The Blog Experiment

Sometimes I can be very mysterious without even trying-- like when I go MONTHS without updating the lovely people all around the world who have been interested in God's work in and through my life! Oh dear. Sorry about that. I think I may have become as tired of writing the mass emails as you have become in reading them. But you still need to know what's happening in this crazy life and I still want to tell you! Enter: the Blog Experiment.

Perhaps you will prefer the sporatic mass emails landing in your inbox to the visiting of this blog from time to time on your own initiative (I'll still email now and again when there's an important update you should know of!). I imagine the updates here may be more frequent, shorter, and possibly more detailed than the periodic emails trying to describe months of heart, soul, and body activity! Please just be in touch whether through comments here or emails at the usual address and let me know if you're happy with the amount of information you're receiving in following this missionary girl's crazy journey!

As ever, thank you so much for sticking by me throughout the ins and outs of this strange kind of life in His hands! You are more important to me than you know for simply caring to take an interest.

I've uploaded all the past prayer letters from when I first moved to England to now and they can be found at the dates on which they were first sent. There's plenty of updating to come on what this funny English summer has held since college graduation in June so stay tuned! Until then--

His (and yours),
Leah

Graduation, Travels, Camping, and Transitions!!

"We forget that the accumulations of knowledge and the holding of convictions must finally result in the application of that knowledge and those convictions to life itself."
-- Jane Addams


Dear All,

So much has happened between now and the last time I wrote that I really haven't the words to explain it all!! So, instead I shall employ a few pictures to help, since, as you know, they're each worth a thousand words :)


My College Graduation
Graduation Slideshow: http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=102dzu8o.4atmj8r4&x=0&y=zdwv46&localeid=en_US

Firstly, on June 7th, 2008, I stood on the podium of a beautiful old Anglican church and received my B.A. Hons in Applied Theology, alongside the friends who have become family these years in Europe. It was a very emotional and intense day and I still can't believe this marks the end of my life at Redcliffe. But it was a beautiful celebration for us all as well, and my Mom came all the way over from Park Rapids, Minnesota to be there with me! And she brought along her two lovely friends Joyce and Lucy so I had the pleasure of sharing my Redcliffe with all of them as we picnicked with my friends in the Redcliffe garden that afternoon after the ceremony. Have a look for yourself at some of what the day held!


2 Weeks Travelling the UK with Mom and her friends!
Slideshow of Mom's Visit: http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=102dzu8o.b64otvcg&x=0&y=-fcpw7y&localeid=en_US

To mark this momentous occasion in my life and to have some time with my mom and her friends (which doesn't happen much these days of living abroad!), the 4 of us set off for 2 weeks staying in various places around the UK! Some of my fabulous friends had us over for meals and fun as we went, and we stayed in some fantastic parts of the country, like the picturesque Cotswold region, the green loveliness of North Wales, the dramatic Lake District, and, of course, London! Mom rented a car and drove us all over kingdom come and with Lucy and Joyce in the backseat, there was never a dull moment!! I loved being able to show off my England to people from back home and to see them interact with my friends over here was priceless. It was the experience of a lifetime and such a precious way to transition out of college...


Camping on the Cornish Coast to Celebrate Graduating!
Camping in Cornwall Slideshow: http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=102dzu8o.8zn8wgr4&x=0&y=lbvmdp&localeid=en_US

At the end of my two weeks with Mom and co., I hurried straight off to meet up with some friends I'd just graduated with (and one who hasn't graduated yet but whom we made an honorary third year for the duration of this camping trip :)) and head to Cornwall!!! We'd been planning a beach trip throughout the college year but found our 3rd year alot busier and heavier than we'd fully imagined and the trip had to be pushed off and off and off until 2 weeks AFTER graduation :) But it was a dream. We all met up in Salisbury where Abbie and Paul are living now and then spent 2 nights camping on the coast of the famed county of Cornwall-- a part of England I had always wanted to go and only just finally got to! These people have been very very important friends in my life and to have a little celebration of our own upon completing these 3 years together was very fitting. These photos especially, with their sea and sunsets and these precious people, speak thousands of words-- don't miss them!


Now?

Now I'm back in Gloucester living with Steve and Debs and their daughters (my vicar's family) and searching for summer jobs while planning out next steps. The plan is to be here til September; the hope is to take a position as a nanny, hopefully in Ireland, starting in January, and to spend the interim working with and learning from my missionary friends in Sweden again for a few months before hopefully coming home for the holidays to see my family and sort out new visas and such!

