Uppsala: Day Fifteen

Uppsala: Day Fifteen

It’s our second last day at Ribbingeback!

We spent the morning cleaning and sending KS off…it was an emotional moment for many of us (well, not us Singaporeans because we’re going to see him back home), especially the guys! Johannes teared a little, and some say that even Justin looked like he was tearing. I don’t believe that though. Matthieu has lost his beloved roommate too.

After that, Joanne and I spent a good part of the day waiting for Pastors’ arrival! We had no idea what time they would come, only that it would be between lunch and dinner, so we simply waited! We fell asleep, woke up, had ice-cream, read books and tried to find cows, horses and sheep (to no avail) while waiting!

Of course, Pastors finally came! It was SO GREAT to see Pastors today, we missed them so much!! Rinnah, Pam and Aunty Lilian were there too! It was so so so good to see all of them again! Brad took Pastors on a tour around Ribbingeback, and the rest of us spent time catching up with Rinnah! And because it’s Rinnah’s birthday tomorrow, we decided to give Rinnah her birthday presents one day early! Charmaine got her a bubble machine, Joanne got her a water gun, face paint and cute stamps, KS and I got her a cute little red bag that looks a little like a lunch box, and Joanne, KS and I got her a playdough ice-cream factory! Rinnah put her water gun, face paint and stamps into her new bag (which she will proudly carry through customs) and she looked so cute walking around with it! Happy birthday Rinnah!!

Pastors left with Pastor Joakim soon after (too soon….) and we had our last supper at Ribbingeback! After that, we had a short meeting about our next few days in Gothenburg, traveling down, luggages, housing etc.

To end off the day, Joanne and I decided to have a worship session in the chapel. It was so good; we spent so much time just dwelling in the presence of God, enjoying the presence of God and sharing our revelations on the bible, on love and on life. We spent so much time worshipping; we realised that we were in the chapel for more than an hour, but it felt like it was less than 30 mins!

I think this trip has really taught us so much. In the hustle and bustle of city life (i.e. Singapore), one can hardly find the time to get away from all the noise and retreat into a quiet place to seek God. While we were out here in the countryside, we found that opportunities to seek God were aplenty! I believe I speak for every single one of us here when I say that our relationship with God has gone up to a whole new level. Now we’re fully refreshed, recharged and regenerated, ready to take on the world in full force!

Well, we’re probably not going to get much of a chance to blog for the next few days, as we will be traveling down to Gothenburg (7 hour ride!!??) on Thursday, and Nordic 07 will be on from Friday to Saturday! Thereafter, we will have the Leaders’ Conference (on a yacht, how cool is that?) before (finally!) flying off to Singapore on 20 Sep and reaching on 21 Sep.

It’s been great blogging about Ribbingeback! Look out for more on Nordic 07!

In searching for a name for next year’s Nordic Conference in London…………
London baby.
Woo.

Uppsala: Day Fourteen

Uppsala: Day Fourteen

It’s been two weeks! Wow…that’s really fast.

We didn’t do much today either, everyone is preparing for the big event in Gothenburg!
Nordic 07!!

Speaking of which, everyone’s in Sweden now.
Pastors, Rinnah, Aunty Lilian, Pammy…
Garrett, Dom, Fifi, Yassy, Jian, Sky…
Woo!!
This is what I call a Singaporean invasion!!

Pastors were at Stockholm today!
AC told us they were in Skansen…that’s gotta be cool!

Anyways, KS will be leaving tomorrow!
He’s become part of the brotherhood here in Sweden, everyone’s gonna miss him.
We did a little farewell thing for him, sang the song ‘Peng You’, got him a flight survival kit (Swedish candy) and had some pie with ice-cream.
Yum.

It was really hilarious to see all the international teamers huddled together, outside the toilet, practicing the song in Chinese! When we finally got down to singing the song after dinner, it was a roaring success…KS wept buckets of tears.
(Actually, he only teared a little.)

We’re going to try to post up the video of us singing, so watch out for that!

Tomorrow, we’re going to embark on a major clean up of Ribbingeback! 30++ youths all gathered in a huge house…your socks can’t even stay clean for more than 10 minutes! It’s gonna be a whole lot of fun! Also, we’ll be meeting up with Pastors when they come over to Ribbingeback!

