Praying for Europe's families

When our KKI European leadership summit finished yesterday, some of our group headed into Brussels where we had arranged to meet representatives who could show us a little of the parliament building and give us insight into how we can be praying for the young people and families of Europe. We happened to be there at a time when most of the parliament members were in Strasbourg to vote on various legislation proposals… (such as the controversial Estrela bill on sexual and reproductive health, which had been debated just the previous day. Check it out online and take time to contact your MEP if you wish to make your values known on the areas of abortion, gender orientation, sexual education, etc.)

I'm back in Spain now, and I'll be teaching in Barcelona for a few days (a youth ministry course and two church services) before heading back to Malaga at the beginning of next week. Thanks for your prayers.

Meeting in Kortrijk

For the past two days, our KKI European leadership team (Curtis, Andy, Kari and Barbara) has been staying in Kortrijk, Belgium (or Courtrai, if you use the town's French name instead of the Flemish name.) We've been staying at the home of the Beisbrouck family, the leaders of King's Kids in Belgium, and yesterday after we had lunch together, they took us for a stroll around the historical part of their city.

When we're not enjoying chatting with our Belgian hosts, we're in leadership meetings where we've been praying for the ministry of KKI all over the European continent and spending time seeking God's guidance for the ongoing development of the ministry in this region. We're also preparing to lead a regional conference with around forty KKI leaders from this part of the world. Tomorrow we'll be moving to a nearby conference centre where the leadership summit will be held. I'll be speaking in the plenary session on Monday morning and we'll be breaking into smaller groups to talk about how to apply the things that God has been showing us both in Europe and internationally. Thanks for your prayers.

Stowaway!

I leave tomorrow for a trip to the colder north. First I'll have a week in Belgium - where we're meeting as a KKI European Leadership Team, and then running our bi-annual regional leadership summit with the King's Kids national leaders from all over the European continent. I haven't packed my suitcase yet... but I do keep finding a little stowaway in my hand baggage. Eight week old Tommy, star of the recent mentoring movie, keeps crawling into my large African bag and hiding there!

Towards the end of our time in Belgium, we'll be visiting the European Parliament in Brussels and taking time to pray there for the youth and families of Europe. Then, before coming home to Malaga, I'll spend a few days in Barcelona, where I'll be speaking at a church service and teaching in a training course for child and youth workers. Thanks for your prayers during this time.

Living by your values...

As I look back at my life, I can see that I have always been a very values-motivated person. I do things because I believe in them, and I can always give you my reason for doing things the way I do. I believe that it's important for us to know and live by our values - whether those are personal values, family values or ministry values.

A strong value in the ministries I work with - both in the Leadership Development Course and also in KKI - is that modelling and mentoring is one of the most effective ways of releasing young and emerging leaders. That's why I spend a good percentage of my time mentoring and coaching leaders, or working with projects that link the generations and give young people a chance to experience God for themselves.

Anyway, it was with this value in mind that I enlisted the help of Teddi (aged 4) and Tommy (aged 2 months) to make this amusing little video about mentoring by example. Hope you enjoy it.

Juggling housing...

Working with different kinds of ministry projects... that happen in different places... at different times of the year... means that we regularly run into situations where we face complex housing challenges. Last week, for example, we reached the point where we had accepted 20 delegates for next year's leadership development course here in Malaga. With a number of children and nannies included in the mix, this means that we may have already filled our available accommodation. So today we were working with different housing permutations, to see if we can still make room for another two or three delegates on the course. Similarly, there have been a lot of applications for our KKI leadership conference that is happening in Belgium this month, and so today we were working out whether we can make room for another family if they are able to park a camper van on the premises of the conference centre. And then there's our January coaching workshop which also has a full quota of trainees; we've recently added three more people to the group, and so this means that two of them will probably stay at my house during the workshop week in January. Seems we often have more people than the available housing. It's a nice challenge to have, as it means that our courses and conferences are in demand and are being a blessing to those who attend.

Storing provisions in summer...

It might seem strange to be thinking about the cold winter nights on a bright sunny day like today, when the temperature was a mild and pleasant 25 degrees. But walking the dog in the woods is the perfect opportunity to gather up a bag of huge dry pine cones... in preparation for winter when the cones make such great kindling for getting the wood fire started in the fireplace. As rain is forecast for tomorrow, I gathered a big bag this morning and was able to fill a whole box in my spare room when I got home. Tobi is always fascinated by the pine scent and so she needed to investigate the big pile of pine cones right away.

I had to smile a little later when I was reading my Bible and happened to read in Proverbs chapter six, which warns us not to be a "sluggard" but to learn a lesson from the humble ant who "stores up provisions in summer." I guess baby Tommy didn't heed the warning about sleeping too much, though, because that seems to be how he spends most of his day. I did read somewhere that small kittens sleep sixteen to eighteen hours a day, and I can believe it. I remember that Teddi and Tobi were just the same at that age.

Computer work, coaching, car care, tooth care and animal care...

Our week of WELT (Western Europe leadership team) meetings is over now, and so today is full of trips to and from the airport. The first people left at 5 o'clock this morning, and the last to leave will catch their flights late in the evening. We had a good week together, spending time in God's presence and praying for different people and situations that He brought to our attention.

My friends who live at Villa Rehoboth also left today - heading to the UK for a wedding in England and a 90th birthday celebration in Wales. This means that Anja and I will be on "animal duty" for the next couple of weeks - looking after Brandy the border collie and Tommy, a tiny six-week old kitten that they just adopted last week. I'm going to be staying at Rehoboth during the day, having my coaching appointments from there and doing some computer work such as curriculum writing and preparing teachings for my upcoming trips to Belgium and Barcelona. Anja will sleep in Rehoboth so that the animals are not alone during the night.

Today, however, when we're not taking people to the airport, we'll be doing many loads of laundry - washing all the bedding and towels that our 30 guests used over the past week.

Looking ahead to next week, I'll also finally have an appointment at the dentist (I had to cancel my previous appointment when I was coughing so badly with pneumonia) to finish the root canal treatment that was begun in July. And I'll need to take my car into the workshop to sort out a problem with the back windscreen wiper before the rainy winter season arrives. So it will be quite a varied week - totally different from this week, which saw us in leadership meetings every day.