Summertime, Livin' Easy.....

I am back...
I have been back in Copenhagen for almost a month now. It has been a great joy to be back in the cafe again. As much as I enjoy visiting family and friends, I love my work.

July is vacation month in Denmark. I think most of the city's inhabitants clear out and the city becomes full of tourist. The sun is actually out and we have warm temps. As much as I love the warmth and the month of sunshine, this travel month is not so great for the cafe. We have had a lot of slow, hot days. I would take the crazy days of the fall over this anytime. But, soon we will be back to regular and things will explode in the cafe again. I did get to sport a little bit of U. S. pride on the 4th of July. We were able to wear our stars & stripes and have a little "American" style dinner. But, like every other year- I really miss the fireworks!

We have been contacted by a number of new volunteers lately. We have posted our need for help on a community website. This has resulted in many new volunteers. Each week we are meeting new people and scheduling them for their first shifts. This has been a great experience because most of them are not Christians, but neighbors from the community. Now our ministry filled has really grown in the area of the volunteers we are working next to. It seems each time we have a new volunteer we get an opportunity to share Christ with them, when we explain why we do what we do. I am excited to see how this opportunity develops into more and ministries.

Things are going great and I am excited to be back in Copenhagen and Cafe Sweet Surrender!

Traveling Update!!

I just spent the past week at NTS going through the missionary assessment. I have no answers yet.... Except, of course I will be continuing to volunteer in Denmark! :)

And now I am on my way to Nampa, Idaho. I will be speaking at Bethel Church of the Nazarene on Sunday night. They will be the first to hear my stories!!  So, if you are in the Nampa area, stop by and see me! :D

Tillykke et års fødselsdag :D

Sweet Surrender Copenhagen made it, 1 year! YEA!!! Congratulations to all of us who have left our blood, sweat, and tears in the cafe. It has been a great week of remembering for me. I was going through old pictures from the past year and sending them on to be made into posters. It is amazing to see how much we have done in a year. Now I understand why I feel like I am busy all the time!! :)

God has really blessed us and all the work we have done for Him. When we first started the work on Mexico bar we thought that we would never be able to change it into such a beautiful cafe. The more we built, the more problems we found. But, we kept building. And then we opened and had such a slow summer and wondered if business would pick up or if we even made great contacts. Now we are always looking for more volunteers because we can be too busy. We have by far exceeded our daily income goal for the year.  Plus we have added our volunteers to our ministry list. We are getting more and more international volunteers, many who have no connection to the church. Now our witnessing field has expanded from not only customers, but volunteers as well. We have had so many events and connections with people. Our church has been set and we are meeting weekly and growing closer and closer as a team.

Yesterday we celebrated all day- handing out cake and frozen bananas to guests. We also had a concert in the evening with 2 young christian artists. It was a wonderful night. All of the team was together to help and celebrate. The cafe was filled with constant joy and laughter. It is such a blessing for us to gather all together. God has really been answering our prayers this year.

Congratulations to us! We made it!!!

Check out photos from the event here- Sweet Surrender 1 year Celebration

Moving, Packing, Running, and Fundraising

2 1/2 weeks, that is all I have left in the white house. 2 1/2 weeks before the extreme panic kicks in. Changes are always a challenge for me.

I am moving soon, finally. I have not been living in a healthy environment and I have wanted to break free since October. Now I finally have a place to go to, for 3 months this summer. I will be living in central Copenhagen. No more train rides and commuting and late night trains! i will be a 15 minute bike ride away from everything! am so thankful for the volunteer who is giving us her apartment to stay in, while she is away. So, that means before I leave for the States, I have to be moved out of my room in the white house.  And when I return to Denmark, I will be living in beautiful central Copenhagen!

I am running again, always running. It really is my excitement and life force. I an training for a 10k this time around. I will be racing on May 31st. I am excited because I will be getting to run with almost my whole family and some women from my sisters small group. Also, they will be asking for people to sponsor them as a fundraiser for me. I am so excited to get to run this race with them. If you are interested in running with us or sponsoring one of us, send me a message.

