Hey everyone! Well it's now the Saturday night of my first week in Sweden, and things have been going great so far. We spent the day today relaxing at an indoor water park, a much needed change of pace from the rest of our busy week. I suppose I should back track and fill you in on everything that has been going on.
We arrived Tuesday morning, and spent most of that day on a scavenger hunt around the city of Uppsala, which they told us was so that we could get to know the city, but was really to keep us from falling asleep in the middle of the afternoon. Uppsala is an amazing town. Though it has a few hundred thousand people, it has a small town feel, and most everything is within walking distance. A slow river splits the city in half, and the towering twin spires of their church "Domkyrkan," first built in the 12th century, can be seen from virtually everywhere. Uppsala is definitely a college town, with university buildings spread across the northern half of the city, and students everywhere. They are easy to run into, and very friendly.
Wednesday was our first ministry day. One of the main ways we meet people is to go to university cafeterias or student clubs called "Nations" for lunch, and simply sit down with some students and try to start a conversation. This idea is really intimidating, and gives me butterflies and doubts every time. Yet the results are incredible; the Swedes are friendly, and undeniably the Spirit moves through these encounters. On Tuesday I went to a cafeteria, where a teammate and I sat down with a few students. Though the conversation did not bear much fruit, I got tentative directions to a wrestling club in Uppsala, which is something I had wanted to find. The next night, after a lot of running in circles and misread Swedish traffic signs, I found the place. It was a back room in a back building with just a few people in it, but they told me they wrestle on Tuesday nights, and do other martial arts on other nights. This seemed like a great place where I could later meet people, but it would end up even better than I originally thought. I'll get back to this in a couple paragraphs.
Thursday at lunch another teammate and I sat down with a student named Gustov. Gustov's sleeveless sweater, long hair, and tight purple pants was an out there look even by Swedish standards, but he ended up being a super nice guy. He was very bright, and extremely intellectual, and we had a fantastic conversation. We talked some about Swedish government, and this led into discussing the state run church. Fairly soon, I was telling him about what I believed about how Jesus has influenced my life, and how he has pulled me out of sinfullness. Gustov, who calls himself a "agnostic theist" had many intelligent intellectual objections, including the story Lot, God's judgement, morality, and hell. We talked about these things for a while, in the end he said none of his beliefs had changed, but he found are conversation very interesting. I got his phone number, and am hoping to meet with him again next week.
Friday was a super exciting day. We couldn't find anyone to eat lunch with, but as we were leaving the cafeteria we saw a group of Swedes playing sand volleyball and asked if we could join in. They were, as always, very friendly and let us play with them. One of them I met was a guy named Linus. When I went up to introduce myself, he said he had met me before. I started to panic and my mind was racing trying to place him, but he quickly said he was one of the guys at the fighting gym when I had stopped in a few days before. There were only about 4 guys there at a gym miles away from where we were. What were the chances of that?? I got to talking to him and he was a real nice guy, and told me all about the Brazilian jiu-jitsu classes he takes at that gym. He told me I should come along, and offered to try to find me some gear for the class on Monday. I am super excited about this, and one of my biggest prayer requests is that this works out and I get to meet up with Linus at this class. Anyways, we played volleyball and soccer with them for a while, and got to know a lot of the other people there too. Their group was about 20 of the 38 physical therapy students at Uppsala University, and they were a great group of people. We told all of them about a social we're going to be having in the park next week, and they seemed really excited. I'm praying hard that we are able to follow up on our leads with them and that God is able to work in the lives of those students! Definitely more updates to come.
On a personal note, I'm worried I may starve. Food in Sweden is VERY expensive, and though restaurants give decent portions, we don't get enough per diem to eat out for every meal. So I have to grocery stores and provide my own meals on a very tight budget. This is not good. So pray I figure this food thing out, and come back looking like I did during wrestling season my junior year. We all know that wasn't good.
Please continue to pray for me and our trip! God is doing amazing things here, but we are in spiritual warfare, and prayer is our greatest weapon. Pray that we see his will done and Satan trampled!
In His Grip,
Ethan
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