So much has happened in the last month that I don't even know where to start. It's actually kind of overwhelming to think about writing it all out. I'll try to just give you the highlights and keep it interesting and not too long.
We've had quite a few groups come through, some for just the day to do the Ropes Course and Giant Swing, and others for as long as a week. The two longest groups came in the last two weeks. The first was a family camp from a church from Gothenburg. They were from Sandeslatt, which is the church where I did my outreach week in the spring. It was cool to see them again and catch up a little. I worked with the young kids (2-5 year olds), and it was challenging but also rewarding. It was hard to communicate with them, especially at first, because the kids didn't really speak English. We had two Swedish girls helping us, but they couldn't be everywhere so throughout the week we learned some essentials like “Help me” and “Do you want to go to the playground?” and “Come here” and as the week progressed, we learned to communicate better without words. In the afternoons we opened the ropes course, giant swing, and the pamper pole and also played soccer, ultimate frisbee, and volleyball with them. One evening we played a bunch of relay games with everyone, and they really got into it! The weather was pretty nice, still a bit cloudy and thunder and rain one day, but every morning was nice enough that we could take the kids to the playground, which made it much easier to take care of them.
This last week we had a teen camp from two international churches, one from Stockholm and one from Gothenburg. I felt like the relationship building went better last week than with the other groups; I don't think I had any really deep conversations but there were several girls I felt comfortable talking with and I think they felt comfortable talking with me too. I made an effort to sit with the guests at meals more often, which really helped me to get to know them better and feel more comfortable with them. We had some really good small group discussions about worship and idols in our lives. We took them to the a lake on afternoon and hung out there and played games. Another afternoon we canoed down to another lake, spent some time there and then hiked back to the school. On Friday night, SAT was in charge of the chapel time. We performed a skit which was a modified version a skit by One Time Blind called "Live in Me." The skit raises a lot of challenging questions which we then talked about in our small groups. We ended the night with a campfire, smores, and sharing time. With this group, I got the opportunity to lead some initiatives with about 15 of them; I felt like it went better than my previous attempt at leading initiatives but I still have a lot of room to improve. I just don't know how to get them excited about the initiatives when I explain them. I think the debriefs went okay, although I wasn't incredibly dynamic then either.
I've really been enjoying have a kitchen to experiment in. So far I've made double chocolate cookies, a lemon pound cake, oatmeal coconut cookies, coconut crunch cookies, coffee fudge cake, five-minute chocolate lave cake and cheesecake brownies. This morning I made tortillas and cheesy scrambled eggs for breakfast.
On June 22, we had a big celebration at the school for midsummer. We invited tons of people from the community to come. The weeks leading up to it we spent weeding and making the campus look its best. Weeding was a blessing in disguise since it gave us an opportunity to talk with each other and get to know each other while we weeded. We played a question game where we take turns asking questions which can be as fun or serious as we want; once you've answered a question, you get to ask the next question and you can't repeat a question or ask the person who asked you.
On the day of midsummer, we set up little games for the children, a trivia scavenger hunt for the adults and opened the ropes course, giant swing, and pamper pole for people to try. There was a short program where we put up a large pole decorated with leaves and flowers and danced around it. There was some special music, and Luke, our principal, gave a short gospel presentation. Then there was fika (cookies and coffee) for everyone. We had somewhere between 500 and 600 guests that day! I was helping to run the pamper pole and we had steady stream of people for the four hours it was open!
On one of the shortest nights of the year, my friend EJ and I decided to hike up the ski hill and stay up all night to watch the sunrise at 4am. The sun officially set at 10pm but it never got completely dark so that we didn't need any light to hike. We left the school at midnight; when were about 3/4 of the way there, we suddenly heard the noise of hooves and a large black shadow bolted across our path - it was a moose! He disappeared into the trees on the other side of the path and it sounded like a whole heard thundering away! When we were almost at the ski hill, we encountered four or five horses as we walked through their a field. We tried to make a lot of noise so they would stay away from us, but I think they were scared and confused about where we were because they ran up right beside the road we were walking on and stopped near it a little way ahead of us. We decided to find a way around that field rather than risking coming too close and getting run over. Once we reached the ski hill, we spent some time in silence, just listening, and then EJ taught me to braid and French braid my hair. Then we read out loud to each other from a book we've been reading together called "And the Word Came With Power." At 4am we were greeted with a beautiful sunrise! Since we'd brought our sleeping bags, we slept the rest of the night there and woke up late and had to run back to school to make it in time for breakfast.
Last Sunday afternoon I went to Jönköping for the afternoon and sat by the lake and read and journalled and prayed. It was really nice to get away from Holsby and spend some time alone with God to refocus and it really helped me to remember my identity as the daughter of the King and also to remember what my motivation is for being here - it's not that I have to interact with the guests, eat with them, talk with them, etc. because I signed up for it so I 'should' do it. I want to interact with them so I can share God's love with them as God enables me to.
Yesterday was a ton of fun! It started out with cinnamon rolls for breakfast and only got better from there. It was pouring rain and EJ and I went for a walk in the forest. We were soaked within the first twenty minutes! We jumped in puddles and drank water off the end of fir tree needles. When our path crossed over a rushing stream, swollen by rain, we couldn't help but pause and listen to it roar. Since we were already wet, we decided to walk in the stream and explore as far as we could go. I loved the fast bits where it would push against my legs. We slipped and slid over the rocks and squished through the bud. We climbed over and through tree branches and it felt like we were exploring new territory because we couldn't see very far ahead of us. Sometimes the water came up to our waists and once we were squishing through mud up to our knees! I'm glad we didn't loose our shoes. Along the way we found some tiny smultron (wild strawberries), which were pretty tasty. After an hour of wading, we found ourselves back at a road, and EJ got her bearings, and we walked back to the spot where we'd entered the stream in less than five minutes! We were only a little late for lunch when we got back to the school and changed. After lunch I helped Sarah make a cake and then we had coffee and chatted for a long time. By supper time, the clouds had all blown away and we had a picnic supper of left-over enchiladas on the lawn. After supper we went up to Wally and Donna's house for a time of fellowship; we sang some songs, played a question game, prayed together, ate lots of fika and chatted. On our walk back down the hill, one girl started a whipped cream fight with her left-over whipped cream; EJ creamed me in the face and I got her back pretty good too!
Now I've got a day off to rest and relax. This week we don't have any groups coming so it'll be a work week. Tomorrow we will be working on a wood-chip path behind the chapel, and I don't know what the rest of the week will bring.
Well, that still turned out pretty long, but I guess no one is making you read it. If you made it to this point, congratulations! It's the end!
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