Special Convention in Sweden

     I started my trip by going to NYC for four days to squeeze in another visit to Bethel, also, my traveling buddies Joel and Jeremy are there at Bethel and we wanted to make the trans-Atlantic flight together.  I was thrilled to be approved to stay at the Bossert for 3 nights, it was super amazing.  In the lobby, I ran into a family from my circuit that was also going to be going to the special convention.  The room was quaint and small, but had a bigger refrigerator than Joel has in his Bethel room, so I was satisfied (heh heh).  For the last night, Joel invited me as an overnight guest at Bethel, so I was privileged to be a part of the Bethel Monday Watchtower study and to be included in morning worship twice.  It was an overwhelming experience. Myself, and a couple of other friends did the “Integrity” Bible tour at the Metropolitan Museum.  It’s incredible to see so many artifacts that relate directly to Bible history and to see a broader view of the cultural events that had an impact on our history.

     Enough farting around, time to get to Sweden:  It seemed like the airport in Gothenburg, the convention city, was teeming with Witnesses with beaming smiles and convention badges.  We knew we were staying with a brother named Jami Sillanpää, but we had never met and didn’t think to email pictures of ourselves.  Somehow we found each other quickly in the crowd.  Upon leaving the airport, there was a group of about seven brothers and sisters singing kingdom melodies in English and Swedish with live instruments right when we walked outside.  It was so touching, I was overwhelmed.  It impressed us further when, on the drive to his home, Jami explained that 99% of Swedes don’t believe in a creator, so what courage it took for those dear brothers to stand outside and publicly declare their faith in song for hours on end.  We arrive at their home and meet the cooking machine wife Åsa and their great kids.

     On, Thursday, the day before the convention starts, Jami takes us to his preaching territory he has yet to finish giving convention invitations.  He has us stick the invitations in the mailboxes, it felt weird, but it’s legal there, so go with the flow. After finishing the territory, we head to downtown to check out the shops and do some street witnessing.  The area is swarming with witnesses; it was so funny to see so many people wearing badges.  Stranger still was to be walking down a street in a crowded city half way around the world and hear my name being called out!  It was a sister from my circuit who had spotted me.  There is a statue in the city with the words “Jehovah is My Solace” and under this large statue sat a man using his cell phone.  Jeremy took this opportunity to practice his Swedish presentation and invite the man to the convention.  A little later we meet a brother from New York that we had never met before.  We converse on the street corner for perhaps a minute or two and a man nearby asks about the convention badges he has been seeing all week.  The two brothers, without a glitch, took turns explaining our beliefs from the Bible and a half hour conversation ensued and an excellent witness was given.

     The convention was really marvelous.  The peak attendance was 11,052 and 151 were baptized.  The whole program was delivered in Swedish with English interpretation transmitted on FM.  The exception was Brother Guy Pierce, and another Bethel speaker gave their discourses in English and they were interpreted into Swedish by a brother on stage.  For these special talks, the two other conventions in Stockholm and Sundsvall were tied in via live video feed for a total attendance of over 24,000 between the three convention sites.  Many of the younger crowd had some very interesting styles, including brightly colored slim fit pants for the brothers and hair styles that looked like something from Star Trek with closely cut on the sides but long on the top.  Very different.

     After one of the convention days, our hosts had a small gathering, a mix of local brothers and delegates from the US.  Some we knew, others we had just met, but we had such a wonderful time exchanging stories and experiences.  Jami even went and picked up some of our friends from their hotel!

      Monday, after the convention, we board the train at five something in the morning for Copenhagen, where we will meet up with our next host, and the brother that made all our arrangements possible, Carl Åberg.  He takes us around the city, unfortunately all the museums are closed on Mondays but we enjoyed walking around and we went to Tivoli gardens, an amusement park that has been open since the 1840’s, it was very beautiful.  There were bikes everywhere in Copenhagen, and they start drinking beer at like ten in the morning, it was really cool. 

     We take the train that night from Copenhagen to Stockholm and arrive at Carl’s house after midnight and in the morning we take a leisurely stroll through the historic downtown areas of Stockholm with Carl, his wife, and their two little girls.  Carl told us he has made arrangements for a ferry to take us overnight to Finland for a day, but when we arrive at the port, it is indeed a cruise ship that is to take us there.  So, we spend the night, the three of us, on the “ferry” and catch up on some sleep.

    When we arrive at the port in Helsinki, Finland, there is a well dressed man with our names on a placard…. A brother from the Bethel branch has come to pick us up and drive us to the branch office!  The branch was so warm in welcoming us and even had us for lunch.  We also got to meet one of the branch coordinators and the Finnish Sign Language department, which recorded me signing and showed me what it would look like if it were published, but thankfully, they deleted it, I think.  We finished our tour of Bethel and then looked around in downtown Helsinki where they have a large open market with all sorts of vendors.

     We spend the next couple of days in Stockholm, touring the mall, and a couple of museums.  One of them features a Swedish warship from 1628 that was recovered from the port in the late 1960’s nearly intact, it is gorgeous!  The other is more like the Swedish version of Colonial Williamsburg, showing what life looked like in pre-industrial Sweden, the houses, farms, and shops, nearly everything.  Later in the evening we go to a congregation gathering where we get to try local delicacies like pickled herring and moose (not to be confused with chocolate mousse) and take a dip in a freezing cold lake followed by a sauna.  It was super!

     The day before we head home, we fly from Stockholm to Gothenburg to stay the night with Jami and his family.  We stayed up into the wee hours talking, a genuine interchange of encouragement.

     Our whole trip, Jehovah’s spirit was felt, from staying at the Bossert a month before it would no longer be possible to hitting it off so well with our hosts. It was so heartwarming to feel His attention on us.

     So, how we got our accommodations is really interesting and backs up my previous statement.  Last year, Carl Åberg visited New York Bethel with his family, where he met Joel and Jeremy at the same lunch table.  They exchanged information and Carl said “Be sure to contact me if you come to Sweden.”  Well, where did we get accepted to?  Jeremy had tried through Bethel arrangements to secure lodging with a family, a provision for special full time servants, but Bethel declined.  So, before booking a hotel, Joel emailed Carl and informed him we were in fact going to be in Sweden and that we would like to make arrangements to associate with his family.  Well, Carl found out we did not yet have lodging and said “Don’t worry my brother we will take care of you.”  He then got in contact with the Sillanpää family in Gothenburg.

     Meanwhile, in Gothenburg, the Sillanpää family had just suffered a crushing blow.  They had graciously opened their home to a pioneer sister for her to stay during her attendance at the pioneer school nearby.  Unfortunately this sister was very unappreciative and made several complaints to the friends at the school and requested different accommodations for the second week (she was not happy there either and apparently has some sort of reputation).  Jami and Åsa value hospitality so highly that this trampled their spirit, and when the brothers asked if they would be willing to host international delegates, they declined, fearing a similar situation may happen.  Then Carl called on our behalf, and they reluctantly agreed to host the three Americans.  We bonded so well, we all felt it was Jehovah’s blessing the way things happened.

   Åsa had found two single beds at quite a good deal shortly before we arrived.  She set them up in the room and was getting everything ready when the thought struck her “These are Americans coming! What if they are too big to fit in the single beds I just bought?!” She was so relieved (albeit silently) when she first met us.  Apparently we have some sort of reputation here….

Well, that’s all that I can think of at the moment….