A creative start to the KKI Europe Leaders' Forum...

This week saw the start of our KKI Europe Leadership Forum. After three days of meetings with the ELT (European Leadership Team), yesterday we welcomed 30 more people, national KKI leaders from all over Europe. We should have been in Poland this week, but coronavirus restrictions sabotaged that for all of us. Nonetheless, our Polish hosts did an amazing job of welcoming us "to Poland" and to the forum this week. The opening session was one of the most creative zoom connections that I've experienced since this pandemic forced us all online.

At the "airport," we were ushered to Gate 7, where we all boarded Flight 777 to Poland. A real pilot and flight attendants welcomed us onboard. We saw an "in flight" video of beautiful Polish scenery, and our hosts, the Skrobarczyk family, introduced to typical Polish food and shared an inspiring Bible meditation based on Ephesians 6 and the story of how the Polish Hussars were able to overcome the enemy in the 1683 battle of Vienna.

Today we had times of praying for each other as well as group times of talking about how our partnering with local churches has had to change and be more creative in these days of coronavirus restrictions. This afternoon, the 30 of us from Europe joined other KKI leaders from all over the world for our monthly global zoom call that is preparing for next year's international leadership assembly in Egypt.

Tomorrow, we'll be reflecting on God's heart for Europe and taking time to pray for our continent and our ministry in the coming years.

A new baby in the family...

With all my November ministry trips having been cancelled (the KKI leadership forum in Poland and the B2b in Holland) and those events now happening online instead, I'm going to be here in the south of Spain for all of November. In fact, current coronavirus guidelines mean that we're not allowed to go beyond the borders of Málaga province.

So I've done something a little crazy and I'm fostering a 3 month old puppy called Kenai. He's been adopted by a Spanish-Swedish family in Gothenburg, but covid restrictions around Europe led to their flights being cancelled and so they are only able to come and collect him in December. When I was asked if I could foster him for a few weeks, to prepare him for his forever family and do his basic obedience training in Spanish and Swedish, I agreed to help out with the need. And so a little golden puppy came into our home about ten days ago. (The cats are not especially impressed, but they're tolerating him and watching him with interest.)

During his first week with me, he began learning some basic commands (come here, sit, lie down) and I had fun putting together a little video for his adoptive family. You can see it on YouTube by clicking here.

Today we actually had a visit from his adoptive mum, who is here in Spain to sort out some paperwork. Sadly, though, she can't take him back to Sweden yet, as she's flying with an airline that doesn't carry animals. So they'll have to wait until Christmas time until they can finally collect him and take him home. I'll be looking after him and training him for as long as possible, but if it's possible for me to fly to Scotland for Christmas (which I'm hoping to do), I'll have to give him back to the adoption agency for the last ten days before the family comes for him.

It turns out that this family has never owned a pet of any kind before, and so they're extremely thankful that Kenai is with someone who understands dogs and who can teach him all he needs to know at such a crucial stage in his development. Their 9 year old daughter is an only child and has been begging for a dog for around three years, so this is something longed for and new for all of them. Knowing this makes it even more of a privilege for me to be able to give him a good start and prepare him to go to live with his bilingual forever family in Sweden.