Being a Good Sam at the train station in Lund

So, I (Barb) tend to love it when there is a very practical way to live out my faith on the streets of the world that God has placed me in for the moment.  And I love it even more when there is a fellow disciple/Jesus follower (or in this case, there were 2 others with me) along for the ride!  We had just left the ecumenical service at St. Johanneskyrka in Malmö, where the preacher lifted up the story of the Good Samaritan and challenged us to see ourselves in the story ~ and the concept of sometimes we have to be on the side of the road in order to evaluate and study our motivations.

We were, indeed, the world that gathered at St. John's Lutheran Church in Malmö, celebrating the diversity of our great city and the diversity of how we celebrate worship, preach, teach, take care of our kids, and celebrate communion together ~

 

 

After a quick lunch in Malmö, the three of us (dare I call us the “Three Muskateers??!!”) hopped on the train to Lund.  Back up a minute here...what is a musketeer after all?  A definition from vocabulary.com states "In the old days, a musketeer was a soldier who was armed with a muzzle-loading long gun".  OKAY, THAT WASN'T US BY EVEN A LONG SHOT!  We don't do guns!

Read a little further in the vocabulary.com definition....

Today, you're probably most likely to find this word referring to the famous novel by Alexandre Dumas called "The Three Musketeers."  If you guessed the book is about three soldiers who carry muskets, you're right!  It's also not unusual for adults to describe a group of three close pals as "the three musketeers".

Okay, we're comfortable with the idea of being three close pals.  Go ahead and call us the three musketeers!

 

We realized we still had quite a few minutes (as in 40 to be exact) from when the train arrived until our next worship service, this time in English, would begin.  What’s a girl to do with an extra 40 minutes, when it will only take 10 minutes to get to our destination, Västerkyrkan in Lund where our colleagues and good friends Bonnie & Eric Sparrman are working on an English church planting project? 

 

Help a dad, of course!

Sparrmans at a recent Christmas party in Copenhagen

 

Let me describe the situation for you, since it certainly wasn’t the moment to be taking any pictures....

Remember we had just left Malmö and the amazing sermon about finding ourselves in the story of the Good Samaritan and what is our motivation to enter into the story as we sit on the sidelines and consider who is really helping the badly beaten and bruised/left to die dude on the street.  You can read the whole story here from Luke 10:25-37

 

In our case, it wasn’t a badly beaten, bruised and left to die dude…

Just a young dad who got off the train with a large checked suitcase, a carry-on suitcase, a backpack, and perhaps the most important, a small boy of 2 years old who he was speaking English with as he gathered his thoughts and his things.

 

English!!!  That’s my language!!!

And then, it was God just nudging us to move forward and help.  "Do you need a helping hand?"  Such a simple question!  Actually, it was more of a rhetorical question if anything else, as OBVIOUSLY he needed a helping hand ~ or 3 sets of hands!  The little boy in the stroller was fussing, and needed help putting his coat on.  Dad was already busy enough with that, so we offered to help him find the “O” bus stop in front of the station.  We told him we didn’t know where the “O” stop was, but we sure knew where the elevators in the station were, and could help get him to the front side of the station and find someone there who could orient us to the “O” stop.

 

A young dad who had grown up in New York, now living in Montreal with his Swedish wife and 2 year old twins.  The Swedish wife had left Canada 2 days earlier with the twin little girl to fly urgently back to Sweden because her mother was critically ill in hospital.  Dad and twin little boy flew in just now, from Montreal to Copenhagen with a transfer in Frankfurt.  Obviously, they were tired, and jet lagged, and cold, and needing help.

 

We found both elevators, found the “O” bus stop, helped dad and the little dude get oriented again (the dad had been in Lund before and even to this particular bus stop but was a bit disoriented trying to find it on his own today….wonder why??!!). And then a brilliant moment happened….when we asked one of the young Swedish guys who was standing at the bus stop if he could help the dad get on the bus with his baggage and the little boy, he said yes!  Without a moment’s hesitation…as though this was the most normal question he had ever been asked on a cold winter’s day while waiting at the bus stop.

 

Maybe he also had heard a sermon about being the Good Samaritan that day!

 

Follow up:  the English service was great!  We were able to witness this young group, who had gathered only for their second service, bless and pray over one of their own who was now being transferred with his job to another city in Sweden.  It was a great Sunday!

 

LIFE ~ Lund International Fellowship ~ blessing one of their own!