Taking gifts to the missionaries in Africa...

I have wonderful news for those of you who were praying for rain when our outreach team was in Senegal at the beginning of this month. The rains did come after we started to pray and the team was able to be involved in tree planting for the rest of their time in the nation. The local people were particularly impressed and kept talking about how our team had been the ones to bring the rain. Or, to be more exact: our God was the One who brought the rain in answer to our prayers. 
As September draws near, two more Africa trips lie ahead of us: one to Togo in West Africa, and the other to Mozambique in South East Africa. The Mozambique team will be going there to train preschool teachers; among the gifts they'll be taking with them are illustrated manuals that we're making for the teachers, and simple everyday items (like the plastic tubs donated to us from the ice cream shop) that can be used for creativity projects and for educational games.


Just one week from today, I'll be heading down to Togo, where I'll be teaching in the French language PCYM - a school that trains Africans to work with children, youth and families. Before I go to an African PCYM, I always write to ask what gifts I can bring with me - things that they are not able to buy locally. The requests vary from one location to another: sometimes they ask for "luxury" items like chocolate and cheese; sometimes they request more "ordinary" things like paper handkerchiefs, plastic bags or ballpoint pens .... if those things are difficult or expensive to get in the local area. So last week I wrote to Togo, to ask what they would like me to bring for them this time.


One of their requests was very obvious and something that is close to my heart: they run an after-school homework club for dozens of neighbourhood kids, and so they asked me if I could find some educational games or activities that they could use to stimulate these kids mentally and help them to make progress academically. The second request was rather surprising and actually made me laugh: they asked if I could bring a couple of bags of "croquettes pour chat" (dry cat food) as they are no longer able to buy it locally and their cat is beginning to miss it. I had to smile. I think it's the first time that I've been asked to take a gift to the missionaries' cat! Needless to say, Tamba, Teddi and Tobi were very excited about the idea of sending some of their "croquetas" to help the missionary cat in Africa.

Out with the trout...

Okay, I confess that I didn't really catch this trout myself (although I did email the photo to my younger brother, an aspiring fisherman, in an attempt to impress him with my catch!) I actually just bought the trout at our local Mercadona supermarket. It's part of my strategy to "eat oily fish more regularly" as they're rich in omega-3 fatty acids which (even though that sounds kind of disgusting) are allegedly helpful because they contribute to lubricating joints and hindering inflammation for arthritis sufferers. That may not be the totally scientific explanation.... I think it's the BBC news version. Anyway, as I've always preferred fish to meat since childhood, the idea of eating more trout, salmon, mackerel and fish in general isn't a challenging one to me. Today's trout (yes, I baked it in the oven and I ate the whole fish!) was absolutely delicious. I'd rather have a fish than a steak, any day!

More health news...

Back from his recent visit to Ireland (where he wanted to visit all the old haunts from his childhood and youth), my Dad had to go back to hospital today for the results of his recent tests, including the biopsy that was taken when he had an endoscopy a couple of weeks ago. As my parents had actually been expecting, the news was not good: Dad has bowel cancer and will need an operation to remove the part of his colon that has the cancerous tumour in it. First he'll have an appointment with the anaesthetist to assess his general health and the possible risks involved in such an operation at his age. Then, all being okay, he'll be given a date to go in for the surgery as soon as possible. I know that my parents would appreciate your prayers at this challenging time. Thank you for that.

Health Update

I went back to the doctor yesterday for the results of my recent x-rays. I'm afraid the x-rays of my neck show even more disk degeneration than the previous x-rays (taken in 2009) but at this stage the doctor can't propose anything other than pain killers and anti-inflammatories when needed. She was more concerned about my feet, however, as there seem to be even more osteophytes (bone spurs) which are making it more and more difficult for me to walk or to find shoes that are comfortable to wear. The next step is that I'll be going to see a specialist at the hospital - probably in Malaga or Torremolinos - to see what can be done: possibly the making of orthotic insoles or special shoes, as it's not yet at the stage where surgery would make much difference. I'm awaiting the hospital appointment in the post, and hoping it arrives before I leave for my trip to Africa. Thanks for your prayers.

Weather Update

The problem of postponed pruning...

Around the end of February of this year, a neighbour passing in the street knocked on my window and said to me, "You should prune that jasmine plant soon... or it won't be strong enough by the time summer comes." Sure enough, I remembered I'd once been told that you should completely prune back your jasmine tree in autumn or at least by January, so that it will regrow and be covered in fragrant blossoms by the time May or June arrives. So I got out the secateurs and pruned it back right away (see photo) but the months went by and I have to confess that it did seem to be growing more slowly than it did last year. By May there were only a few blossoms, and it was already July before we could enjoy that wonderful jasmine fragrance every time we came in or out of our front door. The perfume is beautiful now.... but the blossoms are still a little fewer than they were last year. I guess I waited too long to do the pruning.


