Wet and wild, weird and wonderful weather...

You've heard that old saying about March coming in like a lion and going out like a lamb? Well, it seems like the lion and the lamb are battling for supremacy in these early days of March 2018. Last week, our KKI European leadership team was meeting at a friend's home in Alella, just north of Barcelona. We wandered down to the beach one day after dinner, and found ourselves caught up in lightly falling snow, and then in winter rain. So much for being in the land of winter sun! I  found it rather cold up there in the north of Spain, and was kind of relieved to arrive back to a warmer and sunnier day in Málaga.

It wasn't to last, though. Before we knew it, torrential rain swept in for the weekend: driving winds uprooted palm trees and a a relentless downpour caused flooded streets throughout the province. The photos below show how the access roads to the airport were impassable this morning - not a very promising sign, when I need to to around a dozen airport trips this week to pick up the members of the KKI international leadership team, coming to meet here in Alhaurin de la Torre this week. As you can see in one of the pictures, the violent wind and rain even damaged the roof in the airport terminal building.

Then, just when you're expecting to see Noah's ark sail by at any minute, the crashing rain begins to give way to less noisy pitter patter, and then it stops completely.  You can see patches of blue sky and bright sunshine, even though the huge grey clouds are still loitering there on the horizon. You hear the sound of washing machines, as neighbours rush to do some laundry in the gap between downpours. Joyful barks sound in the street, as people grab leads and take their dogs out for a walk before the rain starts up again. Who would believe that the photo below was taken on the same day as the four pictures above?!

And so a week of international meetings lies ahead.  Mostly we'll be indoors, seeking the Lord and catching up with ministry "business." But I can't help hoping, when it comes to our weather,  that the lamb will make more appearances than the lion. It would be nice to be able to eat outdoors sometimes, or to have pleasant sunny weather when we take the group on an outing to the mountain village of Mijas. It's not going to be warm enough for our ice cream shops to open up for the season... but it would be a blessing if our March weather was more wonderful than weird over the coming ten days.