The Isaiah 52 Blog

“Wait wait wait! Why didn’t you show me that complex?”

“You don’t want to live there, Harry. No. That’s all just immigrants and criminals.”

“Bring me there.”

Stoeryd is not the comfortable part of town. Harry’s friend spoke correctly when he warned against settling down and planting a church in Stoeryd, which is literally on the wrong side of the tracks in Tranås. Late Saturday night, the sound of motorcycles pierces the cool evening air. Children can be seen out wandering the complex courtyards all hours of the day. Stoeryd is not the ideal place for an upper middle class american to live, but it is where the Johns family was called and it is where the Nya Stoeryd Kyrkan thrives. When I walk into the church, which is actually just a converted first floor activity center in one of the apartment buildings, I immediately see the power of the gospel in any situation. Hustling and bustling with many adults and many more children, I am reminded of something I was told recently by a member of Briarwood Presbyterian Church in Birmingham, Alabama, who was here to visit last week. He said “When a good leader moves on, he does not leave a group of misplaced followers in his wake, only more leaders. Leaders that venture out and do the same.” It seems to me that everyone I know in our church is studying and praying fervently, and being called to a ministry of their own. We have four men in our little church alone that are being mentored and primed to take over a pastoral role in the future – to go plant church in this hurting country. The Nya Stoeryd Kyrkan is a breeding ground for pastors, and according to Harry Johns, “If we can’t take over Sweden by leadership, we’ll take it over by birth!” Over 50% of the church membership is under the age of ten, and how exciting that is to see such a faithful generation being brought up with one goal – reach Sweden for Christ! 

It is so exciting to be a part of this amazing ministry – this powder-keg of leaders that is primed and ready to explode over the country and bring revival to a people desperately searching for answers, searching to a reason to live. Thank you so much for praying for me and supporting me in this my calling. 

In Him,

Mark

Swedish Lesson of the Day: Öland – Island Land. <Er-lund> A small island on the south-east tip of the country.  Ö – island. 

Interestingly enough, Öl – beer. And – duck. So Öland is either “Island Land” or “Beer Duck”. 

I thought it was funny.

Swedes laugh a lot. Or I think they do. Swedes, you see, when talking to each other even in the presence of non Swedish speakers, speak Swedish. That being the case, most of the time, at least for the time being, I have no idea what is going on – that is unless they’re laughing, which seems to happen quite a bit. I can’t tell if they laugh any more than Americans, because I have never sat in on a conversation in english and not known what they were saying. I guess because all I really ‘understand’ at this point is laughter, it stands out more. So, Swedes laugh a lot. I think.

I have had a lot of ‘cultural experiences’ in the last couple of days. Nothing too serious, but there have definitely been a couple of occasions where my american upbringing was blatantly obvious to any Swede, and I have committed a couple of little cultural faux pas in the last couple of days that I hope I will be able to laugh at in the future…

On a more serious note, something that has occurred to me more and more as I have come into contact with it is the strength of the Nya Stoeryd Kyrkan (the church for which I intern). Coming from a good size church in the bible belt – there is a inherent mindset that one gets into when they see a very small church. If you haven’t experienced it first hand, it’s hard to really understand the strength that can come from a persecuted church. I don’t mean persecuted physically, although the Swedish government has been known to imprison pastors who preach against homosexuality, but this country and this culture is so hostile to Christians and especially reformed Christians that everything is an uphill battle. Never before have I seen so much done with so few, and such a family raised up between brothers and sisters in Christ. A family with a vision for reaching their lost country. The question here is not “does God care?”, it is “Does God exist?”, and 95% of the population would answer no to this question. Sweden is hurting, and the strength of the persecuted church here in Tranås is more evident today than it ever has been as we prepare to send our pastor to Stockholm to plant another church, and as we disciple a group of young Christians who are paving the way for a new church in Linkoping. God is moving, there is no doubt about it. The question is not if, but where and when revival will happen in this hurting place. This I truly believe.

In Him,

Mark

Swedish Lesson of the Day: Balsam – Conditioner. I didn’t learn this one until I was in the shower one morning and squeezed out onto my hand what I bought the day before and thought was shampoo. It’s hard to wash your hair with balsam.

Wow! What a whirlwind couple of days it has been! I flew out of RDU at about 2:30 PM on Monday the 17th to Washington-Dulles to meet Sydney and fly together to Munich, continuing on to Stockholm only after missing our 9:05 flight. It is amazing how confusing the Munich airport really is. Every terminal looks the same and you have to leave the secured area of the H Terminal (where we flew into) to get to the G terminal (where we flew out of), going through customs and security on the way. Upon arriving in Stockholm we were met by David Leander and his two boys and drove to Linkoping (Lin-show-ping) to meet up with my roommates, eat dinner, and go to a fellowship time/bible study at one of the University student’s apartments. We left Linkoping at about 8:30 and boarded the train to Tranas (about a 45 minute ride). I have two roommates, Martin and Jonatan, who have been very inviting and helpful, not to mention they speak fluent english! This morning Sydney helped with a children’s choir while Harry and I went to a prayer meeting at the Methodist church (Methodist Kyrkan) and to Fika (Feek-ah), a time of fellowship following the service. Next I was off with Martin to move beds from one of the church member’s houses to the guest apartment, which Sydney and I will be cleaning tomorrow in preparation for the Briarwood PCA group (out of Birmingham, Alabama) visit on Saturday. Other activities today included mowing the baseball field and talking to the church congregation tonight at a wednesday night prayer service. I have been stealing fifteen minute power naps whenever possible to ward of exhaustion, but I am going to try to get to bed before 12:30 tonight… So far so good! Both Sydney and I have been very busy in the last few days and it seems like that will be the case for the whole first stint, but we are doing well and are so excited to be here finally and to be serving the PCA church in Sweden! I’m sorry if this blog entry is not up to par, but I am very tired I will try to update the blog again in a couple of days after things settle down a bit and I have a little better handle on exactly what my daily duties will entail. Feel free to call my cell phone any time at 01146 70 815 4234, or shoot me an email at iamkram@gmail.com! I’d love to hear from you!

In Him,

Mark

Swedish Lesson of the Day: Hej – Hello. Pronounced like Hay without the ‘y’. Hej da – Goodbye. Pronounced like Hay without the ‘y’ and d-ooh.