Cold Turkey!

A friend of mine (I won't disclose her identity here, but some of you may have already read this news on her Facebook) bought a baby turkey this week. I think the official plan is that he'll be fed and fattened up all year, and be ready for eating when Christmas time comes around. However, I secretly suspect that she bought him because she felt sorry for him. He (or she) was all alone and didn't have many feathers. So, because he's a little threadbare and the nights are still cold here in Spain, my friend has been giving this little half-bald turkey a hot water bottle to sleep with at night. Yes, it gives a whole new meaning to "cold turkey" !

I'm not convinced that she's going to be able to be nice to him all year and then slaughter him when it's time to think about Christmas dinner. However, another friend - on hearing my misgivings - said, "Why ever not? That's what Satan does to people all the time: he appears to be giving people a good life, but all the time he's really planning to destroy them in the end." (I hasten to clarify that he was not comparing my other friend with the devil!!)

Our little turkey friend hasn't been given a name yet. Maybe we should call him something like "Roast Dinner" so that he has no illusions about his destiny. (Of course, if he turns out to be female and produces eggs that are twice the size of hens' eggs, he - I mean she - may earn herself a different future.)

Standing on the Word

This weekend, when I was reading the Old Testament book of Ezra, I was struck by a short phrase that was repeated several times in chapter 7. It's said of Ezra that "the hand of God was with him" or "the gracious hand of the Lord was upon him." That maybe sounds sort of quaint or old-fashioned, but each time it's said, it's offered as an explanation of why Ezra was successful in what he did. I found myself praying that as a prayer for my own life: Lord, please let your hand be on me , so that I can live a life that bears good fruit for your kingdom.

Then I came to verse 10, and I recognised it as a verse that I had written down in my journal when I was sixteen or seventeen years old. It says that Ezra had devoted his life to studying God's Law, to applying it first in his own life, and then to teaching it to others. I remembered, as a teenager, telling the Lord that I wanted to adopt this verse as my personal life-philosophy and that I wanted always to live a life that was firmly grounded in His Word. Re-reading that verse this weekend, it struck me that Ezra's commitment to the Word was probably a big part of the reason why God's hand was on his life.

Several decades have passed since I first noticed this verse, and hopefully I have continued to grow and mature in understanding God's Word and putting it into practice. I'm also thankful for the many times I have had the privilege of teaching the Bible to others, both young and old. (This week, for example, I'm teaching in a discipleship training school here in Spain; teaching about what it means to have a "worldview" that is based in Biblical truth.)

My prayer is that - like Ezra - I'll always be faithful not only to study and teach His Word, but also to stand firmly upon it and apply it daily in my own life.

New experiences...

Well, just like the title of this blog, I'm now back in Europe again. At the time of writing, I've been up for around 36 hours, but I'm forcing myself to stay awake until this evening, so that I can avoid getting jet lag. Yesterday seemed like a long day because we had to leave the hotel so early and had a wait of more than seven hours at Sao Paulo airport. I was with a group of friends from Switzerland, England and Paraguay, who all had children with them, so we had to find creative ways of keeping these younger ones entertained throughout the day. Someone switched on their computer to show some videos for a while, and we were quite a crowd watching cartoons in the departure lounge.

I had some work to do in preparation for the leadership development course that begins in just a few weeks time, so at one point I switched on my computer and found a nearby spot to sit and do some work. Ten year old Jordan came up to me and told me that I "looked like an angel," and when I asked why, he told me that my computer was so shiny and my face was so white against the backdrop of the "big brown nudes." I turned around and found that I had set up office in front of a huge bronze statue representing motherhood and multiplication (or something like that.) Hopefully this is prophetic of good things that God plans to do in our midst during this year's LDC.