So, it's all a grand transition at the moment and I would appreciate all the prayers I can get as I seek God for the right direction for my next steps. I'm also needing Him desperately as I process all that my life at college has been, and all that He might want to do with it. It's easy to grow very discouraged in light of this huge end, but I'm aware that this new beginning has infinite potential if I follow Him closely enough.

Please pray as He girds up my faith and my heart for this new stage of journeying toward Him!! I fight off a feeling of being lost, lonely, little Leah as I wonder at my purpose now without a clear aim to head toward. I have a tumultuous head full of thoughts on mission in the traditional definition but feel that the step right in front of me may mean doing mission in a slightly less conventional way-- namely, working as I sort it all out and test out a possible country for long-term mission work. Maybe I'm just afraid of fundraising mission support!!! At any rate, this is a time in my life to seek out His heart for me and my purpose in it. I pray that I will grow so attuned to His heartbeat that my own will beat to its time...

Much much love to you from a recent college graduate learning to trust an unsafe-but-good God while practically homeless :)
Love,
Leah

"But if a man would be alone, let him look at the stars."
-- Emerson

1 Day to Graduation

“I don’t want to occupy this small space in time in mediocrity.”
– Beth Moore

Photos of life since Sweden here (or copy and paste: http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?mode=fromshare&Uc=102dzu8o.5w3q7czs&Uy=1a0d82&Ux=0&UV=447504236929_649396118208)

Photos of a special little seaside holiday here (or copy and paste: http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?mode=fromshare&Uc=102dzu8o.5n1j0bo0&Uy=-efszqj&Ux=0&UV=542733689914_369396118208)

A— It’s been Ages…again
I hope you'll excuse the absence of tremendously long updates from England these past months! These last few months of college have intensified as I’ve worked toward the end, including meeting the deadline of my year long project of dissertation! 38 pages of hardcore research and thought and deep emotions later, I have lived to tell about it! My work has been securely bound into a proper-looking book and sent off to be marked 3 times over-- here's to hoping it goes okay!

N—New Lessons
Dissertation was difficult in ways far beyond the obvious sheer amount of work because I chose to research and write on the topic of childhood abuse. Vulnerable children are very close to my heart, as is ministering to wounded hearts. I wrote to the title: "Holding our Palms against the Wounds; Christians Supporting Survivors of Childhood Abuse". I knew from the start that I was choosing a very heavy topic that it would be hard to be objective and academic about, what I didn't realize was how much God would use elements of my research to speak to me, to convict me, to change me, and how much the experience of doing my dissertation would interplay with my relationships here. It has been an emotional journey.

E—Enthusiasm to Finish Well
So, with dissertation out of the way, I stumbled right into my last 2 essays (Philosophy and Leadership) and an exam (Leadership), praying desperately for a final thrust of intellectual and emotional energy to finish well! Although I always knew this day would come, I could hardly know what it would feel like to tear my life away from this college which has been such a home to me, from these people who have been such a family to me. The life lessons, the faith lessons, have been more intense in these past 3 years here than any other time in my life, and my roots into this place go deep. As such, graduating will be a bittersweet accomplishment…

X— The eXciting Adventure of Following God
I never ever could have imagined that following God would lead me here, to this enchanting little college called Redcliffe, into the lives of all of these fabulous people, into Christian work in Northern Ireland , Romania , Sweden , and beyond. I never could have imagined that the draw to Europe would become a long-term call to World Mission. I know I sound like a broken record, but I am forever stunned at His desire to use someone even such as me. I can be so frustratingly shy, I never have instant answers but must think through something thoroughly before I can say much of anything about it, I am not a public-speaker, I have a horrendous memory for details of sermons, teachings, verses, other Languages don’t come naturally to me at all, and I am forever in a heavy process of growing and becoming which I don’t envision will ever come to completion this side of heaven. But somehow He’s willing to meet me where I am and teach me to ever open up my heart to Him and others wherever in the world I am.

