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Dear Friends,
Church this Sunday was great – as always. I spoke about the events in Jesus life recorded in Matthew Chapter 12, verses 1 to 14. The Pharisees were such a continual bore because they had set up a system that venerated and worshiped the Sabbath day. Jesus reminds them that God values actual acts of compassion that touch real lives more than performance of a religious system of safeguards that they thought would keep them in the favor of their God. Then, Jesus gave a live application of His teaching by doing something good on the Sabbath, right there in front of the Pharisees. And they didn’t like it. Read it - you will enjoy it. Matt. 12 : 1 – 14.
There is something funny about spring here. It has an aroma all of its own. I think the aroma is coming from a field situated right alongside of my Church home - a huge open hay field. The farmers have been working with tractors and stuff in that field all day. Now, I would hate to tell you what I think they were distributing all over those fields, but right now it is really very distinctive. However, one has to keep the windows open anyway – it was quite warm today – almost 80 during the day and tonight it will go down to 40 or so. I am fascinated by the time of sunrise and the time of sunset. The sun sets at 10:28 pm and rises at 1:14 am. This means that night here is 2 hours and 46 minutes long. Not much time to sleep – you need to pack all your sleep into 2 hours and 46 minutes. I could read a newspaper outside in the street at midnight – that is, if I could only read Swedish well enough to tell what the newspaper is saying. But I am studying Swedish as fast as I can.
One of the Church members took me on an adventure into the forests around Juktån (Yuktone). That is what he called it – an adventure. We drove forever along a lumber trucking road and then walked forever - through damp moss covered, flat, heavily wooded forest. One of those outing where they tell you – it’s just ahead. I forgot my bug repellant – a major error. Fortunately, the mosquitoes hadn’t quite arrived yet because of the cold spring that I have been telling you about. My friend wanted to show me where Carolus Linnaeus (you might know him as Carl von Linne’, the Swedish botanist, physician, zoologist and one of the fathers of modern ecology) did his research in the eighteenth century. That is the place where we were going – if we would ever get there. You do recall that he (Carl von Linne’) is known as the father of Taxonomy. That doesn’t have anything to do with the IRS. To research all this further, go to the web – to the Wikipedia Encyclopedia under Carolus Linnaeus. When we finally got to the place where we were going, I can actually say that I was standing where Carl stood in 1732 when he got so discouraged that he turned around and went back to Stockholm – too many mosquitoes and maybe like me, no bug repellant. We must have come there too early in the spring, because there weren’t any flowers to be seen – just swamp. But that is what a mire should look like – I think. I did take a picture of the plaque Carl left behind when he left the place in such haste. If I ever go back there, you can be sure that I will tell you all about it.
Please keep Gunnarn and the Church here in your prayers. They have taken a great interest in delving into Scripture for themselves. They have had religious training in their backgrounds, but that was years ago. Now, they are responding with enthusiasm as I bring up issues from the Bible that they haven’t thought about for some time. Thank you. In Christ,
George