Zaragoza

All that is left of this week here in Zaragoza is the morning service in church tomorrow, and dinner with some friends at Dani's house tonight. It has been a week full of impressions, hard work, new people and powerful music. I am a little tired right now, but in a good way. It's a happy feeling because we bring many good memories from this week.

This week I have been a teacher in many different situations. I have felt excitement around each new class, because in this situation it does not feel like we are just working on a song, or a particular technique. We are working for a bigger purpose and creating something great together. The musicians and singers I have met have so many different gifts and Zaragoza is lucky to listen to music that comes from them at concerts, churches and in different bands. I hope it will not be long before I hear them again!

Mas

"Mas" means "more" in spanish. I will write "mas" when I am not so tired. Buenas noches everybody!

Kids talk

The most powerful feeling out of all the feelings that comes over me on this adventure, is to see how Stella and Aina embraces the spanish culture and loves to learn about new things. Today Stella helped an american friend of hours with preparing a meal and they communicated in english in a way that I had no idea Stella was capable of. Meanwhile Aina was in the backyard teaching a dog some new tricks. Thorine and I were reminded many times today that our daughters already have a big appetite for exploring the world, and they are so curious about life has to offer them. 

Cejilla

Some spanish words are more difficult than others. Today I was with the guitar players from the ECAZ, the school where I work this week, and I tried many times to say the word "cejilla", which means to play a barred chord on the guitar. I think I gave the guitar players some difficult exercises to work with, and for me it was very difficult to learn "cejilla" (which also means "little eyebrow"). All in all it was a lot of fun again!

In other news the sun and the heat is definitely here now, and I have turned pink like a shrimp on spanish tapas plate.

Congratulations to Sergio and Sara!

Our friends in Valencia just had their second baby, and we rejoice with them! 

No hay miedo

The whole week in Zaragoza I meet students from the Christian school of music here. Yesterday I was with the piano students, tomorrow I will met the guitar players, but tonight was a larger group of all kinds of musicians. We worked with the song "On the cross" and tried to bring as much as we could of the traditional gospel feeling out of it. It was exciting for me, because both the students and teachers took part in it, and we found many different ways to look at how we play this kind of music. Of all the things I said tonight and yesterday I think the most important thing is "no hay miedo" -no fear! Sometimes musicians or singers are shy and insecure, and it sounds like we are afraid of the instrument. We must remind us to play without fear, and instead to bring out what the song says -joy, pain, sadness or whatever it could be. Tonight we played with a lot of joy, and it was great for me to hear the musicians play their instruments without fear and just jamming with the song! 

Another cool thing was that when I opened my email a few minutes ago, my friend Pelle had sent me the same song, "On the cross", as it will be on the "Inspired"-CD. The lead vocal is done by Nina Luna from Denmark and she did an amazing job with solo parts!!! I hope you get a chance to hear her sing it!

I wish

Back from piano class. I think we had a pretty good time together. In the beginning I was worried because of the difficulties with speaking spanish. But after a while we managed to do some pretty meaningful things. I had four students who expressed their wish to play for "alabanzas", worship music in church. We tried a song by Israel Houghton, and another well known worship song. But when we worked our left hands we played "I wish" by Stevie Wonder.

I am your new piano teacher

With my musical background (drums, trombone, acoustic and electric guitar), it was always very strange to play the piano. But in all the choir workshops I have done, I play the piano anyway. My idea is "not knowing how to do it, should not stop me from doing it". But today I am going to teach how to play the gospel piano to some pretty advanced students. To teach something is different from just doing it. The piano students I meet today are from a music school in Zaragoza

It is the second time in my life that I teach the piano. The first time was when we lived in New York and I taught seven year old Hans how to play "Lille katt". But today is a little bit different. I am not sure where to begin, and I am definitely sure where to end. Well...

"I don't know how this day is going to end, but I know that my God is my friend!"

In the light

When we came to Spain in the beginning of March I noticed how different the weather temperature was between standing in the sun or in the shadow. If you walked around a house you wanted an extra sweater where the house blocked the sun, but you could wear a bikini if you were on the sunny side (and you were a woman).

In Sweden I have never noticed such temperature differences. Maybe there are other things with the light we don't notice?

