Our Life in Sweden

Jonathan & Sofia Morgan

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Author: Jonathan (page 3 of 14)

Why we’re moving to Jordan (and how you can be involved)

For a summary of this post, check out this video we made.

We’ve had refugees on our hearts for a long time.

When we lived in Sweden, we chose to live in Rosengård, a community mainly comprised of people from North Africa and the Middle East. We loved the variety of people we came across and the warm hospitality of each culture.

During our time working in Cape Town, we’ve gravitated towards refugees, befriending Somalians, Zimbabweans and Malawians in the township where we worked.
As these friends shared their struggles with us, we got to see life from their perspective. We got to see what it’s like to live on the margins of society and to feel that your voice isn’t heard.

This stirred up something inside us. Over time we grew passionate about standing alongside asylum seekers and refugees in the midst of the many challenges they face.

 

 

So when the war in Syria began, with millions of people becoming refugees, we started looking for a way to get involved with those who have been displaced.

 

At the moment, 9,500 people a day are leaving their homes in search of somewhere safer, somewhere free of gunshots and mortar bombs.

In October we took a trip to the Middle East to spend time with some of these families and to find out what opportunities there are.

We sat and drank tea and heard tragic stories of loss, death, and destitution.

We experienced the warm hospitality and quiet dignity of these people.

At the moment there’s a great need for relief, with essentials like food, shelter and heat. The children are bored and eager for games and spaces to play.

In the long run the need will shift towards development.

We’ve decided that this is a group of people that we want to work with for the foreseeable future.

While we were there, we realised that to be of any real use in this region, and with these people we will need to learn Arabic.

Nelson Mandela said:

If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head.
If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.

We’ve seen the importance of communicating in peoples’ heart languages while working in the townships of South Africa and know that it’s essential if you want to be effective in grassroots community development.

ArabicAlphabet

So in August we will begin 2 years of Arabic study.

Our studies will be full time and immersive, combining classroom learning with home visits. This is the best way to learn a language like Arabic, which is considered the 2nd hardest language in the world.

Our goal is to be able to have deep conversations, to counsel and even read and write in Arabic.

Jonathan will have to stop developing websites for the first two years, an income we have relied on for our living costs up until now. This is why we’re launching our fundraising campaign today.

Once we’re finished studying, we will use our newly acquired language skills to continue working with people from this region.

sofia-refugee-girls

Here are 3 ways you can be involved in our new adventure:

  1. Join our prayer team and pray for us every week by clicking here
  2. Give to us financially, on a monthly or one-off basis
  3. Share our GoFundMe campaign on Facebook and/or Twitter (click here)

Please don’t hesitate to email us if you have any questions.

Click Here To See Our Campaign

The Three Loves

IMG_0571One of the ways that we measure if our community is being all it can be is to look at it alongside what we call The Three Loves:

  • Loving God
  • Loving each other
  • Loving the world

Sometimes a community of faith majors on one or two of these loves, and not all three. Here’s what happens if you leave out one:

Leave out Loving Each Other

We’ve had times in our community where we are really focussed on loving the world and loving God, but barely giving our community life any attention at all. Our relationships become shallow and collegial, rather than those of a loving family.

Leave out Loving The World

Other communities I know are great at loving God and loving each other, but they don’t want to go anywhere near the world. Some are afraid of the world and what it might do to them! When this happens, we open up the door to becoming super spiritual and inward. A church that doesn’t have an outward focus will soon be overrun with politics and infighting.

Leave out Loving God

Finally, some communities neglect the loving God part of the equation. They have great friendships and they serve the community around them energetically, but all their energy and vision comes from within themselves. Operating like this encourages burnout and spiritual shallowness.

At regular intervals we ask ourselves “how are we doing?” in relation to The Three Loves, to try and ensure that we don’t lose balance.

How’s your community doing? Have you experienced times when one of the Loves has been left out? What happened?

Today we are 4!

It’s our anniversary! I’ve had the pleasure of being married to this beautiful, inspiring woman for the past 4 years! I’m so thankful that we get to adventure together and see each other grow.

