The Fam is Coming

Today at 3:25 my family lands at the airport in Göteborg, Sweden. I am going to meet them and am pretty excited for it. I do wish that Erika, JJ, Kaleb & Alek could have come too, but i guess Mom, Dad & Jen will just have to do :)
Tonight we are having dinner at the Natanaelsson house and I am really hoping that the combination of losing 7 hours and having a full stomach doesnt cause anyone (my dad) to fall asleep at the table (actually, that would look kind of funny). It should be a great time, but hopefully not too late because tomorrow morning at 6:00am we are getting on the train to Stockholm and will be back in Göteborg at about 23:00 tomorrow night, good times.

Julstugan är här .... and gone, but it was fun.

Last night as I the church and turned on my iPod, I selected my "Christmas!!" playlist! Now, I usually don't start listening to Christmas music until December 1st because I don't want to be sick of hearing all the great songs before the big day actually arrives. However, I was told last week that "Julstugan" is kind of "the official start" for Christmas music to some people, and I have chosen to be one of those people. I LOVE Christmas music!
So, are you wondering what "Julstugan" is? well, the translation is "Christmas Cabin". Does that explain it for you? no? oh fine, me neither. Julstugan is actually a fund raiser for the youth group at the church. It is held every year and is a great time for the church and the community to come together in fellowship and fun. Throughout the church there are tables set up to sell items such as poinsettias, baked goods, hand knitted hats & mittens and other donated items. There are also many items that are raffled off, I was feeling very confident that I was going to win the Nintendo Wii with my one ticket since I was donating my time here, but then I saw that someone had purchased 10 tickets and I knew my chances of winning were very slim. I am still waiting for my phone to ring with the good news that I am the winner of a Wii, but I don't think it will happen. oh well. This event is very fun for everyone involved, but it is also very successful. This is the only fundraiser that the youth has each year, I think I heard someone say that last year they raised nearly $40,000 over the two days! yes, that is DOLLARS, not CROWNS, WOW! Hopefully they made the same this year.
I know you are probably just DYING to know what the first Christmas song that played on my iPod was, (it was a really good one and you should probably go check it out) "Come On! Let's Boogey to the Elf Dance!" by Sufjan Stevens. One of my favorite lines is: "Chestnuts and fire, holly and hay, Jesus and Mary, what a great day!" His Christmas album is simply wonderful!

Gud Jul!!
Timmer

Small Group

This past Thursday my small group met for the 2nd time. the week before we met at Anna-Maria's apt and had a great time enjoying fika and just getting to know one another. This week however Anna-Maria had to work, so she couldn't make it, but Johan, Iris and Abby came over to my place and we cooked Köttbullar (pronounced "schut-boola" = meatballs) together using a recipe that I was given and then translated, did you know that you can upload complete documents into "Google translate"! I didn't, until last Thursday :) it was fun, we had a good time and we able to spend some time going a little deeper as well. God is so good and it is great to see His hands moving and mixing things together, oh, i forgot to mention that there were also 4 countries represented last Thursday, Sweden, the UK, Germany and me. And now that i'm on the subject of multiple countries....
Last Sunday night, Nov 9th, we had a more contemplative service, a time of song and prayer. We sat on couch cushions on the main stage and were very relaxed. It was great to hear the sound of 20 or so voices echoing throughout the entire sanctuary, simply beautiful and kinda gave me the chills. At the end of each service we spend time in prayer. With the piano, we sing short prayer, then whoever wants can say a prayer, then we sing, then someone prays, then we sing, then someone prays, etc... do you get it? well, if you don't, i'm sorry, because it actually quite powerful. During this prayer, i still had my chills from earlier, but then those chills got chills because after a few "rounds" we had heard prayers in Swedish, English, German, and Chinese. It was so touching to hear prayers in so many languages, just plain cool!

Yep, anyways, things are still moving along and The Well is starting to get a good solid 'core' of folks that are here are a weekly basis. It's almost like we have a 5 week old child that is starting to walk.... or something like that.

keep praying!
T

The Land of Volvos

I think I once heard that 25% of cars on the road in Sweden are Volvos, this might be hard to believe, until you see it with your own eyes. Let's say you take a walk down any street, I will guarantee that soon there will be a Volvo past you, followed by another and then maybe even another. Yes, they are everywhere! There are a few good reasons, however, for this Volvo craziness:
#1. Volvo is a Swedish company.
#2: Volvo is based here in Gothenburg.

