Team Putte Wins!
The winner of this year’s Körslaget (Sweden’s version of “Clash of the Choirs”) was decided last Saturday night with Team Putte receiving the most votes. The Vetlanda-based choir led by Putte Nelsson won over the nationwide audience with a rousing performance and their sparkling personality. Their many hours of rehearsals and travel back and forth to Stockholm were rewarded with a prize of a half million Swedish kronor to be distributed to the charity of their choice.
If you are a regular reader of this blog, you will remember that the Team Putte choir visited Holsby a few weeks ago to rehearse their next performance and to film an introduction to the show. It gave Holsby some nation-wide exposure, for which we were very grateful. But, because of time constraints in the filming of the introduction, the choir was not able to go through the ropes course and the other adventure activities and initiatives. So, we are inviting the choir to come back in the spring as our guests when we re-open the ropes course. It will be a good opportunity to further connect with our community and our latest celebrity heroes!
Holsby 2012-13 Trailer
Here at Holsby we are into the fall season and we are also into the start of our 2012-13 Bible school year. Here is a quick preview of what we will be bringing to you this year during your visits to “Fika Time”—an enthusiastic group of 82 staff and students ready to discover more of what it means to be “strong and courageous” in Christ Jesus. Watch the trailer for the upcoming full-length feature of Holsby 2012-13!
Our Weakness into His Strength
At our recent Staff Prep Day for the 2012-13 Bible school year, I spoke to our staff about our weakness and God’s strength. Here is some of what I shared:
“For anyone who is in Christian service, the feeling of being overwhelmed, under qualified, unprepared or inexperienced is very familiar. In Tolkien’s “The Fellowship of the Ring,” Bilbo Baggins tells Gandalf, “I feel sort of thin, like butter scraped over too much toast.” I resemble that remark! And maybe some of you can identify with that feeling as well.
Weakness is not a feeling that I enjoy. And weakness in one area brings to light weaknesses in other areas. The butter Continue Reading →
Team Putte Update
On Saturday evening, staff and students watched the “Clash of the Choirs” Swedish TV show in the Holsby chapel – the same chapel where the “Team Putte” choir had practiced just a few days earlier.
On the nationally televised show, before each choir sings, they include a brief segment showing them practicing and doing some activity near their hometown. “Team Putte” chose Holsby for their activity and it resulted in some very good free advertising for us and a chance to partner with our local community.
Because of copyright considerations, we are unable to post a video of the TV show and the visit to Holsby. But I will try and describe the general content of the part that was filmed here at Holsby. It begins with Putte (the choir leader) saying: “We are here at the Torchbearers (Fackelbärarna) school just outside Vetlanda. Here you can take part in so many good group initiatives that are good for team building. Singing in a choir is a team sport, something you do together…” Then Putte climbs the Pamper Pole and catches the trapeze before being belayed down to his waiting choir.
The video also shows one of the choir members enjoying the giant swing after which she says, “This kind of activity is so much fun for the choir. To do something like this helps us get to know each other even better, and that is good…”
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Team Putte
Holsby was abuzz this week with two separate film crews scurrying around campus chronicling the visit of “Team Putte.” Choirs from seven cities around Sweden are competing in the annual nationally televised “Körslaget” (Clash of the Choirs), and one of the favorites to win the prize of best choir is from our own town of Vetlanda. The Vetlanda choir is led by Putte Nelsson, a well-known musician and TV personality, who grew up just a couple minutes from Holsby.
Staff Prep Day 2012
In anticipation of the 2012-13 school year, the Holsby staff met for our annual offsite preparation day. As if on cue, the rain clouds drifted away, the sun came out and we enjoyed a productive time of introductions, sharing of information and team-building initiatives.
Jonathan and Danny led us in the third annual “Holsby Challenge,” which pitted five-member teams of staff against each other in a hilarious and highly competitive battle of wits, creativity and trivia. Ironically, we who are responsible for enforcing rules among the student body spent more time arguing about the fairness of rules for the various events than the actual competition, or so it seemed. But it was all in fun Continue Reading →
Paths
I love paths! And pictures of them. Here at Holsby, we are well on our way to having a beautiful “path loop” going through our woods below the Chapel and near our community’s legendary well.
Lots of work has gone into this project. If one would only alone count the stones that have been both gathered Continue Reading →
German teen camp
Wow! It’s been busy these days around Holsby. German, German and more German =) We kicked off August with our two-week German teen camp, which was a big success.
Through it all – canoeing, a day at the water park, Bible teaching, singing around the campfire, the ropes course, loads of fun and much much more, Jesus changed people’s lives. Oftentimes, one of the difficulties Continue Reading →
Holsby Hospitality Team by Elke Bierau
When the pots and pans are cleaned,
dishes stacked, and tables set…
When the beds are made,
showers scrubbed,
and the bathrooms smell fresh…
When the flowers are watered,
and gardens weeded…
You know, the Hospitality Team has done their job!
More important, however, than what is visibly seen, is the heart behind the service we do. At the beginning of the summer, our team sat down to decide what our goal would be. Perhaps better put, our team values! Take a look at the slideshow and hopefully catch a glimpse of what our goal is!
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Summer and our maintenance team by Timo Gerle
Holsby is a beautiful place with charming historic buildings, majestic trees, well-kept lawns and flower gardens. It’s a lot of work to maintain the beauty of the campus, and we rely on the many volunteers who spend parts of the summer here, serving in different areas.
The summer weather usually enables us to work on various renovation or maintenance projects, and this summer is no different, with our maintenance team hard at work repairing, painting and rebuilding.
We are a team of six guys from four different countries. Two of our team are here for one year — one is finishing up his time and the other has just started. Three are here for the summer, Continue Reading →
