The students just got back from their week of outreaches. 51 students were split up in 7 teams and were spread all over Sweden for one week to serve the community, schools, youth groups and churches. Like last year, Danny led a group to Landsbro, a small town about 30 minutes away.

Our students were invited to the public school to teach English, German and basketball, which they very much enjoyed.

During Outreach Week the students could connect well with the Swedish kids and they opened up to them after a few days at their school. Many kids followed their invitation to come to the Christian youth group where our students shared the gospel with them during a special evening, working together with the local church.

By the end of outreach week the students returned quite exhausted and tired, but also enriched and excited. They experienced how God put together the teams and each one of them could use their abilities to serve others.

Jeannette’s visit

Jeannette, our friend from Bielefeld, came to visit us for two weeks here in Sweden. We had lots of catching up to do for the 1.5 years we had not seen each other. It felt like old times and Jeannette was a real encouragement not only for Manuela, but also for the ladies on staff here who embraced her right away.

Jeannette commutes from between Peterborough, Ontario and Bielefeld, Germany in her work for Youth for Christ Canada. Hopefully we will get to see her again in June in Peterborough as we will also be in Ontario. We are already looking forward to it!

Daily life at Holsby

Danny organized “The First Annual John Poysti Ping Pong Tournament 2012″ for the students and they loved it. The tournament went on for all of Saturday and the winner got to play our Director John Poysti.

The atmosphere in the Chapel was great!

On Tuesday we had our last Family Group. After commencement and the last supper on Thursday we had to say good-bye to some of our kids already. The term is over again and spring school is just around the corner.

Our kids Austin and Joel return home to Hepburn, Saskatchewan, where they will be working during the summer and starting their studies in the fall. Bethany goes back to Manitoba to begin her studies, which Kristen will do as well after her time at Capernwray England for Spring School there.

Leap Year

We rejoice together with Danny’s brother Mark and his wife Rachel in the safe delivery of their children. Miriam and Gabriel Stephens were born on February 29th, just as they hoped. The family is well and we are all excited to meet our 6th niece and 1st nephew in June.

Happiness

We are excited to share our awesome news with you. We are expecting! If everything goes well we will have a little one join our family by the end of August. We rejoice and thank the Lord for his goodness to us.

The doctors will continue to monitor Manuela closely because of her removed borderline cyst. We feel in good hands and very well taken care of here – praise the Lord!

Missionstrip

On Sunday evening, Danny will be traveling to Northern Ireland for a mission trip with the basketball team.  The team will teach basketball and play exhibition games – sharing the gospel with the children and players they come in contact with.

Thank you very much for all your prayers and support!

Danny’s birthday gift was tickets for the local hockey game. We drove to Jönköping to see the HV71 beat the Stockholm Djurgården in a shoot-out. It was an exciting night and Danny was especially happy that a Canadian scored the winning goal!

For Manuela’s mom’s 50th birthday we could see the whole family and celebrate with them. Petra was really excited to have all the kids home and enjoyed every minute of it. Manuela’s cousin Julia turned 12 on that weekend so could we be there for her birthday as well.

Near Stuttgart Manuela got to meet up with former students from last year. It was great to catch up with Sassi, Rahel and Anka over a cup of tea and awesome German cake in a cute little bakery.

New Principal

Back in Holsby we welcomed our new principal together with his wife Cheryl and their little daughter Emmalise. Luke Thomas is the grandson of Torchbearers’ founder. Major Ian Thomas founded the Torchbearers shortly after World War II.

Luke loves to play the bagpipes, which has probably to do with his Scottish roots or rather with Billy Graham, who gave the bagpipes as a gift to the Thomas family.

Christmas Season

We went bowling with our family group in Vetlanda. Many of us were rusty however Danny, Josh and Alfred were definitely in good shape and bowled great games. That evening we were actually supposed to do the ‘singing in the square’ where the students sing Christmas songs at the Christmas market and do the dancing around the tree. However that got cancelled because of a big storm.

The rest of the evening we spent as a family group in the dark because of the power outage. Candle light dinner and cold food was definitely a different experience.

Christmas Open House

Like every year the students put together a little Christmas program for the neighbors, friends of the school and the Swedish youth which they got to know through their weekly outreaches. 

Danny was the MC. The evening was a great mix of performances like the school choir, musical pieces, a devotion, skits and dances. For Danny especially it was great to see, how the Chapel was full and how many Swedes accepted our invitation to come that night.

Luke, our principal playing the bagpipes together with one of our Swedish students.

The student choir was phenomenal! Great songs and awesome voices!

