Thassos i sikte

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

We made it to Hamburg

On the ferry to Denmark

Our new home in the German springtime

Kenneth is suffering from "Heuschnupfen"

Our dear Katja is welcoming us in Hamburg

After three services past Sunday we went home to get the final things done, then we started our journey... Left an empty apartement behind and took an far from empty caravan and begune to drive.
Stayed with mother in Norrköping over night and now we are in the library in Helsingborg, soon on the ferry to Denmark and then Germany.

Kenneth in our caravan

A stop in Gränna, to say hi to some friends.

Skåne

Sunday, May 2, 2010

God bless mothers!

Lenas mother has been here for two days cleaning and helping,
without her we would not have made it in time.
But now we are done with the cleaning and ready for our journey.
We are already sleeping in our caravan and tomorrow we are giving back the keys for our apartment...
Good bye Herrängen, good bye Stockholm :-(

Lena is taking some of the last stuff to our new home.
Our lovely caravan from 1978, our new home holding everything worth bringing. :-)

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Our flea market.

Hurray! We've had a wonderful day at our loppis (flea market), now we are tired but satisfied! We got rid of lots of stuff. Thanks to and Gods blessings over all our friends who came to help and participate.
The picture on the bottom is Evelina (Lenas niece) on her way out to make some advertising.
We learned the trick to get people to come :-) Just stand in the streetcorners, smile and scream at the top of your lungs: WELCOME TO LOPPIS! BUY GOOD CHEAP STUFF, LOPPIS IS POPPIS and so on... well it does'nt matter what you scream as long as you just make some happy noise.

Friday, April 16, 2010

This is how we live now...

... long for the "loppis" to be over with.
And then we'll see what will happen...

Spring time!

This weekend we have been to Gothenborg.
It's been a great time, meeting lots of wounderful friends.
Seen our fellow chuch, New Life Gothenborg.
Enjoyed a small trip away from our bussy work at home
with all the packing and preparing going on here.

And when we came home, the springflowers welcomed us!
Beautiful!

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Glad påsk!

Happy easter to all of you!
χριστος ανεστη!

Facts on Thassos

Thassos is the most northen island in Greece, in the province of Macedonia. It is a very green island with high hills that makes a beautiful scenery, and there is also some really nice beaches.
There is 16000 inhabitants on the island that count a circumference of 91km. Thassos town is Limenas but there is also several vilages on the island.
To get to the island you need to take the boat from Kavala or Keramoti to either Limenas or Skala Prinou. The seagull will make you company all the way hoping to get something :-)

The vision (english)

1996 Kenneth got the calling through a dream to go to Macedonia. At that time he didn't know that such country existed , more than mentioned in the Bible. But the same morning a Christian magazine, “Light for the peoples”, came with the mail and landed on the floor with an article about a missionary family in Macedonia facing up. The first that caught Kenneth's attention was a quote of Paule “Come and help us” Acts 16:9. Kenneth then felt he would have to wait for at least 10 years before fully stepping into the vision.

During the years he has prepared himself with bible school and work in different congregations to get experience. There has also been lots of trips to the area, among other in 2001 when he was working as a guide on Thassos. Until then he had thought that Macedonia only is the small country in former Yugoslavia. Now he found out that the area in northern Greece also is Macedonia.

During the time in Thassos Kenneth got to know some Christians, Dimitri and Gordon. Together they started to have services for tourists in a pavilion by the sea. These became popular and now they have a small congregation on the island where Dimitri is the pastor. This fellowship is the base for our mission in Macedonia.

On February 7, 2009 Lena became part of the vision as we got married. Lena has been in mission for some years with YWAM, youth with a mission, and love to do more missionary work. After a few visits to Thassos she got a feel for the people in the area. Kenneth think she's an important part of the puzzle and to see the vision come true.

Kenneth is a pioneer with many visions while Lena is of more calm and stable character. We complete each other well.

After one year of marriage we decided to make our way south. For two years we were having the privilige of staying on an island with a small english/greek speeking fellowship as a base for our mission. Our mission was simply to preach the gospel in the area. Our main focus has been on the youth. Now we are back in Sweden but the church on Thassos is still serving the Lord on Thassos. And we hope that we continuously will be able to bring in teams and do other outreaches in the area. And maybe in the future come back on a more long term base.

Visionen (svenska)

1996 fick Kenneth i en dröm Makedonien som en missionskallelse. Han visste då inte att landet existerade, mer än som omtalad i Bibeln. Men den morgonen trillade ett Ljus i Öster-tidning in genom brevinkastet och landade med baksidan upp, där var en artikel om en missionärsfamilj i Makedonien. Det första Kenneths ögon fastnade på var ett citat från Paulus ”Kom över och hjälp oss” apg 16:9. Kenneth upplevde då att han skulle få vänta över 10 år innan han skulle få kliva in i kallelsen på allvar.

Under tiden har han förberett sig med bibelskola och arbete i lite olika församlingar för att få erfarenhet. Det har också blivit många resor dit, bla 2001 då han fick arbete som reseledare på ön Thassos i norra Grekland. Det var tydligt hur Gud hade sin hand med i det. Kenneth trodde innan dess att Makedonien endast var det lilla land som tidigare ingått i fd Jugoslavien. Han upptäckte nu att området i norra Grekland också heter Makedonien. Under tiden i Thassos lärde Kenneth känna några kristna på ön, Dimitri och Gordon. Tillsammans började de anordna gudstjänster för turister i en paviljong vid havet. Dessa blev populära och nu är där en liten församling där Dimitri är pastor. Den församlingen är vår bas i vår Makedoniska mission.

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Den 7 feb 2009 blev Lena del i kallelsen då vi gifte oss. Lena har flera års erfarenhet från mission genom UMU, ungdom med uppgift, och vill gärna fortsätta med mission. Efter att ha vart med på ett par resor ner till Makedonien var det lätt att känna för människorna i området. För Kenneths del är hon givetvis en oerhört viktig pusselbit som fallit på plats för att klara uppdraget. Kenneth är visionären och pionjären medan Lena är den trygga, stabila typen. Vi kompletterar varandra bra.

Efter ett års äktenskap besämde vi oss för att flytta söderut. Under två år har vi haft förmånen att få bo på en ö med en liten engelsk/grekisk gemenskap som bas för arbetet. Vår mission har helt enkelt vart att predika evangelium i området. I huvudsak har vi arbetat med ungdomsarbete. Nu är vi tillbaka i Sverige men församlingen tjänar fortfarande Herren på Thassos. Och vi hoppas att vi även fortsättningsvis ska kunna ta med team ner och ha andra missionssatsningar i området. Och kanske en dag att vi åker tillbaka mer långsiktigt.

Thassos i sikte

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