If you are standing in the shadow, but you know the light, then you probably move towards the light. But if everything is just a grey "something" then maybe you forget how good the light is? Maybe you never move at all?

Many swedes live in a grey "something". We have most of the things we need as far as money, friends, work, education and so on, so it's hard to think that we are really missing something. It is when something really important is taken away from us, that we feel like we are in a dark place, and we try to move towards a better place.

It is when you really know you are standing in the shadow, that you know how much you need the light.

Sin gluten

Wherever we go we look for food, or prepare food, which is not made of flour, "harina", because Stella is gluten intolerant. It's a little bit difficult in Spain, because not all stores have gluten free products. Swedish stores are better in that aspect. But there is one funny thing, that Stella often laughs at -many products in spanish stores are labeled "sin gluten" (without gluten), even if it's a product that nobody would ever suspect contains flour, like ketchup, milk, apples, orange juice and so on. It's one of those cultural differences that put a smile on our face.

En español! Todo en español!

We have arrived in Zaragoza. Another city where we have many friends. I have met the gospel choir of Zaragoza a couple of times before, and it is always a pleasure! It is always a lot of laughter with this choir.

We had a workshop day today. Singing from early morning (well, early is actually not so early in Spain) until evening. The whole day I tried to speak spanish. I think it worked most of the time, but I probably sound stupid every now and then. Only one time did I use a friend, Alena, to help me translate, and it was when I presented Gospel Kirchentag in Dortmund and invited more people from Spain to join us there.

We did the song "Wherever I go" completely in spanish, and for me it was supercool! But it was difficult to remember the melody, all the moves in the song, plus the spanish lyrics. The Zaragoza choir did much better than I did.

We finish the day together with the director, Marta, who together with her husband Samuel always take great care of us in Zaragoza. They have invited more family to come over for dinner. My head is still tired from all the spanish speaking today, so maybe I will not be fun at the dinner table tonight. But you never know?

Desayuno con la Arenius Famila

For Jorge

Coro Gloria was working on a great song called "Tal como soy", and I got an idea for the guitar in my head. Me and the guitar player, Jorge, worked on it for a little bit. Later on  I wrote it down, and took a picture of it, so that I can keep it in my phone. This is what it looks like, and now all guitarplayers who read this blog can play this part on "Tal como soy"!   :)

Getting a haircut

Thorine is a little bit more concerned about who cuts her hair than I am. I can let my kids do it (as you can see in some videos on Youtube), but Thorine has more plans for her hair. When she wants to find a good "peluqueria" here in Valencia, she of course asks other women who she trusts and whose hair looks good. She would not ask one of the bald men who works at the construction site down the road.

I think people act like Thorine in many cases, also when it comes to faith. If an atheist or a muslem lives a life that is more attractive than the christian life, then more people will be drawn to them, not to christianity. This can be tough for christians, because we know that we so often fail in being role models. But a good thing is that God is God, no matter if the people who believe in him represent Him in a bad way.

I can not be perfect and I can only sometimes hide my mistakes. But still I hope and pray that I can live a life that makes people come to me and ask "who is that God you seem so happy about?", just like Thorine ask her spanish amigas "who made your hair look so good?"

Spanish gospel

Our "host-choir" in Spain is Coro Gloria. They are based in Valencia, they have members from many different churches and their leaders are the ones who have helped us with most of the administration and to get used to life in Spain. I have met Coro Gloria a couple of years ago and tonight was my second rehearsal with them since we moved to Valencia. They have so much power and joy in their singing, and their repertoire, which is mostly written by the conductor Sergio, but also other members, is really great to listen to!

Many people from Sweden ask me what spanish gospel really sounds like. I can not give a good answer to that, because there are many choirs I have not heard. What I do know is that there are not so many choirs here, like if you compare to Germany or the scandinavian countries, but the choirs here are always so good to listen to. I am sorry, my swedish friends, but spanish choirs seem to have something natural that we have to work harder for in the north.

Maybe one reason why I like the choirs here so much is that they have taken music influenced by african american gospel, and turned into their own music in their own language, and it works! Maybe I am the wrong person to say this, because I know some people say that I try to be "too american" in my songwriting and performing. But I believe that's the style that fits me, and I still believe that what the spanish choirs do with their own language is a beautiful and great thing!

