Annual Conference: The Road Ahead

In the beginning of June... yes, I have finally made it to June... We (Andreas, Laurie, Samuel, and the dog) traveled to Malmo. Malmo is the 3rd largest city in Sweden. It is located on the west coast almost at the bottom of Sweden. It was Annual Conference time for the Methodist Church. Now I love to travel and see new places, but I have realized this is not family time. Unfortunately it made me feel more like a church widow than I already did, but part of that was because I was sick. Andreas was usually gone from 8:00 in the morning to 11:00 or so at night. I saw him a few times in between. Most of my time was spent with Far Far (andreas's dad) and Samuel. I have a quick summary of our trip... playground, playground, playground. We tried to find every playground around and play on it. Samuel had a great time. He loved being in a hotel room, getting to play with Far Mor and Far Far, whose hotel room was across the hall, eating out all the time, seeing the ocean with all the cool boats, and, or course, playing constantly on new playgrounds. He seems to attack these challanges like an explorer conquering new land. It is fun to watch his enthusiasm.

So while Andreas and the rest of the Methodist pastors and members debated on the future of the Methodist Church (sorry to say it looks pretty bleak....) Sam and I played. For more on the church situation you can email Andreas at kjernald@msn.com Please be praying.

Below are some of the pictures of our time in Malmo. Enjoy.

The best playground was this one. It looks a bit scarry in black and white, but it was really cool. Sam asked if we could build one like this at our church!



On Saturday night, they had a gospel concert. It was quite good, although the Swedes still had a hard time getting up and moving. I wish I could have gotten more light for this picture. The concert was in a Swedish Luthren Chruch and the cross in front was really cool. The church was actually named, St. Andreas!

One of the days, Dad took us to a small ocean town outside of Malmo. It was pretty windy, but great for the sport you see below. They are on surf boards with huge parachute/kite things attached to them. I wondered how they stayed in the water. However, it looked like fun.

Here is that cool playground again. See not so mean looking in color! Not to mention the cute kid (Samuel) smiling at me.

As we were walking on one of the boat docks, we heard a hissing noise below. There was a mamma swan with several babes and she is sitting on an egg. Her hissing came because she didn't appreciate that our dog was so close. *he was on a leash, the swan just picked a bad spot by a walkway*