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Archive for the ‘Luleå’ Category

Transition!

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Nice view out our living room to the balcony and then the grill place (brown structure)

Transition is the name of the game right now. After 8 months of being transients, we moved into our apartment on Feb. 28!! Woohoo!!!! It’s great to have so much help from friends!!! We’re not quite settled yet. The apartment needed a lot of fixing and we’re now in the final phase of wallpapering. Fortunately, the landlords arrange all of this. So hopefully, we’ll be all settled in by the end of April. It’s about 1/2 hour drive to take the kids to school, so we’re getting used to that also.

Our church is also going through a significant change of location right now. Please keep Kroskyrkan in prayer – change is never easy  for a church! And for us as it impacts our ministry as well.

The Swedes have a 5th season they call spring-winter!! It’s now, while we still have quite a bit of snow and ice, but the days are getting quite long, sunny, and warm!! And so, we are all about transition, leaving the cold, dark, insecurities behind and looking forward to a season of warmth, sunshine, and growth!! It reminds me (Gwen) of my life verse, Philippians 3:13 & 14 – “Brothers and sisters, I don’t consider that I have taken hold of it yet. But here is the one thing I do. I forget what is behind me. I push hard toward what is ahead of me. I push myself forward toward the goal to win the prize. God has appointed me to win it. The heavenly prize is Christ Jesus himself.”

Category:

About us personally, Church, Luleå, Ministry, Uncategorized

Colors of fall!!!

Fall is now here and gone, but the memory of it lingers on. Yellow birch trees again the dark green of the firs; brilliant sunshine coming through the trees, bouncing off the water; courageous lovely flowers continuing to show their colors; bits of bright orange and red every once in a while. That’s our fall, quickly come and quickly gone!! Now the snow lends its beautiful shimmery white to our nordic landscape!!!

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Category:

Luleå

Luleå happenings

Friday night, Tony, Jensina and I took a stroll through Luleå’s city park. Cold, but fun!! Then, today we had the final celebration for Jensina’s birthday. We went to the Adventure Water Park in Boden with one of the girls’ friends. I thought you might like to see some pictures. Hope you enjoy!!!

Fredag kväll tog Tony, Jensina och jag en promenad genom Luleås stadspark. Kallt, men kul! Idag hade vi den sista fest för Jensinas födelsedag. Vi åkte till Adventure Water Park i Boden med en av flickornas vän. Hoppas du njuter fotona!

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Category:

About us personally, Luleå

Family night crazies!!

What do you do for family night in the dead of winter? Well,  here’s one idea from my fun & crazy husband!!!!

Swimming anyone???
Swimming anyone????

I’s only -26.6 F (-32.6 C)!!! I swim in the summer, he swims in the winter!! Think we’re opposites?? He standing  just under our balcony decorated with the garland and lights. It’s getting lighter now; the sun doesn’t go down till about 3:30. But  it still makes it more cozy with the lights. 🙂 We enjoy them outside our living room windows!!

Here’s a couple more shots of our apartment complex.

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Category:

About us personally, Learning about Sweden, Norrbotten, & Luleå, Luleå, Norrbotten

Thanks for your prayers!

Thanks for your prayers for Jonathan and Frank. Jonathan, my nephew, is home from the hospital again. He has his ups and downs and needs continual prayer. But we are relieved he is home. My sister-in-law’s brother, Frank, is still in the hospital but doing much better! He’s eating again, walking with assistance, and has his sense of humor back. Thanks so much for praying, friends!!

On the lighter side of things, who can go to the local grocery store and pet this????

Category:

About us personally, Luleå, Uncategorized

Facebook comes to Luleå!

Who ever said  arctic climates don’t serve a purpose? Facebook just announced they’re building a new data center right here in our home town.  Click here to read about this massive project being built about 10 minutes from our apartment.

We’re also reading that folks in the Philly are getting snow today (Saturday), They’re not supposed to get the white stuff before us…what’s up with that? SO JEALOUS!

Category:

Luleå

Visit from 1st Baptist!!!

The summer has sped by with lots of swimming, biking, playing with friends, and relaxing times. The big event to end our summer was a team coming from our home church, First Baptist of Morrisville, to minister with us. It was wonderful, like a home-coming to us!!! Our niece, Charissa, was able to come so that made it all that much more special!! They arrived on August 22 and our job that first day was to keep them up all day!!! We did it!! They learned the word fika (anything from a sweet treat to a sandwich with a drink, usually coffee) very quickly at our home and then we went into Centrum (city center) for a prayer walk! At the top of Stadshuset (City Hall) we could look all over Luleå! There we prayed for the people of the city with an empty chair to represent at least 1 person coming into a friendship with Jesus! It was great to have the team here sharing in our small groups, praying with us, helping the church clean a room to start a cafe, visiting the university campus, doing a marriage seminar, getting to know our friends here, and leading worship and preaching at church, etc. And we had a great time showing them our city!! We have been blessed to hear of a person coming to know Jesus, partly as a result of the marriage seminar!! God filled that empty chair!!! Here are some pictures of their time here to give more of a feeling of how it all went!! Team, we miss you all!!

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Category:

Luleå, Ministry