Teaching....

So I really have to write on here more often. Sorry. I am great. Lots has been going on. I am falling in love with Sweden and the church I am working with. I am teaching Gary's daughter, which has been my favorite part of my experience/ministry here. She has been difficult to work with for other teachers and interns who have tried to work with her. I am the first real ballerina to come for the summer and really take time to see what she needs, both as a dancer and as an 11 year-old girl. Gary has seen a difference in Rebekah, which is so encouraging to me. The intern who was working with her this past year saw a change in her attitude within two weeks. God has been changing her heart towards ballet and it's a beautiful thing to watch and experience. I pray that at a young age she may see Christ's love for her through dance. I am also discipling her on Sundays on the shorter catechism and just talking about life.

I am going to be working with her to have her present some short pieces in a small recital for her family where she will be doing 2 solos. We will hopefully dance together, and I will dance a solo as well :) I can't wait! :)

Midsummer

This weekend was Midsummer which is a celebration of the summer solstice. It a wonderful excuse to fellowship and cook/eat amazing traditional Swedish food. I had Pickled herring. It wasn't bad. Had it with sour cream, chives, and a farsk potatis (fresh potatoes). My first time eating raw fish. It wasn't bad. If eat it with the potatoes and you can't taste it a lot. :) There were a smorgasbord of bread, cheese, meat and dessert. It was a beautiful sight.
That morning Allie and I went with the Johnson children to go pick flowers to make flower crowns. I was SO EXCITED!! We got a lot for all of us. Cristin made our crowns for us while we had Fika. When I get home, I would love to have people over for fika to talk about my trip and allow you to experience some Swedish culture. :)
We went dancing around the midsummer pole. We watched the professionals dance some of the traditional dances and I was trying to figure them out as I watched. Their costumes were lovely. I fell in love more and more with Sweden that day. It rained off and on and apparently it's tradition for it to rain on midsummer. :) I didn't mind. Traditionally you dress up in your summer church clothes, well the girls do at least. :)
The dancing was so fun. There is one about a frog and a cat. Its rather amusing. Some of it doesn't really make much sense but its funny. :)
That night the girls and I began our Pride and Prejudice marathon. :) It was wonderful. The girls are so fun and we laugh so much. I am so blessed to have these girls here. Allie leaves Thursday morning and I am going to miss her so much!

Long Last week....

This past week has been very busy. On Monday we had a day to relax, do laundry, and go to the grocery store. It’s so interesting working with foreign money. 100 krones= $15. So now when I see 99 k I have to take out my handy calculator and divide the price by about 7. It’s crazy. I also taught dance for the first time for Rebekah. She has a beautiful facility for ballet so it will be fun to work with her.

On Tuesday we began the big move from their current activity center to the old church building that is next door to my ground floor apartment. It has become quite the project. One of the interns had her birthday on Tuesday so we planned a surprise birthday party for her. She was clueless and very surprised. I put a fun play list together for it… K-Smooth still has it!! (That was for my fellow RA girls). I met two Swedish girls, Sarah and Louise. They are studying at Holaved School here in Tranas. They are studying children recreation and development. It’s like psychology in the states. They are so sweet. Me, Cristin, and Allie hope to have them over for dessert and a movie.

On Wednesday and Thursday, we continued the move to get ready for hosting a dinner/coffeehouse for the Holaved students to come and hangout with us. We had a pretty good turnout for the first time. About 6 or 7 students came. We hung out, ate, had Fika, and played games. The game “Signs” is really fun! Ask me about it the next time you see me. They stayed and hung out until 12am! It was fun to spend time with young people and it was a great time to unwind after 2 busy days of moving.

Friday was busy also, but in the evening we got to relax a bit. Went to check email and talk to my family. When I finished that, there was man who is playing baseball this summer talking to Allie. (There is a baseball team here in Tranas and players come for the summer to play on the team locally, from the States, Canada, or Nigeria.) He just asked her if she was a Christian and started to talk to her about her faith. He said he liked talking to people about their beliefs. He called himself an agnostic and took what he liked from religions such as Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism etc. I came in halfway through the conversation and listened for a while and asked some questions. He is lost, but I could see that he was also searching for the truth. He averted the conversation away from Sin and the Sovereignty of God. But what non-Christian would really want to talk about that anyway? It’s scary to think that we are sinners in the eyes of a God who is in control of our lives. It was so hard to get clear answers because his truth was so twisted and confusing. The beautiful thing about that conversation is that God’s truth would come out of his mouth. It was AMAZING!! That was encouraging to me and Allie when we debriefed about it afterwards: that God was in the midst of that conversation. His truth is always there even when someone doesn’t see or believe. I was encouraged by it because you knew that God was working in his heart. Every time he would say something, he would change the subject or sweep what he said under the rug. Pray for him. I want to respect him so when you pray for him, call him “Nicodemus” because he searched and found Jesus.