Until midnight we sat together with youth from the neighborhood and had coffee, cookies and good conversations. The students as well as the staff were truly thankful for such a wonderful evening.

After all the guest had left we had a little ‘after-party’ in the chapel. Danny was doing some head spinning. Still a young man!

Nathan & Megumi

This year we had a couple here as students. Nathan from Canada and his wife Megumi from Japan decided to take some time and come to Holsby to study the bible and grow in their relationship with the Lord.

Nathan is the son of the first Director of Holsby named Fred Wright (1973-1981). When we had Nathan and Megumi over for bubble tea (Danny was complimented on cooking the tapioca pearls just right) we got to hear their story and found out that Nathan’s parents actually lived in our house 30 years ago. So Nathan spent his first few years as a baby in our apartment. Lots of things changed around the house since then, however the fireplace, which Nathan’s dad built, is still here and working.

Christmas in Germany – Here are the highlights for you

Baptism of Manuela’s cousin Linus

Christmas with the Herkerts - Manuela’s cousins love to play table tennis

Catching up with friends – Brunch with Miri & Cari

Family Time

Making puzzles, playing games

Holsby reunion in Stuttgart playing pool and drinking bubble tea

That was our year of 2011

Thank you very much for your support and friendship! See you next year.

As staff we met at EMventure for our yearly Staff Prep Day.

It was a great day with lots of important information, fun games and delicious food. In the evening during our praise and worship time we looked back and thanked God for all his great works during the past year.

Here is a little abridgement from our praise and worship time:

We are thankful to our Father in Heaven, who gave us another good Bible school year 2010-2011 where we had the joy of seeing lives changed.

We are thankful for students who had an open heart and hunger to learn and to develop a good and strong relationship to God. We are thankful as well as for their servant hearts.

Praise be to God that He entrusted us with 47 Students and a full Discovery course and that we had 60 students in the Spring School.

Praise be to God who changes lives

We are thankful to our Father in heaven how He works in our outreaches:

A Powerhouse youth, who started hearing about God two years ago from a Holsby student at that time, accepted Christ as his Savior last year with one of the Holsby staff who went there on outreach.

We are thankful for the Slovenia mission trip where over 30 students heard the full Gospel.

We are thankful the basketball team could play in the league again and share testimonies with all other 5 teams.

Praise be to God our Father for the work we could do this summer to improve our grounds and buildings and that we had the money to do so:

- Renovating the bathrooms in Brunnsgården

- Finishing almost four rooms in Ekhaga

- Painting two buildings

- Starting the path behind the Chapel area

- Rejoicing that there were no accidents

– Giving the ropes course area a nice, new look, and a lot of little things to make the houses and grounds look better

Praise be to God our Father who is able to do far more than we imagine.

Praise be to God our Father in heaven for the birth of the twins Huxley and Hazel and for the birth of Oliver and for their healthy development.

We are very thankful for the groups which we had this summer.

Stopping and looking on back on the year was really good. There were so many things we had already forgotten. To stop and ponder about the things God has done in the past year truly made us thankful and brought excitement for the year to come.

The new students arrived

Little by little the new students arrived on Friday. Everything is new and many of them have still jet lag. For the fall we have 46 students, 21 of them from Canada, which is an unusually high percentage of students from the same country. Others are from the States, Germany, Sweden, Austria, Romania, England/Thailand and Japan.

Traditionally we hike to the ski hill on one of the first days after the students arrive. It was a gorgeous day and we enjoyed walking through the forest up to the mountain top. It always is a good opportunity to learn the names and get familiar with the new faces.

Together in our family groups we went through the high ropes course and did the giant swing.

We asked our new family members to introduce themselves to you. Here you go:

My name is Austin Huber and I am a Canadian, born in Alberta but raised in Saskatchewan.  I just graduated high school from a town of 700 people (loved high school), which makes me 18 years old. I love to play sports (any and every kind of sport) but my favorite is hockey and soccer comes in a close second. I love hanging with friends whether its gaming, in the city, movies or just hanging out. I love to joke around with people and laugh and something that is unique about me is that I wear toques year round.

Hi! My name is Bethany Cameron. I`m 18 years old from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. I love going on walks and spending time outside. I`m so happy to be here at Holsby and I`m looking forward to seeing what God has planned for me for the next few months. My first few weeks here have been amazing. I love this school and all the people here.

Hey my name is Joel Pompu, I’m from Saskatchewan, Canada, and I’m 18 years old.  I play a lot of sports but my favorite is soccer. I have been playing drums for 7 years and I really enjoy it. My favorite hockey team is the Toronto Maple Leafs. Something unique about me is that I have worked at a honey farm for the past 5 summers producing honey.