With the King's Kids ILA behind us now, there are a number of new experiences that remain in my memory from this time in Brazil. Two of these were new taste experiences: I tried, and enjoyed, eating sweetcorn ice cream. (Yes, real sweetcorn! It was yellow ice cream with the texture of liquidised corn kernels.) It might sound disgusting to you, but it turned out to be surprisingly good. I've always enjoyed sweetcorn as a vegetable, and now I can enjoy it as ice cream too. I also noticed lots of Brazilians drinking a green coloured juice, and when I enquired what it was, they told me that it was pineapple with mint. This too sounded rather a strange combination, but when I tasted it I found it to be delicious and I'll definitely be trying it out this summer in Spain.

Perhaps my strangest new experience during the ILA was the fact that I found myself, for the first time in decades, representing Europe instead of being there as a representative of the KKI ministry in Africa. This felt very strange indeed, especially when we had a night where the Africans were inviting the rest of the world to come and partner with them in reaching their continent. Some of the Africans expected that I would be part of their group for that, and it felt strange to remind them that I no longer live in Africa (even though my heart is still very much there) but am back in Europe now.

Some years ago, I realised that I had flown into Cape Town airport more than into any other airport in the world (nearly 50 times in total.) With all my PCYM travels last year, I'm now beginning to get used to flying into Málaga airport instead. (This morning was my 13th time.) But another new experience awaited me when I got back to Málaga today. After years of building, the new airport had finally opened while I was gone. Instead of arriving in our usual, slightly old fashioned airport, I found myself in a huge, spacious terminal - just like the large modern airports in Madrid and Barcelona. Seems like they're still sorting out the logistics of it, though: the friend who picked me up from the airport found that there was no way for cars to get to the arrivals area, and I had to meet him at the departures instead. We've decided we'd better make a visit to the new airport next week and familiarise ourselves with it before we have to pick up nearly forty people who'll be arriving next month for LDC.

The Exodus begins

Our ILA finished last night and now the mass departures have begun. Transporting more than 300 people to the airport (it's more than a 2-hour drive from Caraguatatuba to Sao Paulo) is quite an undertaking, so a large group of us will be leaving on the 8 am bus this morning.... even though some of us are only flying at 5 pm. As we return to where we came from (more than 40 nations) we have been challenged to lay a strong emphasis on prayer, and to continue with a daily lifestyle of "generations living the kingdom of God."

Drop me a line and let me know if you manage to spot me in the group photo above!!

Living the Kingdom

Our international leadership assembly got off to a good start on Friday, and we're now almost half way through our time together. The theme of the ILA is about linking the generations and together living out the kingdom of God in our daily lives. So, on Saturday we looked at what it means to live the kingdom of God as an individual, yesterday we considered how we can live for God as a whole family, and today we talked about how individuals and families can live the kingdom of God in the context of their local church fellowship. Tomorrow's theme is about how we can be a demonstration of God's kingdom in our own town or neighbourhood, and on Wednesday we'll be thinking about what it means to reach out and take the kingdom of God to the nations.

One of the fun aspects of the conference for me has been the opportunity to reconnect with different ethnic groups and language groups that I've worked with in the past. One day I was invited to join the Africans as they gathered together; another day I was invited to join a meeting of all the French speakers from around the world. One morning I translated the plenary speaker (from French to English) and one evening I translated someone leading a prayer time (from Spanish to English.) It's also been fun to join in worship together with different cultures from around the world - sometimes with the Brazilians leading us in Portuguese worship songs, and sometimes with the Africans leading us in enthusiastic and energetic dance.

As well as worshipping together, praying together, and listening to the words that different speakers have prepared, we've also had lots of time to process and apply these things in smaller groups, and to take part in a wide variety of workshops on different topics relating to the overall theme. There's a sense that God is moving among us, and we look forward to walking even further in this journey over the coming days.

Big changes

The weather continues to be warm here in Caraguatatuba - close to 30 degrees most days - which is a nice change from winter in Europe. Last night, we went out as a group - the international leadership team, and some of our Brazilian hosts - for a meal in a restaurant near the beach. This was an opportunity for some new taste experiences, as I sampled some fruit juices that I'd never heard of before. The pictures below show four of the juices we tried. (From left to right, they are caju, acerola, mamao and pitanga.)

