Ten years ago I was living in Norway and it was my Dad's 70th birthday coming up, which I would have to miss because he lives in Madison, Wisconsin, and I had work to do in Norway. I struck upon a gift idea for him. It had to be big, because it was such a landmark birthday. I had been talking with a new friend of mine in the orchestra about his passion for bluegrass music. He had me listen to some of the music he liked, as I recall, and I started to muse about the possibility of striking up a band with him.
As I was listening to the music, I realized I could change the words to craft a message to my dad and family. And then there was another song that had words I could change to fit my situation about leaving Norway and saying goodbye to my church family there.
I also was able to get my roommates interested in the idea. Both were musicians too and had experience with videography and photography. This meant that we could make a music video easily. And my best friend Klaus as well was very interested.
We decided on a location for the video filming--an orchestra parking garage under construction that I stumbled upon, and though my orchestra friend couldn't join us for the second song, he helped us get access to one of the upright basses from the orchestra. To our delight, it turned out there were some heavy construction vehicles parked in the garage, which served as great scenery for the video. We dressed down and wore some hats to look hillbilly. I jacked up my underwear and wore a wife-beater. Kjartan played fiddle, Arnt played banjo, Rune/Ed played bass, Klaus played guitar, and I sang and danced. It all came together so quickly that I didn't have time to truly memorize the words, so I used cue cards that I made.
It was fun shooting the videos, Rune, with some occasional help from the other guys, did a great job filming, and Arnt was masterful at editing the video and making it ready for distribution. The following performance at Salem Church was a blast: a surprise to the college-aged audience, and they clapped and cheered us on throughout. I felt like it served to endear me to the church as well as draw me into closer bond with my friends who were involved.
Now that we are fast approaching the 10th anniversary, I think it's time to release the video to the general public and relive the glory!
Wednesday, 9 December 2015
Petal 3 Story # 4: Dog Training
When I was a middle schooler, my family's dog Moses was getting old and we were starting to think about getting another dog. We thought Moses might like to have a companion, especially since in his previous family he had companion, an Irish Setter named Shelah. Moses was a mut who loved to chase squirrels. He was so good he even caught one once! We liked his long hair and 50-pound size, so we decided that a dog like him would be good. My brother was campaigning for a Black Lab, and we had a friend who was training and hunting with Labs, so we considered it as an option. But I think the friendliness and soft coat of the Golden Retrievers won us over to their cause. Our hunting friend pointed us to a few people who knew a good breeder nearby, one that bred champion hunting trial and field trial Goldens.
So we drove down to Beloit as a family to check out his kennel. He showed us the sire, and the bitch when the puppies were newborn. Because we were first in line for a puppy, we had first choice when it came time to choose, a few weeks later. My parents paid something like $500 for the dog. We lined them up for a race, played around with them, trying to see which had the most pep and curiosity in us. And we had also decided that we wanted a male pup. I had been reading books recommended by our hunting friend in order to prepare me to choose the best puppy for hunting and companionship purposes. At seven weeks old, the recommended time for removing puppies from the litter, we took little Beauregard Topbrass Cotton home with us. We had a cage in the car ready for him, and treats for him to chew. He quickly became attached to a stuffed kuala bear that we gave him to keep him company in his cage. I became the person primarily responsible for all his training, and with the mentoring help of our hunting friend, the training was proving to be very effective.
In about a year, Beau and I won his orange ribbon for passing the Junior Hunting Test. Throughout the next few years of my high school and college life, hunting season with Beau was something we both were enthusiastic about. Beau's breeding was superior, and together with the training I gave him, and the bond we shared, his delight as a household and hunting companion was undeniable. The level of satisfaction with him as a pet cannot be measured. We were crushed when his body began to deteriorate due to lymphoma at age 8, long before the average life expectancy of Goldens. We will always remember him fondly, tinged with sadness at his loss.