There's a well known Bible passage (John's gospel chapter 15) about pruning. The passage says that our lives are like a vine and God is like the gardener. For our own good, He will remove any branches that are simply sapping our strength and not bearing fruit..... but verse two says that He will also prune the branches that do bear fruit - in order that they can be even more fruitful. Sometimes we resist God's pruning work in our lives; perhaps we're afraid of losing things that we care about or that we've grown used to; perhaps we're afraid that the pruning will expose our ugliness (like the bare branches above in the photo I took of my jasmine plant in February.) But the end result of pruning is always that there will be more blossoms, more fragrance, more fruit from our lives.


I've learned a lesson from the postponed pruning of my jasmine: if we resist God's pruning and are slow to respond to the prompting of the Holy Spirit in our lives, if we delay the process of having the old branches and blossoms cut off.... just perhaps we will have a little less fruit, a little less fragrance that year than if we had responded promptly and willingly to the Father's hopes and dreams for our life. It reminds me of a principle that I wrote in my journal back when I was a teenager: delayed obedience is actually disobedience. My prayer is that I will always be quick to respond to the Gardener's prompting in my life and that I won't resist the pruning until it's a little too late.

Sleeping sickness...?

Spain feels like home to me now. After those first three years of feeling like a refugee whose "real home" was down in Cape Town, something changed last summer, and for the past year I've felt very much at home in Alhaurin de la Torre. I've got used to queuing for an hour just to make a doctor's appointment. I'm not surprised if someone invites me out for lunch at 3 pm or for dinner at 9 pm. It's become normal that most shops are closed from 2.00 till 5.00, or that many restaurants don't even open until 8 pm. I know that some days the internet will work and some days it won't (which is not so different from living in Africa.)
Even so, there are some typically Spanish things that I don't do. I don't eat olives, for example, which is a surprise to most Spaniards, and I wouldn't dream of having bread spread with olive oil for breakfast. And I don't take a siesta: I've never been someone who could stop and sleep in the middle of the day and, in fact, I find that the siesta time is a good time to do my supermarket shopping - because many people are asleep and so there aren't such long queues at that time of day.
Yesterday, however, was a totally different situation. Remembering that Monday will be a public holiday, I popped out yesterday after lunch to buy milk and a few other things that I needed from the supermarket. My back was sore when I got home, so I took the prescription pills that the doctor gave me this week, and I lay down "for ten minutes" with a book. Some time later, I was aware of the cats waking me up - as they usually do around 6.00 or 7.00 am, when they've decided that I've slept long enough and it's now time for breakfast. As I stumbled downstairs (the arthritis makes me very stiff in the mornings) I suddenly noticed that I was fully clothed. It wasn't breakfast time at all, but was only 9.30 pm and I had slept for several hours since getting back from the shops.  It must be due to the combination of medication I'm taking (anti-inflammatories and muscle relaxants) because it was the second time this week that I had nodded off in the afternoon. For someone who never takes a siesta, it was a rather strange feeling to realise that this time I had slept the whole afternoon away. After a glass of juice - and the next dose of the anti-inflammatory - I realised that I just needed to head back to bed again. I don't think I've slept this much in years; I usually only sleep like this if I'm ill with pneumonia or something like that.
Despite last night's disappointment, the cats cheerfully woke me around 7 o'clock again this morning and seemed very relieved that this time I did give them breakfast.

A mountaintop experience

This week, I was invited for the breakfast to the home of friends who live in the very highest street of Alhaurin de la Torre: right at the top of the mountain, as high as you can possibly go before you run out of streets and just come to mountain scrubland. The panorama is stunning: you can see the entire town of Alhaurin, all the way to the airport, the whole Guadahorce valley and even all the way to the cruise ships that come into the port of Malaga. Anja and I drove up there later just to see the view and to try out some of the exercise equipment in the little park at the lookout post. Allthough, to be honest, you'd probably get more than enough exercise if you had to climb up and down that hill every day! It's very close to the house that Ada and I nearly rented (back in 2009) and, despite the amazing views from up there, we're actually very glad now that we live at the bottom of the mountain and much closer to the centre of town.

Eating ice cream for Africa?

