Spiritual warfare...

Click to enlarge the photo. Can you spot me in the group?

It seems a long time since we were meeting in the Netherlands with the KKI international leadership team, intercessors, guests and emerging leaders. So much has happened since then: this lung infection that's dragging on and on (I'm beginning to get a bit tired of all the coughing), not to mention the strange accident that left me with third degree burns on my face (See previous two posts.) A family from Taiwan also experienced a strange accident after the ILT - getting involved in a car crash that left the lady with cuts all over her face.

In recent days, I've had emails from intercessors, sharing their impression that we are in a spiritual battle as we contend for the young people and families of this generation. A sacrifice of time and money is required when we travel and meet up as a leadership team every year in March… but the impact in the spiritual realm is much more than we ourselves realise, and it's important that we have intercessors around us to engage in the battle with us.

If you're reading this blog post today, and if God prompts you to stand in the gap with us, please would you take just a few moments to pray for the ministry of KKI and the international leaders who serve so faithfully around the globe. Thank you.

The vampire or the extra-terrestrial?

Thank you for your prayers over these two weeks when I’ve been feeling so ill. Shaking off the lung infection hasn’t been easy; despite taking antibiotics for ten days, I’m still struggling with coughing, chest pain and difficulty breathing. Yesterday I had to go to the doctor again, and I’ve been given a different antibiotic for the coming week, as well as something for the continuing phlegm.
As for the third degree burns on my face, it’s been encouraging to see those slowly beginning to heal too. The nurse said to me one day this week that it was amazing how good the wounds were looking already, when you consider what a mess they were at the end of last week. “I think it’s healing well,” she said. 

“I hope so,” I answered, “Because I’ve got people all over the world praying for that.”

“Well, tell them to keep praying,” she said. “It’s working!”

Just as I was rejoicing over this amazing answer to prayer, she then said something that totally shocked me:  “Of course,” she continued, “The hardest time is just beginning now.”

I looked at her in puzzlement, wondering what she meant, and what could possibly be harder than the horrible weekend I’d just had, with my face so painful and bleeding all the time. ”What do you mean?” I asked.

“Well, the most important thing you can do now to avoid scarring,” she replied, “is to stay out of the sun this summer. Remember you’ve lost all three layers of your skin. As new skin begins to grow in again, it doesn’t have any melanin. If you allow it to be exposed to the sun, it will turn dark brown and stay that way for the rest of your life.”

I looked at her incredulously. We live in southern Spain, and the seemingly long winter is finally over. It’s going to be sunny almost every single day for the next six months. The only way to avoid getting any sun would be to shut yourself inside the house for the next six months - only emerging after dark (like the vampires in old black and white movies!)

My heart sank as I thought of all the LDC activities that happen outdoors, thought of the things I’d hoped to do with my parents when they come to Spain for holiday this summer....  thought of the Planting Together outreaches in Senegal. “So, for how many weeks or months do I need to stay out of the sun?” I asked her. “I’m planning a trip to Africa for the whole month of August, and maybe another one towards the end of the year.”

Imagine my shock when she told me I’d be wise to stay out of the sun for the rest of the year. I could try using total block sunscreen as my face heals more, but the only way to guarantee protection would be to stay indoors or to wear some kind of headgear that completely hides your face from the sun.

I was speechless. I had been praying for smooth healing without scarring, but I hadn't for a moment imagined consequences like these. I’d seen the whole burning episode as a bizarre accident, but now it began to feel like a tactic of the enemy to rob me of Africa and of my outreach involvement there this summer. It seemed inconceivable that I wouldn’t be able to go outside in the sunshine until this time next year, or that it wouldn't be possible for me to be part of the Planting Together outreaches in Senegal again this year. For some days, I was seeking God in prayer and still reeling from the shock of the news.

And now? Well, I’ve decided that the vampire lifestyle isn’t what God has for me this year! And so I’ve taken the doctors at their word and have ordered (from China) an odd looking hat with a complete facial guard. I’ll probably look ridiculous, or risk being mistaken for an extra-terrestrial, but it seems the only way to protect my face in the way the doctors recommend, and still be able to participate in the different ministry and outreach activities that I’ve committed to for this year.

My face looks so much better than it did this time last week. It’s just very pink (kind of like a chicken breast!) and feels sort of itchy as it heals. Please would you join me in praying that it will heal well, without major scarring, and pray also for this respiratory infection to really clear up now, so that life can get back to normal.. Thank you.

