It is amazing to me how it can be SO sunny and beautiful one day and a blizzard the next! I had the most amazing day on Wednesday... the sun was shining and i took a long walk outside and took pictures of almost everything in sight. I realized as I was walking... that i don't take enough time in my day to simply thank God for all He has created. He is simply amazing! Walking has always been a way of slowing down my thoughts. It was such a beautiful day!!! The next day, Thursday... we woke up to a completely different kind of day..... it was snowing like crazy, windy and cold. I also realized that those are not my favorite days... by far haha.

Now with only two weeks left, I am really feeling the reality that is quicky comming. We will be leaving. It has been so amazing to hear everyone ask us to come back. It feels amazing to feel like they support what God has brought us here to do. Matt and I have been talking alot about the next step ... we know that if we were to come back (which is a good possibility) that we would want to stay for a longer term. We have found that in 3 months... it is hard to get things started. If we had more time, we both feel like God could open some amazing doors. AS much as I would love to start thinking about next year... i am stuck thinking about the next month. As of April 16th, my American Visa runs out. Matt and I are planning on heading to Canada so we both can work. Matt has to aquire a visa from the border and have a bunch of paper work filled out. We wont find out until we are at the border if Matt can in fact work in Canada. It is so easy to feel anxious about it all.. to feel uneasy about everything... But I know who is ultimately in control... and HE knows our hearts desires, and HE knows what is best for us. So i trust... or at least try to.

Please pray for our final two weeks. Matt speaks in church on Sunday, and although he acts like he has it all under control, and is calm... i know he is nervous for it. He is showing a video that the news did on him about how he had cancer, survived and his journey back to hockey. OUr very special friends helped Matt translate the text to Swedish. THANKS LINDA AND LOUICE!!!!! I sometimes get lost in thinking about how amazing Matt's story is. God took Matt on the most incredible journey.. through hardships, fears, tragedy, sickness.. and so much more. But then I look at him now... playing hockey.. living a dream... and am overwhelmed at God's amazing faithfulness and love. Matt gets to play hockey, and serve our God... and that is the most amazing thing!!!

Thank you so much for all of your prayers. Please pray for Matt for this SUnday, for Matt's visa and for our trip home. I get so nervous about getting sick ....

Lots of love and blessings,
Jess and Matt

Getting sad....

It feels so strange to have the days go by so fast. I feel like we were just unpacking and soon we will be packing to head home. Each day it gets harder for me to accept that we will once again leave. I feel so weary of these times. Packing, unpacking, not knowing where we will be next. The hardest thing for me about leaving this time.. will be leaving our friends. I want you to understand how much God has blessed us when He blessed us with amazing friends. The past 3 nights we have spent our time at our friends Peter and Louice's house. It really feels so comfortable to spend time with them. Even now.. thinking about not being able to walk to their house whenever i want makes me want to burst into tears. She has become such an important part of my life. Her and Peter have been amazing friends to us and they are truly like family to us. Their son is turning two in 10 days and he has just brightened our life also. He loves Matt and loves to play hockey with him.



I feel so lost with the feelings I have. I don't understand why we have to come, and leave... i crave consistancy. I am a planner.. i like to know what i am doing it and for how long. God is truly showing me that His timing is the ONLY timing. I am really trying to accept how things are.. and I am trying to just be thankful for the time that we have had here.. but still i dread leaving. The next two weeks.. i am going to try to soak up my time here. Take lots of pictures, videos, and hang out with friends. Please pray for us as our time comes to an end. It is hard for Matt and I to leave. We really hope that God's plans are for us to come back again next year.



We will miss our friends so much!!!!! They are the best!!!! We owe them many meals!



Lots of Love,

Jess and Matt

Hej allihopa!!

Hello everyone!

Wow... i am stunned at how fast the time has gone by. Today we have exactly three weeks left here. It causes me to feel many different emotions. I feel so sad to leave again.. Sweden starts to feel like home for Matt and I. God has blessed us with amazing friends, who are life family to us. It feels so strange to have to say good-bye to them soon, and not know what God's timing will be for us to come back.

