Full time job with addicts

Since November 16th I've been working 37 hours a week at a day offer "social cafe" for people with different addictions (mainly alcohol) who are feeling lonely and need a safe haven, a "family" and a timeout in an often hectic day of letdowns.

I love this work and feel very privileged being able to hangout here with so many different people, who has got so many stories from their life's. Will be working at this place (in Århus, Denmark) full time until June 1st.
"Blå Kors" (Blue Cross) is a Christian organization focusing mainly on helping folks with alcohol problems.

I believe that every human being need care

- for the body (physically),

- for the mind (mentally) and

- for the soul (spiritually).

This Christmas time is especially hard on our crowd who are coming at Blå Kors. A lot of bad memories from broken homes as kids, or broken homes that they as a mom or dad couldn't handle.

Let this be a time of caring for each other.

May the peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you!

Nordic Fest 2009

On the ferry to Oslo, Norway. 9 hours on the way up there...and 14 hours back because of a crazy storm. Safe and sound "asleep":

Going on stage about an hour after arrival :) ... If you look closely you can see Pastor Bobs tattooed arm on the picture:

Nordic Fest is such an awesome festival!! Definitely one of the best!

This was my 5th time at Nordic, and it was great as always!

- 2005: Enjoying!

- 2006: Playing with Barricades.

- 2007: Helping out Pastor Bob with band interviews and stuff.

- 2008: Doing one of the seminars in the Holy Riders Cave during the festival.

- 2009: Playing with Solace the Day

One of the most amazing things about these Christian metal festivals is the dedicated fellowship in Christ. So many people come year after year from all over the world for this (fairly small) festival!

The Nordic main brain, Pål, standing left in the picture:

During our concert the night before I (and everybody else) thought that I broke my hand. After watching the last couple of bands after us (Frosthardr and Becoming The Archetype) we went to the emergency room, where we hung out from 01:00 to 04:00 in the morning.

After tests and ex-rays this was what the doctors journal said:

"Damage at hand by directly trauma from a bass guitar at 9 PM"

=> THAT's A KEEPER!! :0)

Amanda and I on a castle sight seeing Friday together with 40 other folks from the festival.

Fun times...

Destruction Fest

Solace The Day (and Amanda!) at Destruction Fest in London, England.

Picture: Take off with bus from Vejle...

Amanda and another queen at Billund Airport:

Destruction Fest was from Friday to Sunday. Friday and Sunday was all about fellowship, connecting, praying for each other, singing worship together and blessing one another.

Saturday we were 10 bands playing. A great privilege playing (and hanging out) with My Silent Wake, Antidemon, A Hill To Die Upon, More Than Dust (their very last show), Xphere, Back Pocket Prophet, Rising From Death, Conduit and Bloodwork.

Late night at the Catholic church where we were:

Time for having Chinese food (sorry I haven't got pictures of the whole crowd!) :

I also found the time for a walk in the park :-) A HUGE blessing having Amanda with me!!

She came to visit to 5 weeks!

This was my 2nd time at Destruction Fest in London. The first time was in 2004, where everything was fairly new for me and the Christian metal fellowship. Amazing looking back and seeing how many exciting things has happened since then. GOD IS GOOD!

A great weekend where we finished of sleeping at Stansted Airport. The nice familiar feeling of feeling happy, sore, blessed and extremely spent :0)

Grindhouse Construction

In October we (Sanctuary Denmark) also did a one night metal event, as a little brother to the Green Light District Festival. It turned in to a truly blessed night, with a good amount of people, great positive fellowship, awesome concerts and a focus on Christ throughout the whole night!

The meaning behind the name "Grindhouse Construction":

- To "grind" people together in friendship, taking care of each other, have fun in the moshpit and dare to be honest and share life.

- To create a "house" where the Spirit of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ may work, so that people may be touched and feel the love of God and the Christian fellowship.

- To have a time of "construction" and not destruction (which often is the theme in the metal subculture). In Jesus Christ there is freedom!

Great positive energy!

We had four bands playing: Antidemon from Brazil; Arms Ablaze; Servants Of The Immortal and us in Solace The Day, who put on the event.

And a fellowship both one stage, off stage, during concerts and the talks in between!

MAY GOD BE GLORIFIED

Intense Sanctuary disciple week

In October, Pastor Bob and we in Sanctuary Denmark did a 5 days Christian living studies in Århus, Denmark. The Intense Sanctuary week was held in my church "Århus Valgmenighed". Pastor Bob did teaching from questions that we all wrote down beforehand.

An awesome week of teaching, which I've been longing for :-)

We were 15 folks for the whole thing and 45 dudes and girls for one day or more.

Our kitchen lady Lilian did an awesome job with the food, together with her husband Lars and my dad Børge. Above is a picture from one of the days menus.

Jonas and David transporting important stuff for the seminars!

A great week to remember!

Next Bible school is the 80 days INTERNATIONAL DISCIPLE CONFERENCE in Nashville, Tennessee, USA. September 17th - December 3rd 2010. Looking forward to that!!