Hi, my name is Kristin. I am 18 and I am from Winnipeg, Manitoba in Canada. I am excited to be in Sweden this year and to learn more about God and to spend time with other Christians. I like sunny weather and spending my time with friends and family!

Hej!
I am Melanie Scholl, I am 20 years old and come from Germany (near Stuttgart).
I am excited to be here to fellowship with God and Christians from around the world.
It’s great that Holsby is surrounded by forest. I love being outside and do sports outdoors, that is why I chose to take part in the Discovery program.
I am looking forward to the months ahead.

Hey! My name is Josh (or Joshua) and I`m from Washington State, USA. I`m 18 years old and I have 6 siblings: four brothers and two sisters. I love cold weather, skiing, and wearing beanies, so winter is naturally my favorite season. I love seeing the snow falling on a cold winter day and watching it build up on buildings, trees, and form deep drifts. It`s like watching God paint a picture before my eyes! I`m excited for my year at Holsby, meeting new people, and seeing what God has in store for me. If you ever want to meet me, just look for the boy playing around in the snow!

Hello. I`m Alfred and I am from Sweden. Last year as a student was a great blessing for me, so this year the school accepted me to work as staff with maintenance and the discovery program. I`m really excited for that and expect a year of further growth. I really enjoy sports, music, the outdoors and I`m always up for adventure.

New neighbours

Since yesterday we have new neighbours. Jonathan and Trista moved in above us together with their 4 month old twins Hazel and Huxley. We are looking forward to many great years ahead sharing a house.

Brad and Cece together with Kayley and Oliver, who used to live above us, moved a few houses down the road.

Last Friday we had our all student canoe trip. It was great to catch up with Todd Kramlich, who was this week’s guest teacher. He used to be the principal when we were students 7 years ago. Crazy how time flies!

It was a gorgeous day and especially Manuela enjoyed being out of the office, getting some exercise and enjoying the beautiful creation all around.

To celebrate “the last day of summer” we drove to the lake and barbequed German sausages and chicken together with the Miller family and their 4 month old twins Hazel and Huxley.

Our summer in Sweden:

Minigolf in Korsberga

Old Ladies’ Fika

As a good-bye fika for Emily from Novia Scotia, who served in the kitchen for a year, the girls got together for fika, talking about the good old times, neighbors and their whoowhoos. Manuela learned how to knit and is ready for the long, cold, dark days inside by the warm fire place.

Lark Rise to Candlesford

Manuela is thankful for the many great hours together with the girls over the summer. They really became dear to her heart. Kara from Washington, who is up for anything and Emily shared her excitement for the BBC series “Lark Rise to Candleford”. So they got together in our living room evening after evening for another episode.

The sunny and warm days were rare, but all the more appreciated. Blanket on the grass, laugther and painted toe nails. Good times!

SAT camping

To conclude  the summer season, we as the Summer Adventure Team (SAT) went camping together. Despite the rain and cold we had an incredible time. Sharing at the camp fire about the season and what we appreciated about each other was truly encouraging for all of us. It was a wonderful way to review the year and to see God’s goodness through it all.

Mushrooms (Kantareller)

The mushroom season has begun. After a rather bad blue berry season, the forests were filled with mushrooms. We loved walking through the woods and finding our own mushrooms. As starters we decided to stick the ones that were easy to distinguish, easy to prepare and delicious in taste.

It is great sharing our lives with you. Thanks for your continued support and prayers.

For the weekend we drove up to Stockholm. Danny played disc golf in the Stockholm Open while Manuela went shopping for 10 hours. We camped at a nearby campsite, the weather was great and Stockholm showed itself from its best side.

Chris Zimmerman from the Niagara Falls, surprised us here in Holsby. He was a student with us 6 years ago. While he was on tour in Europe with his brother DJ Dead Mau5 he decided to jump on the train and see his old home Holsby. What a surprise! It was so good to see him again and to talk about the good old times.

Justin Priebe from Langley, BC who was also a student with us, attended his brother’s wedding in Denmark. He drove up together with his whole family to visit Holsby.

6 years ago he was the youngest student our year. And already back then you could see how God called him out of his old life and changed him radically.

A few years ago he got into a bad accident with his motor cycle and suffered severe brain damage. To see how he clings to Jesus through the hard times and is passionate about him, encourages us so much. His long term memory works perfectly and to listen to his stories from the “Guys Dorm” was simply amazing. Being reminded of things we had almost forgotten. It was so good to see him again after so many years.