Soon I will meet choirs in other cities, and I know I have reason to be excited about that. But tonight I am just happy for the time I had with Coro Gloria.

Dios me ama tal como soy!

Rain and sunshine

The first day of bad weather since we came to Spain happened today. It rained the whole day and water was flowing like rivers down the mountain were our little "pueblo" is located. But in the evening it was sunshine. Not the weather, but in my heart. I met with some young musicians and we had two hours of good practice together. They are about the same age as my students at the school of Karolinska back in Örebro, and it is refreshing for me to work musicians who are not only young at heart, as myself.  :-)

Tonight we implemented more rock'n'roll in one of the songs for the church service, and I hope that the congregation will enjoy singing the song in this style. The band did a very good job with it!

Real bombs

I remember when Thorine and I lived in New York that I often thought about how I could understand, a little bit better, the immigrants who come to Sweden. Now that we are in Spain I understand it even a little bit more, because the langauage is much more difficult for us here. Still there are things I can never understand. Here at the Fallas festival in Valencia there are "mazcletas" going on 24/7. That means fireworks and bombs. But in other countries the bombs are real and there is no way to escape it. Today I closed my eyes for a few seconds as we walked through the city and listened to all the mazcletas. Even though I don't like the loud noise from all these celebrations, it is still a lot better than listening to bombs that actually intend to kill you. When I opened my eyes again I was surrounded by people celebrating, some very dear friends and my family. We live in a wonderful part of the world!

We were again out with friends and we celebrated the last day of the Fallas. After this Valencia will be back to normal.

Bonsaullos?

I don't remember the exact name of it. Something like "bonesayos" or "bullsenaños" or "bensadidos". But it tasted great! It is a little donut thing that we eat in Valencia every Fallas, like swedish people eat saffron buns every Lucia. Tonight we were served these "bungseballos" at the house of some dear friends, and they had invited more of the people we are getting to know here. I have said it before, but I have to say it again -it is such a unique and blessed feeling to feel how the love of Christ bring people together in such an immediate and generous way! This time me and Thorine were particularly happy about how all the other kids looked after Stella and Aina. Our daughters did not want to leave the place, because they were having so much fun with their new friends.

Same message

This morning I was at my first church service in Valencia. The pastor really touched me with his sermon. One reason is that two years ago I was with my family in New York, and we visited the church that Thorine and I used to go to when we lived there, Salem EFC. The pastor in New York gave almost exactly the same message from the same passage of the bible as the one I heard today. The name of the pastor in Salem is Edward and the name of the pastor here is Eduardo. The message was from the beginning of the book of Romans, and they preached about how Jesus taught us to not judge people who are different than ourselves. This is one of the things that many christians have a problem with. But it was powerful to hear the same message one more time, in another country, by another Ed. I will read the book of Romans again tonight and think about what this means when you travel from one culture to another.

New phone numbers

Between March 20th-May 20th you will not be able to call me or Thorine on our swedish phone numbers. If you need to know our phone numbers in Spain please send us an email and request it.

Paella

A lot of people visit Valencia for the world famous paella. On the internet you can find lots of websites that recommend certain restaurants or certain areas or certain times of the year to get the best paella. A lot of people go from one restaurant to another to find the best version of valencian meal. But we did not have to do that. Today the paella came to us. We spend the whole day together some old friends, but mostly new friends, from a church in Valencia, and today they had a paella competition. Seven teams prepared the best meal they could ackording to their own recipes, and there was a jury who looked att the presentation, the seasoning, the densitiy of the rice, the color and many more things and finally voted for what they liked the most. The rest of us could just enjoy eating all of this together with so many great people.

I so often think of how great the family of Christ is. There are brother and sisters all over the world who invite me and my family, just because we are family in Christ. What would we do here in Spain if we did not have our christian family? Where would we start? I really hope that me and my christian friends in Örebro, Sweden, are just as good at receiving brothers and sisters from other parts of the world as they are here in Spain. It is so good to know that we have the same father!

History class

The teacher and the students take a break to eat oranges and pose for the camera man.

