The Adventures of Katie Rae: Scandinavian District Assembly

I spent this past week trying to help prepare for the assembly. I am not sure how much of a help I was, but I think I had a pretty interesting job. There are 3 churches, and 2 new starts on the district. Each group speaks a different language. There is the Greve church, Copenhagen Cafe (new start) that are from Denmark, the Sweden Cafe (new start) that are Americans in Sweden, a Portuguese speaking church in Oslo, Norway, and a Korean church in Helsinki, Finland. It makes for a pretty interesting gathering. All of the pastoral and district reports were written in original languages and needed to be submitted into English. I was given the task of making sure they were in "correct" English. Thank God for Google translate and 4 Danish housemates. It was a pretty entertaining job, after all Google translate does not translate into proper sentences and does not account for cultural phrases. It got some pretty interesting sentences to figure out. :) But, I think I succeeded with expressing everyone's thoughts in understandable English.

The assembly was held in Helsinki, Finland. I was excited to add another country to my list. When we got there, we spent the first day walking around the city. It is a beautiful city on the water, it is actually a bunch of islands bridge together. We got to see the harbor and experience seeing some traditional Finish food in the market. We also saw a really huge Lutheran church. It reminded me of a lot of the catholic churches I have seen.

I spent the weekend sitting in different meetings, NMI, District Advisory Board, discussions about the new work in Sweden. I think my mind has hit discussion overload. I don't see how all these church leaders can do this weekend after weekend. It's not my favorite activity. However, I think we have come to a great place with everything. I did really enjoy my conversations with our Field Strategy Coordinator, Regional Director and his wife, and the GS's wife. I felt very encouraged listening to them and what they had to share. I did walk away feeling inspired and supported and ready to move forward with both of the cafe teams (Copenhagen and Sweden).

We also had an ordination service for the pastor in Finland. It was another exciting experience to be a part of. I don't know how to describe what it feels like to pray over another Elder and the power of the Spirit in that moment. I hope it is a feeling and memory I never loose.

It was a great weekend! I am so glad I get to be a part of the Scandinavian District! There are a lot of wonderful people on this district!!!