Building Bridges.....

During the annual Malmo festival in August we as a Church Always are on the streets to hand out tracts. To plant seed, but also to talk to people, pray for them and show that we care. We would love to do this during Christmas as well the hard part is that its so dark so people wont be able to read or see what we hand out but no matter what people in general say about handing out tracts this is the fact: •Well written tracts glorify God •Tracts can get inside homes and stay there, you cant •Tracts never lose temper or become involved in arguments •Tracts never flinch or show cowardice •Tracts can stick to their Point without compromising •Tracts never get discourage •Tracts are willing to travel anywhere •Tracts can work 24 hours per day •Tracts are not expensive •Tracts can be read many times over

Diversity I hear it all the time, Diversity. We hear it from the media, from organisations, from politicians. "We are a diverse country", "We are a diverse Company" etc We Heard it very recently at a theatre in USA when vice president elected Mike Pence came in, "This is the Diverse America you see in front of you" Yes America is diverse, Sweden is diverse but its not really hard to be diverse, to be a diverse society. That's the easy part. The hard thing is to be unified. A "diverse unified" is unbeatable. But what can make us unified? Politics, Culture, race, Religion, sex, cant unify us. In our small International christian Church we are very diverse. Different backgrounds, culture, sex, languages, political references, denominations. But we are unified in our faith in Jesus Christ and that's unstoppable

When leading Priests is the Swedish Lutheran church thinks/believe *urging Christians to wear a cross to support Christians who are persecuted in the world, is "unchristian to do *There are many ways to God, not just one as Jesus claims *Allah and Yahweh is the same God *Mohamed is not a false prophet *When asked who to follow, Jesus or Mohamed, cant really tell Then I wonder why do Swedish Christians stay in this church if they are Christians?

Scripture's two greatest commandments – to first love God and then to love our neighbours as we love ourselves. As a church we try to be a church for our city, for the whole city and beyond. We are trying not to exclude anyone. We want to be a "come as you are church". Come with your faults, with your sin, with your brokenness. We are trying( even if its hard) to love them who talks bad about us, who don't want us to succeed. Rather often we see church leaders who are trying to reach out to the Muslim community, and that's great, but to embrace it so much as celebrating Muslim feasts in our churches, to uptake big part of sermons talking about Islam and Muslims is not the right way to go. We as Christians should focus on Jesus. To let him be a part in everything we say and do. We should not let the world effect us, we should effect the world. We have to work close with other denominations, to erase all the prejudice we have and Focus yet again on Jesus

We took part at a Conference in Hong Kong during april named "Global Church for a Global World". Key speakers were Ravi Zacharias and Os Guinniess. Great week for us as we summed it like this: We were reminded afresh that we all are one in the lordship of Jesus the Messiah, and this truth goes beyond our differences in culture, language, and denomination. We are impressed by the time and effort that had been put into the conference and grateful for all who have worked so hard to make it so successful. We are inspired and blown away by the amazing speakers. It was encouraging to listen to them because what little we do inside the church and outside has its value and impact in kingdom work beyond what can be seen or heard. It was such a life-changing moment as we were strengthened in our little effort of loving God who is revealed in Jesus and loving people.

I have not written much in the new year and that since I had an accident. I fell down the stairs and badly broke my right elbow. The doctor said it was crushed. The cast is a way now, and now the fight to get back is on its way. To get full strength and flexibility will be difficult but I will fight to get as much. My hand is stiff and swollen after 7 weeks in a cast and it´s unbelievable how little it takes for your body to get damage.

As we look forward to the new year and reflect on the one that passed, I'm thinking of the statement" Everything falls and rises on leadership". Some statements or actions made by leaders should be reacted on, taking actions against, but it is also true that everyone falls. Are we praying for them or just judging? Should we perhaps in some cases say to ourselves that "it could have been me"....