Thursday, 27 June 2013
Mid-Summer in Åland
I made it safely home last week (though my luggage took five days to find me!). For those of you who may still be wondering, here's some more photos from my last few days in Sweden. |
| Sunrise at 3 am |
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| The Lord is my Shepherd I shall not want. He lays me down in green pastures, He leads me beside quiet waters, He restores my soul. |
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| "Fri Halsning" (unbound neck shackles) ==> "Frelsning" (modern word for salvation). This photo taken at a prison museum |
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| From the turn of the 19th century. Reminds me a little of Larsson paintings. Carl Larsson is one of my favorite artists. |
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| "Hey Macarena!" Entertainment onboard the ferry from Åland to Stockholm. Not for me though. I badly needed sleep, and had a headache. Unfortunately I did not have a room. That very night hoards of (very drunk) teenagers were returning from an orienteering contest in Helsinki. Drinking and orienteering--what a combination. |
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| A view from the ferry. Houses on the archipelago outside Stockholm. |
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| An ancient chapel in the woods (12th c.?) |
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| Maypole. Being prepared for Midsommar celebrations. There are perhaps pagan roots to this celebration, much like Christmas and Christmas trees. |
Friday, 14 June 2013
Burning, Burning
Like I wrote earlier, it isn't the most peaceful neighborhood we live in. Before I came here there was a drug related mafia execution. A few days ago there reportedly was another car-burning. Yesterday the local hair salon was torched. Tonight it was the car garage. The likely culprits? If it is anything like what's been going on in the other big cities in Sweden, they are disaffected immigrant teens. Daniel and Hannah have their car parked in there, somewhere. Hopefully out of harms way.
Thursday, 13 June 2013
The Road to Gaza (or Gråbo)
"And
he arose and went: and, behold, a man of Ethiopia, an eunuch of great
authority under Candace queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of
all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for to worship, was returning, and sitting in his chariot read Esaias the prophet. Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this chariot." --Acts 8:27-29
I want to tell you about an exciting thing that happened yesterday evening. I was going for a run, exploring the countryside. While about an hour's distance from home, out in the middle of nowhere, I crossed paths with two men who hailed me to stop so they could ask directions. They needed to go back to Bergsjön, where I was going. They had gotten lost, and were walking for more than an hour in the opposite direction!
I want to tell you about an exciting thing that happened yesterday evening. I was going for a run, exploring the countryside. While about an hour's distance from home, out in the middle of nowhere, I crossed paths with two men who hailed me to stop so they could ask directions. They needed to go back to Bergsjön, where I was going. They had gotten lost, and were walking for more than an hour in the opposite direction!
It was all according to God's plan, of course! Because the way back was too complicated to explain, I chose to guide them myself. To make the story short, over the course of the next hour, I learned that one of them, Mustafa, is friends with Daniel, the church planter. He knew about my coming, speaking at the church, and leading the bible study last night to which he had been invited. This is remarkable, because Daniel doesn't publicize his faith to his Muslim neighbors. So naturally I finally asked if he and his friend with us was a Christian. It seemed they said they were Alawite Muslims that don't go to mosque.
Even though we had passed by a river along the path to Bergsjön, there was no spontaneous baptism like Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch on the road to Gaza. We can hope, and I think with confidence, that their baptisms will come later!
And speaking of baptism, I just stumbled across this video of Omid's baptism in Dec of 2011. Brrr!
Omid is giving his testimony first, which you can
read toward the end of a previous blog posting,"It's a Beautiful Day in
the Neighborhood."
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| Daniel the pastor interviewing Omid two years ago before baptism. |
Here are some pictures of flowers and fauna I saw along my run yesterday. Can anyone identify them for me?
Swedish for Aliens at The Space Market
"I
once heard a man use a phrase which affected me very deeply at the
time, and still does. I am not sure it is not one of the most searching
statements I have ever heard. He said that the trouble with many of us
Christians is that we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, but that we do
not believe him. He meant that we believe on Him for the salvation of
our souls, but we do not believe Him when He says a thing like this to
us, that God is going to look after our food and drink, and even our
clothing....That is the ultimate trouble. 'Little faith' does not really
take the Scripture as it is and believe it and live by it and apply
it."--D.M. Lloyd Jones, Studies in The Sermon on The Mount, "Little Faith," p. 398.
One of the terrific things about this church plant is the pastor's personal library. Daniel has got some great books.
One of the terrific things about ministering to others is that, almost without fail, I find myself benefitting as much if not more from it.
These two terrific things, Daniel's book collection, and the opportunity for me to minister to others, came together for me this week in the two bible studies I led. The first was Tuesday on Psalm 27, in English for ethnic Swedes who are part of the church plant. The second was yesterday on Matthew 6:24-34, for ethnic Iranians who are not part of the church plant, but who are friends with Omid. This I led in Swedish.
