The Vasa Church of Umeå damaged after fire
My recent post actually gave me an idea... (For those of you who didn't see my original posts since they're friends locked--the basement of the Vasa church, where I'm an active member of Great Joy, the gospel choir, caught fire this Wednesday during choir practice, and the church took quite a lot of damage from the smoke. We managed to get everyone out in time, so no one was injured, for which we're grateful beyond words. The church had insurance, but the excess is 40.000 Swedish kr, (about $5500... which is quite a lot for a considerably small church)).
Asking for donations to restore the church would not be appreciated here in Sweden. In general, Swedes are rather scornful when it comes to Christian people and would rather see us suffer and laugh at us whenever we're in distress.
But I've created a seperate account tied into my PayPal service, so if anyone would like to contribute... well, just a few cents will make a tremendous difference.
Unfortunately, the home page of the church is in Swedish only--but it can be found here: Vasakyrkan (The Vasa Church), Umeå.
But for those of you who don't understand Swedish, there are a couple clips out on the Net as well.
The church has a wide variety of activities; many of them are centered around music. There are two "regular" choirs, Great Joy--the gospel choir of which I'm a member of - and a general choir. And of course, the children's choir and the baby choir.
Here are two clips with the Great Joy choir--the first one featuring the stand-in choir teacher Lovisa, who got a surprise chance to an audition for the Swedish Idol, when one of the members of the jury suddenly turned up at the church... (Once again, for those of you who don't understand Swedish, she did get the ticket, but she didn't win the competition).
Swedish TV 4 Idol - Lovisa at the Vasa Church
The second one features a concert with Great Joy from 2008.
The Great Joy of the Vasa Church
(For those who wonder where I was--I didn't become a member of the choir until last fall).
Feel free to copy-paste and spread the word to anyone who might care. And remember, if you're ever facing a similar situation with your church or organization--let me know and I will definitely contribute to you.
I know (and hope! :-)) that people on my f-list have trust in me, but I promise to post a payment receipt in my LJ once the transfer is done.
And my Paypal address is anna.munoz.lundgren[at]mailbox.swipnet.se
. Click the addy or change the "[at]" to an "@" if you're just copying.
Thank you SO much in advance!!!