On Saturday we cleaned and went into town. Got some personal souvenirs. Saturday afternoon when we got back we cleaned the Johnson’s house because they left for a few days and needed their house cleaned. Having 10 kids it’s easy to get behind on the laundry. I have never seen so much underwear!! We came back and made dinner and watched a movie. “You’ve Got Mail” is officially one of my favorite movies. We had digestives and peanut butter and I added chocolate chips, accompanied by tea I am rediscovering my love for tea and peanut butter.

Sunday at church I sang in both services. It was so nice to serve in that way. The church I am working with joins with the local Methodist Church in the mornings and in the evening we have our own service. In the morning we had communion and it was beautiful. First our church went up and we stood around the altar while the minister served everyone communion. Then the Methodist members went up and they were predominantly older folks. It was a beautiful picture of the gospel as they knelt down, humbling themselves like children before God. I thought how easy it is to forget that even people with years of wisdom and experience still come before God repentant, in need of their heavenly Father to scoop them up, forgive, and love them.

My host family has two boys and expecting their third. We had a scare yesterday and she was rushed to the hospital. She was feeling very sick. Praise God she and the baby are healthy! They were charge of Open House after the evening service so his younger brother and I got food ready for that. It was my first project to do on my own. It was a success.

This week there is a ballet camp that I just found out about this morning. I am teaching ages 9 and up and 6-8 year olds. It should be fun. I have to start planning for those tonight.
I told you all I would be posting a long one! Please pray that I would be encouraged by what I am doing here. I have been feeling weary so pray that God would reveal ideas for my senior project and plans for after school, as I am teaching and serving her in Sweden. I love you all, praying that God inspires, grows, and encourages you!

Short...

I have been super busy; it's been a while since I wrote. I hope tomorrow to sit down and tell you all everything that has been happening. I just wanted to tell everyone that I am alive, and hope to write a super long post tomorrow!!! Pray for me in church. The services are in Swedish.

Love,
Krista

Oh my my my

This morning for church I went with Allie to Linkoping on the train. It was about a 40 minute ride. It is quite lovely, however I slept for a lot of the ride. We were supposed to do music but the service started at 10 but we were told 11 and didn't get there until 10:35. We thought we were early. After the service we had fika! It's a break in the day where you have bread, butter, cheese, and cucumber and some sort of sweet thing and coffee! It was lovely! :) After that a very nice lady took us to a beautiful Lutheran church. She took us around and told us about the church. She also bought us postcards! :) Allie and I went to a square to get some lunch. We had an AMAZING sandwich, chicken, pineapple, and cheese :) So yum! We met a fellow American who we sat with and talked with. He is doing his schooling in Sweden because it's free here. My dad would like the sound of that :). We went home on the 2:30 train and went to the grocery and went to the Pastor's house because I had to use the restroom and there was not point to walk back to the apartment because we had to be at the church at 4:45 for evening church. Stacy, the pastor's wife, makes homemade, natural lotions, cremes, and chapsticks. So cool! She has a website! We had night church and had communion. The church service is in Swedish so I didn't understand ANYTHING! It was really hard. Please pray that God would still use that time to grow, challenge, and show me his truth. After church we had Open House which is dinner, dessert, and bible study. You can hang out there as long as you wanted. It was a relaxing part of the night.

Tomorrow we have most of the day off and I have my first ballet class tomorrow! :) Excited!

More later!

I am here!!

So my journey was quite interesting. When I arrived in Sweden, no one was here to meet me because there was confusion
about when I was supposed to arrive. I was confused. The best part of the wait was people-watching. I was sitting on a bench next to the doorway of a restroom. It was an open doorway that split men and women's. There was a sign over the doorway but everyone who went in came back out and got confused, looked at the sign to see which side to got into. Made me laugh. I finally got picked up and had some lunch. I drove into Stockholm which was beautiful!! Here are some pictures. I had a wonderful mocha and Swedish cake. I am in Tranas now. It's rural and there are purple lilacs blooming. The girls I am staying with are so sweet. I think we will get along just fine. Tomorrow I will be helping them clean up for from the large group that was here. I am now hanging out with the other interns. Hope you all are well! God Bless!

Leaving on a Jet Plane....

So tomorrow I finally leave! It seems like it has taken forever for me to get here. I have looked at statuses and blogs reading about my fellow interns overseas and I have been here waiting. But the wait is almost over. God has really been encouraging me over this weekend. I am praying that all of my relaxing will do me some good for when I get over there. I have napped, journaled, and read. I feel ready to begin this journey will my God. I know that he will get me to where I need to me in my travels and in my walk with him.
I am so excited to be teaching kids all summer. They will probably teach me more than I will teach them. They have have a way of simplifying life for you in a way that is so beautiful. I think that is why childhood is so valuable.
Pray for me as I travel. Pray for the childrens hearts, but my heart as well. I want to be changed along with the kids. Also pray for my Sr. project. I need ideas, thoughts, inspirations, knowledge, understanding.
I am trying to figure out a way to add an option for you to get updates via email... working on it ;)
Love you all!!!