The Lindahl News: Abroad Edition

Even before the first Sunday in Advent, we began celebrating this special time with an Advent service right here at SVF on Friday, November 30.  As always, the Music Line singing was top notch.   Two days later marked the first Sunday in Advent. The first candle is lit.     "On the first Sunday of Advent – four weeks before Christmas – people light the first candle in the Advent candlestick. This is always a special event, eagerly awaited. Each Sunday until Christmas, a candle is lit (and blown out after a while), until all four candles are alight." - from the official Sweden/Sverige website   At home I have a special candle holder (with a line-up of four candles) used every Advent season. Here in Sweden we are using one candle with daily "burns" until December 24. Going to Immanuelkyrkan for the Sunday morning service is a highlight of the day.  The hymns sung are mostly ones we remember singing, too. ...

Anne thought that E and M could make the walk from the top of the hill where the SVF campus is located to the shopping area at the bottom of the hill near Lake Vattern. It's well over two miles in all! It was, frankly, a rough start.  It was cold for these flickas. We stopped for a warm-up at Sofia Church - Sofiakyrkan... and here they weren't much impressed by this lovely gem of a church that their grandmother loves. They cheered up marginally when given the opportunity to use my cell phone to take pictures outside. Just a couple of blocks past the Sofia Church is a Red Cross Secondhand shop. I credit this shop for saving our chilly day as Anne found warm snowpants for the girls to wear. From here on out, their sunnier dispositions returned.  A visit to a favorite candy store helped even more! Fortified by a wee bit of sugar, the flickas pressed on. Jul decor is out in full measure in selected stores in Jonkoping! SVF-ers...