From Spain to Sweden

Nearly three months since I got home from Africa, and now it's time for another trip. This time, however, I'm not heading south to tropical climate, but heading north to the chill of Scandinavia. I'm spending next week in Sweden for several days of meetings with the KKI European leadership team, and I'll also be teaching a seminar for parents and youth workers on the topic of understanding human development: how to relate age appropriately and understand how to disciple children and teenagers at different ages and stages of their lives.

This coming Sunday, I'll fly from Malaga to Gothenburg, where my friends will meet me and take me to their home in Borås. The KKI meetings will be held at the home of my friend, Ingela, and her family. Ingela, who is the national leader for KKI Sweden, was a student on one of the first child and youth ministry schools that I led - way back in 1991 in Scotland. Later we led a European PCYM together in 2009. More recently, she was my early morning swimming partner during the two months we spent in West Africa for the Fortify leadership workshop. I know her husband and five children from King's Kids, and one of our sons even came to do LDC in Malaga recently. When the KKI-ELT meetings finish on Friday, I'll stay on for the weekend seminar, which will be held in their local church setting in Borås. Then I'll fly back down to Malaga the following Sunday.

This week, in getting ready for my trip, I've finished preparing my powerpoint in Swedish, and have also been putting the finishing touches to some of the Bible reading devotional booklets that I was working on this autumn. This is also a week of overseas coaching for me, as I connect with the KKI leader in Madagascar, as well as beginning coaching with two new clients - ladies from Costa Rica and Peru who are trainees in the Spanish language FOCOS coach training programme.

The recent good news about Teddi's health means that it's easy again for my neighbour to look after the cats while I'm gone. She'll only need to check on their food and water, now that Teddi doesn't need to be given daily thyroid medication any more. In fact, she'll only need to check on them for five days, as some other friends are staying the last weekend of November in my house, before driving a removal van all the way up to Germany to their new home there.

Thanks for your prayers during my trip to Sweden. God bless you.