My deepest apologies for not updating the blog for the end of our trip, but I finally found time since being home for the summer to put together all of the video clips I had taken our second half of the trip.
(I know most of it just looks like fun and games and tourism, but I promise we were ACTUALLY doing ministry during our trip)
I hope you enjoy the final video of our trip, featuring our trip to the Barker's House for dinner in the countryside, an excursion to the free Loreen (Eurovision Winner 2012!) concert in Hotorget with some of the friends we met, the crepe party, and our final music cafe (as well as bits and pieces of other happenings).
Again, many thanks for all of your prayers and support! God is at work in Sweden, and we got to see just a tiny bit of what he is doing... I know even greater things will happen as a result of our faithfulness to heed his call.
Beyond blessed to be used as the Lord's instrument,
Taylor
We have been so busy it's been hard to find time to update! But here are some pictures from the past week or so. We've made some new friends, Geoff had a birthday, we performed the Lifehouse drama in a park, we've had some great live music cafes, and we had our last day at the high school yesterday.
Please pray for our last music cafe tonight! We are expecting many of the contacts we've made to show up and we want to ask the Lord to give us his Spirit of boldness and joy to share the gospel with them.
We love you all and are so grateful for your prayers!
The past few days have been very busy and so much has happened. Friday we helped with the youth group at New Life Church in Alvik, after which we had some divine appointments and saw God lead in a couple different situations. Ben befriended a young man named Iwo. Saturday we went to the park with the coffee wagon, where we met some more interesting people, some friendly and open to what we had to say, others more argumentative. Ben got to use his Biblical studies, while Kelsey Larson got to practice her Spanish. We also met two young men who some of the boys (Geoff, Noah, Jon and Ben) played football with. Saturday night we had a live music cafe night, which was a great time of fellowship and God working again. Sunday we helped with Kid's Life at New Life during the first service, and performed the Lifehouse skit during the second service. It went great and had a fantastic reaction from the congregation. We are preparing to perform it in the streets on Saturday. After church, we came back to our "home" for another service with the church plant (Fridemskyrkan), which really touched our hearts for the darkness in Sweden (and globally).
Please continue to pray:
-For our ministry with the high school in the mornings. We will be there Tuesday morning through Friday morning. We desire boldness to speak Jesus' name and to build relationships with these kids.
-For our street outreach performing the Lifehouse skit. There are a few details that we still need to figure out, namely for a portable sound system that is battery operated.
-To stay refreshed.
-Thanks for the church body here. They have been an extremely huge blessing to us and we are totally loving the opportunities to get to know them, encourage them, and be encouraged by them.
We love you all!
p.s. Happy 12th Birthday to my (Taylor's) little sister Annie!
Here's our latest video, in which Ben shares about the past weekend.
Tonight we are hosting the first music cafe at the church. Today and yesterday mornings we were at the nearby high school giving out free coffee and sandwiches to everyone and promoting our hangout and music cafes. Please pray for people to come, for relationships to be built, and for the Spirit to be at work.
Today was Jesus Manifestation, which is a gathering of Christians in Stockholm. Our team was mainly responsible for helping with the Kids' Corner, which involved leading games and singing and dancing to worship music that sounded like Swedish Christians' answer to Rock 'n Roll.
It was a very cold and rainy day that most of us were not prepared for. But we pushed through and were thankfully provided with hot coffee! We joined with thousands of Christians in a prayer march through the streets if Stockholm. There was yelling, shouting, and singing. Geoff discovered that, though most of us Americans simply saw it as obnoxious, the Swedes are normally very reserved. So them shouting was something to really take note of.
The event concluded with songs sung by children on stage, as well as prayer for them as the next generation of Christians. That was followed by worship and some speakers.
We were surprised to find out that we would be getting a new teammate, named Sameer. He heard about the ministry here through the group that came with the Swedish folk musicians last year in chapel. He's from West Palm Beach as well. We are enjoying getting to know him!
Here are some pictures from our tour of the city from our third day here in Stockholm.
Please pray for:
-"Jesus Manifestation," which is a gathering of thousands of Christians from all over Sweden. We will be helping out with the children's portion as well as joining in a prayer march. That happens tomorrow (Saturday).
-Team health. The lack of sleep has weakened immune systems, so pray for strength.
-Our outreach with the nearby high school.
We made it! We are getting adjusted and settled in. The weather is brisk but beautiful. We were led around the city by John and Carolyn, visited the park, and got our public transportation passes.