In this way, I suppose, my life is showcasing His glory. And that’s, after all, the purpose of it all. So I continue the adventure…

“Life is not a problem to be solved;It is an adventure to be lived.”
-- John Eldridge

T—Tough Goodbyes
God’s given me great gifts here at college. Not only in maturing my mind, challenging my faith, and opening my eyes to the world, but in maturing, challenging, and opening my eyes to my own styles of relating—especially through enveloping me in cross-cultural relationships. I LOVE THESE PEOPLE. College Community is an intense experience of relationships because we are living together, learning together, hurting together, laughing together, eating together, playing together, worshiping together, being challenged together, and on and on the list goes. In the context of these intense, cross-cultural relationships God has taken me a long way in my own personal journey and I have shared my very heart with these lovely college friends, and held theirs as they’ve shared them. There have been tears—oh boy, have there been tears!—and there has been MuchMuchMuch laughter J, along with everything else in between! And we’ve been here for one another in it all; living right down the hall from one another; there for one another day or night, rain or shine, smiles or tears…

S—Staying in Europe…
So, in serving God, my passion for and interest in the cultures and people of this continent haven’t lessened, and though my degree is reaching completion, I get the feeling my life in Europe is only just beginning… I have a lot of seeking God to do for the details of my future and a lot of researching to do and contacts to make, but at least for the summer I’m going to be based here in Gloucester . It’ll be the first summer I don’t head for home!
The basic plan so far is that for the month of June I’ll be on the move. My mom and two of her friends from church (Faith Baptist Church in Park Rapids, MN) will be coming in just a few days for my college graduation! Afterwards, the four of us will be touring around England and Wales until the 21st of June. After a long-awaited camping trip on the beach in Cornwall with some college friends, I should be headed back to Gloucester where I’ll be staying with my pastor’s family (Steve and Debs Austin-Sparks of Kendal Road Baptist Church in Longlevens, UK, and their daughters Bex and Megan) until mid-August when my friends Lizzie and Neil are getting married and I’m reading at their wedding. After the wedding, it’s looking like I’ll head back to Sweden for awhile, to live with and learn from the missionary family I did my placement with this year.
From there, only God knows, and I’m expecting He’ll be helping me to know too as I enter this summer of seeking Him…

T—Trusting God…
"Now listen! Today I am giving you a choice between life and death... For I command you this day to love the Lord your God and to keep His commands, decrees, and regulations by walking in His ways. If you do this, you will live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you and the land you are about to enter and occupy... Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessing and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendents might live! You can make this choice by loving the Lord your God, obeying Him, and committing yourself firmly to Him. This is the key to your life."
--Deut. 30:15-16, 19-20
I opened my bible to this verse one night sitting teary-eyed in the garden and feeling very alone and afraid of not knowing what comes next or how I can cope with it. It is shrouded in uncertainty and I shroud myself in my own shame and inadequacy. But God tries to remind me that he has a plan to not only bless me, but to bless the (yet unknown) land I am about to enter and occupy... My place is to love Him. No more, no less. Because out of that love flows obedience in walking in His ways. And He is more than capable of caring in every way for one of His own.
“...All of You is more than enough for all of me...""...I can only make my one desire holding onto Thee..."

E—Enormous Love of God
In these three years of cramming into my mind theological views and doctrines and debates, God startled me this year by taking me right back to the very foundations in a powerful and sometimes painful way. As I’ve been busy pouring over Biblical commentaries and discussing ontological arguments and deontological ethics and analyzing cross-cultural leadership and all the rest, attempting to be educated, He’s been whispering to me of the one thing I must learn the deepest, the truest, the farthest. He’s been teaching me of His enormous, mind-boggling, grace-drenched, unconditional, un-understandable love and what it means to live in the soul-reaching knowledge that this love I confess isn’t just for the people I long to reach with it (duh!) but even for one such as me…. It’s an education I haven’t completed yet. But I can honestly say it’s a subject I’m very much taking in, and not just to regurgitate into an essay :)

“In His love and mercy He redeemed them. He lifted them up and carried them through all the years.” – Isaiah 63:9

“…You fear and tremble, as all your strength fails, and you feel utterly weary and helpless. And all the while He is spreading His strong wings for you to rest your weakness on, and offering His everlasting Creator-strength to work in you. And all He asks is that you should sink down in your weariness and wait on Him; and allow Him in His Jehovah-strength to carry as you ride upon the winds of His omnipotence. Dear child of God! I pray you, lift up your eyes, and behold your God!”
– Andrew Murray

