Rumblings from the North by Resa and Krister DavenKrister Davén - 3 Sep 2007

Sometimes when God speaks, it is a bit like a whisper. Sometimes, God is a tad louder. This time it started as a whisper and ended up as an ear-drum cracking roar. The message was along the lines of: you can do things alone in 24-7 Sweden, but I'd really like it if you did it together. This message wasn't concerned with individuals, organisations, or even denominations, but the entire nations of Northern Europe: Finland, Denmark, Norway, Iceland and Sweden.

So what do you do?
Simple: we gathered our friends together and had a party.

November 2006, in the the forests outside of Stockholm, we had our first we had "Sukukokous" – Finnish for ”Family Gathering”. Honestly, our communication was crap. The invitations got delayed, as did the flyers and our website was having problems. Somehow (it is still a mystery how...) over 70 people came from all over the Nordic Countries.

I could froth at the mouth for quite a while concerning what happened that weekend, but in short it was one of the best times I've had in a long time. Plenty of time for meals (not counting the numerous ”fika-breaks” in between). Very little coordination from the front, and lots of participation, sharing and dreaming and scheming about the future of 24-7 in our nations. One evening was especially hi-jacked by God (throwing our nice little schedule out the window) as he revealed his love for our nations and his passion for his people to really live like it. But perhaps most important of all, we made plenty of new friends. Good stuff.

Amazing times like these have a tendency to fizzle out when the dreariness of everyday life hits us. To counter this we tried to meet as much as possible. When the 24-7 community in Stockholm had an important meeting, it was natural that a Norwegian and a Finn were present. When Finland had a national family gathering, a few swedes were there. And this was on top of all the ferries, flights and weekends when we hung out just because it is really fun to meet good friends.

When trying to connect the dots of what God is doing around the Nordic countries it seemed pointless to do that from our armchairs. This led to a trip to Copenhagen, Denmark in April to meet a friend, pray and meeting random contacts (we also managed to do some campaigning for ”Stop the Traffic” and dancing ourselves into puddles of sweat at a student club).

Another whisper that seemed to grow louder was: ”What about the Baltic countries?” This led to a trip where 8 Finns, Norwegians and Swedes (as well as a random Australian) visited a prayer center of sorts and an orphanage (we piled bags upon bags of clothes and toys for the children in the back of our camper-van) in eastern Latvia. A few of us continued on a journey where we visited a friend of a friend in Vilnius who was interested in 24-7 and connected with some salvation army people in Riga who are looking to connect with 24-7.

We are not entirely sure what God is up to in the Nordic countries, but it has something to do with taking the blessings God has given each of the nations, combining them, and pouring them out over the land to bless and build. It has something to do with friendship. It has something to do with God hating borders and separation that prevents our shared calling.

We are meeting again for a ”24-7 Family Gathering” in Turku, Finland, January 11-13th 2008. This is mainly for people from the Nordic and Baltic nations, but if you are from another country but have a heart for these nations and want to join us for a weekend of saunas, prayer and conversation, please count yourself in.

Also check out the Nordic blog, where we try to share and update what is going on.