#2 brings me to my point for today. I went on a tour of the Volvo factory, Andrew and Johan were there too. It was a good time. we rode on what is called "The Blue Train", it is just a few small carts with seats that are pulled by a little golf cart type thing. We got to see almost the entire process of how a car is built, from seeing the rolls of metal being cut to seeing the cars be started for the first time. Now, I'm not that into cars or anything, but it was pretty cool. We went to fika afterward, good times.
After fika, I went to the Central Station, downtown, and bought 4 tickets to Stockholm. My parents and sister, Jen, are coming to Sweden on Nov 25th for a nice, short visit. On the 26th we are getting on a speed train at 6:00am and cruising across the country in 3 hours, by car it can take 6, to Stockholm. We will have a nice day of touring the capital city and then at 8:10pm, we'll get back on the train and head west, back to Gothenburg. I am very excited!

Wednesday was a nice day

Jan & Lynn are an older couple from the international church (Fisherscreek International Church) that I met at the retreat my first weekend here. Jan is from southern Sweden and is still learning English, but is very good, especially since he gets many private lessons. Lynn is from Wales and has been an English teacher at the University here in Gothenburg for several years. They are a funny couple, in a good way. They have been together about 4 years, I believe, and even though they have grown kids, they seem as if they are in their 20’s when they are near one another.

A few weeks ago I went to the Swedish church (Fiskebäcks Missionskyrka) and Jan was singing in the gospel choir. I got a chance to talk to him during fika afterwards and he asked me if I’d ever be up for getting lunch or going for a walk or something. I like to eat and I like to go for walks, so I said, “sure, that’d be great!” We exchanged phone numbers and planned to meet in about a week and a half.

He called me on Tuesday to make sure I was still able to meet and he said he’d call me tomorrow after lunch to tell me a specific time. He, and Lynn, picked my up right around noon. It wasn’t the nicest day, cloudy, a slight wind and about 5 degrees (upper 30’s) but we had a very nice time. First, they took me to the University’s Botanical Gardens. I was a little hesitant since so many of the leaves have fallen off of everything but I figured it would at least be a nice walk and there would be good conversation. The gardens were beautiful! There were still plenty of plants that had their leaves, some were very colorful, and there were quite a few flowers still going strong, but after about 45 minutes we were all starting to get a little too chilled.

We got back in the car and they were going to bring me to lunch at “the best place in town!” Jan likes to cook, and he is very good. Lynn likes to bake, and Jan has told me she is also very good, both are kind of “foodies”, so I figured when they say that we’re going to “the best place in town” it is going to be good. We got to a place called Gunnebo’s Slot, which was built by a English guy back in the day. He came to Sweden started two businesses: 1. a logging company and 2. a mining company. He did OK for himself. Anyways, they place now is pretty nice, there is a horse stable, and organic garden and a restaurant, which we ate at. The food was pretty good, “nothing to write home about” except that I am, but whatever. It would have been much better if the fish didn’t have so much mustard on it, very spicy mustard, woof! After we ate we enjoyed tea and dessert.

It was a great day but it wore me out. I was in bed by 8:00.

Sad Day.

Yesterday morning as I sat down to put on my socks I noticed something on my foot. There was actually something on both of my feet, it looked like a very faint letter “Z”. I instantly knew what it was; it was what is left of the tan line I got from wearing my Chaco sandals (everyone should have a pair) this past summer. It made me question if I had lost the rest of my tan, so I took my shirt off and went to stand in front of the mirror, what did I see? I saw white, a lot of white! My entire tan is officially gone. No more farmer’s tan from all my time out side under the sun this past summer, nothing. My hair, what hair I have, is showing less signs of the sun, it is getting darker every day and my beard is practically black; but that could be because of its length, who knows.

This morning’s weather report said the sun is to rise at 7:36 (am) and will set at 16:14 (4:14 pm) and that there will be 4 minutes 35 seconds less daylight tomorrow, 4.5 minutes less, in ONE DAY! Yikes! Oh well, I guess I’ll just have to enjoy the 8 hours that the sun is up, hiding behind the clouds.

