What a month it has been since I got home from Thailand! We've had hot sunny weather in southern Spain (I even took the dogs one more time to swim in the lake) and we've also had autumn storms with torrential rains that caused flooding and even a dozen deaths. One day last week, as I was taking the dogs out for their morning walk, the skies looked fairly promising to my left, but ominously grey to my right. (See photo above.) The past two weeks have been a mixture of warmer sunny days and colder rainy days. Today, I think, I'll dig my duvet out of storage, as it's starting to get a bit too cool to sleep without it.
I haven't been in Malaga for all of the past few weeks, though. At the beginning of October, I headed north - to Hainichen in former East Germany, where I was teaching in a discipleship training school for people who have a heart to work with children and youth. Midweek, there was a public holiday, celebrating 28 years of German Reunification after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The entire YWAM Hainichen community hosted a "family encouragement day" which was attended by 28 families, around 220 people, for a day of teaching and family team activities. Despite the cold wind and threatening rain, the day was a great success. I thoroughly enjoyed working with the group of DTS students, speaking in a local youth group, and being able to participate a little in the family encouragement day. These certainly made it worth having to pack all my winter clothing for the trip to Germany :-)
After two weeks back in Spain, where I've been busy with coaching appointments and conference prep, I'm now packing my suitcase full of winter clothing again, and preparing for another trip to the chilly north. This time I'm heading to Sweden, where I'll participate for two weeks in a writers' workshop - my turn to be a student, for a change. I'll return to Spain at the beginning of November. Thanks for your prayers.
