Good Friday -
All songsters meet in the Foyer of the hotel at 06:15 ready for an 06:30 departure by coach for the airport.
All songsters arrived safely for check in (all 50 of us!)
After check in we met the airport chaplain who is a Salvation Army Major Scandinavian Air flight SK524 duly left on time at 09:25 arrived at Gothenburg Landvetter airport at 12:25 (Local time +1 hour from UK)
Here we met Kai who was our tour coordinator and host from Sweden a lovely lady whose company we all enjoyed.The weather was sunny with a temperature of about 10C, this was to prove the pattern over the next 6 days.
We were treated to lunch at the Hising Corps where we had a look around the refurbished
suite of buildings that were due to be re-
The lunch was superb and received gratefully, there was a very moving moment upstairs in the new hall where we sang an impromptu rendition of ‘There is a green hill’ many of the songsters were moved to tears.
We departed the Hising Corps for Gothenburg Temple Corps by the coach which was driven by ‘Bo’ the bandmaster of Lidkoping Corps whom we got to know and love over the few days we were in Sweden.
Here we set up for our first festival and then we were fed again! By the good people at the Corps.The festival was performed to a capacity congregation who received what the songsters did enthusiastically in both reflection and ovation.
After the festival at Gothenburg Temple Corps, there was a supper and gathering at the local Pentecostal church where we met our billets. Again the friendliness and immediate sense of community was very evident as we all enjoyed the evening.
After this gathering we were all taken to our billets for the night and we would like to thank publicly all those Swedish friends who took us into their homes and looked after us so well.
Many warm comments were made to us of the blessings that the local people had experienced during our visit and festival, for which we were most grateful. The had indeed been with us in Gothenburg.