In the States aGAIN

I spend seven weeks in the States this Summer, which was a great and blessed time in any way. Then I went back to Denmark for our Band/Musicians Retreat + to move apartment + to start working full time (besides ministry) so I can effort more traveling and doing more projects.

There are many important things in life. And then there is love. Above them all, love.

So now I’m back in Illinois to spend some good time with Amanda, which feels like the only right thing to do at the moment :)

It’s wild how God has created us with such strong feelings and emotions. Many times I’ve felt love (being in love) as a disease! But love is also what keeps us going!! It’s what makes life worth living. AND the greatest and most everlasting knowledge I’ve got about love, is that God is love! The true core of love is seen in the eyes of Christ!

1 Corinthians 13 "The Excellence of Love"

8Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away.

9For we know in part and we prophesy in part;

10but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away.

11When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things.

12For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.

13But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.

(... Realized that we still haven't got a good picture of Amanda and I... This time you therefor you get a picture of her alpakkas, who are living in the backyard)

Band/Musicians Retreat

August 7^th – 9^th we (Sanctuary Denmark) had our first Band/Musicians Retreat in Denmark and it was an amazing time!!

A weekend minded on all the Christian heavy metal musicians in Denmark. Pastor Bob Beeman flew to Denmark to teach these three days, and we REALLY appreciate that man! :-)

The weekend reminded me a lot about our Green Light District Festival with the best teaching (but more this time) and the best fellowship (but more this time). We had seminars on being a hard music band of Christians sharing the light of Christ.

When I started out in Barricades (2003), it took me a while before I realized my responsibility as a Christian musician. Especially when you’re in a band playing concerts, many will look at you to see if you “live what you preach”. Many look for their role models amongst musicians, which is a great thing to be aware of. Stay humble and stay focused. I once went to a seminar on how we as musicians are the preachers of the times. A lot of people don’t read book... but they listen to music.

The main goal of the weekend was to get together, get to know each other more as fellow musicians in our country, share stories with each other and be encouraged to keep the faith. Our goal is also to help musicians getting useful tools in how to be a great and outstanding band amongst thousand of other bands.

It was an awesome weekend of fellowship and teaching, hangout until 5 in the mornings and brunch at 12 noon. A very blessed time, where a couple said that they’ve never experienced such a strong fellowship at a camp before. All in all we were 40 people during this weekend.

Pastor Bob and I and planning on doing these band/musicians retreats in many different countries, where Sanctuary Denmark will do one every year.

Glory to God!

Hanging with the homeless in Nashville

Pastor Bob started feeding homeless people in Nashville under Jefferson Street Bridge some time ago. I started helping out about 1,5 years ago, and now Bob and friends are feeding most days of the week. (This first picture is 1,5 years ago during the cold Nashville winter).

I've been longing to get back under the bridge again hanging out, and it's great being able to do that again while I'm here! (Picture taken a week ago).

Since the financial crisis A LOT of people have lost their homes. Right now there's about 3.000 people on the street just in the Nashville area. The picture below shows Pastor Bob praying before the meal. Most of these homeless are thankful Christians and the greatest people!

If you wanna check it out the homeless feeding ministry this is the place to go:

www.thebridgebunch.com

Picture above shows two of the Danish friends who are traveling with me in the States this time. Simone and Levi are also on the team behind Snactuary Denmark, the Green Light District Festival and the metal ministry in Denmark.

New ink

At the exact same time as when Railyn was born I was sitting in the tattoo chair at Lone Wolf Tattoo.

I got some shadings done on my upper left arm + blue color around my 9-star. The 9-star was my very first tattoo which I got at BobFest 2005. All of my tattoos means a lot to me, but especially my debut tattoo of the 9-star, with praying hands and the nine fruit of the Spirit:

Galatians 5, 22-23: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. Against such things there is no law!"
I'm still using this tattoo at night, going through the day and meditating on however my days actions has been defined by these things. Every day I get to the point that without the God of Trinity and prayers I can't achieve this at all!! By His Spirit and His grace I can slowly grow in character, becoming more like Christ.

... Pictures taken by Levi Wiwe Rauff (guitarist of Solace the Day) ...

Railyn McCavanagh

One of the cool things about staying in Nashville is hanging out with the McCavanaghs.

I've been staying with this awesome little fam whenever I've been living in Nashville through the past two years :-)

And THEN only three days ago a new little McCanavagh arrived!!! His name is Railyn, and I'm really excited about seeing him grow up!

I couldn't be at the hospital because I've got the cold (after no sleep, bad food, flooded tent and too many shows at Cornerstone), but Jamie honored me (and the Danes) by wearing the Green Light District Festival 2009 t-shirt!! I'M HONORED :O)

Amanda

And now it's time for a love story:

I've been back in the States for more than a month and a whole lot of exciting things has happened!! It really feels good being back, breath the well-known (and humid!) Tennessean air and catching up with projects and folks in Nashville..!

But one thing fills my mind more than anything else...!

I met the most beautiful girl in the world a couple of years ago, and for the last year we've been thinking of each other. Off course I've been too stupid to really believe in it before now, but lucky me, Amanda and her beautiful heart has been patient :O)

Within a couple of days I'll fly (back) to Illinois, USA, where she's living. She lives only a 1,5 hour drive from the Cornerstone Festival venue.