Omid says my Swedish is as good as most immigrants here, so I was challenged to give it a shot with them. The meeting was held at Omid's apartment, which is in Rymdtorget. Rymdtorget literally means, "The space market." I suppose it may not be technically accurate to call his Iranian friends aliens, since they have become naturalized immigrants. And as it turned out the only one really speaking alien Swedish was me! (The ethnic Iranians have been here for several years already and are well integrated into Swedish society.) Nonetheless, we were able to unearth and apply some deep truths from God's Word to our lives. I think we ministered effectively to a need and area of growth that one of them in particular has in their walk with the Lord. But as I said, perhaps the best thing for me in all this is that my own studies relating to this has resulted in greater growth for me personally.
One of the sermons I brought with me, in the event that I would need another sermon to preach, happened to be on the passage we studied together from the Sermon on the Mount. In the sermon, I reflect upon the challenging truth, as I have seen it, that many Christian brothers and sisters do suffer drought, famine, and exposure. In the sermon I ask the question, "Is God not following through on his promise?" My answer is that Christ may not be promising The Father will shield his children from such suffering. God cares for us as a Father, but the evidence of that may not be so clearly seen in whether or not we have the bare necessities all the time. Jesus teaching on the sheep and goats in Matt 25 seems to bears this out.
Here's where Daniel's book collection comes in handy. D M Lloyd Jones has challenged me on my perspective with this in his chapter in Studies in The Sermon on the Mount: "Worry: Its causes and cure." He quotes Psalm 37:25, which says "I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his children begging bread." He asserts that this statement is literally true for genuine Christians (not for merely professing Christians). It reminds me of what I heard someone say on Moody radio last year, that relief agency World Vision's former president said essentially the same, that he also had never seen the righteous forsaken, not his children begging bread.
Van Gemeren's Expositor's Bible Commentary supports this view: "God gives life to his people and supports the righteous with 'bread.' From elsewhere in the Psalm it is clear that the righteous may experience a variety of adversities at the hand of the wicked. But the Lord comes to the aid of his own. They are not abandoned. The children of God are not immune to the experiences of alienation and to the groaning of this world, but they have God's promise that he will not completely forsake his own."
As a musician, "stage fright" has often been an ongoing battle. Certainly, the audition here last month gave some evidence of that. But if I remember to take Jesus at his word, as Jones advocates, what have I to be anxious about? Jesus chided the disciples in the storm at sea, "where is your faith?" He expects the same kind of faith from me. And you.
One of the terrific things about this church plant is the pastor's personal library. Daniel has got some great books.
One of the terrific things about ministering to others is that, almost without fail, I find myself benefitting as much if not more from it.
These two terrific things, Daniel's book collection, and the opportunity for me to minister to others, came together for me this week in the two bible studies I led. The first was Tuesday on Psalm 27, in English for ethnic Swedes who are part of the church plant. The second was yesterday on Matthew 6:24-34, for ethnic Iranians who are not part of the church plant, but who are friends with Omid. This I led in Swedish.
Omid says my Swedish is as good as most immigrants here, so I was challenged to give it a shot with them. The meeting was held at Omid's apartment, which is in Rymdtorget. Rymdtorget literally means, "The space market." I suppose it may not be technically accurate to call his Iranian friends aliens, since they have become naturalized immigrants. And as it turned out the only one really speaking alien Swedish was me! (The ethnic Iranians have been here for several years already and are well integrated into Swedish society.) Nonetheless, we were able to unearth and apply some deep truths from God's Word to our lives. I think we ministered effectively to a need and area of growth that one of them in particular has in their walk with the Lord. But as I said, perhaps the best thing for me in all this is that my own studies relating to this has resulted in greater growth for me personally.
One of the sermons I brought with me, in the event that I would need another sermon to preach, happened to be on the passage we studied together from the Sermon on the Mount. In the sermon, I reflect upon the challenging truth, as I have seen it, that many Christian brothers and sisters do suffer drought, famine, and exposure. In the sermon I ask the question, "Is God not following through on his promise?" My answer is that Christ may not be promising The Father will shield his children from such suffering. God cares for us as a Father, but the evidence of that may not be so clearly seen in whether or not we have the bare necessities all the time. Jesus teaching on the sheep and goats in Matt 25 seems to bears this out.
