Stockholm

Today is July 25. That means that in just 10 days we will be making our way home. I think all of us have been a bit homesick- with mixed feelings though. Our group has become a like family and it's going to different when we're not around each other anymore. Yesterday I was especially homesick and just being around the caravaners lifted my spirit. The chemistry of this group continually amazes me. I've seen a lot this past month and still have a lot to see and experience in the last 10 days, but no moment has been more touching or impacting than being with this group of college students. Anyway, I'm sure I'll be writing more about that later...

The past fews days we've been in Marsta, Sweden (I'm not sure exactly when we got here. Not even sure I know what day of the week it is). Tomorrow we're traveling south to Eskjo, where we will stay until Tuesday. In Marsta, we've been staying at a beautiful hostel that's been great for us. We've had our own space, own beds, and even got to watch the Women's World Cup on tv the other day. Yesterday we traveled by train to Stockholm and spent the day there. We started out by going to Ecumenia, which is an international youth organization of the churches here. Actually, first I should note that the United Methodist Church in Sweden is merging with two other churches to form a new church. So the UMC will no longer exist in Sweden. I am saddened by that, but understand the reasoning. The churches here are so small that is just makes more sense if they all merge, combine their resources, and become one. They have been functioning as one for a while, but at the 2012 General Conference, they hope to make it official. Now, that said, Ecumenia, is an organization of the combined churches. The have relationships with countries all over the world, seeking to guide youth to a relationship with Christ through special interest programs like sports, music, and scouts. They have a big discipleship training program that over a hundred youth have participated in in the last year. That number doesn't seem huge, but it's big for them. Again, I find it interesting that in churches here there are more programs for youth than any other age group. The church is significantly smaller here, but as we talked with the people of Ecumenia, we discovered that many of the problems they are learning to address, we too are struggling with. I'm at bit saddened to hear about the numbers and percentages of people that attend church here (something like 4%, one local estimated). We visited a beautiful, old church, built in like the 12th century and when I asked the pastor how many they have in worship on Sunday his response was something like, "Heathens have populated this community for as long as..." That just sounded like a very discouraging response...it makes my heart sad. I imagine it can quickly get frustrating, though, when you have this amazing gift of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to share and learn that just nobody is interested. How can the church respond to an apathetic community? It's an extremely tough question to wrestle with...

After our visit to Ecumenia, we walked to Stockholm's city hall to have lunch on the water. It was beautiful! I learned that their city hall is where the Nobel Prize is given (not the Nobel Peace Prize, but the others). We got to walk around some and then climb into the tower and get a picturesque view of Stockholm and take some pictures. Afterwards, we walked over to old town to have "fika." Fika is basically afternoon coffee or tea. It's something our group has decided we need to adopt in the States. Our fika yesterday took place in old town Stockholm in this beautiful cafe in the hustle and bustle of everything. We all felt very European, though I know we still don't look it. We ate dinner last night at a delicious vegetarian restaurant, with a great view. We ate outside and we were all bundled up in our jackets and blankets. It's been a lot cooler here than I thought it would be, but I'm not complaining because I know it's been hot at home. Stockholm is a beautiful city and I really enjoyed walking around some. I only wish we had had more time there, and had been able to do more. I'll just have to come back sometime :)

Today we traveled north to Uppsala. It was a very cute, old town. We visited the cathedral there which dates back to the 13th century and is the seat of the archbishop of Uppsala. It was breathtaking and took us a full 30 minutes to walk around and see everything. Then we went to Museum Gustavianum, which is part of Uppsala University and has a huge collection of Egyptian antiquities. There were artifacts there that date back to 2000 BC. It was very cool and quite interesting. After lunch at a restaurant there in Uppsala we caught the 2pm train back to Marsta. Now we're relaxing before we walk to the church for a cookout and worship. We get to celebrate communion tonight, which I'm looking forward to. I'm used to having communion every week and haven't be able to on this trip, so I've missed it. I still remember how powerful Communion was for me when I was in the Dominican Republic back in November, so I'm hopeful of a very meaningful worship experience this evening. 


Thanks for following and hope you will continue to keep up these finals 10 days. Many blessings to everyone at home.


Peace,
Katie