Nelson Bay photo album

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Blue Mountains photo album

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Tribute to my twin brothers Andreas and Tomas

Tomas wishing he had his wife with him in Budapest.

Exactly 25 years ago there was a battle going on. Two guys, ehm, my brothers, were to be born, and later to be named Andreas and Tomas. The battle though, was about who would be allowed to get out first thus older. And they couldn’t decide, so they took three rounds of rock-papper-scissor - the battle was intense, but eventually Tomas won. So they lined up accordingle, Tomas to get born first. What the guys couldn’t really know, still being in mums stomach, was that they would be born through Caesarean section (cut up the stomach and taken out that way) - AND - so the first one that way was… - Andreas! And Tomas… 1 minute younger became our youngest littl’ fella. Well - at least this is how the story goes according to Tomas.

Anyway - these guys have their 25th birthday today - hurray hurray hurray!

Andreas - the blond guy, is anything but “blond”. He graduated from the Baltic Methodist Theological Seminary in June and is now pastoring the methodist church in Ekenäs, Finland. (That’s our home town btw.) He debuted as an author with the book “Wandering in the desert when others rest by the oasis” a great book about how to deal with life when things don’t quite go your way. Andreas has a great sense of humor and usually hatches new jokes for breakfast. He’s a great man of God, with deep insights in the Word and a strong passion to build the Kingdom of God.

Tomas is the wild one with the dark hair. Having lived many years in Vasa he recently moved to Helsinki with his wife Anna-Sara to work as youth pastor in the Filadelfia Church . He’s been leading the Pentecostal youth organisation Team Action for a number of years and has a huge passion for people and the Gospel. Last couple of years he’s been carrying out evangelistic teams to cities around Europe.

Tomas and Andreas are the most fun and great guys ever to chill with - dispite a rough upbringing (at times) by their older brothers. Won’t go there though.

I’m greatly privileged to have such wonderful brothers- you guys rock! And… there is a third brother, as cool as these two fellas - Stefan. He even has a blog: www.stefanforsback.com .

Like to berries, don’t you think?

Sex, Love and Relationship seminar

“More of bed into church and
more of church into bed”

Ed & Lisa Young from US visited Hillsong this week. They teached at the S-L-R seminar and preached throughout the services during the weekend.

The seminar was good - perhaps  light weight but still with lot’s of insights and important truth.

One thing Ed talked about was the importance of continuing to date you partner also after getting married with him/her, and especially when having kids. He said that the best gift you can give your children is a healthy marriage during their upbringing - setting a great example for them to follow.

He tought that the “education” for the children to learn what a healthy marriage looks like actully starts at a very young age, when mum and dad goes on a date - on their own. The biggest fear of a child is separation from his/her parents. But when going on a date and yes - leaving the child with a baby sitter, telling “mummy will come back”, and the child learning that mum and dad always do come back when they go on a date for them selves - THAT teaches the child the importance of nurturing the relationship of husband and wife, and is the beginning of understanding how to build a healthy marriage.

Ed and Lisa also taught on subjects like

- Defective dating

- How to commit adultery (what things to avoid, in other words)

- The ten commandments of purity -a great tool to protect your marriage.

Ed and Lisa had a great way of teaching on a message often not even mentioned in churches and christian gatherings.

The porn star in church…

On Sunday Ed preached at Hills, and told about a Hollywood producer (for a major TV show in US) having seen him in TV teaching in a bed about sex. The producer had to watch the teaching to its end, and contacted Ed, asking him if he would want to do a talk show together with a porn star discussion their different points of view on sex. They would do the filming at his church. Having consulted his wife and some other people he actually agreed - for one reason, to share the gospel to this young woman. He went on telling how this woman arrived with her boyfriend/manager/former porn star to church (not during a service though). The producer started of with one single question, and they discussed sex, pornography, marriage, Jesus, the gospel, the love of God, for 2 - 3 hours. His very first mentioning early on in the discussion of the love that God has for this woman, and him telling her that nothing she had done, or could do, would make God love her any less or any more, gave tears in her eyes. Putting a long story short, having went through a long discussion, she left saying to his boy friend: “What if he (Ed) is right about all this…”

The show will be on TV in November. Some anonymouse people made a guess that it could be Oprah… who knows.

The whole initiative of the S-L-R seminar is great. The foundation of society is a healthy family - and the foundation of a healthy family is a healthy marriage. And a healthy marriage starts with great role models starting from child hood, and a healthy atmosphere where all related issues can be discussed.

Balmain - the sould of Sydney

Our friends Hakon and Irene moved form the Hills district close to Sydney center. We helped them move, and just fell in love with the place called Balmain, just 5 km from Sydney CBD (Central Business District).

Balmain has a charm of it’s own, with it’s exquisite still rugged architecture, lively main street and being surrounded by water. Darling Street, which goes all through Balmain, is full of nice small shops, pubs, cafes and restaurants. You can easily spend a day there walking around. And when you’re done shopping and eating have a look at the beautiful houses, head to the green areas and relax, or why not continue the trip with a ferry and get the see view of Balmain.

Balmain has been the setting for a couple of TV series, such as the sopie E Street and a move, The Sum of Us. It also has many residences owned by well-known people such as musician Josh Pyke and actress Rose Byrne. And what better place to live, having the greatest view to Sydney and Harbor bridge possible!