We have a number of Africa trips on our agenda for this season. Our "planting together" outreach team is in Senegal at the moment; please keep praying for rain so that the tree planting can go ahead as planned. Then, in three weeks time, I'll be heading down to Togo to teach on the French language child and youth ministry school (PCYM) there; please pray for me as I prepare teachings for that time. And, also in September, we're sending a small team down to Mozambique to train people how to set up and run Christian pre-schools. In preparation for the Mozambique trip, we've been washing our plastic 'tarrinas" any time we have an ice cream at our local heladaría, which is just at the end of my street; we thought they could be used as toys, for counting games, or even just for serving snacks. Now, when they see us coming, the Kalua staff always give us a few extra containers in different sizes and colours. We'll need to take some photos of Mozambican preschool children using them as toys and educational games.

Waiting for rain...

If you come from Scotland, as I do, you spend much of your time hoping and praying that it won't rain.  In Senegal, it's a different story.... and at the moment it's still too dry for our "Planting Together" outreach team to get involved in planting trees with the Great Green Wall project. Please join us in continuing to pray for rain down there in West Africa. Thanks.

Big cats

If you have a Macintosh computer, you may have already upgraded to the new operating system that was released in July. I was entitled to a free upgrade because of buying my new laptop at the end of June. Someone recently heard me speaking about "upgrading to Lion," and commented, "Why do you need a lion when you've already got a panther in your house?" A similar comment was made last week by a young man walking past in our street: he pointed up to Teddi on Gabriela's balcony and said, "Dios mio, that's not a cat; it's a panther!"

Pray for rain...

Back in January of this year, I and a few others made a trip to Senegal in West Africa for the purpose of investigating possible outreach opportunities for young people. The vision was for European young people to work alongside African young people in planting trees - thus not only blessing the continent by helping to prevent the encroachment of the Sahara desert, but also giving people opportunities to get involved in a variety of other projects that will allow them to make friendships with African youth and share their faith with others. You can read more about the vision in my January blog postings, and if you haven't yet seen the youtube promotional video we made, you can find it at this link: planting together video
The time has come and this week we sent down our first small pilot team of European young people to be part of the "Great Green Wall" tree planting initiative in Senegal. They left Europe with much faith and excitement.... but they arrived in Senegal to discover that the annual rains had not started yet. And it's not possible to start planting before the rains arrive to water the soil and help the new seedlings to take root.

And so we've been praying for rain. This week's weather forecast is for some storms and drizzle at the beginning of the week, but more sunshine again as the week goes on. Please would you join us in praying that there continues to be sufficient rain for the team to be involved in planting the young trees over the next couple of weeks.

Accident, arthritis, amistad and ambulatorio

We started this week with celebration: Monday was the the Swiss national day, and I was invited to the home of my friends, Wilrens and Franziska (he's Dutch and she's Swiss) to enjoy an evening meal of Swiss cheese fondue. Anja, a German friend who's staying with them at the moment, knew that we all like the cheese dish and so she had the idea of celebrating the Swiss day in that way. We even sang the Swiss national anthem!

Yesterday I experienced Wilrens and Franziska's friendship (amistad) in a different way when they came to my rescue in town. I've been struggling a lot with arthritis pain in my feet and thumbs, as well as in a whiplash injury in my neck, so I was driving to our local health centre (ambulatorio) to make an appointment with the doctor. As I drove along the main road, a car suddenly reversed out of a parking spot in front of me; I had to break sharply and swerve to avoid him. After the driver had gone on his way, I discovered that I couldn't steer my car any more, and it was shuddering all over the road. I pulled to the side of the road, and discovered that I had a completely flat tyre.

With a sinking feeling, I wondered whether I'd actually be able to change the tyre myself or whether the arthritis in my thumbs and neck would make it impossible. So many normal, everyday activities become more of a challenge when joints and muscles don't work properly. Sure enough, I wasn't able to do it, but I knew that Wilrens and Franziska were shopping nearby and so I could text them for help.  They came shortly after that and were able to change the tyre for me.

As it was a new tyre (just bought a couple of months ago) I went back to my garage to see if it was still under guarantee.... and, strangely enough, there seemed to be nothing wrong with it. There was no puncture, and it's rather a mystery why it went flat. Possibly the air pressure was very high in this hot weather and something gave way under the impact of the sudden braking. So my mechanic simply inflated it again for me, and we'll see if it holds the air this time. If not, he'll replace the tyre for free.

Today, I'm heading back to the ambulatorio, though, to see what the doctor has to say about the neck injury and the foot pain; we're wondering whether I might need to have special shoes made, as it's getting hard to find shoes (especially sandals in summer) that don't make walking rather painful. At least my car is on the road again, so I won't need to walk to the health centre!!