So, why am I going to the States for 6 weeks??? I really don't want to leave my work in Denmark... But the bank account says I must. I will be in California and the Chicago area.  So, far I am only speaking in 3 churches in the Chicago area. I am really in need of churches to share in the NorCal area. It has become a matter of great stress for me. I need to raise $8,000 to continue my work in Copenhagen for another year. If you are interested in helping me,  and hearing what God has been doing in Copenhagen, send me a message.

Stay tune for the next blog, in the near future.... We will be celebrating Sweet Surrender Copenhagen's 1 year birthday! :D

Spring has Sprung...

Spring has arrived!!! At least I hope it has. Last night was our time change. This is always a little bummer for me, and not for the reason you may think. I have never understood those who struggle with only an hour difference with the time change. It's only an hour... but I guess only those who understand my sleeping patterns (or my lack of sleeping) would understand why 1 hour doesn't throw me off. The reason I don't like time change is that the US time and European time changes do not fall on the same night. So, that means for a week or two I am one hour closer to my family, which seems to make a huge difference in the ability to catch my nieces and nephews on skype, before I am passing out for the night. But, time change has sprung us forward and I am enjoying the last few rays of sunlight at 7:30pm. It's amazing how a little more sun can change the perspective and energy level. I have also started to train for the 10k I will be running while I am home. This week was a challenge getting back to a running plan, but it's the good kind of challenge when you feel a relief and freedom in running again.

What does spring mean for the cafe?? It means we pull out all of the outside furniture and sneak outside for breaks in the sunshine. So far this month has proven that each week is inconsistent. It seems that whenever we think that we have figured out a pattern with our customers, it changes. We must accept the inconsistency. But, we have had more people in the evenings, there is something about having sun that keeps people out in the evenings. This is a good thing for us! :) We have been making a lot of contacts with families in the evenings. We have also been bonding with our volunteers and as a team. The atmosphere in the cafe has lightened and even when we are really busy their is still an attitude of joy and fun and friendship. And this attitude, I think, has spread to our customers as well. The mother groups have become so comfortable with us and the cafe that they almost treat it as their own living room. They lounge on the couches and babies are crawling everywhere. Obviously this is both good and bad. But, I think it proves the need for a place like ours, a place where people can feel at home, welcomed, and comfortable. We also have a number of our volunteers who find this like home as well. It has often become a place where we hang-out and enjoy being together in fellowship in the evenings. Ahhh Spring... everyone happy and feeling the freedom from the dark winter.

Time Flies.......

Time flies when you are....... having fun? doing ministry? extra busy?
Whatever the reason, time flies by. Today I actually opened up my blog and found that it has been 6 months since I have written, six months!!!! Where in the world did fall and winter in Denmark go? It seems to have zoomed by like that summer vacation does for a child. Today is spring in Copenhagen, the air is fresh, the sun is nice and the long over due blue sky is showing. In the midst of winter I was not seeing this time fly, but everyone knows my strong dislike for cold, snow, and ice. Luckily we did not have too much of that this year. But, now it is spring and the sun and warmth is returning (if only for a day). So, what has been happening in my life here in Denmark?? So much can happen in 6 months.