If you ever go to Sydney, Balmain is a place you don’t want to miss out.

Check the gallery for more pictures from Balmain!

One of the great views from Balmain.

And there was peace in the house

Finally. Several weeks of tribulation have ended today as I received the Good News: “Your ADSL line has been activated”. After some configuration it was up and running. Everyone could eventually hook up to the web and feel the huge relief of being connected to internet. And there was no more anxiety, as World Wide Web, friend of all lonely souls, entered our humble house

Be sure to find quite a few updates the coming days about:
- Balmain, the soul of Sydney
- Tripple C church.
- Dave Gilpin visiting CCC
- Sunday Night Live
- Under the skin of Hillsong College

Joel Abell at Sunday Night Live at Hillsong

Hi from my iPhone & Hillsong Life

We’re still out of internet, and it sucks… BUT - iPhone does miracles - AND I got mine finally this Monday after having been subject to Apples marketing tricks… Such as having people to wait for their iPhones several weeks to get the buzz about it. They “didn’t have it in stock” for three weeks… and then suddainly the shops say that there isn’t any shortage of iPhones anymore at all… right.

Anyways, college life rocks. Last couple of weeks we’ve started to get settled and more into the everyday rythm. We joined the connect group (also known as cell groups) training for new CG leaders. It was not very thorough, but did indeed give some more insight into the life of Hillsong.

Most people around the globe seems to associate Hillsong with it’s music and doesn’t see more than hipp concerts, cool music, CDs and DVDs. And while relevant music is indeed an important part of Hillsong church, it is still only A part of it. The part that has put Hillsong on the map, yes. But what is less obvious is the real life behind the scenes. What the CDs doesn’t tell, is the basis that made them all possible. That is, a deep desire to build Jesus’ church, based on the Bible, for a time as this. A church with a true desire to see people saved, discpled and empowered to lead “in every sphear of life”.

“The big show”
What many pastors (at least in Europe and Scandinavia) seem to react on, and movements such as “emerging church” critisize is churches that put effort to building a great Sunday service. I’ve heard so many times said that it’s not about the church building, but about the people that are the church, and that it’s not about Sunday, but about everyday life with Jesus. I used to say so my self. BUT, who says having a well working, great looking church building works against having great, Jesus-loving people in that church? Doesn’t a rugged church reflect a neglecting attitude towards the place where the people of God meet?
And who says having an inspiring well prepared and up-lifting Sunday service would take anything away from living a great life with Jesus through out the week?! Quite in contrary. Doesn’t a cool state-of-the-art Sunday meeting witness that Jesus IS relevant also for a generation that is brought up by MTV, Britney Spears and Pearce Brosnan. I think it does.

What it seams like, in a European context, is that one thing outrules the other, that great Sunday services outrules great Jesus-based life throughout the week. But why would it?Only if there is a culture of “living the christian life” just on Sundays. And that’s a matter of creating a healthy church culture.

Well, much more could be said. And will so be, but later!

Internet break out in the jungle

Well… our hosts moved away, and we’re as far from the web as we would in the middle of the jungle…. The connection is my great Nokia 6820 at 5.1Kb/s at it’s best. Short update though:

- One Iphone ordered.  - Yeeeey! Should get it within a week or so!

- College is great. Fascinating to get “under the skin” at a church which is up-to-date. Not “out of date”, as too many churches unfortunately. These guys really seems to have put a whole lot of thought into it and the way each department shares about how they think and work is impressive.

- We have a car A Daihatsu Applause 1991. It’s nice.

- We’ll finally get permanent accomodation one of these days. We’ll tell more when we get there.

- I can’t wait to get on a surf board. We visited Manly beach the other day. You won’t believe it, but it actually came some SNOW there. But it seem to disturb the surfers..

- Australia per definition: “No worries.”  … an expression you’ll hear a thousand times every day.

Hope to get back on the web soon.

Day #1: First day at school :-)

What’s Hillsong College actually like? - That question we’ve been asking ourselves since we started thinking about HILC as an alternative for Bible College and Pastoral training. What are their basic values? What’s their vision, thoughts, goals etc. Some information you’ll of course find on their website. On this blog we’ll be telling you our experiences on our own journey also at Hillsong College. So here we go - first day:

First day

We arrived just on time, 8:30. The weather is freezing cold. On our way in everyone we meet greets with a big smile.

The morning sets off Hillsong style with some 25 minutes of great worship. The principal of the hills campus, Lee Burns, welcomes us with an inspiring and humoristic touch. He tells about Brian Hustons vision for Hillsong church and the values of the school. During an 1 hour break everyone is given a nice t-shirt and a school bag - cool. Talked to an american woman, a Swede, couple of American guys, and a Norwegian girl. And some others. Great. The school is packed of Americans and Norwegians. If I don’t catch up on the Austrailian accent I can still train on the Norwegian one.

The atmosphere in general is enthusiastic, and Lee points out the importance of letting this be a year when God can work in and through you, and transform you. He actually addressed the “jante-law” (common in the northern countries) and promised that it will be dealt with. Liked that.

I left first day of school encouraged and very eager to see what’s to come, looking very much forward to what God has in store this coming year!

Quote of the day

“We need to get a car to get bicycles to get a car”

Yep. It’s true