Then on Thursday, we’ll be going down to Gothenburg to join the rest of the leaders at Nordic! Oh man, that’s gonna be so fun!

Well, that’s a basic run-through of what’s going to be happening the next few days! See you guys again tomorrow!

Uppsala: Day Thirteen

Uppsala: Day 13

Today was girls’ sauna day!

Yes, we have a sauna in here.

A few days ago, Saturday, if I’m not mistaken, the guys had their own sauna outing. Not to be beaten, the girls decided to have our own too.

I personally dislike saunas. I don’t see the point of going into a room just to sweat. It was only after a few days of coaxing that Joanne finally managed to convince me to go into the sauna. She says it helps to lose weight. I don’t think so.

But since we were in the sauna, why not go all out? It was hilarious watching the rest (Sarah Steel, AC, Tanya and Joanna) sweating in the sauna while Joanne and I were happily pouring more water in. But that was not nearly as hilarious as Joanne refusing to wear something light into the sauna (i.e. bathing suits) and insisting on wearing her t-shirt and long pants in. She wanted to wear jeans into the sauna. JEANS?!

We went up to 80 degrees in the sauna. The guys went up to 120 degrees, but that’s because they also had some Russians and a Middle-Eastern guy. We girls only had some Singaporeans. Ask KS how he nearly vaporized in there.

After the sauna, you can walk right out into the blistering cold Swedish night wind and not even give the slightest hint of a shiver. In fact, it felt like good ol’ breezy Singapore.

Honestly, I don’t think saunas help you lose weight. I think they drain all the water and energy out of you, but that’s it.

Well, I guess you would pardon the lack of photos in this particular entry then.

Pastors are finally in Sweden too! They’re currently residing at a hotel in Uppsala, and we’ll get to see them on Wednesday, which is tomorrow! Right now, they’re having a great time sight-seeing and shopping in Stockholm!

Can’t wait to meet Pastors….just one more day….

Uppsala: Day Twelve

Uppsala: Day Twelve

It was service at Word of Life for us!

We woke up really early today, because we had to leave at 8.45am for service at 10am (there weren’t enough cars, so we had to make a few trips). The four of us were with Mathieu, who was entertaining us throughout the ride.

Service was super anointed. The worship team was so anointed! Our favourite Swedish family was playing today, the drummer, pianist and 14-year-old bassist. After the worship, they brought out the children’s church to perform. They are so adorable! To see the children singing and dancing on stage was awesome!

Word of Life Children's Church!

Pastor Robert Ekh preached a great word about loving others. It’s funny, because we’ve heard the same word from two different churches the past two weeks! Can’t be a coincidence man. We met up with Weena after service too! It’s so great to see a familiar face in Sweden!

After service, we went to the bookstore to grab some books and CDs. I think we spent a bomb there! Some of the books they had aren’t available in Singapore, which explains our expenditure.

We were invited to lunch at Jonathan’s place (Jonathan from Sweden!) and they cooked some Chinese looking food! It was rice and some sort of chicken and vegetable stew with Thai spices, milk and yoghurt. Sounds weird, but it tasted awesome! Their desert was ice cream and fruits coated with melted white chocolate….mmmm yummy. I think the Swedes deserve an A* for hospitality!

Jonathan and KS!

Us at Jonathan's house!

We stopped by at Granby’s to get some cards, gifts and groceries. Joanne was going crazy over the ham there (she really likes ham…) and I went straight to my chocolates. It’s so difficult to survive without them.

Justin Style is going a little nuts because the guys went to play soccer with the Russian teamers and lots of endorphins have been pumped into his system. He just jumped out of nowhere, striked a pose and started singing a worship song! He never fails to crack me up!

Well, we’re all sitting around using the internet now. Trapped by the web. Tsk tsk.

That’s all for tonight! See you again soon!

P.S. Pastors are coming tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!

Uppsala: Day Eleven

Uppsala: Day Eleven

It was a day out with Evelina and Julia for me and Joanne!

We went to Uppsala to do some shopping, and it was great! Managed to get some real steals amidst the very expensive Swedish market. There was nothing much to shop really, because Uppsala isn’t that big, but the company was great.

It was mostly a free day for all of us, so we took the time to use the net and hang out with the teamers. At night, some of us came together and watched a movie, The Painted Veil. It’s an arts film, and I personally hate arts films, so I thought it was boring. Apparently, everyone else liked it.

