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?