P—Plea for Prayer!
My plea of prayer for you guys is for direction. I'm attempting to plan my next step. I have only a few certainties:
1.) My life is meant to be in Europe right now
2.) I've been offered a room rent-free with my English pastor's family ("my English family," as I more affectionately refer to them!) here in Gloucester for the summer. This would allow me to, hopefully, work a part-time job in the month and a half I have un-booked-up from the beginning of July to Mid-August.
3.) I've committed to reading at my friends' wedding here in England in August
4.) My English student visa runs out in October
5.) I've been invited back to work with and learn from Mike and Brona Van Weiden and Rescue Mission Sweden anytime and feel that God has a lot to teach me through these two with their lives devoted to ministry in Europe, but also pretty sure Sweden's not the place for me long term... at this point. So I’d like to possibly go to them for a few months after the wedding with the aim of getting home for the holidays and at the same time sorting out visas and such…

So, my dilemma comes in seeking direction for a next step after that. For those of you who pray, will you please start directing your prayers toward that end? And in my next email (because you’ve already sat through MORE than enough from me for now!), I’ll fill you in on the myriad thoughts in my head regarding a next step beyond the waif-like state I’ll find myself in these coming months!

So, as my college graduation approaches (7th of June), my mom and her friends Lucy and Joyce storm the country on the 6th (England won’t know what hit it!), and I get caught up in the bittersweet experience of moving on from an extremely challenging yet dearly loved stage of life, I write to you looking out over my romantic English garden view for the last time. I want to thank you for coming along on this journey with me as I consider the end, and thank you for coming along on this new journey with me as I consider a beginning. I can’t pretend I’m not scared, but I know perfect love casts out all fear, and I know you’re praying for me and Heaven is moving His ear to listen… So, thank you. And I’ll be in touch soon (far sooner than last time—sorry!!)

In His Love,
Leah

“With His love He will calm all your fears…” (Zeph 3:17)

“In waiting on God, His greatness and your littleness suit and meet each other most wonderfully.”-- Andrew Murray

Photo Update

Hey Everybody!

Sorry I've been so out of touch lately :( And this hardly counts as a proper update, really. I'm just sending out a link to a photo gallery to give you a slight idea of what some of the past few months have looked like-- outside of studying, that is. He is a big, big, beautiful God!

Dissertation is due in just a few weeks now so it's crunch time and I've been ill with Tonsilitus the past week and a half-- convenient timing, I know. Thankfully, today is the first day of a week and a half long term break! I'll take a few days off and spend some time away and then get back to my post in the library to get a few chapters of dissertation written and start on a philosophy essay!! I honestly can't remember what it feels like not to have academic work hanging over my head...

Thank you to all of you who have been praying for me and keeping up with me. You'll never know how precious you are in my life!

I will be in touch for real soon. Love to you all!
Leah <><

Photo link:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?mode=fromshare&Uc=102dzu8o.4h6kpxfs&Uy=ei6elm&Ux=0&UV=452533113609_242208307208

Swedish Update 3 (Finally!!)

“Give God His glory by resting in Him, by trusting Him fully.”
– Andrew Murray

Hello friends,

See the conclusion of my Swedish placement in photos here!
(Just look toward the end of the album if you've already seen the first ones...)

It is impossible to believe that my placement in Sweden has drawn to a close and I am writing to you from my own little English garden-view room at college. The time has flown by, each minute more full than I can ever hope to describe. Everything about my month in Sweden played out so purposefully, from my long and frustrating journey to get there when every placement opportunity seemed to shut in on itself, to every precious person He put in my path during my time there… Our God is so much bigger, so much grander, and so much more attentive and loving than we imagine.