We all need Ziba in our life...

You may have heard that I've been facing a few challenges since finishing the ILT meetings and returning to Spain this week. I'd been feeling a sore throat threatening since our day in Amsterdam and, sure enough, I woke up on Wednesday morning with bronchitis-like symptoms and no voice at all. By Thursday, I also had a pounding sinus headache and was finding it difficult to breathe and so, that morning, I decided to inhale with a menthol vapour rub.

And that's when a really bizarre accident happened: there must have been an undissolved lump of vapour rub in the water, and when I put my face above it to inhale the steam, it suddenly "exploded," showering my face with scalding water. My skin began to peel off - like when you immerse a tomato in boiling water to remove the skin. Anyway, I knew enough to immerse my face in cold water for as long as possible, and I also put egg whites on it, as I've heard the natural collagen is good for burns.

But nonetheless, when I got to accident and emergency, they told me that part of my cheek had third degree burns and that there was quite extensive burning on the rest of my face too. My eye was swollen shut and surrounded by painful blisters, but when they checked the inside of my eye they were able to tell me that there were no lesions on the cornea. Even so, I have a painful and ugly mess down the right side of my face. It's a sticky pallet of dead skin when I wake up in the morning, and then it begins to bleed so that it's looking like a raw steak by the afternoon. As I'm a bit anaemic, tending to heal slowly and scar easily, I'm praying very much that it won't leave major scarring on my face.

Anyway, as I was still very ill and weak with the respiratory infection, and now I had painful bleeding facial burns on top of that, I was really feeling in a bad way. My friends and teammates have been amazing, though. It's said that "a friend in need is a friend indeed," and my friends have been wonderful over the past couple of days: driving me to the doctor, sending me food, doing my shopping for me (so that I don't scare people in the supermarket!), helping me clean my house in preparation for a guest arriving from overseas, offering to pick my friend up from the airport (as I can't put on glasses and wouldn't be able to see to drive…) I've also had an influx of emails, best wishes and assurances of prayer from other friends around the world.

This morning in my quiet time, I was reading in 2nd Samuel chapter 16, part of the story where David is fleeing from Absalom and heading into the desert.  In the first two verses of that chapter, a man called Ziba comes out to meet David in the desert, bringing him food, wine and donkeys. I found these things quite symbolic of the help that friends can give us when we're in a hard place. Food spoke to me of providing nourishment and strength (like the person who sent me food today), while the donkeys spoke to me of support and help (like the people who did my shopping for me or helped me clean the house.) And vs 2 says that the wine is for refreshment when exhausted; I don't like wine personally, so I can't imagine it being refreshing, but this spoke to me of the refreshing that comes from knowing that different people are praying for you, and emailing with kind words.

And so, I couldn't help thinking that we all need people like Ziba in our lives; we all need people who will reach out to us with help and refreshment when we're in a hard place (or, like David, in a dry and desert place.) And we need also to be that kind of person for others.

Who are the Zibas in your life? Who are the people you can turn to and depend on when things are hard? And to whom are you, or could you be, a Ziba in their time of need? I've been blessed this week by the love and care of good friends, and I know that we all need friends like that.

I also want to say thank you to everyone who has emailed me to say they are praying. I do very much value your prayers for recovering from this bronchitis, as well as for prayers that this burnt flesh will heal quickly and well, and not leave ugly scarring on my face. Thank you.

ILT continues to meet...

Yesterday we took a break from our intensive schedule of leadership meetings to take a trip to the city of Amsterdam, where some went on a walking tour of the city and others visited the Ann Frank museum - the house where a Jewish teenager and her family were in hiding during the second world war. Then, last night we had a lovely meal together (an Indonesian buffet) and an informal time of sharing ministry ideas and opportunities from around the world.

Today we are continuing with our leadership meetings. One of our sessions will see us listening to God and making plans for a large international gathering that we’ll hold in Africa, this time next year. Another session will see us considering more effective ways of communication, especially when it comes to to passing on the Biblical values that God has entrusted to us. Thanks for your continued prayers during these days

Write the vision on tablets

This morning in our ILT meetings, as one of our KKI leaders was sharing a message from the Old Testament book of Habakkuk, we all had to smile at the part (in chapter 2 verse 2) where God told the prophet to write the vision clearly on tablets. We looked around the room and people were taking notes on their iPads, smartphones and other kinds of tablet computers. How amusing that God, thousands of years ago, told us to write the vision on “tablets” and now that’s exactly what we were doing as we spent time in His presence and listened to His guidance for our ministry with young people and families!

