Church on the beach

To anyone else, the tent that we set up during the summer festival in our neighborhood here in Malmö, Limhamnsfestivalen, was just another tent.   People would stop by, walk into the tent (it was a place of shade from the hot summer sun), and say “what’s this all about?”  I’m wondering what it was that attracted their attention.  Was it the big sign that said “Wesley Church  welcomes you”?  Or perhaps, if you were about 8 years old or so, it was the Wheel of Flags and the face painting that drew your attention.  If you were a Swedish adult, and it was mid morning or mid afternoon, it was the promise of fika ~ and fika was for free today!  And it included sweets and cookies from around the world.  It could have been that your attention was drawn to the model church, which had a removable roof top so that you could see the inside of the church as it used to be.

Wesley Church welcomes you!

Model of the church with its' removable roof ~ alongside photos of the projected remodel/enlarging of the gathering space outside the sanctuary

Whatever it was that drew peoples’ attention to our tent last week, it was an amazing week of connections.  Connecting with the community ~ to share about Wesley Church, what we do in Limhamn, how our desire is to be an “every day” church.  We had Swedish language classes…..I know, that might sound a bit funny…language classes….on the beach….in the summer??!  But every day, in fact twice a day, we had language classes.  Swedish and English.  And there was always a good gathering of 6-16 people around the table, learning about birds, Stockholm, reading contextualized stories from the life of Jesus.  All the while enjoying a glass of ice cold water (if you needed a break from the intense heat), or a cup of coffee or tea from the Mid-dle East.  And a cookie or sweet from….Spanien, USA, Tyskland, Syr-ien, Finland, Danmark, Marokko.  You’ll have to go to Google translate if you can’t figure out the Swedish words!

Fika brought to you by....the world!

Every party tent needs a kids’ corner, and ours was frequented with a steady stream of kids wanting their faces painted.  Or, if they weren’t brave enough for a facial, then why not an arm?  In fact, even the adults got into the arm painting.  And, since we just celebrated the World Cup Football (soccer for our American friends) here in Europe and the world, flags of the world were an easy addition to the decorations.  Paint a flag on your arm.  Hang a string of flags across the entry way to the tent.  Spin the wheel of flags, and when the wheel stops on the flag from Albania, open the envelope and try to say this phrase.  First in Swedish, then in Albanian:  “Du är älskad!” (You are loved).  If you were willing to try to say you are loved in the new language, “Godis” (candy) was your obvious prize.  You could do it again.  And again.  And when the wheel landed on a language that you couldn’t read (for example, Arabic or Chinese or Korean or Japanese or Hindi), there was phonetic help so that you could at least try to say the phrase.  I wouldn’t say that we were speaking in tongues, but we were sure having fun introducing kids and adults to the languages of the world.

Setting up the kids' corner ~ a quiet moment as we start the day!

Wheel of languages ~ complete with a map of the world.  Lots of learning going on in the tent!

Our Bible corner ~ Bibles and kids' story books ~ for free.  Thanks to our partners who have shared funds to buy Bibles!

Four days.  Four long hot days.  Four long hot days in the midst of a super hot summer like Sweden has never seen.  In 150+ years!  But we managed.  It was clearly by the grace of God that we had the strength and energy to stick with it.  In spite of the heat and sun.

Church on the beach

Daily hauling the water to our tent ~ we even included ice cubes for those who wanted their water a little bit cold (which is not the European way, by the way!)

Took a trip down memory lane....can you guess which country's flag this is??

My new favorite word in Swedish ~ nyckelpiga!

Limhamnsfestivalen 2018.  It’s but a memory now, but wow, what a memory!