The weather and the fruit juices haven't been the only big changes we've experienced this week; we've also been processing quite a lot of leadership changes in our KKI international ministry family. The regional leader for South Asia is stepping down from that role, and handing over to other leaders within the region. The regional leaders for Eastern Europe are stepping down due to illness in the family and are processing the leadership transition there. I was another of the resignations this week, as I shared my decision to lay down my role as regional advisor for southern and south central Africa - something I've been involved in for the past sixteen years. The regional director for Western Europe is also stepping down this year, and those of you who read my regular newsletter know that I am part of the new European leadership team that will be working together to fill his shoes over the coming years. We took time this week to honour and thank the leaders who are stepping down, and to pray over the new leadership appointments that are being made now and in the year ahead.

We've also been working on the final preparations for the ILA conference, and people have already begun arriving from all over the world. The arrivals will continue over the next twenty four hours and the conference itself will begin tomorrow evening. More about that in my next posting....

Take me too

When I had dogs, I got used to the idea that they had sort of a "sixth sense" and somehow always seemed to know when I was planning a trip away from home. Even before I got my suitcase out, one or both of the dogs would be hovering in my room.... and once I started packing, Zola or Kylie would climb onto the bed and lie down next to the case.

I didn't expect the same thing with cats, so I was surprised this past weekend when all three of them appeared in my room and watched with interest as I put items of clothing into my suitcase. At one point, I turned around and found Tobi lying inside the case, amongst all the other things that I was packing to take with me. The rain was pouring down outside, and the cats had wet fur, so I closed the case to keep them out. This did not prevent Tobi and Teddi from taking up position on top of the case and continuing to stare as I added more items to my luggage. Well, it may be true that they have passports now (see here) but this wasn't the time for them to begin their world travels; they had to stay behind with Gabriela and Ada when I left on Sunday morning for my trip to Brazil.

The warm sunny weather here in Caraguatatuba (29 degrees this week) was a pleasant respite from the many weeks of rain that we've been having in Spain, and yesterday I took the opportunity to walk down to the sea with some friends from East and West Africa. Our leadership meetings began last night, though, and sitting in a cool, air-conditioned room all day means that we're not really conscious of how warm and sunny it is outdoors. Our schedule is fairly intense, because we have a number of leadership issues we want to pray about and make decisions on this week, before our international conference begins at the weekend. We're about twenty people in these ILT meetings, but we'll be a group of around 200 people next week, and as many as 400 people this weekend, when a large number of Brazilians join us for the opening two days of the conference. Thanks for remembering us in prayer as we seek the Lord and spend time in discussion and prayer this week.

Two weeks in South America

I'm off to Brazil this weekend, where I'll be spending nearly two weeks in the coastal town of Caraguatatuba, a couple of hours away from Brazil's largest city, Sao Paulo. During the first week, I'll be involved in meetings with the King's Kids ILT (international leadership team) and during the second week we'll be hosting nearly two hundred people from around the world for our international staff and leadership assembly. Thanks for your prayers during this time.

Surprise!

The balloons around the house were not the only surprise awaiting Ada for her birthday yesterday. When she went to the bathroom to clean her teeth, there was a dark handsome guy waiting for her there! (Ada's words.) I didn't know what to think when I heard that she had been kissing someone in the bathroom! The truth of the matter - as the photos show - is that Teddi had decided to take a nap in the wash basin, and Ada was highly amused to find him there.

Another birthday

It's birthday time again. Last week was the kittens' birthday, and today - which also happens to be my brother's birthday - is Ada's thirtieth. Gabriela and I surprised her by decorating the house with balloons before breakfast time, then waking her up with coffee, birthday presents and a rousing chorus of "Cumpleaños Feliz." Tonight we're going out to eat a meal with friends at their home.