Matt and i both feel as if God wants us to come back for at least another term. We feel like He has more planned for us here and we want to be obedient to what He has called us to. I have to admit it is hard for me to not have something more stable and perminant.. like a home or a steady income.. but God is slowly teaching me that He is in control. He planned this all, and as long as I am yeilding to Him and my husband that things will work out for us.. just as He had planned.

Please continue to pray for us in our last weeks here. We really want God to move in mighty ways. He already has been.. Matt was able to share the gospel message with one of his good friends from hockey last week! Praise GOD! And Matt also talked with the guy he has been discipling about the importance of asking Christ to come into his life. Matt said that from his response.. he believes that his friend is a Christian! This is so encouraging to us! The best part for Matt is how is friend always calls him and asks him where he should read next. He has already gone through John, James and now first John. Matt said that he can see the Holy Spirit transforming his life through God's word.

Hebrews 4:12,13

"12For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. 13Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account."

God is doing such amazing things, and we are so thankful to be able to be used in it all. In the next few weeks we have many things to do. We still will be attending swedish classes, Matt is still coaching, and i still have figurskating and volleyball. However, on Sunday the 15th, Matt will be speaking in Church.. giving his testimony and sharing about what God has done while we have been here. Please pray for him as he prepares for this. I am sure he is nervous.. even if he doesn't say it to me! haha.

Thank you so much for your prayers, support and love through our whole journey. Please pray for us as we head back. It is really hard to leave our friends.

Blessings,
Jess and Matt

Prayer...

My heart truly aches in this moment. Today we found out that someone that we had been getting to know, a girl who is my age, lost her baby girl. She already has a little boy, and was 5 weeks away from her due date. She went into labor yesterday. The delivery was said to have been fine, but then there were some complications. She passed away in Jesus' arms this afternoon. My heart aches for my friend.. for someone I was comming to know. What an incredible loss for her. Please pray for her. Please pray for her family! Today when i was praying I asked God why things like this happen.. why it had to happen to her.. He brought me back to a verse He has been taking me to the past few weeks...

Ephesians 1:11

"11In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will"

God knew that this would happen.. He knew He would save this little girl from all the sin of the world and take her right away back into His mighty, holy, and protecting arms. She is with Him now. It is so hard to process it for all who are left here. Her mom, her dad, her big brother... I know that there are no words that i can say.. but we can pray and trust that "HE WILL WORK EVERYTHING OUT IN CONFORMITY WITH THE PURPOSE OF HIS WILL".

~Jess

Sorry...

Hello everyone! I hope that you are all doing well! Things have been crazy the past few weeks. Many people have been sick, and we have been trying hard to prevent that for us. In the past couple of weeks Matt's team made it to playoffs. They played the best of 3 games. They lost their first game, which took them 5 and a half hours away on Saturday to their second game. Matt went into the game feeling a bit sad. If they were to loose it would be their last game of the season. They ended up loosing 5-1. Matt was player of the game and said he thought that he played well. He came home a little sad. He was saying that you never know what could happen and that it could be his last game here. At first he was really sad, and perhaps still is, but the team will still have practices and the team he coaches still has some games left.

I feel like now, when there is more time for us to do things.. that we can do the things that God is calling us to do. We can start our Bible study, we can work in the school more, we can have people to our house.. and the list goes on. We just want God to do mighty things in and through us in this last month that we have here. IT IS CRAZY.. but we only have one month left in this part of our time here. We leave here March 25th. Please pray for God to really ignite a fire in us, and pray for us to be light.

We will be in the local jr. high school this week as they have a dodge ball tournament! We taught the kids last year to play dodgeball.. and they fell in love with the game. It will be a lot of fun to be able to go and help out! Our Swedish classes have been put on hold as our teacher was sick, but we are looking forward to going back to them this week! The weather is starting to look really nice here, after we had a huge snowfall this weekend. The sun is out and I can feel spring comming! This place is just so amazing, and i really wish all of you could see it. I can't help but wake up each day, look outside and thank God for what He created. It is amazing to look at the sea, and get lost in thoughts and prayers.

