An All-American Boy

I am just curious to find out if Niklas will ever forgive me for posting this picture!

More recent photos

foton Indiana

Har har du lite foton fran Katies och min resa till Indiana for att traffa hennes harliga vanner.



Brian, Kristinas man. Han ar verkligen hur stor som helst. En go' kille, en jattebaby...



Jenny, Niklas favorit van av Katies vanner... Hur trevlig som helst. Kanske hon kan komma till Sverige snart...




Har har du mig och Sarahs man Kunle fran Nigeria. En harlig kille!

semester update

Hej igen!
35 grader varmt, hog luftfuktighet, oh vad skont!
Jag njuter av USA! i gar var Katie ivag och spelade softbal (typ basebal) med ett gang vanner. Hon ar duktig aven om det var lange sedan hon spelade nu.
Vi planerar att besoka en kyrkas ungdomsarbete idag. De ska visst spela lite Ulitmate sa det skulle vara kul att rora pa sig lite. Viktigt eftersom det alltid finns gott om mat och godsaker overallt har.

Vi har ocksa varit ivag pa en riktigt tuff och vacker utflyckt. Vi tog oss upp pa toppen av ett hogt berg. Vi fick verkligen ta i i varmen. Jag jobbar pa att fa ut nagra av bilderna darifran for det var fantastiskt.

Patrick och Malin ar pa en liten egen tripp nu nagra dagar, sa jag och Katie tar det ratt lugn. Hon och mamma ar ute och shoppar just nu och jag tankte kolla lite pa Wimbledon.

See You!

Semester update

Da var det dags for lite semesterupdate igen.

Vi ar nu i Charlottsville, VA, hemma hos Katies foraldrar. Har val varit har i snart en vecka nu. Vi hade en lang bilresa fran Bloomington till Wasington pa ca 12 timmar i mandags, men det gick bra. Vi lamnade var hyrbil och plockade sedan upp Malin och Patrick pa flygplatsen tillsammans med Katis foraldrar.

Det ar fantastiskt att vara har. Vadret ar fint, nastan for varmt, men framfor allt ar det en forman att se Katies familj. De har verkligen tagit manga positiva steg i deras liv de senaste manaderna. Steve har slutat sitt jobb som rektor och jobbar nu med att evangelisera pa universitetet.

Annars har vi mest traffat manniskor i olika sammanhang. Vi var pa en middag igar och ikvall ska vi traffa en pastorsfamilj som bor oerhort vackert uppe i bergen. Foresten, hon som vi var pa middag hos igar hade en hast och en asna i sin tradgard!

I morgon bar det ivag till Virginia Beach och Steve Kellys forsamling. Jag far aterkomma med rapport darifran. Ha det bra sa lange!

Foton

Pa den har lanken hittar du nagra foton fran var semester sa langt! Vi var nagra dagar i Indiana och halsade pa Katies kompisar.

http://bloomtrip.blogspot.com/

Ha det bra!

USA-nedslag

Sitter pa Indiana Univeritys bibliotek och skriver lite. Har nu varit i USA i tva natter. Harligt vader och harliga vanner.
Har traffat Saras man nu, en go man fran Negeria.

Planet fran Kopenhamn blev forsenat, sa vara vaskor hann inte med nasta plan fran London. Vi fick springa mellan planen allt vad vi orkade och vi hann pa sekunden. Av nagon anledning gav de oss forsta klass pa planen. Kanske for allt strul som hant oss. Vi satt i stora fottoljer, at treratters och var uppasade som kungar... Man kunde gora satet till en sang ocksa vilket gjorde att vi kunde sova lite...

Hur som helst ar vi har nu, utan vaskor men glada. Skall ivag och traffa en annan av Katies goda vanner i eftermiddag. Vi ska ocksa pa en speciell restaurang.

Det var allt for nu...

Goda kakor

Gjorde några småkakor här om dagen som blev hemskt goda. Väldigt enkelt och snabbt!

200 g margarin
2 dl socker
1 msk vaniljsocker
1 1/2 msk sirap
2 tsk bakpulver
ca 5 dl vetemjöl
Daim (Jag hade ingen daim hemma och blandade i lite kakao, det blev också bra...)

Smeten blandas ihop. Hacka daimen i småbitar och blanda samman med övriga ingridienser. Rulla degen till små bollar och tryck till dem lite. Ca 25 st.
Grädda 175 grader i ca 10-15 minuter.

Hur gott som helst!

The big day.

Happy Birthday to me!

And a very merry unbirthday to all the others of you!

Katie

Sommarlov!

Japp, det är svårt att tro, när regnet öser ner och termometern utanför köksfönstret står på 10 grader, men det där sommarlov.
Vi hade vår skolavslutning på Kometskolan i fredags. En härlig upplevelse! Det är så härligt att se elever som började i höstas som gjort oerhörda framsteg. Jag är oerhört nöjd och glad för mitt jobb på Kometskolan. Jag har lärt mig så mycket av både personalen och eleverna där. En förmån att få betalt för att jobba på ett sådant ställe.