My Little Secondhand Church
My last weeks in Sweden saw many exciting things in the Secondhand Church , the tiny international, rag-tag congregation that met at the Secondhand on Wednesdays and Sundays.
* My second to last Sunday I preached, much to my dread, and even sang, much to my further embarrassment! Despite how awful it felt, I’m told it went fine, and God had another opportunity to prove Himself strong in my weaknesses. I shared a message of God’s unconditional love, teaching from Isaiah 43:1-7—a passage that He had been using greatly to speak to my heart. So it was intensely personal and deep and I really found myself struggling with lots of personal negativity about myself afterwards, (maybe a sort of inverted pride?) but God had much to teach me even through that, so in the end, it was a positive challenge that I imagine He’ll thrust me into again in some way in the future J
* When I first came to Rescue Mission, Amida, a Muslim man and his family had just moved to Göteborg and had found us friends at the Secondhand. He began joining us at Sunday services and cell group on Wednesday nights. Mike assured me that by the end of my month with them, Amida would have given his life to the Lord… Well, my second to last Wednesday night, he did just that, and everyone at cell group had the privilege of seeing him ushered into the kingdom of God !! When he came to my last cell group a week later he had changed his name to Joseph and was joyfully seeking the face of God. It was a beautiful thing to see. I met 3 Muslims turned Christians through working at the Secondhand, though 2 of them were Christians in secret for fear of murderous ‘friends’ and family who wouldn’t be so happy to hear they had found Christ as I was!
* My last week in the church God really spoiled me with attention. Firstly on the Sunday a guest pastor prayed over each of us in the congregation from God’s heart and He used this prayer of prophecy to assure me in particular of specific work He’s doing in different areas of my life, and to affirm me. It was very powerful as this stranger didn’t know me from Adam, but God knows these things in my heart better than I do. Then at the end of my last cell group meeting the night before I left Sweden , everyone there anointed me with oil and prayed for the ministry God will use my life for! It was very precious and I felt entirely spoiled by the amount of love and goodwill God was showering on me through the special people of my little Secondhand Church . Also very humbled and awed to think that God wants to equip each of us, even someone such as myself, to carry His heart with powerful effect—the purpose He can infuse our lives with, even mine, is just… mind-blowing!!

Surprised by Belonging
Though I’d been there before and went somewhat familiar with the Van Weiden family and my Göteborg surroundings, I could never have foreseen how well and how quickly I would fit there. In 4 short weeks I found myself entrenched in real and lifelong friendships with people from the Secondhand Church, and I melded into that beautiful Dutch/Irish family filled to the brim with little brothers J There were days about town with Terri-Anne and slumber parties are her house, coffees and evenings with Betty, understanding chats and walks under the stars with my lone compatriot Robin, parties with other young adults from the Secondhand’s sort of sister church, Smyrnashyrkan, where I was instantly taken in as one of that close-knit crowd, Lots of playing with Bionicles and Transformers with my “baby brother” Jesse, hugs, hugs, hugs, and more hugs from my “little brother” Micha, so many talks on faith with “Papa” Mike, and myriad giggles, talks, and tears with my lovely Brôna as I worked through some deep things God was bringing up in my life… God has been using all of these people and more to whisper to me of His unconditional love—a love I am still getting a handle on and may forever be surprised by.

Lessons, Lessons, and More Lessons
My mind and heart are still all abuzz with the many lessons God seemed keen to teach me through those people, those situations—the biggest one being confidence. Over and over again what He was impressing upon me is that it is not by might, not by power, [not by skill, training, talent, method, technique, or inclination] but only by His Spirit (Zech. 4:6 in living colour!). Pastor Mike is a great man who seems intimidated by nothing (except heights J) and living with and working with him meant those of us who are intimidated by everything have countless opportunities every day to “turn fear into faith’, as Hannah Hurnard once wrote. And all placement long, I was seeing His response to faith despite my fears and insecurities and issues. “Papa” Mike drew on so many analogies to his father/son relationship with his boys to describe much of God’s relationship to us and in so many ways I felt like I was understanding that tender Fatherly heart for the first time, and so living in a new kind of boldness of faith because of it. I felt a boldness to reach into the lives of the people around me and place a soothing hand over any brokenness to be found, or simply to extend a hand of friendship through walls that needed breaking down— and sometimes they were my own. It’s forever that simple touch of human vulnerability pointing to the God of all strength that makes all the difference in people’s lives.

“With His love, He will calm all your fears…”
-- Zeph. 3:17

Hej då to Sweden
This placement, like last year’s placement, had the distinct mark of being right in line with the will of a masterful God, who sees every one of our life stories from start to finish in a glance. I am left with the hopeful feeling that He has started some big things in this girl of His this month in Sweden that He will be lovingly carrying on to glorious completion (and that is very exciting!). For those of you who pray, Mike and Brona have stated in no uncertain terms that they would take me back any time for as long as they can have me... as have the people of the Secondhand church. Perhaps it's no coincidence that I have been praying about what to do after graduation for the past 3 years now :) Perhaps you could pray with me for God to make His best way known to me and then to prepare the way! Perhaps I'll be back in Sweden before too long-- perhaps not. Needing direction!

"If you need wisdom-- if you want to know what God wants you to do-- ask Him, and He will gladly tell you."-- James 1:5

Thank you so much for your support in prayer and giving and simply caring what He’s up to in the hearts of His people the world over and experiencing that through my eyes!