Focus on your strengths

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Often in the workplace or in everyday life we find ourselves focusing on our weaknesses and trying to improve on what we’re bad at. This can be frustrating and can leave us feeling defeated.

Stina & Sofia Strengths foto

About 30 years ago, a movement began that would challenge this approach to life. It’s known as “positive psychology”, and is based on extensive research that found that people who focus on growing what they’re already good at become masterful at those things.

A year ago, Sofia and I took Gallup’s StrengthsFinder test, received some coaching, and through it learned a lot about ourselves and what makes each other tick. We’ve begun finding small ways to focus on what we’re good at, what gives us life, rather than just trying to get better at things we’re not good at.

And now we’re becoming coaches

Fast forward to two months ago and we’ve begun training as Strengths Coaches!
We’re learning how to use the StrengthsFinder tool to help other people live lives that are built around what they’re already inclined to be good at.

We’re both very excited about it. We are taught via Webinar on Tuesday evenings, and have already had the pleasure of starting the coaching process with a couple of people!

Are you interested in finding out your strengths, and having us coach you? Shoot us an email to find out more.

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Både i arbetslivet och privat fokuserar vi ofta på våra svagheter. Man ska känna till sina svagheter och jobba med dem. Problemet är bara att detta kan i längden bli riktigt frustrerande och göra en nedslagen då man inte ser så stor förändring.

Stina & Sofia Strengths foto

För cirka 30 år sedan startade en rörelse försökte utmana detta perspektiv och lyfta fram ett annat. Rörelsen kallas positiv psykologi och har genom omfattande forskning inom området kommit fram till att de personer som fokuserar på sådant de redan är bra på och har naturlig talang för, snabbt växer sig ännu starkare inom dessa områden.

För ungefär ett år sedan gjorde jag och Jonathan Gallup’s StrengthsFinder Test, fick coaching och lärde oss en hel del nytt om oss själva och fick upp ögonen för vad vi har ‘naturlig talang’ för. Sedan dess har vi försökt lära oss att göra mer av de saker som faller sig naturligt för oss, det som vi tycker om att göra och som ger oss energi, istället för att enbart fokusera på att förbättra svagheter.

Och nu ska vi bli coacher!

Efter att ha blivit coachad fick vi sk blodad tand och för cirka två månader sedan påbörjade vi en utbildning via Gallup för att bli sk Strengths Coaches!  Varje tisdag kväll har vi distans föreläsning eller sk ‘webinar’, där vi får lära oss om hur man använder StrengthsFinder testet som ett verktyg till att hjälpa andra se vad de redan har talang för att bli riktigt bra på.

Vi tycker båda att detta är riktigt kul och spännande och har redan haft förmånen att få övnings-coacha ett par vänner och bekanta.

Är du intresserad av att få veta vilka dina styrkor är och bli coachad av oss? I så fall får du gärna maila oss för mer information.

(Här hittade jag också en intressant blogg på som beskriver mer om testet på svenska.)

 

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Practicing Thankfulness

Can I tell you a secret?

For much of my adult life I’ve found it hard to feel content. I’ve lived in enough places and been involved with enough different things to know that it wasn’t my environment that was making me feel this way.

It was about me.

I was someone who couldn’t enjoy the moment, I couldn’t appreciate what was around me, even when those things were beautiful and exciting.

Early last year, Sofia read a book called One Thousand Gifts, which is about practicing thankfulness, and how it can make us more settled, happier people. As she told me about the book, I realised that this might be my opportunity to get out of this rut.

Each morning I began listing a couple of things I was thankful for, and would then thank God for those things. At first it felt a little contrived, having such predictable mornings, but I soon began seeing the benefits…

I noticed that when I was in conversations with people I would recognise the positive things they said more. I found that where I used to be drawn to worry, or criticism, I would see beauty. It has become easier to offer words of encouragement.

Because I’m noticing what I have, rather than focussing on what I don’t, I’m not comparing myself with people as much as I used to.

Have you tried practicing thankfulness? How has it affected you?

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