Fireworks

During almost seven days the people of Valencia celebrate Las Fallas, and other spaniards come here to join the celebrations. It means a lot of light shows, some crazy Fallas-statues and most of all a lot of fireworks. It's not just the kind you shoot into the sky, like we do in Sweden on new year's eve, it's mainly things that go "boom" and everybody lights them everywhere all the time. So it is a kind of confusing start of life in Spain for some quiet swedes like ourselves. Or actually the Arenius-girls love it, but I think it's a little noisy. But even though I am not a big fan of all the noise, we bought some firecrackers for Stella and Aina and had our own Fallas celebration tonight up on the mountain where we live. It was fun (and noisy)!

Tomorrow we will go to Monteluz with some friends from another church that we know here. It's a beautiful retreat place surrounded by thousands of orange trees.

From Örebro to Valencia

We have not posted pictures yet, on this blog. But we wish to share pictuers of our time here in Spain soon. At first we show some pictures from our 3300 km journey from our swedish hometown to our spanish hometown. Pictures taken by Thorine this time.

A short break in the mountains between Spain and France. 

 The Atomium in Bruxelles, where we enjoyed both the monument and the surroundings.

Stella and Aina, who learned only a few french words on our trip, but now are happy to learn spanish words. 

 We went to the top of the famous tower of Eiffel.

Outside of Sacre Coeur in Paris. Mom is the photographer.

Home schooling

I should not blog about this, because somebody told me that it is against the law to do home schooling in Spain. But the truth is that Thorine is the teacher of Stella and Aina, and our own house is the school building, for the three coming months. I hope that only people who want us to stay in Spain read this blog.

The reason I am taking this risk is that many people ask about how school works out for our daughters. Aina is in pre-school, so she does not have a heavy agenda here. But Stella has quite many things to learn. Thorine usually makes a plan for the day, and Stella and Aina make plans for all the breaks during the day. Meanwhile Daddy is usually sitting by the computer or by the synthesizer.

As I write this the girls are eating Valencia oranges in the garden and Stella is reading for the others from one of her books (part of her school work).

When school is over today we will go into the city to take part in the Fallas.

The first day on the job

After almost a full day of working by the computer while my family enjoyed the sunshine in the garden, I looked forward to start my work here and learn more about the spanish music ministry. I had agreed with Laura, who helps me with everything I need to know, to teach “Mi Padre (My Father)” to the church choir she directs. For me that was a perfect start, because I would meet the choir from “our” church, I would get the chance to know more about how Laura works with the choir and I would work with a song that means a lot to me.

Unfortunately it became a day of learning instead of music. It is time for Fallas in Valencia, which is like the carnival in Rio. So instead of driving into the city, I drove my car to the nearest metro station with the intention of taking the metro to church. But the Fallas festivities surrounded the metro station too, and I ran into one problem after another. When I finally got to the church, the choir practice was over. It could have been a big disappointment, but the choir still made me feel very welcome as we chatted for a few minutes. They had practiced “Mi Padre” and we sang it together, which was a blessed moment for me. I really look forward to meeting them again!

I think next tuesday I know how to get to church faster!

Haan

My first weekend in Spain was not in Spain at all. I went to Haan, close to Düsseldorf, in Germany to make music together with singers from Taktvolk, Seitenwind and some people from Leverkusen and other places. It was a great weekend with old and new friends. After the service on Sunday night the whole choir was standing outside of the church singing "Jesus loves me" to all the people who were walking out of the church. I still have the joy from the weekend in my soul!

Meanwhile in Valencia Thorine and my daughters were exploring our new hometown together with some friends from the church where we will be going while we live here. They also got to know more people from the family who lend their house to us. The house is beautiful and we are so happy for Gloria and Antonio who let us live here!

Tuesday in Valencia

Many things to do today, but everything has a special touch to it. A tuesday here is just different then a tuseday in Sweden. I still had some problems to get online this morning, which is not fun, as I am sure you know. But while I was working with the computer I listened to the singing of spanish birds, some cats fighting, a neighbor cleaning the pool, my kids learning spanish and lots of other exciting things.

Now it's lunch, Thorines pasta bolognese, and then I need to finally send the files for the musical they do at Karolinska skolan, Örebro. A tuesday in Valencia.

