Holiday Time

Following a visit last week with a pastoral couple in Sweden, we took the opportunity to have some much needed vacation time.

It was great to spend a few days with Bengt and Lavon, hearing their stories and getting to know them. Bengt is from Sweden and Lavon from the states, but they met years ago in Africa while serving in separate mission groups. It was a joy to be with them.

 They took us to some special places in Sweden, a couple hours from their home.

Sundborn, home to Swedish artist Carl Larsson (1853-1919). Many of his watercolor paintings are of his family and home, like the one below - The Picnic - at the same place I took the picture above.

We stopped by at an old church. This key was was about a foot long!

Church door with date - 1764

Stone marker at the border crossing from Sweden to Norway.

Europe is different culturally and historically than the U.S., but the one thing they have in common is the number 50. Fifty states in the United States and fifty countries in Europe. So, when thinking about us traveling around Europe, think about traveling from one state to the next in the U.S. Only you're not going to a state, but a different country. Just like we take a flight to Spain or Sweden, those of you who live in the states, might take a flight from the east coast or the mid-west to Colorado or California.

I will show some pictures from our drive to Flam, Norway and back to Stockholm in my next post. From Stockholm we flew to Tallinn, Estonia which was less than an hour flight crossing the Baltic Sea. So much history in the Baltics. More on that later.