What we were writing - on those tablets, computers, and ordinary old fashioned notebooks - were our prayer impressions in response to two questions from verse 1 - where Habakkuk went up to the lookout tower and stationed himself on the city wall. Taking the tower as a symbol of looking into the distance and discerning what God has for us in the future, we were prayerfully waiting in silence and asking God, “What lies ahead for us? What should we be preparing for?” And, taking the city wall as a symbol of being able to look around us and see what needs attention in the here and now- in our own lives or in our ministry - we were asking God, “What warnings do you want to give us? What do we need to repair or protect in order to be ready for the things that are on your heart for us in the future?”

Those are the things we were writing in our notebooks and on our computers. What about you? What is God saying to you about the rest of 2014, or about the coming five years? And what do you need to do or deal with personally in order to be ready and equipped for the things that lie ahead?

Changing from ELT to ILT...

We're encouraged by good progress made during our KKI European leadership meetings over the past two days. We've made a good start to planning our November conference, we've dreamt  with God and shared vision for Europe over the coming years, we've considered new communication strategies, and we've prayed about adding new and younger leaders to the team…. All in all, a fruitful time, and here we are last night when we out to relax and have a meal together.

From meeting in a small group of five people, we're changing gear now and over the coming week we'll be meeting with the KKI International leadership team, together with a group of intercessors and a variety of young leaders from around the world that we've invited to join us for this time. This will make us a group of around fifty people when we gather for our first ILT meeting this evening. Thanks for your continued prayers.

Frost and fellowship

I woke up this morning to see frost on the grass outside; it's been a long time since that last happened (other than the snow in the Ukraine.) It seemed very cold as we walked to our morning meeting… and yet the weather websites say that it's not any colder than back home in Alhaurín. Our European leadership team meetings have got off to a good start, and it's also been good to connect with a group of our younger leaders from around the world, who are here for meetings at the same time. Tomorrow our two groups will combine, together with other international leaders who'll arrive for the start of the ILY meetings. Thanks, everyone, for your prayers.

Heading to Holland

In just a few hours, I’ll be leaving Spain and flying to Amsterdam. For the next ten days I’ll be involved in our annual KKI leadership meetings: from 10th - 12th March with the King’s Kids European leadership team, and then from 12th - 18th March with the KKI International leadership team.  In recent years, we’ve travelled to Africa and the Middle East for these meetings, but this year we’ll be gathering in Europe, and I’d value your prayers for these intensive ten days of meetings in the Netherlands. They’ll be times of prayer and strategising, times of worship and hearing God’s voice, times of considering the partnering and transfer of leadership between the older and younger generations.... and there will even be a free afternoon when we’ll go to visit the city of Amsterdam.

At one point, I'm also hoping to meet up with an old friend, Joke, who worked with us in KKI Scotland for more than a decade. Joke was a student on our 1991 PCYM in Paisley, went with me on summer outreach to the Benelux nations and the Barcelona Olympic Games in 1992, and ended up staying on and becoming one of our valued team leaders in King's Kids Scotland. We try to connect whenever I'm in the Netherlands, where she now works as a schoolteacher, and it is always a joy to see her again. The last time was a couple of years ago when we both celebrated our 50th birthday.

By the way, although the photo above probably looks very Dutch, it was actually taken in South Africa and not in the Netherlands. It's an old windmill, not far from where I used to live in Cape Town; the area was a favourite dog walking location of mine when my Kylie was a puppy.

How well do you wait?

This post is for the four friends who emailed me, asking why there were so many blog postings from the book of 1st Samuel and now none at all from the book of 2nd Samuel. Yes, those four people guessed correctly that I decided to continue my daily reading in the Old Testament history of Israel’s kings, and I’ve been reading in 2 Samuel for the past ten days or so.

One of the first things that stood out to me in this second book of Samuel is the importance that young David gives to discerning how to do things God’s way, and to making sure that he also does things in God’s timing. There are other stories in the Bible about people who had special promises from God, but then they blew it by rushing ahead of God’s timing; or perhaps they had a sense of God’s calling on their life, but they messed it up by trying to do God’s will in their own way. David didn’t make either of those mistakes.

