We've just had four intense, but very fruitful days with the KKI European leadership team. Lots of meetings from morning to evening, but also plenty of time to chat together over meals, to pray for each other, to take a dip in the pool and to go out for an ice cream. Three of us in the group actually live in different parts of Spain, but the others are from colder parts of the continent and they enjoyed being able to eat lunch outdoors or to have an ice cream at our local "heladería." Spanish time is very different from northern Europe, and one of our guys found it funny that people were sitting in the street eating ice cream at nearly midnight!!
Many thanks to those of you who were praying for this time of leadership meetings. For me, the most encouraging outcomes were:
a) we managed to make great progress with planning the youth camp and outreaches that we're holding in Senegal, West Africa, this August.
b) we got a clear sense of direction and began making specific plans for the regional conference that we'll be holding in Belgium during October.
c) we are working towards the appointment of new national leaders for King's Kids in four or five European nations, and we identified two younger leaders who will be joining us on the regional leadership team. ("Younger" in this case means people in their thirties; the other team members are already in their forties and fifties.)
d) we began planning and strategising for a new format of child and youth ministry training for our mission-based and church-based workers across Europe.
So it was very encouraging.... and we look forward to seeing good fruit from these initiatives over the coming year or so.
