Gränna

Happy Sunday to you! Yesterday we had a tough loss at Norrköping... tough because though we were the underdogs and not expected to win, we played a great team game and put up a solid fight, but fell short by six points nonetheless. We are still in the hunt to make the cut for playoffs. About five different teams are in the battle for the last two playoff spots. We practiced this evening - some weights, some basketball, and a team jump rope workout (like in the playground growing up... with one long rope... and everyone working together to jump in unison in the middle... except I never did practice these playground games so much while growing up... so tonight at practice, I was definitely the weakest link! lol. my teammates found it quite entertaining ;) ).

In addition to these court adventures, Tatsiana (my teammate from Belarus) and I visited an historical town called Gränna. The title of this blog links to the town's website - its especially known for its polkagris, "peppermint rocks" (sort of like candy canes of all different flavors, but much more tastier and carefully hand-made). It was a windy day, but we enjoyed walking along the old stone streets, in-and-out of candy shops, and down by the water. The best part of the morning for me was that we went to church. Neither of us speaking or really understanding Swedish, much of the content of the service was beyond us... however, there was song, reverence, meditation, community, and time just to reflect, pray, and praise God for all the wonderful gifts He has blessed us with - struggles and joys - that grow us in our desire to serve and know Him better every day.

This morning as I was reading, these particular verses very strongly stood out to me:

Hope does not disappoint,
because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts
through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
For Christ, while we were still helpless,
died at the appointed time for the ungodly.
Indeed, only with difficulty does one die for a just person,
though perhaps for a good person one might even find courage to die.
But God proves his love for us
in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.

AMAZING, PERFECT, SELFLESS LOVE! That is the love of our Lord!

Have a wonderful end to your weekend and a restful night sleep in preparation for a new week ahead with wonderful opportunity to live fully :)