History repeating itself

When LDC finished at the end of May, most of the delegates and staff headed home right away. With those who stayed in Spain a few extra days, we took a trip inland to El Chorro (Embalses del Guadalhorce) and enjoyed a relaxing afternoon swimming in the turquoise water of the lakes. Looking at this photo where I'm swimming with my friends' border collie, Brandy, I couldn't help being reminded of another summer's day, back in 2005: it was also right after a training school had ended and all the students had gone home, but on that day I was swimming with a different border collie - our little Zola down in Cape Town. You may have heard of "Dancing with Wolves." My version is, "Swimming with Collies." Sadly, Zola is no more; my friend in South Africa had to put her to sleep last year when her arthritis got unbearable.

Speaking of South Africa, It's weird to think that the Soccer World Cup begins today. More than a decade ago, I began praying and working towards a vision to see multiple teams of young people come to South Africa for outreach. When we heard a few years later that the World Cup Football would be held in our nation, we began to talk and pray about hosting teams in 2010. I never expected for a moment that I would no longer be in South Africa in 2010... but I'm encouraged that others took up the vision and many outreach teams (including a team from here in Spain) will be going there over the coming weeks.