Jasmin Maier together with her daughter came up in June and Inge Rinklin just visited us last week. We are privileged to live here – old friends always find their way back home.

Camps at Holsby

One of our highlights of the summer season was to have the Immanuel Church here from Stockholm. This international youth group has been coming here for many years now. The kids had a lot of fun and to see their hunger for Jesus was very encouraging. Here you see Danny with his maple sirup. The kids had to make pancakes over the open fire as a part of a group activity.

Even though the summer could have been fuller, it was rich in conversations and experiences. God touched and changed lives. For many of the Swedish confirmation kids it was the first time they heard about a living relationship to Jesus. They reached their limits in the ropes course and experienced team work and fair play during the initiative games.

Our last group of the summer was a school class with a bunch of 12 year olds. Carved names in bunk beds, mattresses soaked in pop and the fire alarm set off for fun … this group really kept us on our toes. The kids loved throwing water balloons at Danny at the end of one of our games. They had a lot of fun and we trust that the Lord will continue to speak to them after their time here.

Our summer was full of surprises and things we could not foresee. So our plans to visit our parents were interrupted by an operation which Manuela had to have. They had to take out her left ovary because of a cyst.

I am fully recovered and I am happy I can get in and out of bed without pain and sleep through the night. The days shortly after the operation were difficult, but also fulfilling. I could see life through different eyes. One afternoon I remember clearly. Sitting in the rocking chair on our porch, listening to country music I was so filled with such joy. Thankfulness about my life and about the decisions I have made so far, the ways the Lord led me so far. It was great to feel so alive for the first time in a long time. Life has been so busy … to be able to stop and ponder, was a great blessing I would not have wanted to miss.

The biopsy came back as neither benign nor malignant. The current diagnosis reads borderline. So Manuela will be closely monitored and have regular checks. The next appointment will probably be in November. We are so thankful the cyst was found and could be removed. Thank you very much for your prayers.

The summer season has started and one by one the summer interns arrived. We had a great orientation day by the lake with games, swimming and worship. 

We have a great team of volunteers with lots of Germans and North Americans, as well as David from Spain, Claire from England, Tim from Belgium and Bettina from Switzerland.

Over the summer when there is no bible school we have room for groups: Day groups, family retreats, teen camps, confirmation groups etc. Danny has been running the ropes course, doing initiative games and helping with the program for the groups. He is also enjoying practical labor like laying the foundation for the new “Pamper Pole”.

The days are getting longer and we enjoy playing games with the summer interns, hanging out and having fun.

We celebrated “Midsommar” yesterday. As is tradition we decorated the Midsommar pole with flowers and young and old joined in to dance around it to Swedish children’s songs. Like every year hundreds of people came to the school. It is a great opportunity to reach out to neighbours and local Swedes. Danny and his team opened up the ropes course and the “Giant Swing” for everyone to try it. Manuela did crafts with with the kids and could practice her Swedish. A new word learned is “klister”, which means glue.  It was a lovely day.

One guy from our Swedish class accepted our invitation and brought his family to celebrate Midsommar with us. The class takes a summer break and will meet again in the fall for the next semester. Hopefully we won’t forget everything.

On our last day at SFI (Swedish for Immigrants) we visited our  teacher’s farm and had fika (coffee and cake) at her place.

We took a group of students to Gothenburg to run the half marathon. With almost 60,000 runners Gothenburg is the biggest half marathon in the world. For our students this was truly a thrilling experience.

After months and months of training they could finally run the race and finish well. It was awesome that Deanna, Danny’s sister, could meet us in Gothenburg, see Danny run the half marathon and spend a week with us at the bible school.

On Sunday, the day after the race, we were invited to Johnny B’s church to help with the Sunday service. One student told
her testimony, we sang swedish songs and shared a kid’s story. Afterwards we were invited for Fika (coffee and biscuits) and it was great to talk to some of the church members.

We got back to Holsby just in time for our last family group. We took a bunch of pictures, had bubble tea and played “things in a box”. Deanna fit right in!

Graduation day was a very emotional day as reality hit the students that their time here at Holsby is over and a very hard good-bye was awaiting them.

On Monday Manuela’s parents came to visit and we had two great weeks together. We visited various places and did some projects around the house. They were a great help and it was amazing to have them here!

Eksjö – old wooden town from the 14th century

Kleva Gruva – old copper mine from the 16 hundreds

Dinner at EMventure – Fresh smoked salmon and pancakes for dessert

Coffee and cake at a cute little Swedish cafe

It was great to have family here to catch up and spend time together. We treasured every moment of it.