Quite a relaxed day I’d say, so there’s nothing much to talk about.

But hey, we’re going to Word of Life tomorrow! Looking forward to that!

P.S. Two more days to Pastors coming to Sweden!

Uppsala: Day Ten

Today was AMAZING!

I know I say this about every single day, but today was AMAZING!

We came into the chapel for our usual morning prayer, but the presence of God was so strong that we all decided to continue praying and worshipping! It was a very personal moment for all of us; many of us were just being ministered to by the Holy Spirit. It’s so amazing, because there weren’t any loud drums or electric guitars; there wasn’t a worship team, only a piano, but there was the sweet, sweet presence of God and that’s all we needed. We started praying for each other, praying for the teams going to Singapore (that’s us!), Scotland, England, the main international team, and for Brad and Sarah. We were at it for so long, we totally skipped the afternoon session!

Prayer at the chapel

That was really the highlight of the week!

Thereafter, we went about our usual routines and sessions. We have been practicing doing group visits and Pastors’ visits over the past few days, so for today, we practiced calling Pastors! It was so funny, because Arash and Justin were acting as our Pastors and they can be really funny! It was not difficult to make the calls, but it sure was difficult to control our laughter! (Justin was voted the entertainer of the year by his youths. It was supposed to be a youth thing and he isn’t exactly part of the youth…)

Joanne and Arash preparing food!

During the evening, we went to Pastor Joakim’s house! Pastor Joakim’s house is BEAUTIFUL!!! I think I mentioned before that some parts were built in the 18th Century, around 1711!! How cool is that?! Pastor had invited us over for dinner, and all of us had a great time! We were chatting, laughing at what the teamers used to do when they all stayed at Pastor Joakim’s house, laughing at videos we took when we were eating the rotten fish, and then laughing at me because I can bend my fingers and legs backwards and put my legs behind my head! It was absolute fun!

After that, we came together for a short worship and prayer. Sister Maria led us in worship, and it was so good to come together as a team to pray for New Generation! This is truly part of the New Generation heritage, PRAYER!
Our last item of the day was a performance from yours truly. I had refused to bring my flutes over to the house, but AC (Anna-Carolina), one of the teamers, happily took it from my room and brought it over anyway!! That’s terrible. Joanne and I played Alleluia for Christ the Lord, and we worshipped together with Lord, You Are Always Here With Me, before ending it with the Pocahontas theme song, Colours of the Wind.

Me and KS!

KS and AC (Anna Carolina)

KS and Clara!!

By the time we reached home, we were so exhausted, but it was truly a day to remember. :)

Uppsala: Day Nine

Today was awesome. We had the usual Morning Prayer and all. The vision and the all were shared to us Singaporean teamers! It is totally cool to see how the heart for youths and young people is the same here and back in Heart of God church. All of us were blown away by the ‘big-ness’ and the vision of the work that we are going to do. I was at the brink of tears when Pst Joakim was sharing with us about New Generation and all the testimonies. Also, Pst Joakim spoke about uniting the churches, and Pst Ulf going to speak in a Catholic conference! I felt so strongly that God is going to unite the body of Christ together. The left hand should not slap the right hand, they should work together. It was also very powerful when Pst Joakim stated that we do not need compromise our beliefs for doctrinal issues, but we must learn to understand why people think in their way. ‘If I know where I live, I can visit other people’s houses’ is a stated parallel to this issue. Pst Joakim was also sharing some practical issues like how to handle counseling issues and all.

Today, I(umm well I’m KS.) was working on the food team, we had classic Swedish meatballs. Oh man, I tell you it was good. We also had typical salad and cheese and all. It was great. The diet here is healthy with lots of green. Well, some of us might flinch at the bare thought of it, but nonetheless, it is good.

Also, that night we had a practical session with Brad, Sarah and Arash. We were practicing how to handle sticky situations when we are talking to Pastors when we meet them. The night was not so much of getting impacted and blown away, but rather it was a lot of tips and more skills.
The day was a good fruitful day, and we learnt a lot. It was a good time to refresh our vision and fire the youths and the skills.
I just can’t wait to get to get to work, out of army and back into The Army!
Love you peeps.
See you back in Singapore. Live free!