At home

We are now in Valencia! Our new home for three months!!!

But tomorrow I leave for a workshop weekend in Haan, Germany. So I will probably have more time to write on this blog after the weekend. Then I will share my first impression of Valencia, and also what it was like in Haan.

Have a great weekend everybody!

Entering a catholic country

Yesterday was a well needed day of relaxing, without a minute in the car. We saw the Eiffel tower and spent some time in Sacre Coeur. It was very special to be in such a famous church as Sacre Coeur and talk with our daughters about what the catholic faith is all about. In Sweden there are hardly any catholics at all. In Germany there are many catholics, and some of them are very good friends of ours. Spain, where we now will live for three months, is very catholic and the lutheran reformation never really came to this country. In some parts of the world lutherans and catholics hate each other so much that they want to kill each other, and such things are hard to explain to a six and a nine year old girl, who only have loving things to say about their friends from the "other" church.

When it comes to expressing faith I try to teach my daughters that they should never be afraid to stand up for and testify about what they believe in. But Jesus did not call us to force others to believe in the same God and express faith in the same manners as we do ourselves. During our three months in Spain we will spend most of the time among friends who call themselves evangelical christians, like we do too. But I know we will meet people who call themselves lots of other things, or nothing at all, and I hope I can express myself in a respectful and humble way. I wish that I act in a good way towards the spanish people who host me in their country, and I wish that my daughters will look at me and see that I live up to what I teach them.

Inspired

Yesterday in Witten I picked up a package of "Inspired" songbooks, to bring to the gospel choirs of Spain. The same songs that we will sing in my upcoming workshops in Germany.

Tourism

Today we were tourists. We stopped by Bruxelles and saw the Atomium and Manneken Pis, and arrived late to Paris. Tomorrow we will go up in the Eiffel tower. So far it has been only joy on the trip and our girls have no problem sitting in the car all the time. They are just so happy about soon arriving in Valencia.

I don't have much chance to answer emails and such things now, but I will take care of that when we are situated in our spanish home. But today I did change the voice mail greeting on my phone. My voice mail now says that my regular number will be disconnected between March 20th and May 20th. The same goes for Thorine's number. If you need to call us on our spansih phones during those two months, send us an email to get the number.

En beskrivning av Paris

Vi kryper fram i 7 km/h på en fyrfilig motorväg mellan några höga gråa hyreshus. Det är rusningstrafiken på väg in i Paris och vi har rest hela dagen.

Aina:
När är vi framme i Paris?

Pappa:
Vi är framme nu.

Aina:
Åh, jag visste inte att Paris var så odetaljerat.

Friends along the road

We are going to bed tonight in a city called Erkrath, close to Düsseldorf, Germany. It has been a wonderful day, even though we did much driving and are very tired. I realized that we passed so many cities where I have friends who mean a lot to me. It makes driving the car so much easier and inspiring to know about the people I have met over the years in Germany and how much it meant to me to have them in my life.

We had our lunch stop in Bremen today, where I was just a few weeks ago to do a workshop, and of course we had lunch with Bremens most excited trio of gospel freaks. They had some problems with the police when we met them, and we'll see if we read about it in the news tomorrow.

Arriving in Witten I spent some time with my Creative Kirche friends. We made plans for a lot of cool things in the future, and one of them was to make good plans for the spanish gospel singers who show up at Gospel Kirchentag in Dortmund in June. Another thing was to talk about the Soul Teens project, and I got the chance to listen to the groovy Witten Soul Teens.

While I was at Creative Kirches office the rest of my family went for a swim at a bath house. It turned out that friday night was nudist night. Quite a surprise, but I was informed that everybody handled the situation in a proper manner.

Unfortunately I missed another great choir called Praise Time, from Erkrath. But there is a chance I meet them soon anyway.

Moin

A village in the far north of Germany, Husby, hosts a great choir called "Colours of Gospel". I have been here before to do workshops and concerts with Praise Unit. The people are always lovely and I think the whole village love the music from the choir. This is where we spend the night, and I have just had a short but inspiring time of fellowship with the choir.

They are interested in going to Spain for a gospel trip. So maybe there is a gospel choir in Spain who wants to make german gospel friends?