Outreach is almost half over, which is definitely a crazy thing to think about. We have less than a week in Malmo and then we head to Helsinki, Finland for the remainder of our trip. During this time, I’ve realized that outreach is not separate from lecture phase of a DTS. I’ve felt like I am growing and learning more about God even on outreach. Outreach hasn’t just been telling the lost and broken about Jesus, but a continuation of what God is doing in me. When I think about it, it shouldn’t be a surprise because God is continually pursuing our hearts to bring us closer to Him whether it be in a DTS or in life. I’m finding that outreach is showing me how to live a lifestyle of seeking God. I’ve learned we don’t have to be on-call christians just finding people with the purpose of converting them. We are meeting new friends-on buses, at Burger King, or IKEA and getting opportunities to tell them about Jesus and what he’s done in our lives or just offering a lonely person someone to talk to. I’ve learned that outreach or other mission trips for that matter could have the purpose of uplifting fellow christians in their walk and not just the lost and broken. Its about spreading the fire and everybody is flammable.
God is Moving
Since this is a pioneering outreach, we really didn’t know what outreach would look like. We really had to seek the Lord every day on what we He had for us that day. I’m reminded that He’s a lamp to our feet and with lamps you can usually only see a few feet ahead. We look back on how we even got to Malmo, Sweden and are in awe of how God moves. The network of events that happened to secure housing, meet fellow christians, and the meetings with people on the street has evidence of God hand in all of them.
Some encouraging things are already happening here in Malmo and Rosengard. The Christians here that we have met are on fire for God and praying for a move of God here. There are prayer groups (See Video below) that pray every night for an hour or longer. They sing, worship and pray for change in their cities, for God to send more workers (hey, its happening! They prayed about 2 months before our group came for Christians to come from outside Sweden), divine meetings with people, and aligning of their hearts with God’s will. We participated in an awesome prayer group at the College in Malmo as well called ACTS (photo above). Yet another awesome prayer group is on wednesday nights where we meet in the center of Malmo and intercede on behalf of the city (see video below). We visited a few local churches like Thomas Kyrkan and Hyllie Park Kyrkan and met and visited with many great people from the congregations. Thomas Kyrkan graciously gave us a great room for our team time worship and prayer every morning. Another great ministry is that every weekend, we have been partnering with Street Church to hand out coffee, hot chocolate and words of encouragement to people on the street.
A Learning Process
Something that God is teaching me is not to strive or expect a certain amount of results. Its easy to look back and see how many people I’ve affected or helped and judge my “success”. I’m learning I need a new measure of success. Success isn’t leading a certain amount of people to Christ, fruitful ministries, or how much I’ve prayed. The new measure of success is how much I’ve received God’s love, how much I’ve seeked Him, His character, His presence, His love, and love Him back with worship. Everything is an overflow from that. I can all of a sudden love my neighbor and myself much easier. I have success when I get a realization that He loves me even when I’m walking down the street or eating with friends. He loves me even when I chicken out and don’t talk to the person on the bus next to me. Its not about performing for God’s love, its about the acceptance and realization that God loves me and my neighbors no matter what. When we truly accept this in our hearts, we love Him back and have a desire to tell others about His personal love for them.
Teamin’ up
Living as a team has been wonderful and challenging. It’s been a process to learn how we all work together. Some teammates are introverts some are extroverts, some morning people, some are night owls. Only God could take people from all over the States and Canada with so many different characters and have them all get along. We’ve realized we can’t forget to love the neighbor sitting right next to us (our teammates) and we have to invest in spending quality time together. We’ve learned that we need each other for encouragement and affirmation. We’ve learned about the importance of praying against spirits of oppression from the land we are in. We’ve learned we have to communicate with each other if we feel wronged so the devil can’t build up things inside of us. We agreed all wouldn’t have picked each other for a team, but now that we are all together, we see that God put us together for this specific outreach. Each of us have something that God wants to use to draw each other to Him and tell others about Him.
Helsinki on the Horizon
I’m looking forward to the end of our time here in Malmo and heading to Helsinki to partner with what God is doing there. I’ll certainly miss my new friends and this multicultural city of Malmo-and Kitchen Kings (the local kebab and pizza place)! We are also excited for the ferry ride over because they are known for partying and as a result, opportunities to tell people about the true lover of their souls, Jesus.
My wife and I are currently staffing a Discipleship Training School (DTS) through Youth with a Mission (YWAM). We both love God and are committed to following his will. I enjoys taking photographs of my travels as well as blogging about awesome things God does. To see more photos, visit our gallery. More about Calvin and Camille
Outreach half over. Let's See Helsinki (pun intended) 13 comment(s) | posted on February 2, 2010 
A visit from Jeff 12 comment(s) | posted on September 1, 2009 
Gold dust!? Healings! What's going on? 10 comment(s) | posted on July 29, 2010 
13 Comments
Dang it, you made me cry and I have to catch a flight.
I Love you guys.
Jeff
Jeff Reid
2/2/2010
Aw, can’t wait to see you and eat some kebabs
Love ya
Calvin Hanson
2/2/2010
Good text! I like the movies
I already miss u all team! God is so god, i hope i meet u again before heaven 
Can u give the team a big hug from Malmö ? =)
Christian
2/3/2010
I’ll definitely give them a giant hug from you! Man I really miss you already! You are such a fun guy to hang out with and seek the Lord with! Blessings to Kärleksgerillan House Church
I added your blog to my links on the right side bar. Hopefully others will visit and join your amazing group of Christians! Love you bro
Calvin Hanson
2/3/2010
This made me cry too! So good! Love you!
Kristin Hanson
2/3/2010
Ohh, this is so good!! Miss you… allready. You have an amazing team and it has been a blessing being a part of it in Malmö…hope to see you again, welcome back to Sweden!!
Stina
2/3/2010
beautifully written & so true!! Have a great time in Finland!
tove
2/5/2010
ok this is the second time i try to comment! haha I love this blog..i third or fourth the crying thing! its so good to hear this!!!!!!!! love you guys and did you have a good bday calvin?
Melodie
2/7/2010
Aw, thanks Melodie! My birthday was really good. We didnt do anything too special because it was in the middle of traveling and settling in. Cam bought me a bunch of candy to snack on because she knows I love it so much
Calvin
2/8/2010
what is the pun, only thing I can’t figure out.
Jeff Reid
2/13/2010
haha ok failed pun…lets see Hell Sinki.
Cman
2/14/2010
Hahaha! Yeah I couldn’t figure out the pun either..but thats pretty funny lol. This is sooooo good!! I can feel your hearts in this and it’s a beautiful thing
Love you guys!
Selena Krook
2/17/2010
Selena, thanks for your encouragement! You would have fun with Rex, Kevin and I because we are constantly trying to create puns hah! Most are pretty bad like the one above
Calvin Hanson
2/18/2010
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