Presents from Peru

My friends arrived home from Peru yesterday, complete with a suitcase full of their favourite foodstuffs from there. They also brought me a T-shirt and a mug with Peruvian ethnic designs on them. I haven't heard much about their trip yet, as they were slightly jet-lagged and simply slept most of the day yesterday. Gabriela turned 13 while they were gone, and seems to have grown a little taller as well, so I'm experiencing what it must be like to be the "grandmother" of a teenager.

At ministry level, this week will include more coaching sessions, as well as a number of team meetings to prepare for a couples' retreat that we'll be holding at the leadership retreat centre next week.

Back to summer...

All the signs of summer are still with us in Alhaurín: the trees are in bloom, though the unwatered grassy areas of town are more brown than green now.  The streets are deserted in the heat of the afternoon, but families emerge in the evening, and children play in the playground in front of my house until almost midnight. The ice cream shops are doing a roaring trade and have introduced their "summer" flavours like peach and pineapple. The market stalls are also full of fresh produce, and I'm enjoying nectarines and kiwis. This is also the only time of year that we get any fresh sweetcorn (something that I miss from South Africa) so I'm enjoying that too.

Ada and Gabriela have been in the winter half of the world for the past two months, as they've been visiting family in Peru. They phoned me today from Madrid to say that they'd just arrived back in Spain and can't believe how hot the summer is here. They'll be catching an overnight bus and will arrive back in Alhaurín tomorrow morning.

Contrasting cacophonies...

I've been feeding my friends' cat every day while they're on holiday, and hanging around at their house to use the internet for some of my coaching sessions. For almost two weeks now, I've had to put up with the rat-a-tat-tat of a pneumatic drill at the back of the house, where some town workers were drilling up the pavement to lay a gas pipe. Today, a pleasant surprise awaited me: no labourers and no incessant roar of the drill. As I sat down to work at the computer, though, another noise reached my ears: a strange, strident screeching, as if I had suddenly been transported to the zoo. Going outside to investigate, I discovered that the noisy chatter was coming from a flock of green amazon parrots that had taken up residence in the nearby trees. Nonetheless, I think I prefer the parrot noise to the drill noise.
Right here in the same street, a different kind of noise is coming from the premises of our church, Centro Cristiano de Alhaurin. We're holding a three day "dance camp" with about fifteen local kids, both boys and girls. They're preparing a contemporary dance that they'll perform at the church service this Sunday morning, and we're hoping that some non-believing family members will come along for that time. We're also expecting non-Christian friends and family to come this evening to a church barbecue that will include a time of baptising new believers in the swimming pool.

Think differently...

Yesterday was the last day of outreach in Málaga for one of our Spanish King's Kids teams this summer. After a training camp in Barcelona, this little team of ten boys, five girls and half a dozen staff made the long bus journey down to Huelva (near the Portuguese border), then crossed Andalucía to the town of Motril, before heading to Málaga for the last few days of their outreach.
"Piensa diferente" (think differently) was the theme of their outreach and this was put to the test last night when they headed to the beach area for their last hours of sharing their faith. Their sound system had broken - which meant that they weren't able to play music, perform dances, give testimonies over the microphone or do the usual sorts of things that draw a crowd. Instead, this team of teenagers had to "think differently." They simply went out in twos and threes to talk about Jesus with people who were sitting or walking in the beachfront area.
Today the young people will have a time of debriefing and evaluation before heading back home tomorrow to the different regions of Spain that they come from.

Spicy moles?

I tend not to experiment with new recipes when I have friends coming to dinner; before making something for guests, I like to have tried the recipe at least once, so that I know it'll turn out okay. In a recent email, I told a friend that I was thinking of making spicy mole with chicken for our meal next week, but I was going to try it out this weekend first.

I was a little puzzled when I got her reply - something about never having eaten rodents before - until I realised that seeing the word "mole" in writing is quite different from hearing it spoken. It's pronounced "molay" and it's a spicy Mexican sauce made with chocolate and chillies. I'm going to be serving it over chicken enchiladas.

Tickets and travels...

As well as being "animal care week" (see previous post) this week also seemed to be a time for me to book tickets for upcoming travels. I've booked or changed eight tickets over the past few days! As part of the College of Education, I was planning to be in London for a faculty meeting at the beginning of September... until getting news at the end of last week that the meetings had had to be relocated to Norway. (It's difficult to find accommodation in London during the Olympic season.) Rather than completely lose my easyJet tickets to England, I paid the transfer fees to change them into tickets for visiting Scotland over Christmas. But then, of course, I had to book brand new tickets with Norwegian airlines - from Edinburgh to Oslo and from Oslo to Malaga. Finally, I managed also to book bus tickets this week for travelling up to Madrid in September. I'll be spending a few days there at the YWAM Spain national staff conference.
Now the only tickets still needing booked for 2012 are my plane tickets to Germany for the King's Kids conference at the beginning of November.