We miss you all.. please continue to pray for us. I promise to keep this up better in the next weeks we have here. We love you!

God bless,
Jess and Matt

Hello once again.... today i woke up to a light snow that frosted the hills around us. For some reason It made me really excited! I had missed the snow. As I sit here and drink my Swedish coffee that for most would be way too strong, I can't help but feel so blessed

Since I last wrote a few things have changed with us. The biggest thing is that the Jr coach was fired, and in turn Matt was asked to replace him. This is a huge responsibility. The kids are 16-21. Some of them play on Matt's team occasionaly also. It is amazing though because we had just been praying for God to show us where we could help.. and the next day the offer for Matt to coach came up. Matt is really excited, nervous and anxious to start. It is a big responsibility. He was awake all night one night since he was asked, because he was thinking about hockey drills and what he would do. I know that Matt will be an amazing coach. He has so much knowledge and an amazing way with people. He is a bit nervous though to please everyone, so if you could remember him in your prayers that would amazing.

This week we are hoping to start our young marrieds Bible Study. I believe it will be on Thursday. Now that Matt is coaching and playing his schedule will be much busier than mine. I am ok with it though because I know he has a servants heart and wants to help.. and it will just be for the remaining time that we are here. It seems insane to me that our time is almost half over.

Please continue to pray for us in these last weeks of being here... we both really want to be used. We want God to move in awesome ways. Also, Matt has been sick the past few days. It seems like he has been sleeping since yesterday morning. It is good for him though. I think maybe he needed a break. He plays a game on Wedenesday at home. So hopefully he will be back to normal by then. He played on Sunday, but wasn't feeling so well. His team won 4-0.

We love and miss you all. Thanks for all of your prayers!!!

Jess and Matt

To our faithful blog viewers!

Matt and I are always blessed when we hear that people are looking at our blog, and also when we recieve comments on it. It is such an awesome thing to be able to share what the Lord is doing here in Sweden. Thank you so much for your prayers and your support. We truly appreciate your interest in things here.

Today I have been thinking a lot about what it is God wants us to do while we are here. We have built relationships with people. We have tried to help in whatever way we can... but i wondered if there was something more that we could do. Lately I feel an urgency to spread to gospel. I feel like our time here is so short on earth and that I should be telling more people about Jesus. I have been struggling with this urgency, and so today the Lord revealed some truth to me about what i should do with this urgency. I believe that I should be telling people about Jesus for sure, but I believe that first I need to be showing the people here something that seems so simple....... love. I need to show them a love that only Jesus can give through us. The Bible says in Romans 13:8,9

Love, for the Day is Near

8Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law. 9The commandments, "Do not commit adultery," "Do not murder," "Do not steal," "Do not covet," and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: "Love your neighbor as yourself."

I feel an urgency now to show love to everyone I come in contact with. Matt and i aren't just missionaries when we are in the hockey arena, or when we invite people to our home. We are missionaries in our school where we learn Swedish, at the grocery store, when we are out for walks. We are missionaries everywhere we go, and Jesus tells us to "love one another." All I know is that i am incapable of showing that love on my own. Matt and I are asking God to teach us how to love others. God has been teaching me that through loving people, that He will provide the opportunity to tell them about who He is. Our prayer is that all of our conversations will be filled with love and seasoned with salt...Colossians 4:5,6

5Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. 6Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.

Please continue to pray for us as we keep serving our God. It is amazing to both of us how lucky we are to be doing what we are doing. I find myself in awe of God several times in the day. Today when we were in Swedish class i was almost brought to tears... i thought of how amazing it is for Matt and i to be in Sweden.... learning a new language.. serving our God.. TOGETHER. It amazes me. I am so thankful to our Lord for letting Matt play a sport that he truly loves. I am overwhelmed at the fact that Matt can serve our God while he plays. It is amazing.

We love you all and miss you all.

Jess and Matt


Ah Yes.. and HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!! I love you so much. Thank you for so much for teaching me what it means to be a true follower of Christ. I hope that your days is blessed!!!!