More fellowship

One of my first friends in Germany was Hans-Werner Scharnowski who produced the Joybells -Live in Germany CD together ith me in the 90's. Yesterday we had some fellowship with his church choir, Living Gospel, and Praise Unit did our little acoustic thing for the people who came to enjoy the evening in Lüdenscheid. We had a great time (as we seem to always have on this tour) and again we were very well taken care of and we enjoyed listening to Living Gospel, who had a very good mixture of songs for the evening.

Hansi reminded me about the days when I had long hair, which I had when I started directing Joybells. I don't know how many german gospel singers actually remember me in long hair.

Well, just a few minutes until concert in Langenberg. Better get dressed...

Whose is the little dog?

Our tenor Jakob is not only a good singer, he's also good with animals. He brought his own pet on the tour...or wait, is it really his?!

Goodnight

In Minden and now about to sleep. Tired but happy after a long day with bustravelling, unplugged fellowship night and dinner with new Mindenfriends!

See you in Ludensheid!

Goodnight!
/Josefine

Unplugged fellowship

On this tour we make two stops where we have not announced concerts, but "unplugged fellowship". Many people ask questions about what that is, and we have not really been sure about what we really mean. But the important thing for this fellowship was to have a relaxed evening with some friends, without soundchecks, without setlists, without wardrobe preparations and so on. Just plain jamming and fellowship with whoever wanted to join us.

We did the first unplugged fellowship tonight in Minden together with the choir E-fun-gelium, and my old friend Detlef, whom I also call Mr Amigo, because of the Amigo festivals he has organized very successfully.

The evening was great! We just enjoyed the music, each others company and the presence of the Lord. Afterwards we had a great meal together with E-fun-gelium. Another good thing is that tonight we can actually sleep a little longer. It's been on our wishing list!

Black bags

Forgot one thing:

Black bags!

Sofia can tell you more about that! ;)
/Kristoffer

Back on the wrong bus

Wrote this earlier today:
Back on the bus again. This time it very much feels like the wrong one, though. 

The concert in Lübeck last night was my last gig on this tour, and the bus I'm now sitting on is taking me to Hamburg Airport. I'm going back to Stockholm to lead my fifth graders in Lucia concerts on thursday. A fun thing to do, no doubt! But leaving Praise Unit after three days during a tour in Germany is like leaving a football game with Zlatan Ibrahimovic on the pitch after 20 minutes: you can be sure you're going to miss out on spectacular things.

Although this tour was a short one, I will bring a lot of memories back with me, as always after touring in Germany. Here's a few:

-The louzy start! On the morning of our depature from Stockholm, my alarm clock never went off. Instead I got a wake up call from Josefin, seven minutes before we were supposed to leave (seven o'clock in the morning). I threw myself and my bag in a cab, and arrived to the bus 20 minutes past seven. I have never overslept like that before, and - trust me - I will never again!

-The snow! Snow storm in northern Germany. Snow in Vellmar. Constant snowing in Lübeck. Is this how winters in Germany usually turns out, I'm going to spend my winters here from now on!

-The incredible warmth and hospitality that meets us in every place we sing. I have no doubt that it will continue in the same way for the rest of the gang throughout the tour.

-Batman vs Bane. During our tours in Germany, I have been responssible for bringing movies to watch in the bus. This time I brought Christopher Nolan's Batman-trilogy. We had a lot of fun trying to imitate the voices of Batman and Bane (the bad guy from The Dark Knight Rises). Closest to the originals was clearly Jacob A, even if Joakim had a different opinion on the matter.

I now feel confident that Jacob W and Kristian will do nothing else but a great job picking out the movies to watch for the rest of the tour! 

It feels sad leaving the group already, when the fun just had begun, but on the other hand I'm glad it worked out so I could come along at all.

Auf wiedersehen, Deutschland! Frohe Weinatchten und eines gutes neues Jahr!

And good luck, Joakim, witch the percussion playing. ;)

/Kristoffer 

aka Backslick Praise

The world and the cafe

We have a peaceful walk through the Christmas market of Lübeck. The others are taking pictures and shopping bratwurst, but I needed to make bank business so I stopped at a cafe with wifi. It's good that you can reach the whole world from a little phone while you are drinking a cup of coffee and watching the snow fall outside.