Coaching and caring...

Since the beginning of July, part of my time has been dedicated to "coaching" ladies who have been part of our leadership development course here in Malaga. This involves asking them strategic questions to help them make and follow through with personal and ministry decisions. It's a way of providing care and support, without actually "telling people what they should do." It's about helping them process their own choices. Only one of the ladies actually lives in Spain, so I've been connecting with the others over the internet (by Skype). This week, however, also seems to be "animal care week" for me, and I have been making my Skype coaching calls from the homes of various furry friends: mostly from Lucy's house (I'm feeding my friends' cat while they're on holiday for two weeks) but today I'm at Brandy's house and tomorrow I'll be at Yogi's house. This is so that my friends can go out for the day, without having to leave the dogs outdoors in the hot sunshine.

One of the nice things about doing my internet work from the dogs' houses is that both of those homes have a swimming pool and I can also cool off by having a quick dip when I've finished my work. Brandy in particular has a favourite game that involves running around the pool while playing "volleyball" with the person who is in for a swim!

Why not encourage someone today?

Some weeks ago, I was reading in Revelation 12, where Satan is called "the accuser" who accuses believers both day and night. I remember thinking that, if one of the enemy's primary weapons is accusation and discouragement, then we can come in the opposite spirit by encouraging and affirming one another, instead of joining with him in pulling each other down.

This morning I got to thinking than even non-believers need encouragement, and so I set myself a goal for today of encouraging ordinary people for their faithfulness in their ordinary, everyday things. As I set off for the library, there was a town council worker, mowing the grass and clearing up leaves in the little park in front of my house. As I thanked him for his work, and the way it made the park look so nice, he waved and wished me a good day. At the end of my street, a shop worker was busy cleaning a huge plate glass window. As I commented on her good job and said it must be a lot of work cleaning all those finger prints off, day after day, she smiled and said she didn't think anyone even noticed her faithfulness.
Around the corner, a man was using a machine to clear up litter and debris on the pavement. As I thanked him for his work and said how nice and clean it looked, he at first looked at me suspiciously, as if I had an ulterior motive for thanking him. Then he finally smiled and said, "Gracias, Señora." People's surprised reaction when encouraged is probably an indication that we don't thank and encourage each other enough. Why not ask God to show you who you could affirm or encourage today? It just might make someone's day.

Celebrating..... and deliberating...

Perhaps you can guess why it was hard for me to fall asleep last night - why I lay in my bed listening to car horns blaring in the street and fireworks going off until after midnight? Yes, all the noise and celebration around me was because the Spanish team - already the world cup champions in 2010 - have now become the European football champions, after beating Italy last night in the final match. (I have to confess I was visiting with friends and didn't watch the match!)

Since being back in Spain over the past few days, it's also been a time for "deliberating" - praying and making ministry decisions for 2013. Last Thursday and Friday, we had two very positive days with our Alhaurin staff team, where we prayed together and put together a calendar of the different seminars, retreats and training courses that we'll be holding at Villa Rehoboth leadership retreat centre next year. As we considered our different leadership responsibilities around the globe, we realised that most of us  felt we could/should commit 50% of our time to the local/international ministry in Alhaurin, and 50% to our other regional/international roles in the mission.

For me, that other 50% includes my roles in King's Kids International, and with the College of Education in the University of the Nations. This morning I met over Skype with my colleagues in Switzerland to make a decision about whether we should run another PLC (a four week course for prospective PCYM school leaders) in Switzerland next February. In the end, we decided that we probably didn't have sufficient committed staff to run the course well. (Many of our people have other commitments for 2013.) Instead of running a training course, we decided that we'll seek to coach and mentor these future school leaders in other ways, while we continue to consider the broader question of how to be most effective and strategic in our training initiatives for the 21st century.

After all these deliberations, the weekend will see us return to celebrations again. Two of our team members (Wilrens from the Netherlands and Anja from Germany) have birthdays next weekend, and so we'll be having a pool party with a selection of home made cakes next Saturday. That's pool as in "swimming pool" - not as in billiards, by the way! With Saturday's temperatures forecast for around 30 degrees, it will be a welcome refreshment on a hot sunny day.