Here's where Daniel's book collection comes in handy. D M Lloyd Jones has challenged me on my perspective with this in his chapter in Studies in The Sermon on the Mount: "Worry: Its causes and cure." He quotes Psalm 37:25, which says "I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his children begging bread." He asserts that this statement is literally true for genuine Christians (not for merely professing Christians). It reminds me of what I heard someone say on Moody radio last year, that relief agency World Vision's former president said essentially the same, that he also had never seen the righteous forsaken, not his children begging bread.
Van Gemeren's Expositor's Bible Commentary supports this view: "God gives life to his people and supports the righteous with 'bread.' From elsewhere in the Psalm it is clear that the righteous may experience a variety of adversities at the hand of the wicked. But the Lord comes to the aid of his own. They are not abandoned. The children of God are not immune to the experiences of alienation and to the groaning of this world, but they have God's promise that he will not completely forsake his own."
As a musician, "stage fright" has often been an ongoing battle. Certainly, the audition here last month gave some evidence of that. But if I remember to take Jesus at his word, as Jones advocates, what have I to be anxious about? Jesus chided the disciples in the storm at sea, "where is your faith?" He expects the same kind of faith from me. And you.
Tuesday, 11 June 2013
My Sermon Link
Prayer Requests:
My sermon from this Sunday has just been put on the church's website. Here is the link: Zechariah 14 Sermon at Göteborg Internationella Baptistkyrkan. It is 50 minutes total because of the translation into Swedish. I have Omid to thank again for that.
The bible study on Psalm 27 was fun. It was enjoyable to teach and apply some of the things I have been learning about Hebrew exegesis, particularly as it concerns Hebrew poetry. To see more clearly God's artistry in the bible deepens our appreciation for the Word, and makes it more interesting and engaging. Analyzing the structural poetry was new to most in the group, so it took some work. Our close inspection of the text led to some good exegetical questions and observations though, and then a discussion about the confidence we can have now because of God's presence with us, both it's continuity and discontinuity with the psalmist's experience.
One last note. A friend has cautioned me about my sharing things of a personal nature on this blog. Only a few close Christian friends (you) know about this blog, which was designed especially for the purpose of prayerful participation with me on this trip. So I felt comfortable sharing so freely, especially as it concerned issues needing prayer. However, it may be that others will gain access to this blog, and someone referenced (however obscure their identity may be to the reader) might possibly react negatively. Therefore, "names have been changed to protect the innocent," a photo or two has been removed, and some details deleted. Thank you for your wise advice...brother (you know who you are!)
- Preparation for leading a bible study today (Wed) on Matthew 7. It will be with immigrants, and all in Swedish! (Once again, though, Omid will be by my side to bail me out if needed.)
- More street evangelism on Thursday and Friday with Omid.
- Finalize my travel plans for my return home, at the moment scheduled for June 18.
- Making a decision about whether or not to enroll in a second masters (in counseling) at Trinity.
My sermon from this Sunday has just been put on the church's website. Here is the link: Zechariah 14 Sermon at Göteborg Internationella Baptistkyrkan. It is 50 minutes total because of the translation into Swedish. I have Omid to thank again for that.
The bible study on Psalm 27 was fun. It was enjoyable to teach and apply some of the things I have been learning about Hebrew exegesis, particularly as it concerns Hebrew poetry. To see more clearly God's artistry in the bible deepens our appreciation for the Word, and makes it more interesting and engaging. Analyzing the structural poetry was new to most in the group, so it took some work. Our close inspection of the text led to some good exegetical questions and observations though, and then a discussion about the confidence we can have now because of God's presence with us, both it's continuity and discontinuity with the psalmist's experience.
One last note. A friend has cautioned me about my sharing things of a personal nature on this blog. Only a few close Christian friends (you) know about this blog, which was designed especially for the purpose of prayerful participation with me on this trip. So I felt comfortable sharing so freely, especially as it concerned issues needing prayer. However, it may be that others will gain access to this blog, and someone referenced (however obscure their identity may be to the reader) might possibly react negatively. Therefore, "names have been changed to protect the innocent," a photo or two has been removed, and some details deleted. Thank you for your wise advice...brother (you know who you are!)
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