Together For Europe

Highlight Reels

 

 

 

What's New?

Ministry

Our bi-weekly spiritual gathering called Impressions had good success in the Fall going through the Spiritual Pathways, exploring different ways we worship God.  This Spring, we are moving through the Sermon on the Mount. As we said, more and more people are coming. 

Expressions, our monthly low-threshold gathering is also finding success.  We had a great Quiz night a few weeks ago!  This Spring we will have another film night (The Adjustment Bureau), a YouTube night on Heroes, a forum on "Swedishness", an outdoor-games time, and a Luau.   The latter should be the most interesting!!  :-)  Hopefully it's warm in June!

Faith Factory has been starting slower that we want.  This Spring, we are trying a different tactic to connect with young people in the area.  We'd appreciate your prayers so that we can make the right connections and build up this ministry. 

In addition to the regular rhythm of Impressions, Expressions, Medvandrarna, Faith Factory, football nights, and Serve the City, the initiatives that our team members have started have found good success as well.  

Finally, a neat development has been a Swedish family moving from another part of Sweden to be a part of our team.  They arrive in April and will move directly into the area we are ministering in.  Very cool!

Family

In addition to my ministry responsibilities, my (Luke’s) teaching continues to be enjoyable and help us financially!  It’s fun and fulfilling.  Kirsten continues to play a strong supporting roll for the family and our team.   She has spent countless hours helping the kids with homework, cooking for our ministry events, and interacting with our connections. 

Jonathan recently was in Malmö for the national gymnastic test.  It's a vigorous three-day event testing the gymnasts flexibility, technical abilities, and strength.  He did very well, placing fourth!  We also went to the doctor recently (oddly, the same one who took care of Wayne Rooney before the last world cup) for his elbow.  It has been bothering him for about two years.  Fortunately, it doesn't look like there is a need for surgery but we'd appreciate your prayers for its full healing.  In addition to gymnastics, his strong interests are movies, music, and chocolate.  

Lilia is doing really well at gymnastics as well.  She has not had any competitions this year yet but in the Winter did very, very well!  Her development is incredible!  She also loves movies, music, and American Girl dolls. 

Owen is quite busy with gymnastics, soccer, and swimming.  He is doing very well and continues to make those around him smile.  His recent Christmas present making electrical circuits has been a hit!

Finally Oliver, continues to have fun coloring, doing playdough, and playing with his siblings.  His favorite themes are castles and pirates. 

The Flying Squirrel

When was the last time when you launched yourself from a diving board or rock into a pool or lake? How did you do it? A simple jump? Swan-dive?  Maybe the cannonball?   

 

When I was younger, a friend of mine employed a trademark dive called "the Flying Squirrel". It was a reckless grab-your-legs-behind-your-back, full-chested flying deathwish, followed by a last minute water-entrance. If not executed properly, flames would certainly rise from the wreckage of one's fully extended front. Spectators' were both horrified and delighted. Not a minimal splash, mind you, but always a crowd-pleaser!

In our last update, we spoke of two seemingly contradictory elements in our life right now - ministry growth and significant family challenges. On one side, it can feel like drowning. On the other, flying.  A bit odd.   

 

The flying squirrel seems to summarize our current situation. A full-on, mid-air commitment to our ministry and family, the rush of wind in our hair, anticipating the water landing. Flames to come? Panache? Certainly, this is not a show but it might give you a picture (albeit too dramatic) of where we are standing...or, er...flying.

 

That being said, thank you so much for your prayers, encouragement, and support. We've made many strides since our last update. Obtaining better support for Jonathan and our family has been our most important task. In addition to gathering a dedicated team to pray for Jonathan, we've worked with local organizations and people to help us in our situation. We've never had so many meetings, Skypes, emails, and phone calls! However, each contact has been so helpful to piece together an evolving puzzle.  

 

On the ministry front, our project continues to make very nice strides and connections in the area.  Our regular activities are becoming better known and our contacts seem to finally trust that we are here to invest in them and their community. It takes a long time in the Swedish culture!  

 

We continue to fly and appreciate your prayers for the following:

 

Jonathan's schooling: that together with the teachers, we can help Jonathan feel safe and successful at school.  

 

Local Support: that the local organizations will be able to pair us with the right people to help.   

 

Family: that we and the kids will be able to find some periods of rest, encouragement, and healing.   

 

Ministry Connections: that our investment with our contacts will begin to blossom into followers of Christ.  

Surprises and A Prayer Request

 

Greetings from Sweden!  Last update, we spoke of some interesting surprises and that God is doing something here. In the past couple of months, we have continued to be surprised and wanted to share with you.  We also wanted to mention a very specific prayer request.



From the picture above, you can see one surprise: we have had some visitors to our front yard!  Luckily, they were not like another moose here in Sweden who was so intoxicated by fermenting apples that he got stuck in a tree.  :-)  This female and her calves were in our neighborhood for a few days!  Very cool! 

Another surprise (delightful, we might add) is that our team is finally seeing some growth.  With church-like services every other Sunday, low-threshold connecting events the other, and other ongoing ministries, our team is making  more connections than ever.  In a country where commitment is rare outside work, family, and close friendships, we are interacting with more who are close to joining our faith community on a regular basis! You can read more on our site.  The link is below. 

The specific prayer request we mentioned is for our family.  We have asked for prayer for Jonathan over the years.  After two years of psychologists, he recently received a diagnosis that he deals with "atypical autism".  Briefly, it's much like Asperger's Syndrome. If you would like to know more, here are some links: About.com  Wikipedia

  

Because the challenges with him have affected our ministry, we have been asked by our mission agency to assess our ministry effectiveness. The question they are posing is "how effective is a pioneer church-planting ministry with an autistic child?"

It's a sobering but great question.  With a great deal of our work being contact work, invitations to our home, and meeting with others in socials contexts, it poses a significant challenge for Jonathan.  Because of this, our ministry can sometimes be inconsistent.  By ourselves, it's not as effective as we or our mission agency would like it to be. 

As difficult as it is to admit, we need your help again.  Would you pray for us?  Our prayer request is that we can find the right support and help so that we can continue to minister effectively in Sweden.  Among other local helps, we are considering a live-in intern or an Au-pair to help make this possible.  If you know of someone who might consider this, could you please contact us?

While we have invested a great deal of time, energy, and finances to embed into Swedish culture, we want to be in the right situation for our family to thrive.  With a great team, a ministry with tremendous potential, and profound spiritual poverty in Sweden, we feel called to continue here.  We appreciate your prayers as we work to find better support for us and for Jonathan.