Visiting a gypzycamp in Thessaloniki.

Some thoughts at the Mediterranean.

What is it that made us sell our belonging, travel 3000km with a caravan and make our home in a country where "it's all greek" to us!?
An assurance that God has called us and that he care for us!
So what is it that he called us to do?
To proclame his name in this place, to worship him and to make him known and loved in this place. To love him and to love our fellowmens.
So who is this God?
He is always faithfull, allways true, always just and he gives freedom! He is the one who created me and know my longings and my needs. He is the one who in the midst of our captivity said that he has thoughts of peace for us- for hope and a good future! (Jer 29:11) Our captivity can look so different. For someone it's an actual wall or times of war for some it is people telling you names and talking behind your back. For some it's a lost, a loss of a loved one or maybe of your health. For some it's a memory, something from your history that doesn't seams to give in.
But the mercy of God, because of his love for us, is what gives me hope.
Unjusts will come my way, I already seen it many times! But my future is bright.
I will fail and I will do wrong, I have proven it many times...
Because that is what sin has done to me. But sin does not have the last say!
"For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever belives in him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world but that the world throught him might be saved." (Joh 3:16)

A multi language island

Yesterday I, Lena, was visiting a couple from our church. He's greek, she's from Peru and I from Sweden It's a challenge to have a conversation :-) And a whole lot of fun, using different dictionarys and lots of charades! To make the charade for funeral you draw with your finger a square infront of you and then you take your hand to your eyes "crying". I at least think she was talking about a funeral... Then we started to talk about something from the Bible and we were sitting with one bible each, all different languages, not knowing what the other one tryed to say, but all blessed by the word we where reading :-) And blessed I were when I went home with big bags of fresh fruits and vegetables we just picked.

Another hot day

A picture from our "new" livingroom.

Lena has bought some fabric from Ikea and abracadabra we have a new sofa! Last week we went to Kavala to visit one of the churches there.

We unfortunaly didn't get all that much time to talk to them (becaus of the last ferry back to the island), but it was still nice to have been there and seen some new faces. Picture below is from the ferry. Pay attention to the beautiful flag! (and flowerdecoration...)

Few days ago I made Moussaka, it will not happen to often... it is very tasty!
but I belong to fast food generation, I can not cook for that long too often. :-)

1,3 kg aubugin for 0,6 €, it's a bargain!
sometimes even the Greeks are having nice prices

Kenneth has made a "koja"
It's too hot to sleep in the bed so he tryed the balcony instead
(it's kind of sweet that he brought the toolbox and a programing book)

We have made an agreement with a british couple (that live in britain but have a car here), that we can use their car if we fix some things first... so we went back to the mainland to have it checked at the kteo (besiktning/car inspection)
but had to go home with mission incompleted :-( since we didn't have the right papers...

Driving in "our" new car,
took the opportunity to see Xanthi where neither of us has been before.

Some lunch on our way home.

Greek nightlife

Look at this sweet flowers that Kenneth brought me the other day!
Sweet flowers from my sweet heart! :-)
It's 11.15 pm and it smells fabulous from our neighbours!
They are cooking something very nice and I'm getting hungry...
And Kenneth just got back from fixing with the car
so I guess we just adjusted to the Greek times...
But now, though the hour is early, I will make my self ready for bed.

(I was planing to put more pics but don't understand how to turn the pictures the right way... maybe tomorrow.)

Some thoughts on a hot summer day.

Sometimes it hits me how common everything has become to us here now.
I'm doing just anything daily that has to be done and then I realize "hey, I'm in Greece!"
Maybe in the middel of what is going on I hear the peacock and I'm lifting my eays and looking out through the window. From our kitchen you see the green hills with the acropolis ontop and all the white Thassian houses at the foot (on Thassos they all have red tiles and no blue roofs as on many greek postcards) and then I remember... I'm not in Stockholm anymore.
Or maybe we have made our way to the beach and when laying there floating in the salty water it hits you that this is no Swedish inland lake, our nearest beach is in the Mediterranean...

We are for sure blessed. We are here, many miles away from home and still making it our home. Still having good friends to hang out with. Brothers and sisters to love and be loved by, to worship together with. Experience a new culture, getting a broader perspectiv of Life.
Blessed to know that God is with us even those days that we don't feel we are enough.

Bits and peaces of our lives

Yesterday during our service the earth started to shake.

The sermon was very good and the preacher was anointed but still I'm sorry to say I don't think it was God who shook us in our seats but that it was a normal (not that it's normal to us though) earthquake (but then of course God is also Lord of all thounders and earthquakes).

And thounder we had a lot last night; mighty, strong thounder so our lights where flashing and we had to run and unplug all outlets :-) But no rain, we are hoping for rain to clear the air.

It's too damp here: our "knäckebröd" is getting soft!

Our cat likes icetea, as soon as I leave my cup ungarded he's there to take a zip.
Water as well, as long as it is in our cups and not his bowl on the floor...

We just had a friend from Athens visiting. He's working with a project called Streetlight and we are going on outreach with them in the end of the month. He's a cool guy, very talented with film and media. We're happy we got in touch with them. The main organisation they are working with are called Fusion.

Hope you all are having a good out there.

a bit of good life

Harald is exploring

My sweethearts
from a visit in Thessalonike