How naive we were to think that we had licked jet lag with that 13 hour sleep on Saturday night.  I (Brett) think I slept about an hour last night and Clay slept about 5.  Nonetheless, we were greeted with a sunny day and a delicious Norwegian breakfast with Tim at the hotel.  After saying goodbye to Tim, we hopped the shuttle back to the airport and caught our flight to Stockholm.  We took a train into Stockholm from the airport where Ray was waiting for us at the Central Station.  We walked about a mile to his office at Credo Akademin and met several of the staff there including Stefan, whom many of you will remember as a speaker from our 2011 Mission’s Conference.  Ray, Clay and I took a staff member namedMartin to lunch at Sue Ellen’s, which was a great little pub around the corner from their office.  In addition to his work at Credo, Martin is also a part-time pastor in a Lutheran church in the city.  He is interested in furthering his education by attending seminary in the States, possibly at Covenant Seminary, which is Clay’s and my alma mater.  Despite our obvious bias, we were able to help him think through some of his goals and which seminary would be a good fit for him.  Should it work out for him to attend Covenant, we think he would do very well there.

Following lunch, Ray, Clay and I took the subway and bus back to their house where we met up with Kay who was enjoying a much-needed and well-deserved rest from the SHARE Family Education Conference she helped coordinate in Budapest, Hungary.  We spent the afternoon hearing stories from the SHARE conference and how God used the conference to really equip and encourage the families who attended.  Just before supper, we took a long walk around a lake near the Baker’s house that created a Scandanavian-sized hunger, which Ray heartily vanquished by soup, cheese/crackers and vegetables.  We are grateful for the Baker’s hospitality in feeding and lodging us in their home.  Their love for the people of Sweden and God’s work here is so evident in the stories they tell and the life that they live.

Tomorrow we head out early to speak in Ray’s class for their Open Forum.  Pray for us as we talk about the doctrine of predestination, which is something that many are interested in hearing about, possibly for the first time.  Pray that it will deepen and enrich their understanding of God’s grace for them and for us.  We hope to see more of the city tomorrow after class before leaving the following day for London.