The church that cleans together

When I was young, there was this statement that was often used in Christian circles:  “the family that prays together stays together”.  Steve and I have joked through the years with various jobs that we’ve done in ministry, using a variation of this statement…for example, on Saturday nights in Belgium, when we had no church secretary and the church office was run out of our converted garage into office space “the family that folds bulletins together stays together”.  That was one of those Saturday late night activities for which we were thankful that the church office was just a short 20 paces from our kitchen!

 

But in recent days, I’d like to suggest that “the church that cleans together stays together”.  It was städdag I Wesleykyrkan ~ cleaning day in Wesley church.  We were a group of about 15 who gathered at 11.30 and worked to make the house of God ready for worship again.  It’s been a long season of no in-person worship here in Malmö (our last in-person worship was in November 2020) and it was high time that we cleaned house.

Some of the chairs that were heading out the back door to be brushed, vacuumed, wiped down and then brought up 3 flights of stairs and stacked up again in the attic ~ a labor of love!

So we brushed the chairs.  Then we vacuumed the chairs.  Then we wiped down all the red dust that came off the chairs while they were being dusted and vacuumed.  Then we moved the chairs to one side of our worship space so that we could vacuum up all the red dust from the chairs and then wash the wooden floors.

 

And that’s just what was going on in the worship space!

There was another whole team who was doing the same exact thing outside, and then another team that carried about 60 chairs upstairs to the attic so that they would be protected from sun damage in a time when we don’t need that many chairs thanks to COVID-19 restrictions.

Steve stacking ~ or perhaps unstacking ~ chairs in anticipation of a deep clean!

So we cleaned.  And cleaned.  Windows were cleaned.  Our kids’ play and learning space was cleaned and sort thru.  Old stuff was tossed.  Pillow covers were taken home to be cleaned as we anticipate using this space again with our kids. 

 

Oh, yeah, and we had fika!  Ingrid’s pineapple cake with whipped cream didn’t disappoint.  Good coffee available for all who were drinking coffee ~ and sandwiches gave us the strength to keep on keeping on.

Okay, this wasn't exactly our "cleaning day fika"....I just plain forgot to take a picture of Ingrid's yummy cake and sandwich buffet!

And for those who couldn’t be with us together as the family that cleaned on this day….we left a whole list of things that they could do in the coming weeks as we prepare for being together as a family.

Caught these reflections of hearts from the gate on the church front yard as we were biking home ~ exhausted, but thankful for this church family that cleans together!

The family that cleans together.

We stay together!