You’ll remember that David was chosen and anointed to be the next king of Israel when he was just a young boy. But eighteen or twenty years went by, years when he was pursued and persecuted by King Saul, and it must have seemed to David that he had to wait a very long time for God’s promises to be fulfilled in his life.  Perhaps few things are harder than getting a glimpse of your destiny and then having to live for years with the sense that it is always just out of reach. But now King Saul is dead, and the door seems wide open for David to become king at last.

David doesn’t jump at the first opportunity, however. What he does (see the first few verses of 2 Samuel chapter 2) is  an indication that his dependence is on God and not on circumstances.  He waited for a while after Saul’s death and then, “in the course of time,” he enquired of the Lord. Probably he waited patiently and respectfully (even though this might mean a risk that someone else would step up to fill Saul’s shoes) until he had a sense in his spirit that the timing might be right. Then He checked in with the Lord if he should make a move (go back to Judah) now, and God said yes. David now had the security of knowing that the timing was right. But he still didn’t move forward with his own understanding of what to do next. His next step was to ask God where he should go, and God told him to go to Hebron.

And so, confident that he now knew God’s way and God’s timing, David headed back to his own country again. But the end of this episode (verse 4) was that David became king of Judah. There was still even more waiting to be done, still some more battles ahead of him. It was to be another seven years before the rest of the tribes of Israel also welcomed him as their king.  David was king of Judah for those seven years, and only later became king over the whole nation of Israel.

Sometimes God will give us a glimpse of our future, a little peek into the destiny that He has for our lives. It could be so easy to make the mistake of trying to grab hold of that destiny - especially if it involves some kind of role or positon - whenever a suitable opportunity comes along. But the principle we see at work here in David’s life is that sometimes the right thing to do is to step into a lesser or interim role, instead of immediately moving into the fullness of what God has promised us. That smaller role allows us to learn vital ministry skills while continuing to let God work on refining our character. 

Some personality types will find this a difficult thing to do; they will feel as if they have fallen short of the things that God promised them. But if we cooperate with God’s way and also with His timing, we will be ready to enter into the fullness of our destiny and calling when the right time finally comes around. It’s God’s grace towards us that we have an interim period to “grow into” the role that He has called us to fulfill. That’s what happened with David, who continued to grow stronger for another seven years (2 Sam 3: 1) while others observed his progress from afar, and ultimately he was embraced as king over all Israel. (See the first few verses of 2 Samuel chapter 5.)

David was so young when he was chosen to be king, and he probably never expected that he would need to live through two and a half decades of waiting before things finally happened the way God had told him. But learning how to wait, and learning how to depend on God in the waiting time, were skills that served David for the rest of his life. 

See the post below for another example of that.

God's way and God's time...

Not long after David became king of Israel, he needed to lead his people into various battles with their enemies, the Philistines. (See 2 Samuel 5 verses 17 - 25). David’s approach to the crisis of war puts to the test the life lessons he learned during more than twenty years of waiting for God’s promises to be fulfilled in his life. No hasty skirmishes or impulsive attacks from this national leader! David has had a lifetime of learning to hear God’s voice, even in the smallest details of his battle strategy.

So when the Philistines launch their first attack, David doesn’t rush out with his troops without first asking God, “Shall I go and attack these Philistines? Are you going to give us a victory?” God says yes, and the Israelites defeat the Philistines in round one of this war. (vs 19 - 20)

When the Philistines came back again for round two, David could have rushed out to defend his nation again. After all, God had been with him and given Israel the victory in the previous battle. But David carefully avoids the sin of presumption and goes back to enquire of the Lord again. (vs 23 - 24) God again promises him a victory, but this time the strategy is to be completely different: David’s troops are not to ride out to meet the Philistines in battle, but are to circle around and prepare to ambush them from behind. 

Once David’s army has taken up their positions, they are to (guess what?) ... they are to wait until God confirms that the timing is exactly right. When they hear the sound of the wind in the balsam trees, a rustling that sounds a bit like the noise of marching feet, they are to move - and move quickly. David follows God’s instructions down to the last detail (vs 25) and again wins a resounding victory over the Philistines.

Oh, that we would all depend on God and listen to God in the details like David did. Sometimes in our churches or in our individual lives, we get a sense of what God’s calling us to do... and so we rush out and fumble around in our own ignorance. Or perhaps last year’s community evangelism was really fruitful and we we feel that God is prompting us to hold a special outreach week again this year. It can be so easy to make the mistake of trying to replicate what happened last time, and forget to check in with God whether He has a new and different strategy for us to use this year.