His (and yours) back in England,
Leah <><

p.s. Slideshow of Photos: http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?mode=fromshare&Uc=102dzu8o.9zwk0kjs&Uy=-vs9jnc&Ux=0

A LONG Swedish Update #2

Dear All,

View photos of Sweden so far Here!

Sweden and The Sacred Romance of God…
The lovely crisp Scandinavian beauty of Göteborg is sweeping me up in itself again.

Coming back to Sweden for an extended period of time is a sort of coming home. It was Sweden where I remember God first really wooing me to trust Him in a radical way. I was 14 and came here on the good graces of an Aunt and Uncle spending a few years here for a job. Officially I came to be a help in the home and family, a bit of a youngish au pair; unofficially I came to learn a new side of God and His ways than I’d known before—chiefly how amazingly big and unlimited He is. Little did I know at the time that those 2 months would be the start of a lifelong love affair with Europe , with its people and cultures and histories, and the beginnings of a call into a life of ministry here.

So, He has brought me back full circle for this last of my college placements, into the arms of this beautiful port city, lifetimes older and more experienced and fully aware that all of those experiences began here 7 years ago when a lovely Aunt and Uncle and 3 little cousins invited a dreamy 8th grader over to their American home in Europe. Very young and quite fearful by nature, I discovered I had to throw myself on God again and again in hundreds of ways every day during those two fantastic months, and in so doing, I discovered He is more faithful, more attentive, more loving, more personal, and perhaps even wild about little old me, than I had realized was possible. I fell in love with Him then. And it has changed the course of my life.

“Make a careful exploration of who you are and the work you have been given, and then sink yourself into that.” – Galatians 6:4 (The Message)

This Year’s Swedish Experience
This month’s experience makes me miss my Aunt and Uncle and Cousins as all of these familiar places hold memories of them for me! But ‘my family’ this time around, dear friends of my relatives in fact, is completely delightful. I feel happier in life just knowing people like this exist in the world! Their 4 boys make sure I get a completely sufficient amount of hugs each day, Mike doesn’t leave a minute lesson-less, and Brôna models for me the kind of wise, loving, and fabulously fun!, woman of God I would love to be. We delight now in keeping girly secrets from all the boys around us and she seems to sense when I most need a hug these days J

The Secondhand store is no ordinary charity shop, I assure you. People come simply to hang out in the special atmosphere of the place, drawn to the fragrance of Christ there whether they realize that’s what they like about it or not. My first day I had the delight of hearing a lovely old Norwegian man telling me stories in very difficult Swe-nglish over a cup of tea in the shop café, stopping in only for the company of the place, and this past week I had an extensive and amiable conversation (in perfect English!) about relationship with God with an Atheist professor from the local university!!

The volunteers too spend their days at the shop because of this atmosphere, and the dynamics are unlike any I have known before.
» Elin is a young Swedish agnostic who works there 4 days a week and isn’t afraid to tell people she doesn’t know what to think about God right now, opening up doors to dialogue about knowing Him (as she deals with a drug problem she keeps on the down-low).
» Demitri is a smiley old Bulgarian man who lives in a room at the back and does odd jobs like carpentry, cabinetry, and roofing. He has a testimony of Hollywood action film proportions and can tell you of God’s pursuit of His heart through a shipwreck, a near-death-experience in the Saharan desert, and 2 years in an Italian jail for a murder he didn’t commit. The man exudes Christ’s joy and his name for me is usually “angel” J
» Teri-Anne is a young mother from Singapore married to a Swede who spends long days helping at the shop simply because she enjoys the people so much. She communicates her faith with straightforward profundity to anyone who will listen, and feeds as many mouths at meal times as Mike musters up. She’s already become a lovely new friend and we marked the completion of my first week in Sweden by spending a day on the town together with her gorgeous 7-month-old boy in tow…
And those are just a few of the rag-tag group of volunteers God has drawn together to run this shop!

We have a cell group meeting there after closing time on Wednesdays. Mike is very purposeful about the church feeling like a family, and eating together is an important facet of that so we all share a meal and then share our lives. My first week we discussed Matthew chapters 1-4 and Mike explained the gospel to the Muslim family who joined us for the evening (!!!). Like I said before, the shop is a pivotal location for this group of Believers to be meeting because unbelievers can join in with such ease. It is a beautiful thing.

