Climbing to Cordoba... and coasting home

As the countdown begins for the coaching seminar and leadership development course, I've faced an unforeseen challenge this week in the area of communi-cation with the many people who are making their way to Spain for these two events. You may have seen on TV that there have been "outages" with some of the larger email service providers... and I've unfortunately been one of the millions who've been able to receive emails but totally unable to send any for the past week. I'm praying that the problem will be resolved soon, as this is an important time for me to be able to communi-cate with the eighty or so people who'll be arriving here over the next couple of weeks. Yesterday, however, Jacqui and I did take advantage of our last "break" day to take a trip to the city of Córdoba. It's a two hour drive at the best of times but, with much of it being uphill, my little car sometimes couldn't get above 60 kph on the motorway, and we had to laugh when we found ourselves needing to use the "slow lane" that is normally designated for 18-wheeler trucks! We had a lovely time there, though, and thoroughly enjoyed wandering round the narrow streets and floral patios of the old town, as well as visiting the famous "mosque" (which is now the catherdral), the old roman bridge and the alcazaba fortress. Our homeward journey included more downhill stretches than uphill ones, and so we felt like we were cruising home to Alhaurin again.
We have a ladies retreat at Villa Rehoboth today, and people have also already begun arriving for the coaching seminar which begins on Monday. So we're also busy with lots of trips to the airport this weekend. The coaching seminar lasts for a week and then, next weekend, the LDC staff begin arriving for our week of prayer and preparation. Finally, during the weekend of 15th - 17th April, all the LDC delegates and families will be arriving for the six weeks of the Leadership Development Course. I'll share more in my April newsletter; you should be receiving it soon.... but, thanks to this email problem, I've been trying in vain to send it for several days now.