A Day in Sweden

Dave and I are in Sweden right now, serving at a conference with EFS (Evangelical Homeland Foundation), an independent organization within the Church of Sweden, the evangelical Lutheran church which is the largest Christian denomination here in this country.

While the sun isn't shining here, it's still really beautiful.

Our meeting room looks out over this body of water, which is actually the end of a long fjord that eventually spills out into the North Sea. Very special to look out at this view as we meet!

Dave had two morning sessions on this topic. Any guesses what it says?

I'm pretty sure it says "Living on Mission", as that's what Dave's topic was today!

What a great morning, talking about sharing the Gospel and crossing barriers to do so. I've heard this talk several times, and I still took tons of notes!

In the afternoon there were two spaces for seminars. Dave and I led separate ones during the first hour, and then did one together during the second session.

My seminar was a Q & A on prayer, since that's a topic near and dear to my heart. I didn't expect so many people to come for an hour with me! What a sweet hour it was with them.

Dave's and my second seminar was on the topic of "family on mission", something that we're also passionate about. No pictures from that one though, since we were talking the whole time! 😉

I did capture a few pictures of the place we stayed, since it was so unique and lovely!

I don't know if Sweden has a word for "hygge" the Danish word for "cozy, comfortable, content", which is a topic of books and podcasts right now. But they sure know how to create that kind of atmosphere here! I wish I'd taken more pictures to capture how truly cozy and warm it was inside.

These tall, open-flame candelabra were scattered through the lobby and restaurant, lit all the time! 

Tonight, Dave was interviewed for a video that will be posted later on the EFS website.

And he and I got to give a video greeting for the youth ministry arm of EFS

It's been a very full day here, but so rich and meaningful to be with brothers and sisters in Christ that we didn't know before today! Some of their missionaries are here too, so we also met brothers and sisters from Ethiopia and Eritrea, India and Tanzania.

I absolutely loved being with this fellowship of believers, who are committed to the same thing as we are: seeing the Gospel transform lives.

We're leaving in the morning, and I feel sad about that! It's been so good to be here with these dear new friends.