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….