I morgon fyller min fru 26 år! Vilken grej! Om du vill veta vad jag tycker och tänker om henne så kan du ju alltid läsa bloggen på den här länken >>>. Jag kan ju inte skriva här vad vi ska hitta på eftersom hon då kommer att ha läst det. Det kanske inte kan bli så mycket heller, eftersom vi åker till USA på onsdag.

Katie håller på att packa för vår sommarresa. Det ska bli så skönt. Hörde något ryckte om att det var runt 30 grader i Virginia. Precis vad man behöver nu. Vi ska resa runt en del, träffa härliga vänner i Indiana, tillbringa en vecka på stranden, och så klart vara i Charlottsville med mina svärföräldrar och människorna där. Vi planerar också att besöka några intressanta och inspirerande församlingar.

Jag ska under sommaren försöka skriva på bloggen och berätta vad som händer på vår semester. Så välkommen in igen!

Seeking the Lord / Going to the movies

I passed my exam!!!

God is good!

The past few days I have been translating a book about the gifts of the Spirit. The man who wrote it is a pastor here in Sweden who has a lot of projects going on in other countries like Israel and Romania and the Middle East.
He called me up the other day asking if I could translate some of his teaching material since his organization was helping to plant the first church ever on the West Bank with former Muslims. Isn’t that awesome! So I agreed to translate his book for like less than a third of the normal price for several reasons, but mostly because I knew I would get a lot out of just reading that teaching as I prepared to translate it! Though basic, it has been very insightful and has reminded me of the importance of the gifts given to the church by the Holy Spirit.

Changing subjects now...
Yesterday morning when I woke up I had this sense that God was speaking a specific Bible verse to me over and over. It was a verse from Isaiah and I kept hearing it: “Seek the Lord while He may be found.”

So I thought that was a pretty exciting word to get and began to spend some time with God, not sure exactly what was going to happen but knowing that something good would happen.
“Seek the Lord while He may be found.” I figured something exciting would take place and I had really been needing to feel His tangible presence.

All at once a totally random thought crossed through my mind that didn’t seem to have anything to do with seeking the Lord. Suddenly I got the idea to take this eight year-old girl named Kim to the movies. I kind of chuckled to myself because the idea was really random, and I don’t really know Kim all that well really, and that certainly wasn’t a thought that had anything to do with me spending time with God.

So I kind of shoved the thought aside so that I could get back to “seeking the Lord while He may be found.”

And that is when the Lord said: “You sought me and you found me.” Which really confused me since I didn’t feel as though I had had some major revelatory experience in God’s glorious presence or anything. So I kind of hesitated and He said it again: “You sought me and you found me.”

So somehow in the process of seeking Him, the way He wanted to be found was in planting that idea in my head of taking an eight year-old to see a silly animated movie at the oh-so-expensive movie theater.

So it ended up being me, Kim the 8 year-old and Hanna, a 7 year-old all going to the movies together. The movie was relatively entertaining, with the main message being, “Follow your dreams, and never give up, no matter what.” So we talked a little bit about that afterwards and in general had a great time, and ate lots and lots of candy!

It was fun! I recommend that kind of activity! I can’t wait to do it again!

KT

Lab Outfit Fun

Here is a picture of me in my labcoat and lab goggles! Don't I look professional?!?!



Lab Outfit

Photos

Check out the following site for some photos from our church's retreat weekend:

www.centrumkyrkanfoton.blogspot.com

I have changed the background of our blog template just to see if I could.

Cool, huh?

:o)

Crazy weather

Here is a picture from a few weeks ago of us walking in Staffanstorp with some friends. The nice weather that allowed me to not have any shirtsleeves has since disappeared. The average temperature here continues to hover around 49 degrees! We look forward to the 92 degree weather in Charlottesville!

The Freedom Fighter

First of all, I hope everyone read the previous post that Niklas wrote in English! He is practicing his English more and more as we prepare for our five week stint in the grand U.S. of A.

Niklas will be preaching on July 17th in my parents' church. He preached there last year and I translated for him. This year he is seriously considering preaching in English himself! Which would be cool, even though I really enjoy translating him. The translator can come into the anointing just like the preacher can! That was definitely a wonderful experience for us.

Today was Sweden's national day, meaning they celebrated the fact that the country of Sweden exists. It isn't at all as big here as say, the fourth of July, or as Norway's May 17th, which is weird. Otherwise, in sports and stuff, they are pretty patriotic. I guess this day just never was a big deal and so there are no major traditions attached to it. Instead they have lots and lots of fireworks on New Year's Eve.

