Happiness and The Ugly Duckling

“Then he rustled his feathers, curved his slender neck, and cried joyfully, from the depths of his heart, ‘I never dreamed of such happiness as this, while I was an ugly duckling.”

– Hans Christian Andersen, The Ugly Duckling

I thought it might be totally appropriate to use a Scandinavian author (Andersen was Danish, but close enough….we did fly into Copenhagen in order to get to Malmö, Sweden!) to begin this first blog post from Sweden with some thoughts from The Ugly Duckling.  I never dreamed of such happiness as this, while being a missionary in transition.  I didn’t have any feathers to rustle, and my neck isn’t quite so slender, but I do feel that I’m just crying joyfully from the depths of my heart as we crossed the finish line in the US and jumped across a big pond (okay, we flew across the ocean!) to begin this next journey that God has been drawing us to and preparing us for in these last 18 months.

Fika with partners from Excelsior Covenant, Minnesota

Fika at Excelsior Covenant....doesn't that look yummy??

Just when we thought that we had everything packed...

The end result heading to O'Hare Airport in Chicago

Pastor Aaron Thompson teaching us how to play Swedish Kubb in Minnesota....I mean, where else would you expect to learn how to play a Swedish lawn game except in Minnesota??!!

A very special gift from Aaron ~ tack så mycket!

Farewell fika at our home church, Bethlehem in Minneapolis

Though good byes are always difficult (I was surprised at how much I cried and how tightly I held my sisters when we said our final farewells at O’Hare!), we feel like we landed here with the blessings and prayers of our families, supporters, ministry partners and friends in the US.  At the same time, we have landed in the midst of the Wesleykyrkan I Malmö, where so many have expressed how they prayed so much for God to bring us here….to help the church….to welcome the new Swedes (the refugees).

Smögåstårten, our welcome dinner!  Thanks to our host and her amazing culinary skills.

Our welcome gift box, complete with train cards, bike maps, knäckebröd (hard rye krisp crackers), a Swenska Bibeln, maps of Malmö and Skåne, the region where we live, a Swedish flag and butt pads for outdoor seating ~ how fun is this! Oh yeah, and a box of Belgian chocolates to help ease our homesickness and Swedish salty licorice, which is a new taste treat that we'll have to get used to here in Sweden.

The view from our room

Learning Swedish while doing the jetlag thing....you might call it Swedish by osmosis!

So, no feathers, no slender neck, no, I’m not an ugly duckling…..just a happy missionary who is following God’s call on her life as she follows where Jesus is calling back to Europe and to a new adventure in Sweden.

Hej då!

Look who showed up on the church’s website!

http://www.wesleykyrkan.se/om-oss/blogg/