During a chilly Friday,
the
open social agency, driven by all the churches and congregations, including the
Salvation Army, together with the city council of the northern town of Boden,
Sweden, namely
tried to get the full attention from all
the citizens of Boden.
The purpose of the happenings during this
day, that included the Soup kitchen with participations of the local politicians
(in the TV news the Mayor of Boden Thorbjorn Lidberg, is interviewed) and in
the evening a great Concert and Sing-a-Long in the town Church, was to tell about
the importance of Seeing All Men – even those of us that we maybe don´t want to
see – the homeless ones, the mentally dysfunctional ones and the alcoholics and
addicted ones.
The activities during the day were well
covered by newspapers and the regional TV news, Nordnytt.
It may be hard to grasp the fact that
there´s homeless people in a Swedish town – one of the richest countries in the
world, and in a town that is located close to the Arctic Circle. But
unfortunately it is a fact. And the Churches, involving the local corps of the
Salvation Army, decided almost 40 years ago to act on the drinking- and drug
problems in the area.
The High Point during the year is of
course the Christmas celebrations.
RIA, which by the way is a shortening for
Rådgivning (Counselling)
I (In)
Alkoholfrågor (matters of Alcoholism)
has for more than 30 years been open and
operating during the whole week of the Christmas and New Year celebrations. All
guests are welcomed in the warm Christian spirit of Christmas, the traditional
carols and lots of traditional Christmas food and of course, a Christmas gift
for each and very one is not to be forgotten!
As a former officer, it´s a great joy and
blessing for me to be involved in an activity that is so closely linked to my
previous mission in the Army.
Link to the TV news programme:
Pictures from the newspapers:
Kjell-Erik Edlund
Former Officer
Sweden
PHOTOS FROM THE MEDIA - SA FORMER IS THE
DIRECTOR…
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