Church

Over the past two sundays, I have visited 2 different churches and both of them have pretty distinct differences in the manner of their worship and service. The first one I visited with the other siblings in Christ is called Immanuel Kyrkan or more specifically the Immanuel International church. Over here everything was in english which meant that we sang english worship songs and the message that was preached was also in english. The worship was more mellow and was different from the contemporary style of worship I was used to in Covenant. Each of us held a bulletin with the lyrics on it and since we were not familiar with any of the songs, we had to bow our heads down in order to sing along with the congregation. I guess in this way, it was a little less interactive but hey, worship is worship and I won’t have any complains about it. Authentic Prayer was the sermon topic and upon hearing it I felt genuinely inspired and glad to have attended church.

The adults or more likely the senior citizens (many of them had grey hair) were having their service when we finished ours. It was a pretty dramatic to see a grand organ blaring away while everyone was singing Amazing Grace in Swedish. The sound of the organs were like sounds out of a Dracula movie. Rich, grandiose but creepy and dark. Overall though, it was fresh and interesting.

The second church I attended was called New Life and we went at a great time cos they were celebrating their 15th anniversary that sunday. It was a really unique experience as we had tables set up within the sanctuary for us to sit around and have kaffe(coffee), bread and cake while we had service. The worship here was more contemporary with a full band and a small boy on the Tumba. The worship and the sermon was done in Swedish and English which meant that there were people translating one language to the other. It was actually difficult for me to take in everything but by the end of service I felt fortunate to have been there because far away from home I could feel the presence and blessings of God on these people.

After service, one of the most amusing moment of my life occurred when one of my friends asked three kids to play football with us. 3 on 3 in the courtyard, me 23 years old, one guy friend whose 24 and one more guy whose about 20 against 3 swedish boys who are probably 9 or 10 yrs old and stand as high as my waist. We split up into two teams and started to kick the ball around. I was on the team with 2 of the boys but we faced no real disadvantage as we drew first blood when one of my boys scored a goal! Hoo Hoo… But it was not a serious game as we were trying to let the boys score all the goals. The game ended in a draw (we obviously cannot let anyone lose) when their parents came to pick them up. I found the whole situation so funny I could not stop smiling throughout the game and when it ended my mouth was sore and numb from the cold wind that was blowing then.We must play some more next week, will be fun. In fact it must be a long time since I have really played with small children, I think it was 7 or 8 tears ago… Hi ya… lao le.

There will be pictures coming up. Soon I hope. 

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