Sometimes, when God gives us a vision, he leaves us to make our own decisions about the best way to do it in our particular cultural context and with our own set of gifts and talents. But at other times, He wants to give us His strategies too, because knows exactly the best way to do it in order to get maximum fruitfulness. It's always worth asking for His counsel before moving to action.

Let’s learn from David’s example; let’s become people who depend on the Lord even in the smallest details of our lives - listening not only to what is on His heart for us, but also lingering long enough to find out more about the how and the when. It’s the only way that victory is guaranteed!

Do our role models shape our nation?

I've never lived for very long in a place with access to British or American television, so I've not been exposed to many of those programmes like "The X Factor" or "Britain's got Talent." In fact, I don't watch all that much TV in general, so it was kind of by accident that I stumbled across "La Voz Kids" when it started in Spain a few weeks ago.

I've never seen "The Voice" in the UK, so I didn't know what to expect, but I was immediately struck by how different this show was from those kinds of programmes when I've seen them in my own nation. The few times I have seen things like the X Factor, I couldn't help being struck by the fact that these so-called reality shows seem to attract an unusually high number of people who enjoy showing off and who are sometimes rather arrogant about their own talents. These Spanish kids seemed completely different, and it got me wondering why there was such a noticeable difference.

If you know how these things work, ten thousand kids (aged 8 - 15) from all over the country went to the casting and 94 were chosen for the blind auditions. So you already know that these children and teens are the best from a large pool of talent. But of course, the three judges or coaches can only choose 15 each, and so at least half of the kids are going to be sent home again. This, in my previous experience of such shows, is a recipe for drama, if not trauma, when heartbroken wannabes have their hopes dashed and have to face the pain of rejection after already making it so far.

This Spanish version even looked different from the beginning. None of the kids were wearing make up or outrageous clothes or showing off; they seemed like ordinary kids turning up in their T-shirts, shorts and summer dresses. (I guess the blind auditions were filmed in Madrid last summer.) They turned up with their parents and grandparents and didn't seem the least bit embarrassed about having family members kiss them, Spanish style, before they went on stage. Some had plenty of self confidence, while others were a little more shy, but the thing that was striking about all of them was that they were a really polite bunch of kids. Nobody cried their heart out when the coaches didn't turn round for them; nobody started arguing that the coaches didn't know talent when they hear it; everybody thanked the coaches for their feedback; several commented that it had been a fun or learning experience, even if they were disappointed not to be chosen…  In short, it was a breath of fresh air compared to what we see in some of our British and American talent shows.  It was just really good entertainment from talented kids. 

It made me wonder what Spanish families are doing differently, to raise kids that responded so differently to the opportunity of becoming a "star" or the inevitable disappointment of not being chosen by the coaches. And I couldn't help thinking that it must be linked in some ways with the value that Spanish culture places upon the family and upon accepting a child's failures as well as his successes. We don't always see those kinds of role models among the pop stars and other celebrities that shape the values and opinions of our young people.

When I mentioned my observation to a couple of friends (one in South America and one in Central Asia) they told me that the judges or coaches in their nation's version of The Voice, engage in rivalry and mudslinging in order to convince a popular contestant to join their team. And I couldn't help realising that this too had been different in the Spanish version. Although all three coaches may have turned around and told a kid that, "I would love to have you as part of my team," they always added comments like, "Take your time; there's no pressure. Feel free to choose whichever coach you would prefer to work with. It's your choice." Here again, there was a sense of respect for the individual and for the fact that this was "un juego" (a game) and not a matter of life and death.

Are we in danger, in some of our nations, of raising divas and encouraging arrogance and competition among our young people? Are we idolising and lifting up celebrities whose attitudes and example make them poor role models for our kids? Have we forgotten how to prepare our children to deal with life's disappointments as well as its successes? 

It's kind of scary the way television influences the worldview and value system of the next generation. Amidst much that is not healthy or helpful, I've experienced La Voz Kids (so far, at least) as a breath of fresh air.

Third month of Challenge 2014

It's March, and time for the third month of young people's Bible reading booklets with Challenge 2014. So far there's been a good response: the January and February booklets were downloaded in different parts of the world, and in all three languages. (English, Spanish, French.) People have even approached me about the possibility of translating the booklets into German and into Thai. Click on the picture below to go to the website and download the booklet in the language of your choice.

www.biblechallenge2014.blogspot.com