... So if I seem more weird and happy clappy than usual, that's probably why. (The picture shows Amanda, I and her nephew at Cornerstone).

Cornerstone Festival

This was the 2^nd year I’ve been to Cornerstone Festival in Illinois. I love going to metal festivals and meet friends and well known faces from all over the world!

More than 50 stages and several hundred bands gathered for six days in the cornfields of Illinois. Last year I played 3 times with the Sanctuary Worship band, and this year I've been so blessed to be able to play with SOLACE THE DAY here!!

Within 6 days we played 6 Solace the Day concerts + that Levi and I played 3 times with Sanctuary Worship band! Besides that we had an awesome time hanging out and running to concerts with friends whenever we didn't have to play :0)
We played everything from a the big Sanctuary tent full of folks to a couple of shows right on the grass at the generator stages.
Our American friends from the great band A Hill To Die Upon helped us out a lot with borrowing gear. Respect! And tons of respect goes out to the guys behind the Sanctuary Stage/Tent. It was one more awesome year!!
This last picture is from one of our 3 concerts at the Sanctuary Stage. Rumors started running that our live show was pretty crazy and that I destroyed myself completely at every show (which I did)... I'm very thankful for the good support we got at all our shows.

A huge privilege to meet so many great people at Cornerstone, hang out, play music with awesome friends and worship God, my Father and Creator!

Back in the USA!

I've been working with heavy metal ministry together with Pastor Bob Beeman since 2005, where I've been living in Nashville, Tennessee on and off. I'm still working full time with PB and metal, but it has now been almost a year since I've been in the States. Feels good being back!

I'm only gonna be here for 7 weeks this time. While I'm here I will be working on different ministry project with the Pastor + catch up with friends + hangout with the homeless in Nashville + have my Danish metal band Solace the Day over + play shows (and work) at Cornerstone Festival with both Solace the Day and Sanctuary Worship band.

I'll keep posting from "the other side" (depending on where you are sitting)...

Sweden survival weekend

Five days after the marathon I had an awesome weekend in the wilderness of Sweden together with different leaders from my church in Århus + others. We were 4 teams of 4 people, where we were fighting our own physical and mentally limits to conquer different tasks and earn respect :0)

And this was totally a great vacation! My team were kano paddling about 30 km during the day, then we slept two hours under the open sky, got up at midnight, went paddling a little and then we walked about the distance of a marathon (42,195 km) through the night. Besides that there was different tasks that we had to do.

I really like pushing my own limits, and we certainly did that :-)

It was amazing paddling through the night, and then walk for 7-8 hours through the woods with animals jumping around and stuff. GOD'S NATURE IS AMAZING!!!

Copenhagen Marathon

Wow, it's been looong since I've blogged!!

A month ago I ran the Copenhagen Marathon together with my dad and Jonas from Solace the Day. A really good experience once again. This was my 9th marathon. It's incredible how God has created us human beings. On one hand we, our mind and bodies are capable of conquering grand, grand things; and on the other hand we're so fragile!

In both situations I'm in need of God!

EASTER

...Continued from the "On the Norway-Denmark ferry" post below...

I wouldn't recommend this guy to continue letting himself being hurt in such major ways, because I wanted the best for him. Sometimes we have to protect ourselves to survive, but Jesus chose to walk the whole way and lay down his life 

for the humans, whom He loved dearly, though we're treating Him violently! 

Christ lived a life in pain and suffering knowing what we were created to be. All along He knew that we were created for much more, living a life of pure love in a peaceful world in an uplifting  relationship with our Heavenly Father; and I believe that that was what kept Him going! I also believe that it hurts like hell to see us humans choosing d

estructive ways of living and causing each other pain and death.

In Denmark the Friday where Christ gets crucified is called LONG FRIDAY, but to me the English name has a deeper meaning with the title GOOD FRIDAY! Looking back and seeing the bigger picture of why Christ went through so much physical and even more mentally pain. 

He did it for the love of God! Nothing is more GOOD than the LOVE of GOD!!

May the GRACE, PEACE and LOVE of our LORD be with you!

On the Norway-Denmark ferry

I travelled to Oslo by boat from Frederikshavn and back again, which can be pretty boring, when you're traveling alone..! On my way home I spend more than 12 hours on the ferry.

But fortunately I met a Norwegian hippie on my own age sitting by himself on the deck smoking hand rolled cigarettes :0) We sat on a table talking on the deck for a couple of hours until both of us were completely frozen. We had a lot in common though we were very different in some fundamental ways like God, relationships and sex.

This lonely dude had been homeless in periods and had been living in Asia for a while searching for love. At a time he went to jail in Thailand without knowing anything for a month. All he wanted was to lay down his life in anyway he could to be able to be with the woman he loved, though this woman treaded him violently both mentally and physically. 

I haven't been through as much crap as he has, but I know how it is to be driven by love, which MANY times feels like a sickness! ...But you're convinced that it's worth everything!

Love is a powerful thing that keeps us going!!

...To be continued in the "EASTER" post above...