Have you ever heard of the Eurovision
Song Contest? Most likely not, especially if you're American.
It's a song contest between European countries that seems to generate
some strong emotions.
We Americans live with the misconception
that Europe is one entity. Eurovision dispels this myth quite
succinctly - politics, intrigue, nationalism, and general weirdness -
all packaged into one night of music, dancing, and some rather strange
behavior. You can click here to see last year's winner or if you dare, here to see an example of the absurdity.
The
run-up to this contest here in Sweden is called the Melodifestivalen. To select one
singer to represent Sweden, some mastermind devised a six-week contest
marathon that borders on torture. At the end, every annoying song is
lodged into your psyche and sung by your children. One either loves the
contest or can't stand it. As one who came from the latter camp, I
entered in this year. While I can't say I'm sold entirely, it was a fun
time.
The reason I mention this is that it is one cultural
landmark in Sweden that we utilize to reach out to those around us. As
we might have mentioned before, gathering Swedish people together is
challenging. However, last Saturday, we invited friends to watch the
final at our new community space, share a meal, and guess who would be
the winner. Here's a look.
As we continue to build a new faith community in Gothenburg and
foster relationships with others, this and other activities move
forward. Below, we'll briefly describe our progress on our ministries
and share a bit how our family is doing.