I have just started a new choir project in Sweden called Gospel Journey. In 2015 we intend to go to New York, but my vision is that our journey does not stop there. I hope that many people get the chance to experience the kind of gospel journey I did today.
Our journey today was back and forth across the very large city of St Petersburg to visit three church services. For a swedish person I guess you can compare to doing one service in Stockholm, one in Västerås and one in Örebro, all in one Sunday. I have said it before, but I need to say it again -the most amazing thing is when you feel in your heart that God is the same wherever you go!
The evangelical churches here don't have the traditional church buildings that are common in Europe. Those beautiful old buildings are exclusively for the russian-orthodox church (except one that was taken over by baptists a long time ago). This means that the outside of an evangelical church (which could be a hotel, a movie theatre or other hall) is usually not very inspiring, but the inside is what matters. The sound is usually good for gospel, such as Total Praise, and the not-so-churchy kind of room seems a little friendlier for those who are not used to going to church. Most important are the people, as always, and we met a lot of great people today.
Four sisters from one of the churches joined us to sing two gospel songs in the morning. After the service they spoke with us and it sounded like everybody was mad at everybody. They were yelling all kinds of russian insults at each other. I thought. But I am slowly learning that the russian language has a different melody than the languages I already know. The truth was that they were super excited about what had happened and shared different ways the Lord had been blessing them during the music. So it was actually awesome! :)
Our journey today was back and forth across the very large city of St Petersburg to visit three church services. For a swedish person I guess you can compare to doing one service in Stockholm, one in Västerås and one in Örebro, all in one Sunday. I have said it before, but I need to say it again -the most amazing thing is when you feel in your heart that God is the same wherever you go!
The evangelical churches here don't have the traditional church buildings that are common in Europe. Those beautiful old buildings are exclusively for the russian-orthodox church (except one that was taken over by baptists a long time ago). This means that the outside of an evangelical church (which could be a hotel, a movie theatre or other hall) is usually not very inspiring, but the inside is what matters. The sound is usually good for gospel, such as Total Praise, and the not-so-churchy kind of room seems a little friendlier for those who are not used to going to church. Most important are the people, as always, and we met a lot of great people today.
Four sisters from one of the churches joined us to sing two gospel songs in the morning. After the service they spoke with us and it sounded like everybody was mad at everybody. They were yelling all kinds of russian insults at each other. I thought. But I am slowly learning that the russian language has a different melody than the languages I already know. The truth was that they were super excited about what had happened and shared different ways the Lord had been blessing them during the music. So it was actually awesome! :)
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