As you might have noticed, I dont write that often anymore. So I decided to give Twitter a fair try. Since I always carry my iPhone with me, I can keep whomever's interested updated when I feel like it. Instead of having to dedicate a good 30 minutes for a serious post here. I will keep making entries such as my last one here, but only like once a week at tops.

So, go to http://twitter.com/josefredeen and follow my adventures there! I don't really have any followers as of now, but who cares. :D It's all just for fun anyway!

 

Big Exoday 09, what does that mean you might say. For starters, watch this teaser:

 

So there you have it. Just about 12,000 people attended, mostly teenagers, and it was amazing. It's a once a year event organized by Youth Alive, and I volunteered.
I was put on the production team along with Robert and Alex. I never fully understood our role throughout the day, only that I got a walkie talkie and that my Production "passport" got me backstage and anywhere I wanted to go. In short, I was blessed.
Got up at 6 AM that morning, and got back home at around 1.30 the next day. It was a long day.
The gates opened at 12, and with them the activities started.

I filmed this with my iPhone:

That's Steve Caballero. If you played the first Tony Hawk pro skater games on your ps, you might remember him as one of the playable characters there. Apparantly, he became a christian a couple of years ago. So he did some skating and shared his testimony later on that day.
Other activities uncluded: wakeboarding, FMX, BMX and snowboarding.

There were five stages during the day as well: pop/rock, hip hop, hardcore/metal, indie and the main one which was reserved for Hillson United, Reggie Dabbs and Relient K.

This is the main stage, before and during the evening concert:

With the production pass I was able to get into the guest lounge a.k.a the VIP section for the concert, which was awesome. All the pastors from Hillsong were there and I got my nose brown with all of them. Haha!

Your name high, Hillsong Uniteds first song. Sorry for the horrible sound and video quality. But believe me when I say that is was an AMAZING experience to be there. Even more so to be part of the team behind the event and help out.
After United did their thing, Scott 'Sanga' Samways and Reggie Dabbs took over. Reggie preached a phenomenal message and about a 1000 kids answered their altar call and gave their lives to Jesus. And I tell you the truth, I'm gonna remember that sight for the rest of my life. Can you imagine a croud of that size, and seeing so many people just completely dedicating themselves? I can't give justice to that in words.

Relient K was... meh. Not my cup of tea, but 12,000 people said otherwise, so I enjoyed their show as much as I could. The concert ended at 9 pm, but the day wasn't over. Us volunteers had to clean the place up and do some stuff, so as I said, it was a long day. But I thank God for it.


This is some insight that has come to me lately, read it if you want to, but I must warn you... It doesn't always make sense:

*When you sacrifice everything, God will reveal himself in a whole new way. Also, then you can state "everything I recieve from here on is a blessing"

*The way you treat people, is the same way you treat God. The Bible says that your relationship with God is only as good as the relationship you have with your most hated enemy

*The way you live internal, you must also live as external

*Take into concideration what the words in a good worship song means, and the words that you sing

*How do I live my life? Where are my priorities? Career, school, money, friends, God, house, future?... Past?

*ALWAYS bring your Bible and notebook to a cermon. The Bible is your sword, and how can you fight your battle without a sword?

*A testimony will never save someone right away. What it does is that it gives hope and encouragement

*There's people EVERYWHERE, just waiting for you to rise up and tell them your secret. Because there is SOMETHING about you

*There is always opportunity, we just have to acknowledge and grasp them

*If you ask for provision, why doesn't God just put 5000$ under your pillow right away? Because he is building and shaping your character, and we tend to forget that

*When life is hard, we have to remember ourselves about what Jesus really did. Read: Colossians 1:15-



Other than that... Church is awesome. And I'm gonna let you guys in on a secret, Hillsong United will record a new album in november. I've already heard some songs, and believe me when I say that this is gonna be the best album EVER!!! I'm so gonna be at Acer Arena when they do the recording.

Hm, what else is new...
Some of you might have heard about the I Heart Revolution. It's gonna air very soon, all over the world. 500 cinemas alone in USA will show it.

Here's a teaser:

If you look at their webpage, you might understand more of the concept. But it's basically people who's tired of sitting still doing nothing, and instead taking action towards the unjustice of this world. I STRONGLY encourage you ALL to go and see the movie when its out.