I spent this weekend in Oslo, Norway at our Portuguese speaking church there. We had our Scandinavian District Assembly. I was privileged to be the representative from Sweet Surrender. With this privilege comes the task of reporting to the district what has happened this year. And when I stood in front of all the important people all the facts of the business and events flew out the window and the stories of the people came out. The different people that we have met through the last year, the stories of how their lives have been changed by walking through the doors of Sweet Surrender and how our lives are changed because we have been able to minister to them. Because isn't that the point?? I could write or talk for a long time about all the hours we work, all our food, drinks, and how much money we make. I can list the different project groups we have started, the different places our income has supported, but in the long run none of that matters, the people matter. And so what have I been doing the past  months (besides obviously not updating my blog). I have been standing behind a bar making coffee, in a kitchen helping make food, cleaning, helping plan/throw parties/vents, helping organize a church, teaching, preaching, counseling, but most importantly- getting to know people and trying to affect their lives. So, when I reported to the district I shared about the neighbors who I have talked to about Christ and the church. I talked about the people who walk in off the street and become volunteers because of the community they feel in the cafe. And that is why we have built Sweet Surrender in Copenhagen, not to be another non-profit cafe, not just to be a place where mother groups can relax and be free (which are all wonderful things). But, we built it to be a place where people meet Christ, where people come face to face with real love and acceptance. The team has worked really hard to create that place in the last year. I think we finally have arrived, our customers, neighbors, and volunteers come back because they know we are different and they want that. Soon, they will realize it is really Christ they want and we are here to give them that!

Where Did My Summer Go???

Wow! It has been a really long time since I have updated my blog or even communicated what has been happening here in Denmark. I can't believe it is already September and I keep thinking, what happened to my summer? When did it become September?!? There is so much that has happened, that I am not even sure where to begin. So, lets go through the highlights of the past two months.

I have been working a lot of hours in the cafe. It is hard when we first open and are still trying to figure out our patterns and business. July was a really slow month for us. We had a lot of days with not very much business at all. That was frustrating, but I think it was also a blessing because all of the cafe team members were on vacation. It made it a little easier to work extra hours for them when we were not crazy busy. August was also slow in the beginning, but the past couple weeks business has been growing and we are having busier and busier days. This is great, we are beginning to bring in the amount we need to stay afloat. I have enjoyed my work hours in the cafe behind the bar and in the kitchen. We have some great volunteers from the Greve church, that are a lot of fun to work with. Also, we have met a lot of new people and have regular customers now. Daily we have to opportunity to talk about what we are doing and why. We have a number of people interested in us and that is great.

We had a Work and Witness team come and help us out in July. They were a wonderful group to have. They started the work in our activity room, cleaned out 2 storage rooms, and did an evening childrens activity. It was such a blessing to be with them and to share Copenhagen and the cafe ministry with them. We were not able to finish the activity room, but that is what happens when you have certain things that have to be dealt with by professionals and paperwork. However, they made a huge dent in the work. As always it is an encouragement for me to have others with the heart for mission work around. I really connected with some on the team and they were a true blessing to have here.

We have started weekly church services. We meet every Saturday evening after closing. This has ben a great time to worship, pray, and encourage each other as a small group. This last Saturday we got to pray over one woman who is coming and struggling with alcoholism and she shared with us that we were the only family she. She also, visits Julia and I every day in the cafe.

Last week, I had visitors from Poland. They are the current volunteers there. It was exciting to share what is happening in Copenhagen and hear about the cafes I worked in before. They were a great encouragement for me as well. It is nice to be able to share openly and discuss the struggles we face as volunteers and the ministry. It is nice to have others to share with. I also, enjoyed showing them my beautiful Copenhagen.

There are a lot of things happening this fall. Now that we have a balance in our work hours we can focus on starting more activities and groups in the cafe. I will be starting a women's group and a young adult group. Also, I will continue with working with the youth at the Greve church. I am excited to see where God is going to lead us this fall.

I had a wonderful experience last Monday. I performed a baptism service in Sweden. I baptized 2 women who are meeting with the couple starting a ministry in the Malmo area. We drove out to a lake and braved the very cold water! It was a very simple and relaxed time. It was a gathering of friends and family. Both women shared their hearts and how they are wanting to work with the ministry we are starting there. I was blessed to be a part of their great act of faith. Exciting things are happening in Sweden!

It has been a crazy summer and I can not believe it is already September! But, this fall has so much in store for the cafe and ministry! I am excited to see where God leads me and the work in the cafe!

photos of all the adeventures