Articles & Poems

Inspiration from the Past brings Believers
Back to the Future in Sweden
Stockholm Church Celebrates 20th Anniversary

Jerry Maday Worcester, MA
November 21, 2006

 
What a special time it was for everyone with Kristi Församling (the church of Christ) in Stockholm, Sweden. With glad hearts, on Saturday, November 18, 2006, the church came together and celebrated the 20th anniversary of the planting of their special congregation in Northern Europe.

In 1986, a small group of faith-filled believers, consisting of 8 Christians from the USA, several Christians from Finland, and few new believers in Sweden, officially started a church of Christ in Stockholm. I was blessed to be there in 1986, and was blessed to be back in 2006! I felt honored. And the Lord was highly honored.

Since that time, there have been hundreds of baptisms all around Scandinavia where there  are now 6 churches…

• Stockholm, Sweden               Stockholm Kristi Församling
• Copenhagen, Denmark           Kristi Kirke København
• Helsinki, Finland                    Helsingin Kristuksen Seurakunta
• Reykavik, Iceland                   Samfélag Krists í Reykjavík
• Bergen, Norway                     Bergen Kristi Församling
• Oslo, Norway                        Oslo Kristi Församling 

On that festive Saturday night, there was a great feast! We enjoyed not only delicious food, but we also experienced “the great banquet” Jesus talked about. On the menu were joyful fellowship, heartfelt sharing by special guests, photo memories, laughter and a lot of music. The music was performed both by locals and Scandinavian guests. The Stockholm pre-teens singers, led by David Skynar and Christopher and Lovisa Lindfelt sang beautifully. Anders Holmgren, Pauline Hovenäs and Denmark’s Kresten Wolff performed special songs of gratitude and friendship. Camilla Nilsson and Rita Lavesson em-ceed as  “roliga tantor” (funny old ladies) and kept us smiling. The whole night was well coordinated by Suzanne Carlsson and was a tremendous success.

Two sisters from Finland, Liisa Kaliokoski and Annikka Sketch shared a lot of detailed anecdotes about the 24 months of waiting they did for the church to be planted in Stockholm. For months, they faithfully held Sunday worship services together by gathering around a cassette player to listen to services from Boston that often included baptisms afterwards. They took great care to dress up in honor of that special time for communion. They even put out a special table cloth for the cassette player to set on. The cassette player, for them, was the voice of God’s word for them to be taught by.

Chris Reed (Denver Colorado), Tim & Julie Huffman, (Houston, Texas) were honored to share as well. Sören Erkenborn och Erik Steinholz led the group in a song I had written for the planting “Beröm era av hans Heliga Namn” (Glory in His Holy Name). It is based on text of  I Chronicles 15:16 – 16:36, when David first had the ark brought into Jerusalem to be in a tent. I was honored to give a “skriftlig uppmuntran” (biblical encouragement) to all with reflections on how God has the Stockholm church to influence all of us and many others whom we have come to know over the years.

On Sunday, Tim Huffman did a moving communion, I led “Unto Thee O Lord” in Swedish, and Chris Reed preached an inspiring, but quick exposition of Ephesians. God helped all of us guests to quickly remember our Swedish vocabulary, grammar and colloquialisms so we could share our hearts effectively. Let me just share that I thought our elocution was “charming!”  : )

All had a terrific, memory building time. We were greatly energized to renew our dedication to God’s will that all of Sweden and all of the world be won to Jesus Christ as long as it depends on us while we live on God’s earth. We are one body; one world-wide church of God; tied together in a global family. Everyone doing God’s will as a daughter or son of God is following the Son of God into eternity. So we shared about the past, talked about today and will always get “back to the future”  - helping others be in heaven with us and all of God’s saints in Kristi Församling.

Your brother in Christ,

Jerry Maday

Pictures

One of the more horrific tragedies I can recall in my lifetime occurred quite recently in the Amish country of Pennsylvania when a lone, crazed gunman locked himself and a group of Amish children in a schoolhouse and proceeded to execute five of them, before taking his own life. What distinguished this incident in my mind as especially brutal was the fact that it victimized one of the most peaceful, loving communities in the United States. I was deeply moved when I read one of the grieving grandparents had spoken to the widow of the gunman and told her he had forgiven her husband and then proceeded to invite her to attend the funeral of his granddaughter. How could he bring himself to forgive the murderer of his grandchild, before she was even laid to rest?  The fact is, the Amish understand God’s command that we are to love EVERYONE, regardless of circumstances.

Jesus made this clear in Matthew 5:43-45, when he said "You have heard that it was said, Love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be the sons of your Father in heaven."

