 100! Please continue to pray as we prepare for this event. Thanks!!
One
of the big changes in the family is that Kirsten is now doing more
Swedish language class - two evenings a week. This has repercussions,
including my feeble attempts at feeding the family on a regular basis.
Let's just say it's not always pretty. :)
My class has also
picked up the pace and continues to challenge me. Nevertheless, it's a
terrific class and my Swedish is growing rapidly. I was encouraged to
have passed the last exam!
Besides the building momentum of
our project (see below) and class, we've also been busy with some
unique cultural experiences. As our good friends and neighbors
prepared for their wedding, we participated in a Swedish version of
bachelor and bachelorette parties.
Also, we have a new
addition to the family. But before some of you have a heart-attack -
no, this addition does not require diapers. :)
Finally, we recently had a very important meeting for Serve the City.
Thanks so much for reading our update. We hope you enjoy following our adventures.
Preparations for Serve the City
continue. As I said above, we had a major meeting with area pastors
and volunteers recently. It went extremely well. We had a good turn
out and much enthusiasm. During this meeting, we shared with them the
vision of Serve the City and heard from Rogier Bos, a Christian Associates colleague who had come from Holland to be with us.
One
the greatest benefits from the meeting was meeting other like-minded
individuals from the area. It was greatly encouraging.
One
of the challenges we've had with this project is the date. After
checking all the city calenders, we set the date at May 30th. However,
to our dismay, we discovered last week that a major 'carnival' takes
place on that same date. Unfortunately, there is no better date and so
we are shifting gears a bit to focus more on the utilizing the carnival
as well. It's a delicate process but we think it will work.
If you'd like to see more about Serve the City, check out the Serve the City projects in Brussels and Rotterdam.
Also, please check out our new Swedish Serve the City website: www.tjanastan.se
