Heja Raz and Linds

Raz and Linds, originally uploaded by cutjas.

Heja (hello, in Swedish),

I had a jammed packed week. During the week Carolina (the youth pastor at Crossroads) and myself finished a rather nice flyer that we had been working on for a week or so. It was detailing out all the happenings at Crossroads over the next month and let me tell you there are happenings a plenty. The bulk of my week was spent working on the flyer. This had to be finished by Thursday, because I was off to Sweden on Friday.

I flew to Stockholm Friday morning for a conference put on by the Swedish organization EFK (http://www.efk.se/). The conference was focusing on the state of the church in Sweden. The conference was very informative and helpful in understanding the religious situation in Sweden. We saw several presentations by leaders of EFK about the history of, the present situation and future hope of the Church in Sweden, from a Swedish perspective.

EFK stands for Evangelical Free Churches. EFK seeks to unify the mission efforts in Sweden by unifing churchplanters and mission organization together to be more strategic. The state of the church in Sweden is very dire right now. One statistic that sums up the situation is this; in Stockholm (Sweden’s largest city at roughly 2 million people) there is 1 church for every 14,000 persons. That number is expected to grow in the coming years. What that means is that even if people were asking questions there really is no church presence there at all to join in the conversation.

There is a great challenge in Sweden, but there is also great things happening. We heard testimony of new people coming to faith in the existing churches. God is moving in Sweden. Even though Sweden is in one of its darkest hours, as far as, the church is concerned. I did go away inspired to see what God will do in Sweden.

If you wish to pray for Sweden the biggest needs are leaders and encouragement. After years and years of discouragement, the Swedish church leadership is very discouraged and needs help. This conference was the church reaching out to the world saying we need help here, as a church we are dying. It is a very humbling thing to have to ask for help for something, traditionally, you have done very well and that is where Sweden is. Traditionally they have been at the forefront of missions all around the world and now they themselves have become a mission field and are asking for help.

After the conference I was able to spend sometime with my good friend Rasmus and his lovely (and pregnant) wife Lindsay. It was very good to see familiar and friendly faces, Rasmus and I picked up where we left off, by having hamburgers and watching soccer. It was a good time to rest and reconnect with old friends, halfway around the globe. We spent Sunday walking around Stockholm and eating sushi. The trip was too quick, but we still cherished the time. If you think of it Rasmus and Lindsay are expecting a daughter in the next week or so, please keep them in your prayers.

The other major issue that was going on for myself was severe discomfort in my lower back. Since, last Friday I had been experiencing severe pain in my lower back. There was swelling and shooting pains. This baffled me the whole weekend, but the pain kept growing worse and worse. Until this afternoon, I had laid down for a nap and when I woke up I realized that this swollen thing had begun to discharge out of my back. At this point Andrew rushed me to the doctor and they diagnosed it as a boil, yes a boil! (http://www.webmd.com/skin-problems-and-treatments/tc/boils-topic-overview)

At this point a little needs to be said about the Dutch medical system here. It is notorious for being quite brutal and that was the case. They don’t like to treat people unless its absolutely necessary and they don’t like to give anesthetic or antibiotics.

I knew things were going bad when the doctor said this, “ok, now we are going to spray a cooling agent, pause, ok, now I am going to make the incision.” At this point I almost stopped him, incision!!! Before I could I was experiencing some serious pain and could barley breathe let alone yell at the doctor. The Doctor cut into the boil and then began scrapping out the infected area. This created a sense of…well…pain.

As I laid their on the table clutching the wall with all my strength and shaking uncontrollably from the pain. The doctor said, “It’s a medieval disease, which requires a medieval treatment.” As you can imagine this comment did not raise my confidence in the doctor’s abilities. The doctor was kind enough at one point to pause, so that I could catch my breath, but then he went at it again and I laid their in the fetal position squirming and doing everything I could to not scream in agony.

In all fairness, the treatment was far cheaper than I am used too, but honestly I think I would have paid triple for it not to be so painful. I am feeling better, but I have to…well someone here has too, dress my wound each day. I can now say I have been through the hell that is the Dutch medical system and well it was an experience…a very very painful experience.

I was able to have a good laugh about it on the way home…after I stopped shaking that is. I wonder what the next week will bring, maybe an infestation of locusts or frogs will over run the city. One can only hope.