About meJesus is the most important person in my life. The rest follows from that.

I'm John. I build calm, useful things for the web from Sweden, mostly on my own: free Bibles, tools for anglers, and live data about the country I live in. This is a short account of how I got here.

The short version

From Bergsjön to the South Pacific, and home again

1970Gothenburg

I was born in Gothenburg and grew up in Bergsjön. My summers went to the bangolf course there: I watched it being built, played it for years, and in the end held the course record. Forty years later I rebuilt it from memory.

1990sCaretaker

For eight years I worked as a caretaker: plumbing, electrics, lawns and snow. In the evenings I read programming, just to learn more. I started university in mathematics and computer science, met the woman who became my wife, and left to provide for a family.

1996The web

I started my first web business, and I've been building for the web ever since. One of the things I built, GetAFreelancer.com, grew into a worldwide marketplace. It was sold in 2009 and became Freelancer.com.

2012A small farm

Sheep, firewood, and two fishing shops run from the farm: Jigg.se and Mormyska.se. Some of the mormyshkas I painted by hand, with superglow in the patterns people liked best, and those became the popular ones.

2015The South Pacific

Three years in Vanuatu and four in Tonga, with my family. The Bible apps began there in 2017. When the Hunga volcano cut Tonga off from the internet in 2022, the Tongan Bible kept working. The hard years in between are told in The quiet years.

2023Home

Back in Sweden, and building: 91 apps and 37 websites so far, 1,006,844 downloads, and most of it free.

What I believe

An account, not a sermon

I grew up in a Christian family and confessed Jesus as a child, then walked away as I got older. Later I came back, and this time I was seeking Him myself, not because of my parents' faith. That was about thirty years ago, and everything since has come out of it.

For twenty years I ran my own businesses. It took me a long time to hand all of it over: the plans, the control and, hardest of all, trusting Him for our daily needs. Since then I've tried to use what I know how to do for Him.

Then came the years in Tonga, when trusting Him for our daily needs was no longer a choice: we were thrown into it. Many of my apps went quiet in those years. You can read more about them in The quiet years.

People sometimes ask about my doctrine. I don't have one of my own. The Bible is my doctrine, and I believe it has to be lived, not only read or talked about.

“Our life is our ministry, and we would like to keep it that way.”

Always on time

Ten things I don't want to forget

I forget these things far too easily, so I've written a few of them down.

A bunch of bananas. A burst tyre. An old washing machine. One tube of baby cream. An envelope with no sender. An old T-shirt. A house for nothing. A twenty-paʻanga note. Two croissants. A bag of oranges.

↳point at one

They testify that He cares, and sees. Not always with thunder, but in the small things.

How I decide what to build

Can I, and should I

Whether I can build something is a technical question, and usually a quick one. Whether I should is a different question, and I take my time with it.

What comes out the other side tends to look the same: small, focused, honest about what it is, and out of your way. No ads, no tracking cookies, no sign-up to start.

The company behind the shops and the tools is called Tentmaker. Paul made tents for a living while he preached (Acts 18:3). I like that picture: honest work with your hands, so that what matters most can be given freely.

Family, and getting in touch

The people behind it

I'm a husband, and a father of many. My family has lived all of this with me, in Sweden, in Vanuatu and in Tonga.

I'm one person, so I can't always answer, but I read what comes in: [email protected].

The Bibles, the sermons and the other Christian apps stay free. If God has put it on your heart to give towards them, this is how.

In Christ,
John