Simplicity in a foreign land

Amidst all the excitement, travelling, and meeting new people, I have found a simple joy: cooking. Funny how I need to travel thousands of miles to claim my newfound hobby. But on deeper inspection, it must be the circumstances; no mum to cook for me, eating out is expensive, our communal kitchen is conducive for cooking, everyone cooks, cooking together is fun! And so, we crossed seas, land and mountains and arrive here, only to be domesticated.

Every sunday, we will have a corridor dinner, where everyone living in our corridor cooks something for the table. Come dinner time, the smells that waft through the air is fantastic! Austrian desserts, French pizzas, salads, soups, and broth! Greek dips, sauces, baking bread and pastas. The kitchen runs like clockwork, and suddenly all the chefs hailing from different countries work together like a well coordinated football team to pass the flour, the sugar, the salt and raw materials, to create works of art becoming to our five senses.

There is another wonderfully simple enjoyment; the worship service at the International Church of Lund. Most sundays, they meet in an attic of sorts, about 30 people. Their service is traditional, they sing from a methodist hymnal and read from their common book of prayer, not unlike the ones we have in church. They sing, without any instruments, the classic comforting hymns that people everywhere know. Holy Holy Holy, Great is Thy faithfulness, Amazing Grace. And there was particular verse that totally arrested me at the service, I've known it all my life, but its meaning became crystal clear to me on sunday:

When we've been there ten thousand years,
Bright shining as the sun,
We've no less days, to sing God's praise.
Then when we'd first begun.

It so encapsulates the meaning of eternity, all this people I've never met from different parts of the world, of all races, praising God for 10000 years and more!

I keenly feel this exchange is a beginning of another leg of journey in my life. In my wildest dreams, I never thought I would spend my 21st birthday in a foreign land. But I did, and as the day passed without any fanfare or drama, I looked back at God's special grace in my life, and was truly thankful.

Here I am, in another season of life that God has prepared for me.