Our surprise was quite a success. Manuela’s mom couldn’t believe her eyes when she saw us. Everyone was excited to see us and were looking forward to few days together with us. The weather was summer like. The trees and flowers were already blossoming. We had a BBQ outside with friends and neighbors. Manuela went for ice cream with her girls and Danny played in a disc golf tournament close by. He drove up to the Western Forest where we used to live and visited old friends, work mates and played basketball with his old team.

It worked out that we could be there for the confirmation of Manuela’s cousin Markus. We went to church together and had a wonderful meal afterward,  followed by coffee and cake, which Danny always loves. It was great to see all Manuela’s aunts, uncles and cousins and celebrate together as a family.

The time flew by and after shopping for German groceries and loading up our car to the top, we headed back to Sweden. On our way we stopped at the Youth for Christ center to say hi to Manuela’s former work mates and friends. Even though it was way too short, it was great to see all their faces again.

Dorien came with us to Sweden to spend some vacation days at Holsby where she went to bible school with us. It was great to have company on the long way up to Sweden.

After we arrived in Sweden and started unpacking, we got a phone call from Canada that Danny’s grandma had passed away. Less than 3 days later we found ourselves at the Toronto airport where our brother in law Dave together with our niece Karah were waiting to pick us up.

The whole family gathered. Danny’s sisters from England and Calgary, aunts, uncles and cousins from California and North Carolina. Everyone helped here and there with the last few preparations for the funeral. The family got to meet the two latest additions to the family too: The twins Megan and Emily.

Despite such a sad occasion, it was great to have the family together. The funeral was very moving and personal and it was good for both of us to say good-bye to grandma one last time.

After 10 days in Germany and 100 hours in Canada are we back in Sweden and enjoying the last few weeks with the Spring school students. Our family group has  five new faces now: Molly, Dave, Kendra, Leeann and Sherilyn. On Easter Sunday Danny put a Easter Egg Hunt together for the “kids”. They loved it! Incredible, it seems you never get too old for that kind of stuff.

This part is for you Deanna:

We tried our first home made bubble tea. After a few funny tasting ones, we feel like now we have perfected it.  Our family group enjoyed it, too.

We enjoyed the first few sunny days here in Sweden. We got our scooter out and took it for a ride on Good Friday. We stopped by a lake and had a pick-nick. We had a whole day to ourselves for the first time in a long time. That was great.

“j-rock ball”. It is like handball, except that you head the ball into the goal. With 12 people on the field it was a lot of fun. We had soar muscles and bruises the next day. It was an awesome Sunday.

Basketball

The guys just had their last game in Tranas. Danny can look back on a great first basketball season. The team had great opportunities to share about their personal experiences with God.

Movie night at the Stephens

To conclude the season we had a movie night at our house. Rearranging the couch and setting up the projector made our little apartment feel like a movie theater. The popcorn and the pop definitely added positively to the atmosphere.

Last family group

Our last family group get together was on Tuesday. We already had to say good-bye to some of the students who won’t come back for spring school. The term was over so quickly and now we have spring break and things will calm down on campus as the students travel and go on missions trips to Slovenia and Bosni

Right now, Manuela and I are on the plane on our way back to Sweden. It’s almost 3 in the morning there, but only 9 at night in Toronto – so I can’t really sleep although I wish I could. Manuela is stretched out beside me (we have three middle seats) and she doesn’t seem to be having any problems. But at least I have some time to reflect on our time in Canada…

All in all, we had a great trip and the 5 weeks (the longest I’d been in Canada in nearly 4 years) seemed to fly by. Highlights included seeing old friends as well as making new ones, going curling as a family (my brother and I were on the winning rink), seeing my grandma – she’s 95, worshipping at First Baptist Church again, countless trips to Ten Ren’s for bubble tea and lots and lots of family time. For Manuela a special highlight was seeing the national ballet perform The Nutcracker (der Nussknackerprinz auf deutsch).

Near the end of our time, we had the opportunity to talk to a few youth groups about going to Torchbearers in Sweden. It was good to connect with these students and to see the work that the youth pastors and leaders are doing. We hope as a result of our visit and the Lord’s work in their hearts that many young Canadians will decide to go to bible school and to study God’s Word in depth and that this will lead them into a more intimate relationship with Jesus Christ.

We are excited to be heading back to Sweden and to continue the work that the Lord has for us there. Thank you for your continued prayers and support, a special thank you to the many, many people who made our trip so great, and most of all we’d like to thank and praise the Lord for His love and goodness to us.

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