DAY OF ENCOURAGEMENT
Keynote
By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion. There on the poplars we hung our harps, for there our captors asked us for songs, our tormentors demanded songs of joy; they said, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”
How can we sing the songs of the Lord while in a foreign land? If I forget you, Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its skill. May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you, if I do not consider Jerusalem my highest joy.
Remember, Lord, what the Edomites did on the day Jerusalem fell. “Tear it down,” they cried, “tear it down to its foundations!” Daughter Babylon, doomed to destruction, happy is the one who repays you according to what you have done to us. Happy is the one who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks.
Psalm 137
How Shall We Sing the Lord's Song?
Dr. Thor Swanson
In his opening keynote address, Dr. Swanson will meditate on Psalm 137, sharing his own struggles with juvenile diabetes and cancer to encourage listeners in their own lives.
Dr. Swanson is a 1997 graduate of the Medical College of Wisconsin and a 2000 graduate of the Siouxland Medical Education Foundation in Sioux City. He has practiced medicine at the Siouxland Community Health Center in Sioux City, the AIC-Kijabe Hospital in Kenya, and at the Siouxland Medical Education Foundation in Sioux City. He is currently co-medical director and HIV director at Siouxland Community Health Center and is the president-elect of the medical staff at St. Luke’s Hospital in Sioux City.
Dr. Swanson is an ordained Protestant minister, serving as assistant pastor at Friendship Community Christian Reformed Church in Sergeant Bluff, Iowa.
He has been married to his wife, Karin, for 20 years. They have three daughters.