Sunday service has a small active membership of about 20ish people and sees upwards of 40 on a full day at the moment. The morning of my first Sunday here Mike announced at the breakfast table that it would be great if I could present my testimony in the service that day. Naturally, I panicked a bit and when it actually came time to stand up front and speak I had to grip the podium just to keep from falling over on shaky knees. Stage fright forces everything I mean to say straight from my thoughts and leaves me floundering for the right words. I felt appalling, but I’m told it made sense despite my wordless state and afterwards I got many (needed!) hugs and a strange man asked for my number (?!?), which I think is probably the weirdest reaction I’ve ever gotten after inflicting a bout of public-speaking on a room!

In a church this size it is impossible to get lost in a crowd, and getting lost in a crowd is something I tend to find rather comfortable! But I can appreciate what God is up to in bringing me into this body of believers where everyone has a part to play-- even if it means that I’ve spoken at my first week, led worship at my second, will be preaching at my third, and probably leading the Sunday School class at my fourth!!!

“It has been said, ‘Attempt something so big that without God’s help it will surely fail.’ In other words, we need to stretch beyond our comfort zones if we’re to discover the joy-filled reality of ‘quietly depending upon the Lord for his help, and not on our own skills’ (2 Cor. 1:12).” – Marlene Bagnull

Some Things He’s Up To in My Heart
There’s some poetic beauty in the fact that it was a Sunday in Sweden 7 years ago that God was coaxing me out of my shy and insecure shell by putting me up front and asking me to share as if I had something of value to give. I was 14 and my Auntie Melissa talked me into singing a duet with her up in front of the huge International Church they attended. Before this time, I wouldn’t even sing aloud in the car. It was a big, big deal in my young life and a tremendous step in following hard after a glorious God.

Insecurity has been getting the best of me again lately; an inability to trust God when He says I am infused with worth despite any and all short-comings and faults. I go blind to all strengths and gifts and suddenly find everything about myself now, then, and in the future a terrifically mortifying flaw. Putting my hopeless self in a position to be noticed is the LAST THING I would ever desire to do then, and so naturally it is exactly what must be done. Oh, the mysterious ways of this King Jesus… J So suddenly I’m here in a new place, new situation, with new people desperate to put my best foot forward but unsure about whether I have a “best foot” at all… Dire straights, people-- without His grace I am in dire straights! So He’s using this time of life to bring me into this biggest of my life struggles, to walk through its sources, face my giants, and come away with some enlightenment and healing so I can go on to serve Him better, fuller, truer. A broken vessel, yes, but one that doesn’t condemn itself for being so!

Sweden is a special place to me as it is one of the many places that an Almighty Sovereign God has stooped to confront a shocked-and-awed me at eye level. He uses it to whisper yet again of purposes He has for my life in its every nuance that I can only vaguely see. Passing through this fire the Lord is gently coaxing me into, I shall emerge from the other side more alive than I began… because I’ll be more fully His. And that end is worth everything it takes to get there.

So, I’m praying you’ll join me wherever our awesome God in His loving sovereignty has you. I’m praying you too will let Him challenge all your motives for your perspectives, probe all your wounds, and that you’ll listen to His call out of all your comfort zones. I’m simply struck by how much more He wants to do in all our lives than we let Him…

“Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of highest privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory.” -- Romans 5:1-2


Here’s to looking forward confidently and joyfully!
His (and yours) in Sweden ,
Leah <><

(Link to Photos again: http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?mode=fromshare&Uc=102dzu8o.9zwk0kjs&Uy=-vs9jnc&Ux=0)

Swedish Update #1

Hej Kompisar! (Hello Friends!)

And so the greatly-anticipated mystery placement commences and I write to you all from a bright and chilly Sweden!

On January 21st I was welcomed back to one of my favourite places in the world—Göteborg, Sweden! I’ve come to stay with and work with one of the loveliest families in the world, the Van Weidens. Mike is Dutch and Brōna is Irish and they’ve been living in Sweden for 10 years now with their 4 fantastic boys, aged 17, 15, 13, and 7. With two teenaged foster boys as well, it is a testosterone-packed house and Brōna needs a little feminine company :) So, what was a busy family of 8, with me makes 9 and I think it’s perfect!

Rescue Mission Sweden
Mike and Brōna run a ministry called Rescue Mission Sweden which translates practically into running a non-profit business in the city called Rescue Mission Secondhand. The Secondhand’s purpose is twofold. Firstly, it’s about making contact with people who need Jesus. It specifically provides work for people who are struggling to function in society such as addicts, especially those trying to get clean and work themselves out. And generally if they aren’t on that path before they come into the shop, after some time getting to know Mike and Brōna they often are :) God continually brings the right people to the shop at the right time and asks Mike and Brōna to be there to love on them and then watch Him change lives! I think this is very exciting.

