Thassos i sikte

Sunday, November 7, 2010

The day of election

In every county all over Greece they are today having the election for new mayors.
Here on Thassos they have five candidates. They are not necessarily tied to a specific party, whoever put up this poster though must come from the kke party, a party that, as someone with a bit of irony explained to me, is a sovjet friendly party. And then he pointed out that there is no Sovjet Union any longer, but still Greece have a sovjetfriendly party...

The sign read according to Google translate: The indignation be made pursuant voted folk alliance.
(But I know it also says something about power because the word "δυναμη- dynami" is in there.)

The weekend is a big happening for the people. Everyone returns to their homecounty to vote. The children are off school Friday and Monday because the building is needed for the election. And on the day of the election everyone is dressed up and spending time at the school to meet with one another and have a nice chat. This is where people come to meet. And it's also a day when all the tavernas and coffee places are making good busines.

Waiting in line to take hold of their civil rights.

Orange box for local election and blue box for regional election.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Autumn sun and olive trees

Had a nice walk in the sunny beautiful autumn weather.

Started of by climbing up an unfinished building across from us to get a picture of our balcony.

In the old harbour...
there is this old traditional Thassian house.

Someone with lots of ruins of ancient houses behind his wood in his backyard.

an orthodox chapel with the mainland behind

This is the season for the olives, from now till mid December everyone seems busy picking them. If you take them earlier when they are still green you won't get as much oil but you'll get oil with a better quality.

ok, enough with pictures of olivetrees, here is a picture of a blackberry bush

and a man patiently watching his sheeps

Friday, October 29, 2010

The day when Greece said "Oχι".

28 of October 1940 Metaxas said a clear no.
The Italien ambassador, Emanuele Grazzi, had come to the priministry of Greece and asked for their caputalition. But Metaxas didn't like the idea and gave him a short and simple answer.
This "no" brought Greece into the 2:nd world war but in the end they protected their borders.
So for 50 years now, the Greeks has celibrated the "ochi-day" (the greek word for no= οχι).

One of the main squares in town
...and one of the more ruff cats in town.

Yesterday the city was decorated with flags. The mayor, the high priest, the head of the important bord and the important council and other important people where all there to give speeches and put green decorations at the monument on the square. The children went in parades keeping their flags high (the ones with the best grades get to march with the flag, the other ones walking few meters behind), some dressed in traditional clothing but most of them in some thin shirt and short skirt, not suitabel for the rainy, cold weather we had this year.
We forgot to bring our camera (so we didn't get a picture of Kyriakos, our pastors son, who was walking with the flag) but today in a sunny, beautiful Limenas we've been taken some pictures of the remainings from yesterday.

The important people has been here.

And some hen, going about what ever hen normaly go about what ever day it is...

Monday, October 25, 2010

Smoke and walnuts

Our neighbours are heating their house with wood.
Beeing used to the forest and scouting life I think it smells so nice!!
But then I was hanging my laundry today and realised that it will smell like I just came from a week in the forest when putting my new washed shirt on...

Been picking our own walnuts.
They've been drying on the balcony and we can now tell that they are delicious!
Need to find some more!

Friday, October 15, 2010

My workshop

Welcome in!

before and after

Still need shelves. My fruitbox construction is not the most reliable :-)

Been busy picking stones and shells to make fun things out of

Again, the room before and after

Open every Tues-Thur 5pm-8pm.

Thursday, September 30, 2010

our Swedish chair

Friday, September 24, 2010

Another beautiful day

Kenneth think we have enough with pictures of Harald on this blog,
but he's so cute! I can't help putting a few more...

Couple of weeks ago we found two chairs at the garbage, you can see them in the "art-room" on the pictures below. Here is a picture of a chair I got from the neighbours last week. And now we found even more chairs, that I want to have on the balcony in church.
So more pics of chairs is coming up....

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.