This is what vacations are made of

Long walks. Good coffee. Cross stitching. Reading. Naps. And meeting family members in remote villages in the central part of Sweden that, prior to 3 years ago, never even existed on the map for me/us. 

 It was the vacation that one dreams of ~ a bit of gathering with friends, a bit of preaching (okay, maybe that’s not on your list of vacation dreams but it worked well for us), a bit of driving, some ice cream. 

We started out via Göteborg, preached in the Sävedalan church there where our good friend Derek is associate pastor. The senior pastor there invited us to stay in her family’s guest space out on the island of Donsö, where no cars are allowed. Taking a ferry out to the island and then being picked up in a golf cart was a super fun first vacation 2021 memory. 

Smörgen:a favorite vacation place for our hosts, a new discovery for us!

Hanging out with our friends and their "little dog that could" ~ he had a killer dog bark that often took us by surprise!

It was easy to slip into vacation mode with these words

After hanging with Derek and his family, we drove up to Värmland, specifically to Värmskog, where we hung out with my 2nd cousin and enjoyed wonderful salmon with dill and fresh potatoes in the lovely outdoors. After a stroll down the road towards the church and then to the beach, we ended up on the piece of land where the original church had stood….twice! We took time to pray there, on my knees, with my shoes off because I was reminded that we were on holy ground and many prayers had been prayed there in this space. 

It's the vacation hat and sunglasses....lots of sun!

Steve in Värmskog, home of Barb's mormor (materal grandmother)

It's amazing at how "at home" I feel in this place!

Then on to Kil, also in Värmland, where we ended up in a B&B on the lake Fryken. Having never visited Kil or been near Fryken in my life, it was fascinating to see that this lake runs 80km (about 48 miles) long. We were staying on the lower Fryken but our destination was the Upper Fryken. We landed in Lysvik, which is the village where my grandfather grew up and left when he came to Chicago in 1917.       LOOK OUT FOR ANOTHER BLOGPOST JUST ABOUT DISCOVERING MY MORFAR’S (GRANDPA’S) FAMILY! 

We have friends who have moved up from the Netherlands to Kil as missionaries working alongside Equmeniakyrkan (our partner denomination, The Uniting Church of Sweden), and lunch/fika with them was a great time to catch up and hear about life and ministry challenges and to pray for each other. Back to Lysvik for Sunday and meeting the family.

Hard to decide what was the most fun about this afternoon fika...hearing Dutch again (similar to the Flemish we spoke in Belgium), hanging out on vacation, or just hearing and sharing from our hearts and praying together!

On to Dalarna, where we didn’t do one single typical tourist thing that one does when one goes to Dalarna….not because we weren’t interested, but because most tourist attractions weren’t open. This was either due to the ongoing corona virus pandemic or because many summer things open up after the 15th of June, just in time for midsommar and then all the summer guests. So…no Carl Larson house tour, no Dalarna horse factory tour…it just gives us more reasons to come back one day to Dalarna.  After being tucked away in a cabin near Lake Siljan (okay, we did take one touristy kind of photo, actually two….check them out below!), we drove over to Dala Järna. 

I call this one the "unclassic Dalarna horse"

On the long pier in Rättvik, didn't go for a swim but we sure enjoyed the ice cream!  And the sun!  And the cool breezes!

Now, you might wonder what is there to see in Dala Järna?? Well, up until 4 months ago it was just another Swedish village in Dalarna. But when our dear friend Maria moved up there to take on a new call to a church there as their new deacon/pastor, it wasn’t a place where we would have landed, it’s quite safe to say. We had lovely days with Maria and her dog Texas and her congregation as we hung out for Fredags fika (Friday afternoon coffee) and then preached again on Sunday. It was so wonderful to be actually in the church with real live people in the house, as Sweden just had lightened its’ corona restrictions on 1 June so that 50 people can be in a building with marked seating. Worked for us! 

Thanks to a tip from friends in the US who have a heart for Sweden, we took this walk along Lake Siljan in Leksand to contemplate scripture passages that lead up to Jesus' death and resurrection.

At the end of the Via Sacra there was a cross ~

What a fun pair to hang with ~ she really knows her way around and we got to see God's beauty in nature and the people of Dala Järna

We’re back home for the summer now, which give us time to hang with our refugee and immigrant friends who are all staying close to home in Malmö and Skåne (the southern region of Sweden where we live). It was a great 2 weeks on the road. But we all know this good old saying….it’s always good to come home and sleep in your own bed! 

There's always time for another round of whatever game fits your vacation mood ~ whether on the road or as we prepare to welcome our friends in to our home and lives this summer 2021.  Thankful!