No longer homeless

One of the first friends I made after moving to Spain last year was Ada - a Peruvian lady with a ten year old daughter. Ada used to share a flat with her sister, but this sister recently moved to live in Madrid. However, the lease on their flat here in Alhaurín continues until the end of March next year.

On Sunday evening after church, Ada came to me and asked if I would consider moving in with them to share their flat over the next six months. It would help her with her monthly rent payment, and it would give me a housing option that is possible with my current income. So I went to see the flat tonight and we decided that I would move in at the end of this month. Of course, this means that I'll be homeless again at the end of March, but perhaps there will be a better, longer-term option at that time.

Ten year old Gabriela has always wanted to have a cat, and so she's thrilled that I'll be moving in, at least for the first few months, with Tamba, Teddi and Tobi. She's also just begun to learn English at school, and so I'll be able to help her with her homework. Of course, living with Ada and Gabriela will no doubt also be very good for my Spanish, as it means I'll be surrounded by it every day.

Thank you so much to everyone who prayed for the "miracle" of finding a home within my budget. Your prayers have been answered and I have a new place to live - at least for the next six months. No doubt I'll be asking for your prayers again at that time... and knowing that God will once again have something new in store.

Finishing with fondue... and with thanksgiving

Swiss cheese fondue has been a favourite dish of mine since the first time I worked with a YWAM training school in Switzerland - way back in the early 1980s. So it was a special treat for me yesterday when we decided to have fondue as a typical Swiss meal to bring an end to these weeks of child and youth ministry school here. Our PCYM staff, students and families form a group of more than thirty people, so the dining room needed to be set up with many small tables, with a fondue set on each. Then, after our special Swiss meal, the "dessert" was made up of different kinds of sweets and specialities from all the nations that we come from. (I brought tablet and shortbread from Scotland, the Dutch brought liquorice and peppermints, the Swiss gave different kinds of chocolate, and there was also a variety of different sweets and chocolate from Germany, Finland, Sweden, Norway and Belgium.) It was a lot of fun.

When I've lived in other countries - like Scotland, South Africa and now in Spain - I've sometimes asked Swiss friends who came to visit me to bring a pack of ready-mixed cheese fondue with them, so that I could enjoy a taste of Switzerland there in that other country. I've never owned a proper fondue set, but have always "made do" with a saucepan or some other way of heating up the cheese. So it was a lovely surprise yesterday when we, the school leaders, were presented with a thank you gift for our work in organising and leading this course... and the gift included a genuine earthenware fondue set. I'm looking forward to being able to enjoy cheese fondue sometime when I'm back in Spain again.

And so our PCYM is coming to an end. We've been having a couple of days of "debriefing" and evaluation, when we can look back at the past nine months and be encouraged by hearing each other's testimonies of what we have learned and how we have grown in God. Yesterday we took time to pray for the different nations that the students are working in, and today we'll have a special time of commissioning and prayer for each individual student. We've also made kind of a "diploma" for each student and each of their children who have been part of the course since the beginning of the year, and we'll have a presentation of these certificates before finishing the day with a time of worship and thanksgiving to God. Our prayer is that these students can take the principles they have learned in PCYM, and apply them to make a difference in the lives of hundreds of young people and families in Europe and beyond.

Living a quiet life?

This morning in my quiet time, I was reading Paul's letter to the Thessalonians when I noticed the exhortation in chapter 4 verse 11: "Make it your aim to live a quiet life, to mind your own business and to earn your own living." Well, at first glimpse, this is totally not the life of a typical missionary. Often our life is anything but quiet as we travel from one location to another in order to reach people with the gospel and "make disciples of all nations." Far from minding our own business, we seek to influence and transform individuals, cities and even whole nations. And because many missionaries live by faith, rather than earning a salary, some people might think that we don't really "earn our own living." It would seem that we are not at all following these instructions from the Bible.

Of course, these words were originally written to the believers in Thessalonica, and I guess that they were addressing specific issues and problems among the young Christians in that city at the time. Perhaps they had lived wild and immoral lives; perhaps they had been known as gossips and busybodies. We know from another letter (2 Thess 3: 10 - 12) that some of those new believers were living lazy lives, expecting others to provide for them, and just spending their time meddling in other people's affairs.

However, the reason they were exhorted to live a "quiet" and godly life was "so that you will win the respect of those who are not believers, and you will not need to depend on anyone for what you need." (1 Thess 4: 12) Wherever we are and whatever our situation, this should still be our aim today - to live lives that are honouring to God and that are a testimony to others of His life-transforming power.

And for those of us whose income as missionaries is made up of financial gifts from others, it's also a reminder that we do not ultimately depend on people to meet our needs, but this generosity on the part of friends and supporters is ultimately our provision from our God and heavenly Father who promised to supply all our needs. I thank God regularly for the friends and family who stand with me in this way and are therefore such an important part of the things that God has called me to do as a missionary.

So, perhaps our life is not always "quiet," and perhaps we don't always "mind our own business," but let's pray that you and I will be diligent and fruitful in our mission of reaching others with the truth and love of God.