The Nordic Project for Church Multiplication

Serving Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, and Iceland

East to the Dawn   

       We love flying over the North Atlantic to Europe.  There's something about the trip that grips our hearts.  Perhaps it's the Great Circle route that often takes us over southern Greenland, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, and into northern Europe.  Perhaps it's the thought of new adventures with old friends on the continent where God has called us.  The flight never ceases to excite us.  It always feels like we're going home.
       From the eastern USA, North Atlantic flights usually take off somewhere between 4 and 10 pm.  This allows them to cross six or seven time zones and land in Europe between 6 am and noon.  It also means you fly into the night and somewhere along the route you welcome the dawn. 
       We love watching it approach.  While others have their shades down trying to sleep or are half way through watching their second movie, we can't keep our eyes off the horizon.  It starts with a gradual shift from black to gray.  Then there's a point of pink in the sky that makes its way north and south until the entire skyline is a rosy orange.  The horizon gets brighter and brighter until at last the sun bursts upwards and blinds you momentarily - so strongly that you can't tell if your tray table is up or down.  It makes you glad the plane is on autopilot because you know the pilots are blinded as well. 
      To greet the dawn - it's an experience to relish every day.  When light approaches, the darkness must give way.  The Apostle John wrote, "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it." (John 1:5, NIV)
       We have great hope for revival in the Nordic - one of the darkest of the earth's spiritually dark places.  Sweden.  Norway.  Denmark.  Finland.  Iceland.  Five of the least religious countries in the western world.  The Nordic - where five churches close for every one that is planted.  The Nordic - so loved by atheists, all five nations always rank in the top 10 most secular countries.  The Nordic - its current generation now classified as a lost  people group by missiologists.
       When the sun comes up, the night must flee.  In the spiritual darkness of the Nordic live bold, courageous Christians - nationals and international immigrants who stand in faith believing God will have the last word in their country.  They walk by faith, take great risks, understand the power of prayer, worship fervently, and shed tears for their neighbors.  And they are also asking for help.

Maybe God is calling you to help Converge's heritage?