That's it for now. I gotta say, I dont really miss Sweden.. Except for my friends and family and Hannah of course. But I can't WAIT to get out there and preach. This is my calling. I'm looking forward to some interesting times ahead of me.

Over 'n out

Hi Josef,

Have you ever noticed the feeling you have when you invite someone to join you at a café or restaurant and then the feeling you have inviting someone to dinner at YOUR place?

They are completely different, even though when it comes down to it, you are doing the EXACT same thing... Eating. So why do we experience different feelings? Well one of the experiences is OUR world, it's OUR life and ultimately WE are responsible for the whole experience. So we clean, fold and put away clothes and find an easy but great recipe and make sure we present the finest.

Powerhouse Central is not like some café, where we serve up yesterday's leftovers, cooked according to the tradition of "a la microwave". We meticulously look at the program, we comb through all the details and aim to present an experience that we believe ANYONE would be able to enjoy, relate to and want to come back again for. We work hard at creating an environment that is easy to bring a friend to or have such a culture that if you haven't brought a friend, it is easy to make a friend.

From 5pm we have the internet café with Gloria Jean's coffees available and free Wi-Fi going. This is a perfect place for students to come and finish up assignments, write emails or just catch up with friends.

From 6pm the Powerhouse Diner heats up and besides serving great food for those who come straight from work, this is a perfect meeting point for any visitors and a great place to make new friends around the table.

At 7.45 Powerhouse Central begins and tomorrow is another night not to be missed as we have week 2 of "Jesus = LIFE". We conclude at 9.15... I hope that you take as much pride in our youth ministry as myself and that you can say to your friends,

"Welcome to MY Youth Ministry".

Hope to see you tomorrow,
Thomas

This blog is turning into a twitter... I feel like I might be going there instead. Because I keep getting these thaughts and insights all the time, but I dont think they're enough for a post. Again, they're like tweets.
So anyway, I'm gonna shorten my posts down a bit and do more photos and stuff instead.

Fathers day present to all men at sunday night service, my current haircut with a smile

Went to the city yesterday, and again today. Darling Harbour... Gotta love it.

Now I'm doing last minute assesments with Robert. It's due tomorrow... Typical.

Fathers day in Australia. I just wanna say, I have the best dad in the whole world.

That's right!

I've decided to start a social kind of group for students here at Hillsong College. It's for guys only, and we call ourselves chest hair (temporarily anyways).

Our purpose is to just get together and hang out. Discuss different topics such as:

- Jesus
- Alcohol/drugs/smoking
- Relationships
- Sexuality
- Women
- Temptations
- Everyday life

I felt that we, as christians, tend to act like these matters dont affect us. But they so do. There hasn't really been time to go as deep into these subjects as I would like to at my connectgroups in the past. So I just decided to take matters into own hands and start this group.
At first, it was only for my tutorial. The guys thought it was an awesome idea, and with some help from Kurt and Sam we soon came up with the basics.
Then the rumour started going about the group, and due to popular demand it is now open for anyone (male).

Seeing as many of us are from overseas, it can be hard to share yourself if you dont feel comfortable with the people around you. Again, our main purpose is just to be there for people and just being as humble as we can be.

We havn't had our first meeting yet, but as of now we're about 20 people in the group. So at the meeting which is gonna be next week, we'll have to decide if we are to devide the group into smaller groups and state some guidelines and visions.

I'm really looking forward to this. I see so much potential in this type of group. I pray that God will guide and use us. Also this is quite a challenge to get everything going, so hopefully it'll make me grow as a leader which is why I'm here in the first place.

Hillsong rules!

Yesterday I played soccer for the first time in ages... And today, my feet are KILLING me! Totally worth it though. It's good fun and exercise. After school we went to Dans' place and played FIFA 09 for like 5 hours straight.
I'm heaps good at computer games, but I've never really played TV games, and especially not sport games. I wanna kill and shoot at stuff, give me a mouse and a keyboard and I'll take anyone to school. Still, somehow I think it's fun to look at others playing NHL or FIFA.

 

 

The chefs and the rest of the staff were looking at me and kinda laughing, probably wondering if I was gonna be able to eat it all or not. But rest assured, I was victorious! I didn't leave anything to go to waste.