By loving and praying for our enemies, we can overcome the evil that is pervasive in our society which Satan uses to take aim at Christians.   The ability to love our enemies requires us to surrender fully to God. We need to be freed from our selfishness and that can only happen though total submission to God.  God’s word clearly tells us that our success in learning to love all people is what’s most important to Him.  It’s through loving that we are most like Jesus. Unconditional love, exemplified by the Amish man, is at the core of everything God teaches us. The Apostle Paul said it best in Galatians 5:14, "The entire law is summed up in a single command: Love your neighbor as yourself." 

It’s essential to our salvation that we eventually learn to love without hesitation or exception. The story of the Amish man inspires me and at the same time, makes me keenly aware of how far I have to go to achieve that level of love. My guess is most of my brothers and sisters would feel similarly. Our journey to achieving unconditional love must begin in the Church. Each of us must recognize that until we are motivated by love for one another in all that we say and do, we will not grow as a family and become the shining light in a dark world God wants us to be. He commands us to love one another in order for us to accomplish his primary purpose for our lives in John 13:34-35, when Jesus said "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love onnother."

When we learn to love one another consistently, the completely unselfish love of the Amish man won’t seem so unattainable.

Love in Him,

Jim Curtin

With Love to God  -  from Albania
Korca, Albania & Worcester, MA
Written November 24, 2005

The Poetic Gratitude of Lorena Vangjeli

This week, we are blessed by God with expressive poetry created by a grateful sister from
Albania. Lorena Vangjeli (Lorie) was born in a town called Librazhd and was raised in her dad’s
hometown, Korca.  She came to theUnited Statesa little more than 2 years ago when her sister,
Leila, was graduating from Worcester State College inMassachusetts. Lorie recalls, “At the time, since
issuing visas for students was almost impossible, I called myself lucky to have gotten a visa so easily
in the US Embassy in Tirana, without thinking much that it wasn’t mere chance…”

“As soon as I came here it was not the ‘new land’ that impressed me as much as my sister’s
deep love for me. Later on, my sister told me that after becoming a disciple, she had fasted and
prayed for days for me to come to US. She thought it was a miracle.”

Not until Lorie studied the Bible a year later did she realize how God had
worked a miracle!  She esteems Angie Hoover and Meaghan Butts  as “two great women” who
helped her to get to know God. Lorie was immersed into Christ on December 5^th,2004. She
exclaimed, “After the baptism I believed the ingenious plan my awesome God had (and has) for me!”

 

In the one year she has been in God’s family, Lorie has penned dozens of poems.
(See link at the end of this article.) Below, in her own words, she discusses her relationship

with God and her Poetry.

 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

I have been writing since I was twelve years old. Back in
Albania, writing in poetry and prose was not just a hobby; it was a means of
expressing what was deep in my heart without anybody understanding what was going on.
Since I never trusted people, I never shared
how I felt, so writing became my surviving tactic
until I discovered I wasn’t even surviving-I was
already dead… Many of my ‘friends’ used to read
my sad short stories of characters dying,
melancholic poetries of lonely people, existentialist
theories, but they never guessed that what I
wrote was a symbolist reflection of what I felt.
Feelings of emptiness, voids that I could never fill, pain, anger, arrogance, jealousy, pride, self-pity,
defeat and denial- I had them all.Yet, if I didn’t experience that dark period of my life I would
have never appreciated the unspeakable joy and contentment I am having today walking with
my Father, the only one who fills every void and peels off every burden through Jesus Christ.
Finally I am experiencing what it means to be happy, full and free; finally he has given me dreams,
goals, friends, challenges to grow, passion and a great mission to dedicate myself to.My
poetries are all about Him now, because I can’t really find any other greater topic to write about
except the love he has shown me-breaking news for my heart! I give thanks to the Lord for he has
made my heart dance. Faleminderit –Thank you.   Lorie Vangjeli 

You are the One

(Top of article translated from Albanian )

You are the One
Who holds me in your arms
The One who spreads my wings, wide
You are the One
Who fires up my heart
Whose flames light my passion for life
You are the One
Who brought me to life
Who gave me Jesus, my hero
Who touches my soul when your arms stretch
Like ropes toward me - a Fatherly hug
When I weep through storms of life
You are the one who gives me strength
When I feel so weak you raise me up
You have faith in me, a faithless kind
You caress me when floods of tears engulf me
You are the one who has given me, unconditionally
Your Son,
Your life,
Your Spirit
You are the one
I have always been waiting for
When my soul was empty and dead
A bright awesome sun
Only you, my Father
You are the one

 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

To enjoy more of Lorie’s Poems click on the link below… 
Let her gift from God give to you!

http://worcesterchurch.org/arts/Lorie-Vanjeli-Poetry-Collection.htm

Copyright © 2005

  

Reason

(when you want to leave the faith)