People often ask me what it is like to live in a foreign country, far from family and friends. I never really know how to answer the question, because a truly thorough response would require hours to formulate. For the most part, I have always been one who is too busy living life to reflect on it fully. and generally our impressions of a larger life experience will always be compromised of the sum of everyday interactions and experiences. In any case, this blog post is my attempt to partially answer that question.
Moving to a new country could maybe be described as a personal journey of discovery. To begin with, you have to figure out a lot of things, and preferably rather quickly. These include practical matters, such as how to open a bank account and obtain a personal identification number (without which it is pretty hard to accomplish almost anything else), how to pay your taxes, as well as where to buy certain items. For example, I went looking for contact lens solution in the regular grocery store and then in the pharmacy, as that is where I would find it back home, and it took me a long time to discover that it is only sold in special eyeglass shops!
I have done a lot of things in the past seven years that I probably would never have done if I had stayed in North America. The first on that list would be speaking three languages almost daily. People often ask me if I think in Swedish -- the truth is, I quite frequently pray in Swedish as well as dream in it! In addition, I always said I would never, ever conduct a choir, and now I lead not one but two choirs, one of which I founded just last year. Life takes you on unexpected adventures sometimes.
When I first moved to Helsinki, I braved my fears of new situations and set off to find a church on my own one Sunday. That involved entering a building full of strangers speaking a language I couldn't yet understand. I am really glad I walked into that church, because I served there many years and have met some amazing people who are still close friends to this day! In addition to churches, I have also attended parties, work functions, choir rehearsals and other musical events where I didn't know anyone in the beginning. Most of the time, I end up having a lot of fun, but on occasion I have been at a function and spent most of it staring into my tea cup until I could safely leave. Thankfully, that doesn't happen very often!
If I could perhaps sum up my experience though, it would be to say that moving abroad has given me the opportunity to trust the Lord in both small and larger areas of my life. I prayed that if moving to Helsinki was His will, that He would take care of the practical things, such as money and housing. My first couple of apartments were all unadvertised posts -- a friend of a friend or an acquaintance would get in touch and suddenly, I had a place to live. When I finally found my own apartment and needed furniture, a good friend called to say she was relocating and wanted to know if I needed a couch, laundry machine, and kitchenware. Suddenly, within minutes, I had a fully furnished apartment, complete with curtains and decorations. However, God likes to go above and beyond the bare necessities -- I cannot even count the number of times someone has had an extra ticket to a concert or a musical, a fancy dinner, and even a boat cruise, and has thought to call me. Faith is like a muscle and the more I have seen the Lord answer my prayers, the easier it becomes to trust Him in all areas of my life. Moving halfway across the world, leaving the familiar behind, happened to be the perfect environment for Him to show me how much He truly loves me.
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