It sure was spicy, but I've still had hotter food before. Takes me back to a certain Lamb Vindaloo at Australia's best Indian restaurant... All in all it was one of the best meals I've had since I got here. Korean food is underestimated.

Today I've been doing the walls as usual on fridays. Then me, Sam and Morgan went to Maccas (that's what they call McDonalds down here, and I'm picking up on it) and now I'm just lying in my bed, chatting with friends and loving my iPhone.

I'm gonna write one more post tonight, because it's too important to merge with this one... Just so you know.

I wish all of my posts would have some deep insight to them. But I just dont have enough time for some reason...

Got up at 7.44 this morning, school at 9, finished at 17.30, went straight to Powerhouse to serve, got home at 22. Long day and I'm exhausted. But it's also been one of the most informative days so far. The classes today were phenomenal. We talked about the persecution of christians and martyrs. If you guys dont know who Polycarp was, google him. Now.

I'm growing in myself every day. My leadership is evolving and I can sense God working in me. It's a great feeling.

I feel like I could call this place home now.

Yesterday was a good day. Me and Sam did our assessment on Islam at Gloria Jeans. Then I met up with Johanna, Tim, Hanna, Ricky, Kellie and some other girl... Forgot her name. I'm TERRIBLE with names. They just go in one ear, and exit thru the other. This gets me into awkward situations from time to time... Embarassing. It's my curse.

Anyway, at Gloria Jeans I discovered a new drink. It's called "Very Vanilla Chiller"



It's a cold espresso with vanilla flavour and extra milk. I bet they get a lot of these in heaven...

Our trip started in Rouse Hill. It's a huge shopping mall (both inside and outside) with a lot of resturants as well. We ate thaifood and I bought three new tshirts.





Then we went on to see The Ugly Truth at the cinemas. It gave me some cheap laughs but it was predictable and boring in essence. I'd prefer watching Inglorious Basterds instead. But the majority of our company disagreed. Guess I'll be going to the movies on tuesday as well (50% for students).

Later I got home, me and Robert went for some pizza, then we did som ripstick (google it) and just had a good time.  Talked to Hannah for a couple of hours before I went to sleep at 3 AM. Yesterday was a good day.

Church today! Sunday Night Live! I love those meetings. You ALWAYS get some kind of insight or revelation, God is just amazing.

On another note. I got an email from Simon and Suss from Sweden, they're landing in Sydney on tuesday and wanted to get together. Good times.

Blessings!

My mother just turned 50. Big gratz to her! I got all the pictures today from the party and some other occations. Dare I say that I got my first glimps of homesickness? But then I just reminded myself that everything has it's time, and I'm in a good place here in Australia.

The most beautiful girl in the world. Can't wait to see her again...

John, Joey, Junior, Jake, Dave, Alex, Robert, Will, Jeff, Eric, Tim

Me and Robert decided to make the best out of the saturday and took his car to Bondi.
We were walking on the sidewalk, passing by some guys sitting on a couple of chairs and drinking beer. I, as a dog lover, found it hard to resist their jack russell and asked if I could play with it. So we started playing with the dogs (there was three) and talking to their owners and turns out they live in the house right next to where we're standing.
Not that hard to figure out since they're sitting in chairs on the sidewalk tho...
Anyway, we chatted with these guys for a couple of hours while time flew by. They invited us to come to their place and watch the rugby game with them. New Zeeland was facing Australia, this only happens once a year and it's a major event obviously. I've never watched a rugbygame before, but I liked it. Way faster and tougher than american... "football". They gave us food and drinks, bunch of awesome guys. I love the laid backness that is Bondi, if I ever were to live in Sydney for anything else than college, it would deffinitely be in Bondi.
When the hour was getting late, we were thinking about getting home, but they offered us to stay at their place over the night. With slight hesitation we accepted the offer, and slept with one eye open on their couches.

We had no reason to be worried. They were extremely friendly and before we took of the next day we promised to come visit them again whenever we're in Bondi.

I know this story is poorly written, it's 9 in the morning and I'm sick... again. Fever and a soar throat. Sucks.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112088587

At least they're thinking about the addicts. I mean, an addict is mentaly ill and needs all help he/she can get, but throwing them in prison for small amounts of drugs teaches them violence as well. And we dont need that. Poor guys...

I wonder how this turns out.