February 22, 2017 started out like any other ordinary
Wednesday. We were at home in
Minneapolis, putting on the finishing touches for our Sharing Lives course that
would be taught at Bloomington Covenant Church. And then we got this random email from a good friend: “I just opened today's prayer email and
was startled to think of you serving in Japan”. We thought about this statement, and then laughed with
delight when we made the connection: oh, today must be our "day" in the missionary prayer calendar. On the 22nd day of
alternating months, people around the Covenant Church commit to praying for
Barb and Steve Swanson, missionaries working with refugees in Europe. Please don’t get confused, thinking we
work in Japan!!! On the bottom
half of our page in the 2016-2017 prayer calendar, there is a short description of the
missionary work being done by Covenant missionaries in Japan. It just happens that Japan is also
prayed for on the 22nd day of the alternating months.
At that moment, we knew that this day, February 22, 2017, was going to be a
great day. People all around the
globe, literally, would be lifting us up in prayer. People who know us, support us, love us, keep current with
what’s going on in life and ministry as we transition out of almost 12 years of
ministry in Belgium to begin with our new ministry partner, Equmeniakyrkan, (the new name for the merger of the Swedish Covenant Church, Swedish Baptist Church and Swedish Methodist Church) in Malmö, Sweden. But also people who just love to pray for Covenant
missionaries, and so many were lifting our names up before our great big God.
And then another email arrived…
This time it was from the Swedish Embassy in Washington, DC
announcing: Your decisions from the Swedish Migration Agency. It was with fear and trembling that we
opened the emails, only to find documents for both of us….in Swedish! Now, having done just 5 beginner
classes here in Minneapolis as our first intro to Swedish language, culture and
history, trust me….our Swedish was not at any level to be able to translate
this document. We quickly played
with Google Translate (what an amazing tool, but one that you have to use
cautiously….Barb once “translated” an MRI report in Belgium and had herself all
lined up for knee surgery when in fact the orthopedic specialist said there was no need for
knee surgery….just get more exercise!)
With a flurry of emails back to the Swedish Embassy, and passing along
the email to our contacts in the Equmeniakyrkan in Malmö, we understand that we now have a visa with permission to live and work
in Sweden for one year. It can be
renewed while we’re in Sweden. We
are so thankful!!
What
better way to celebrate than…to have fika at IKEA!
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| Now that's a good looking fikapaus! |
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| We were like kids in a candy store...pretty excited! Check out the panda bear hanging upside down from the ceiling behind Steve....panda photo bomb! |
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| The flags of the nations that we will now call home ~ |
Fika: It’s considered a social institution in
Sweden, it means having a break, most often a coffee break, with colleagues,
friends or familiy. The word
itself, fika, can be used as both a verb and a noun. It almost always includes something to eat, such as cookies
cakes, a cinnamon roll or cardamom roll.
It’s important to remember to take a break from work too, so no talking
about work allowed! (though we did
talk about “work” during our Fika break at IKEA, in the sense of wow, we just
had to pray and thank God for His goodness.
Please rejoice with us as we
see God putting one more piece of the puzzle together as we prepare to move to
Sweden this coming June. We are at
92% of our funds raised to go, with several large pledges coming to our account
in the weeks ahead.
The
22nd day of February, April, June, August, October and December….proving
that prayer does make a difference!
