Our time with OM Sweden

So here we are all chilling in Manna-house reflecting on our time in Sweden. We spent 13 amazing days in the beautiful country of Sweden. We arrived on the 15th after a very long journey that had started 0215 that morning.

Once we arrived, we were informed that the original schedule they had planned for us had fallen through just days before. This meant that we had to be flexible, which is no problem for our team. So the Sweden team took us in and were very hospitable from the word Go. They treated us so well the whole time we were there! So thank you OM Sweden! We were given several different Swedish lessons which varied from learning basic Sweden to Swedish history. 

We got involved with many different ministries that OM Sweden staff members help out with. These ministries included the Underground, which is a youth programme they work with and are closely associated with. We worked with the Salvation Army boys who have moved mostly from Afghanistan and came to Sweden for educational purposes. As a team we were able to work with these guys by just having fun and chatting with them. We also spent  few days at the local city and university palpitating in some friendship evangelism

We were honoured to give back to OM Sweden anyway we could - so we cleaned the base for them.

We were also able to participate in a very Swedish activity.  this meant going to a local forest to pick a variety of berries and mushrooms. Everyone really enjoyed this activity and the end results included cheesecake, pie, and jam. 

We all really enjoyed our time in Sweden and saw ourselves grow closer to Jesus and to many of the OM Sweden staff. Please keep this field and the staff in your prayers. 

A word from Mpumi - as dictated to Caitie

On friday we learned about the history of Sweden.  It is evident that the welfare stands very high in their society.  In our lives we have never seen so many volvos.  This is among the safest cars in the world - which describes their culture, one that values their safety and security.  As we focus on reaching this Swedish community (Raslat - there are suppose to be umlouts over the vowels) of approximately 5000 people with over 50 nations represented please pray that we would be a light to some of these people.  For instance, yesterday we were in an elevator for the first time with a young boy from Eutrea (an African country that is in the top 10 most persecuted countries in the whole world).  We have never met anyone from that country in our lives.  So pray that we will reach these lersecuted nations here in a religiously free country.

We are having fun learning a few simple phrases in Swedish:

Gud alskar oss (God loves us)
Vi jad fel (we all fail)
Jesus dug fur oss (Jesus died for us)
Vi kann bli Guds ven (we can become Gods friend)

Super simple yet effective.....and awesome :)

Hejda (hey-door): goodbye!

Hello everyone!

A lot has happened since our last post. I will recap what's been going on in a bit. However one important piece of information first: our team now looks slighty different.  Team 6 and 7 switched a few members and even though MJ will be greatly missed we would now like to welcome Taylah to our team!

Taylah, 18, hails from the land down under: AKA Australia (in case you were unsure). She is full of joy and energy and life, and yet brings a new level of sensitivity to our team.  We are very excited to have her.

Now where did we leave off the last time you heard from us? Well we were in Eden Valley in Northern England working with kids in a holiday club first in Kirkoswald and then Greystoke.  A wonderful man named Carl helped facilitate and organize the entire thing both weeks.  We couldn't have done anything without him.  We met some wonderful kids. But we were also able to talk with the more mature members of the churches and towns. One of my personal highlights is going to a dinner (by myself - no other transiters) with my host Mom and several of her friends and neighbors). After introducing myself and OM I was immeditely whirled into deep and meaningful questions like what is the meaning of life -why are we the only beings who think we can go into heaven, why do Christians think God is the only way, etc. It was fantastic discussion in a very open environment.

Our time at Greystoke was great! Those working with the younger kids saw it grow from 3 kids to 10 the next day. For those of us working with the older youth we aaw it go from 3 kids to 1 the next day.  It is easy to say that that might have been discouraging for those of us with the older kids.  But God works in the small things as well as the big. If he loses one out of 100 sheep - he will seek the sheep out. Even though we had small numbers - God is doing something big. And we all had a great time doing it.

The following week we reunited with the ever so lovely Team 6 and went on a camping trip in Quinta, England.  We were given a great time of training, team building exercises/compettions (obviously our team always won...hehehe).  It felt like summer camp again. Please pray that we put everything we learned into practice during our time on the road the next couple of months.

Last week we went to Lifehope near Birmingham for more training, lessons, fellowship, and relaxation (and Jurasic park marathons).  This past Thursday morning our team left at zero dark thirty (2:15 am) to fly to our new home in Sweden. Our journey together took about 14 hours. Through mishaps and misunderstandings with our transportation - our team remained patient and we were provided with understanding people to help us along.

We are in a place called Jonkoping (there are dots above both the o's which makes the pronunciation "yonchirpin").  I look forward to telling you how things progress throughout the week (in a much less lengthy way) in a few days!

Greetings from Eden Valley! Transit Team 7 is currently in the Lake District of England even though I (Rory) I am from the wonderful UK, I have never been to this part. The part we are in is very beautiful and rural, which is very different for everyone. At the moment we are working with the church Kirkoswald Methodist Chapel. See picture.

Our team is helping in two different outreaches (Mpumi, Grace and Jung Eun) are helping with the Time Travelers Holiday Bible club, which runs in the morning for ages 4-10 and Caitie, MJ and I are helping with Decathlon for ages in 11-18 in the afternoon. Both teams are seeing God move in powerful ways. In the evening the whole team is helping with running games/activates for the youth. We are all having so much fun and having plenty of laughs.

In the evening we are all going back to our host families, who are fantastic and feeding us like kings and queens. So everyone please keep us in your prayers

Our prayer requests are the following..

·         Continue to  bond as a team

·         That the seeds we are planting in the hearts of the people here in the Eden Valley will continue to grow

·         For our future placements; that God will prepare their hearts for our arrival