It may sound depressing to spend one's birthday, especially one's 40th, all alone as I am here in Göteborg. But I'm getting some good work done in preparation for the audition on Monday with the opera. I wanted to come early in order to get over the jet lag, and have some time to adjust my reeds to the atmosphere here.
I'm sorry I wasn't clear in my last post about why I am here. There are four reasons for my being here. First, I have been thinking about returning to Scandinavia for ministry once my MDiv is completed. Göteborg seemed like the best option because there is a Reformed Baptist church that's just recently been planted in Göteborg. Second, coming here to Göteborg as a musician may be the best or even only way for me to get into the country. I could try raising support as a missionary, but that's not easy and not very appealing, nor is it necessarily the best way to form relationships and develop credibility with (nominal/pagan/atheistic) Swedes. I wasn't expecting the Göteborg Opera to have an opening, but sure enough, when I looked a few months ago, they had just announced it. So I've decided to audition since it comes at a time that fits in with my school calendar (summer break). Even though I had a really rough go of it as a musician trying to get tenure in Sweden 5-7 years ago, I've decided not to let that stop me from trying again. Daniel and Hannah Norén, the church planters here, have also lent me their apartment. I met them last summer, which you can read about in one of the last blog posts from last summer. They would like me to come join them in the ministry. Which brings me to my third reason. I want to spend some more time with the church to get a better sense if it is a good fit for me. And the last reason is that I can get my "cross-cultural ministry field study" required for the MDiv completed if I take a couple weeks to do ministry with the church here. Daniel and Hannah are back in the US at the moment, but I'll be skyping with Daniel now and them to talk about how things are going. I'll also be working closely with a few of the other leaders in the church plant.
As you see from the photo, for the time being, I've transformed their place into a music studio and reed making workshop.
It is time for me to get to bed now. I'm adjusting to the new time zone well, which is important since I'll need to be "on" for the whole day of auditioning on Monday, if God grants that I make it through all four rounds of the audition.
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