Building Bridges.....

December 29 I attended an Iranian Christmas party in church. It all started with a usual service, well usual in that way that there were worship music, speech and so on, but unusual to me for it was in a language, Farsi that I don't understand. There was no one to translate, but when I saw the short films that they were showing on the wall, the beautiful guitar playing, when I heard them shouting "HALLELUJAH" and saw tears rolling down their cheeks, then translation was not needed. Later on in the café, we had a wonderful meal, typical Iranian food they told me, very delicious. Interesting to listen to the stories how they were saved and why they came to Sweden. Many Iranians showed up for this party and what was even more interesting, was that some were believing Muslims who chose to come to this event even though on the same day it was an important Muslim feast. I had a nice time of fellowship connecting with good friends

White Christmas, something we all want to have. Here in the south parts of Sweden it's rare with "White Christmas". I cant remember many seasons with beautiful white landscape during Christmas. Winter comes with cold winds and icy roads . I usually wait to change winter tires on the car until after Christmas . Some days ago it started to snow. In the beginning nothing stayed on the ground and I went to my office on my summer tires with no problem. During the evening it started to get colder and even more snow came. At the point when I was going home it was full of snow on the roads. I'm not really nervous driving on snowy roads and not even with summer tires, but while driving home, sliding left and right I started to get nervous. You might think "OH yes horrible sliding like that", but that was not what I was thinking of. I was thinking of getting a ticket! How irresponsible I was. I could have changed tires some days before and now driving safety back h...

Last Christmas the financial crisis just struck Sweden and the Christmas trade did not become a record but was anyway very high. This Christmas, we are still in a weak economic climate but the shopkeepers think that this Christmas the record will be broken.. The turnover for this year will probably be around 9 billion US dollars, some calculate that each person will spend around 870 US dollars during Christmas. That's very much indeed. Considering what income people in general have, bills that have to be payed etc, I wonder where the money will come from!? Shopping, spending money like never before, just for this rather short a period of the year get satisfaction for some time, but after this, they will be back to where they were before, and perhaps even with debts. I say this every Christmas and I will say it again, people really have to know what this season is all about. If you have no idea, I would like you to read the following chapters in the Bible Matthew 1:18 - 2:23 Christ...