Its official, summer is a distant memory.

Time Flies.. CONTINUED

So, I talked a lot about Halloween, but not so much about All Saints Day. Whoops, guess I just got in a reminiscent mood or something.

Saturday, October 31^st started out like any other typical Saturday….no, wait, it didn’t. I got up and went to church, on Saturday morning. **short detour** do any of you work in a church? How do you get used to the schedule? I am always so messed up as to what day it is. Typically we take Monday off, that throws me off for the whole week. But going to church on Saturday morning, that REALLY messes with the whole, “weekend/week” clock. Oof! **detour over** I was a little hesitant because I knew the service was going to be in Swedish, so I sent Aaron a text to see if he was going to be there and if he could translate for me, he was, good. The service was to remember those that passed away this past year, there were 5 members of the church that had died and each of their names were read and then put up on the screen. It was especially heart wrenching when Gustav, the pastor, came to the last name, Mrs. Fredrickson, because she had just recently passed away on October 25^th and her family was in the front row. Her husband, Sven-Erik, is an old, active guy that runs marathons and rides his bike everywhere, year round. He is about 85 years old, has white hair and thick black rimmed glasses, Aaron says, “he looks like Geppetto, from Pinocchio!”, and he does! but it was hard to see him hurting. I've gotten to know him just a little bit at a few Wednesday morning prayer meetings, and he is a very gentle and loving man, so to know that he is hurting, hurts. I think it was gave a sense of closure for his family at the service though, i saw some smiles afterwards as they were talking to people.

The rest of the day was pretty laid back, until 19:00 (7:00 pm) when the Jannerland's had a party at their house. now, i know you're probably thinking that this was a "Halloween" party, but you would be wrong. it was a party for "anyone that knows the Thompsons". If I haven't mentioned it, Aaron's parents were here for 2 weeks and it is their 4th time visiting, so they've gotten to know a few people in the area. It was a nice evening with dinner, laughter and even singing. there were around 30 people and was definitely a good time. I almost had forgotten about the all the parties that were about to start back home as i was getting home at around 1:00, but i got online to check my email and see if i could Skype with anyone (I'm usually on a few times per week sometime between 4pm & 6:30pm CST - Skype name: tim.olson6 - hint hint, wink wink) and ended up talking to my sister and parents and heard all about their plans for the night. good times!

**I'll post some pictures later**

Time Flies

I know I’ve said it before, but I can’t believe that I’ve been here this long, 5 weeks! Wow! Ok, I’ll probably only say something like that just 2 more times, sorry. Let’s see, what has gone down? ….

This past weekend was Halloween. Now, I know for many of you, this was just another day where kids come to your doorstep, ring the door bell and say “trick or treat!” You either acted scared because they had on a scary costume or your heart melted because they were so darn cute. Oh, and then you gave them loads of candy. Sounds like fun, and I’m sure it was. Last year was my first time handing out candy, and it was great. For those of you who didn’t read last years entry, "Best Costumes Ever!?..." I was a giant chicken. My favorite trick or treaters for the evening were silent as I opened the door, granted, I as I opened the door I abruptly squatted down and just stared out the 3 kids and their dad, or some sort of father figure. After about 30 seconds of silence the biggest one, probably too old to be asking for candy, and dressed like Jason (from Friday the 13^th?, I think) simply said, “whoa” and then the youngest one, dressed like Freddy (from Nightmare on Elm St) said, “trick or treat”. The 3^rd kid, dressed like a ware wolf, never said a word. Yep, it was great! One of the most non-scary costumes, a chicken, caused 3 of the scariest costumes to go speechless!

Ok, so anyways, this year, well Halloween isn’t that big here is Sweden, so no kids running door to door, no parties, too bad. However, they do celebrate All Saints Day which is considered to be the more Christian side of Halloween. It is a day to remember anyone who has passed away over he past year, more of a day of mourning.

Well, i learned more about both All Saints Day and Halloween than i knew before, very interesting what writing a blog teaches you :) I had a good costume planned for this year too, oh well, just have to make it for next year.