Secondly, whatever profit is made by the shop goes to a Swedish-based organization called Barn i Nöd, translated Children in Distress, which provides homes for children in need across Asia, Africa, South America, and Eastern Europe.

Besides those two main purposes, the shop has also taken on the role of a church itself. It is an especially safe place for the previously ‘unchurched’ to interact with the body of Christ because it doesn’t come with the inherent threat of a proper religious building and instead fellowship and worship is very casual and at ease, letting people feel one of a family. Besides the service on Sunday held at the shop with anywhere between 10 and 40 attendees at the minute, there are bible studies and prayer meetings held throughout the week. God is moving in exciting ways through this unassuming shop, providing a safe place for people to meet who might otherwise never step foot in a Christian church, including most recently a Nigerian Muslim! Please remember to pray for the people God’s drawing into contact with Rescue Mission Sweden!

The object of my placement here in my thinking is most importantly to be a help and a blessing to Mike and Brōna. When I was praying frantically for God to provide me with a placement after so many placement options had fallen through and I was running out of time, He laid the Van Weidens heavily on my heart but I couldn’t shake the feeling that it was terribly presumptuous of me to call them up and ask if I could come stay with them for a month! I saw from the get-go what a valuable experience it would be to shadow this missionary family as they are both foreigners serving in a European country (like me) and serving not with a structured organization, but simply (or not so simply!) following God wherever He moves and reaching out with His love in whatever capacity they have before them (potentially the kind of ministry I’ll do), and to top it off, they are raising a family and being foster parents (things I too would like to be able to do!). The experience seemed ideal for me, but could be a total inconvenience to them! So I prayed that if I called them it would be in answer to their needs as well. And as it turns out they’ve been praying for some help for awhile now! When I called, Brōna didn’t even have to consult Mike before she asked, “So, when can you be here?”

A Helping Hand and an Observant Heart
So, here I am to be a helping hand and an observant Heart. I’m going to be helping at the shop in the practical things involved in running a store as well as simply being a light to the customers and to the volunteers who are many of them getting clean from drugs and drawn to this Jesus we live for There’s also a coffee shop area that I’ll be helping in.

As far as the church goes, I’ll be helping with Sunday School, worship-leading, and Brōna would even like me to try to preach one Sunday! We’ll see about that one :) But after all, God seems fond of stretching me!

At home I live like one of the family. Jesse (7) and I are already fast friends and are collaborating on a small book just for fun, called “Oskar the Sea Monster,” written in English as opposed to most of his schoolwork done in Swedish J He and Micha (13) are my enduringly patient Swedish tutors. They are also showing me around the neighbourhood and today I took my first solo walk through the Swedish woods, which are full of moss-covered rocks and cliff-like stone hills. They look exactly like you’d imagine the Scandinavian trolls to live in and exploring them in the chilly air gave my little adventurous soul a thrill :)

An Invite to Sweden
I would love to invite all of you to Sweden this month :) Though physically it might be a bit difficult, you can make the trip by joining me in much-needed prayer and support!

Mike and Brōna make no profit through all the ways they spend themselves for the sake of the gospel and yet they didn’t even hesitate to take me in to their home! I’m praying that God will provide through your open hearts the money to cover all placement expenses plus to make a gift of money to the Van Weidens when I leave, as they expect to keep me as their guest! If God moves your heart to support my short term mission this year even a little, please send checks payable in my name to:
(address removed)

Additionally, we’re praying to find a good Sunday school curriculum (in English) for the Secondhand church (one for teens, one for children). If anyone has any leads for us or the means to provide us with this, please let me know!

As always, please keep joining me in prayer about the Holy Spirit’s work in this hurting world!

» Pray for everyone who enters the Secondhand that their hearts will be open and they’ll run out to meet our Father with His arms open wide to them!

» Pray for Rescue Mission Sweden and the vessels God’s using to pour Himself through here and that I might be a blessing to them!

» Personally, I would ask you to pray for my own courage and confidence as He places me in another different corner of the world for this month. May I trust Him without fear!

His (and yours!) in Sweden,
Leah

“All that matters is faith expressing itself through love.”
-- Galatians 5:6