How do you start your week???

En vecka, två veckor.

Vecka 8.

Some of the most important words that we learned when we moved to Malmö in 2017 were one week, two weeks.  And the all important week 8.   We also learned that the Swedes count their weeks just a bit differently than we do in the US. 

For example, the first day of the week here is Monday, and Sunday is the last day of the week.  So when you’re planning activities for Sunday, it’s good to know that your Sunday of week #8 is 24 February,  not the 3^rd of March.  Often, you won’t even get dates for an event; people just talk in “weeks”.  Vecka 8 is winter break.  Vecka 25 is that all important Swedish summer holiday, Midsommar, when everyone celebrates and eats lots of strawberries and cream and herring and little sausages and meatballs, and then everyone goes on vacation.

Don't be easily fooled....this is my Swedish agenda....

Funny that my Swedish agenda is written in English....but it counts the weeks like the Swedes!

So, vecka 8 started today.  School kids are on vacation, but the life of the church goes on.

I’ve been pondering on an interesting comment that our pastor made last Monday (vecka 7).  We have our staff meeting first at 10:30am. And then, since vecka 4, we have started with a weekly gathering for prayer which we call “bön och bröd” (prayer and bread).  It’s a time when we start with sharing the Lord’s prayer together, then one of our staff shares a scripture passage and some reflections.  We sing together, and pray together (I mean, that’s what we’re here for, right??!)  We close out by sharing a blessing from the Old Testament.  And then we eat a bowl of soup and some bread and enjoy that all important moment known throughout history ~ the gift of hospitality.

Another gathering for prayer and this time "frukost" (breakfast)

It was David’s comment last week that struck me:  how good it feels to start our week together with prayer.  Which made me realize that, with the Swedish system of counting weeks, we start our week with prayer and reading Scripture and hospitality (our Monday bön och bröd) and then we finish our week with prayer and reading Scripture and hospitality (our Sunday morning worship service, with music, activities for kids, solid preaching, and that all important time of the day:  Fika!)

What a way to live life!

Start the week with prayer and soup/bread.

End the week with prayer and church fika (coffee, sandwiches, cookies).

Souls are fed.

Bodies are fed.

We are reminded of God’s incredible faithfulness.

All the veckor in the year! 

Our kids building a "church" in Sunday school....

I love it that the kids placed the green chair right in the middle.  It was the place for prayer, they said....and the Bible is on the green pillow just in back of it, to the right.  From the mouths of our babes!

And because we're in Sweden, there has to be a place for fika at church.  Check it out, they even matched the colors of the cups and plates!