I think I find out tomorrow how I did on my big huge BioChemistry exam. If I didn't pass, I get the chance to take another similar exam, but then I would have to study like crazy again in the days leading up to the exam on the 12th. But if I passed, then I can take it easy and do other errands and important stuff before the trip to the US. I guess I will blog how it goes.

We watched an interesting movie today that I have seen before and heartily recommend because it contains such a message of freedom and redemption and selfless giving. It is the movie "Les Miserables" from 1998. It is very good.

I remember I watched it alone in the movie theater for some reason when I was in college, and I couldn't stop weeping after it was over because I was so touched by how much we have been truly set FREE in Jesus Christ. FREE. Free to live a completely new life without fear of the past or of the future. Awesome.

Jesus is the Ultimate Freedom Fighter.

Dagens händelser i tur och ordning (ALSO IN ENGLISH)

Vaknade några gånger innan jag tillslut beslutade mig för att gå upp. Klockan var då prick 09.00. I min värld är det rätt lagom för en lördagsmorgon.

Efter en rätt lång frukost med Katie, bestående av hemma-bakat bröd, hade jag en stund tillsammans med himlen och jordens skapare. Hans namn är sannerligen över alla andra namn! Han lever och därför vill jag leva.

Klockan 12.00 träffade jag Daniel. Han är en kille som bor här i Staffanstorp, och jag kommer att börja träffa honom mer regelbundet här efter semestern i USA. Han verkar vara väldigt trevlig och vi ska nog komma bra överens. Jag ber för honom och hans familj. För Gud är ingenting omöjligt! Idag åkte vi ut till bryggan i Bjärred, köpte en glass och tittade på vindsurfare. Efter det åkte vi hem och fixade två presenter han skulle ha med sig på en födelsedagsfest ikväll.

Vid tre-tiden såg jag och Katie på finalen i Franska Öppna. 6-1, 6-1 till Belgiskan…

Klockan halv fem var vi i Lund och firade vår kära vän Malin Friestad. Hon har tagit examen och hon fick VG på sin C-uppsats. Vi är så stolta över henne! Det bjöds på grillat, bl.a. grillad tupp! Vi träffade också Martina Almqvist på festen. Hon blev frälst i samma ungdomsgäng som mig för nu många år sedan, 1992 tror jag. Kul att prata med henne och höra segerrapporter från församlingen uppe i Märsta och SOS.

Vi kom hem lagom till andra halvlek mellan Sverige och Malta. 6-0, rena tennissiffrorna för Sverige. Nu sitter jag och bloggar, himlen är mörk så den inbjuder inte direkt till någon promenad, men något skulle man nog behöva hitta på.

I morgon har vi en go’ dag framför oss. Bland annat kommer Curt Levin till Centrumkyrkan och predikar. Kanske vi syns då!

This days event as they happened

I was awake 9.00 o’clock this morning. That’s perfect in my world a Saturday morning. After a slow breakfast together with my Katie – we ate my homemade bread – I had my time with the Creator of heaven and earth. To bring Him in to the day makes everything different. He is alive – and because of that I want to live.

12 o’clock I met a boy I will see a lot this fall. His name is Daniel and I will be his “big-brother”. He seems to be a great kid, soon 12 years old. Today we went to the beach and had ice-cream and watched the surfers. It was a strong wind today so that was cool.

In the afternoon Katie and I went to our friend Malin. She is now finished with her university-program. Malin and her husband will come with us to the US this summer.
They served grilled rooster at the party. Different but very good!

Cookies and Coke

Here is a short story that will make you think about what it means to be light and salt!

There once was a little boy who wanted to meet God. He knew it was long trip to where God lived, so he packed his suitcase with cookies and a six-pack of Coke and he started his journey.

When he had gone about three blocks, he met an old woman. She was sitting in the park just staring at some pigeons. The boy sat down next to her and opened his suitcase. He was about to take a drink from his Coke when he noticed that the old lady looked hungry, so he offered a cookie. She gratefully accepted it and smiled at him. Her smile was so pretty that the boy wanted to see it again, so he offered a Coke. Once again she smiled at him. The boy was delighted!

They sat there all afternoon eating and smiling, but they never said a word.
As it grew dark, the boy realized how tired he was and he got up to leave, but before he had gone more than a few steps, he turned around, ran back to the old woman and gave her a hug. She gave him her biggest smile ever.

When the boy opened the door to his own house a short time later, his mother was surprised by the look of joy on his face.

She asked him, "What did you do today that made you so happy?"
He replied, "I had lunch with God." But before his mother could respond, he added, "You know what? She's got the most beautiful smile I've ever seen!"

Meanwhile, the old woman, also radiant with joy, returned to her home.
Her friend was stunned by the look of peace on her face and she asked, “What did you do today that made you so happy?"
She replied, "I ate cookies in the park with God." But before her friend responded, she added, "You know, he's much younger than I expected."