The church that plays together, stays together!

One wonderful Saturday in August 2023, in fact it was the last Saturday in August, our local ministry partner, Wesleykyrkan, gathered young and old alike to hang out together and be the church together.  Priceless.  Simply Priceless. (And no, I’m not receiving any benefit from using those words from the old MasterCard commercials!).

Where God showed up at Nybostrand ~

 

And because we are in Sweden, there was a "morgondop", a morning dip in the sea, scheduled at 7:30am for both Saturday and Sunday.  No pictures of those who dipped, but we were 10 participants who braved the cold to get out into the sea.  Priceless!  Definitely a bonding experience!

 

We were 59+ who spent the day together, worshiping God thru our music and song and our words and activities and our prayers and teaching.  We focused our eyes on a couple of truly rich Bible passages from the New Testament:  spiritual gifts from 1 Corinthians 12, and the greatest of all being love from 1 Corinthians 13.  We had our elders with us.  We had our kids with us.  We had our teenagers with us.  We had our young adults with us.  We had our Ukrainian friends with us, who took along their mom/grandmother who was visiting that week from Kviv.  Did we have fun?? Best way to describe it….way too much fun!

 

And the sun came out!  And all the Swedes and new Swedes among us bathed in the sun.  Nothing like having a fika break, or having to wait for a meal, while bathing in the sun!

Just so you know how important the sun coming out was for us...this is what we woke up to on Saturday morning...those of us who were responsible for planning were wondering how our time outdoors was going to go....

Enjoying a break in the sun ~ cuz it did come out!

Okay, we aren't artists, but we all came forward with a post-it note that illustrated what our gifts were and put them up on the body.  We later hung this artwork in our church, to remind us of what we had learned together.

 

Years ago, when team Swanson lived in Belgium, we often had to fold bulletins on a Saturday night.  As in, late on a Saturday night.  We didn’t have any office staff at the church in Antwerp, and the bulletin was often a work in progress until the latest moment late on a Saturday night.  We’d be sitting in our little kitchen, smiling (okay, mostly smiling and perhaps not always smiling!) and folding and often we shared this thought:  The family that folds bulletins together late on a Saturday night stays together. 

On a recent vacation to Belgium and specifically to Antwerp, we were able to be together with our beloved AIPC community (Antwerp International Protestant Church) for a Sunday morning worship service.  No one is using bulletins here any longer, but wow, the family being together.  Priceless!

 

 

This thought is actually based on the statement from generations past “the family that prays together, stays together.”  Perhaps you have even seen this phrase online somewhere, or put it up in your home.  

These pictures only give you a glimpse of some of the movement that was going on in the room.

Throw in some decorations, and it was just. good. plain. fun!

 

 

We’re just expanding the considerations for how a family, a church, a community can stay together.  So pray together.  Fold bulletins together.  Play together.  The most important part is:  do it together!