All posts from May 2014

A lot to be thankful for…

Almost a year ago, we decided that we were going to move to Sweden to pursue God’s calling on our lives. So we did: we stepped out in faith & 4 months ago, we arrived on Swedish soil.

Music

This week, we released our first single as Salt of the Sound, entitled It must be hope, which is also our first release since our debut album in November 2013.  We feel hugely blessed to have already received fantastic reviews, with Jesus Wired calling the song, ‘Evocative & Beautiful’.

We have also been working on a lot of brand new material, new sounds & ideas & will be bringing you an EP of all new material in late Summer 2014. All of our music is available on iTunes, Spotify & bandcamp.

Inspiration

We are also using the Salt of the Sound website to bring you the best that the Christian music scene has to offer, from Songs about Hope to a 90 minute Spotify playlist of meditative Christian music . In our latest post, we bring you The Best Worship Songs in 2014 – definitely worth checking out (if I do say so myself)!

Ministry

It has become so clear to me recently that God really does call us to where we need to be & we are excited to have recently joined the team at Immanuel International Church in Stockholm, to focus on their youth ministry program.  Even in the short time we have been here, it has become clear how blessed we are to be surrounded by such a welcoming & loving new church family here in Sweden, and for that, we are ever thankful.

The unknown

We are also thankful for this time in our lives.  Don’t get me wrong – I’m not saying everything has been rosy for us…moving countries is hard. Going from full-times jobs to working freelance & trusting that God will provide is hard.  Not being a native language speaker is hard. Knowing that family & friends are going through difficult times of illness, worry & loss, when you are a thousand miles away, is really hard.

But we are taking these new experiences & running with them. We don’t know exactly how our future looks right now. We don’t even know where we are going to live after July at the moment. But I’m not worried…

“Where God guides, He provides.”

Ok…so that’s easy to say & I don’t know where you are in your life journey, but if I’m completely honest, God’s provision has been overwhelming for us at times…and the mystery of not knowing where life will take us is an adventure in itself.

So right now?

I’m ok with not knowing.


Written by Anita on 8th May 2014 in Faith, Life, Music.
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Bonfire night in April? Welcome to Sweden!

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Last night (30th April), I experienced yet another Swedish tradition which I had no idea about. Valborg (pronounced Valbory) is essentially bonfire night with your local community & involves fireworks & even fire dancing!

A four & a half day weekend…

As Valborg fell on a Wednesday this year, people finished work at lunchtime & Thursday (May Day) is a bank holiday…& in true Swedish style, they see Friday as an in-between day (Klämdag – literally: s squeezed day), so they take the Friday off as well – what a good idea!

A bit of history about Valborg…

Dating back to the vikings, historically Valborg is derived from fertility celebrations that took place around the end of April, where the arrival of spring was celebrated with bonfires at night. Apparently, the fires were traditionally lit to scare off witches and evil spirits, as well as predators such as foxes before the livestock were let out to graze on May 1st. In the Middle Ages, the pagan Spring ritual became associated with Saint Walpurga who was declared a saint during this time of the year.

Valborg today…

Nowadays, however, I think that Swedes just relish any opportunity to celebrate the lighter evenings & enjoy Spring after a long winter. And I’m not going to say no to a free bonfire & fireworks…


Written by Anita on 1st May 2014 in Sweden.
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