Back to back and B2b

PCYM finished on Friday, and that evening I travelled to Amsterdam to visit some friends who were part of this year's LDC in Spain. These two South American ladies work in the city with street people and prostitutes, so this was an opportunity for me to see their ministry and take some time to catch up with their news.

Then on Saturday I was up bright and early to head for Amsterdam airport and catch my flights back to Madrid and Málaga. The first flight was delayed by more than an hour, and I thought I wouldn't make my connection in Madrid, but fortunately - because my knee injury is playing up again - they met me at the plane and rushed me in a wheelchair from one boarding gate to the other. So I reached my second flight just in time and arrived back in Spain yesterday at dinner time.

The B2b staff had already begun meeting to pray and plan for the two-week young leaders' course that we are running here in Alhaurín. (No, B2b doesn't stand for "back to back." I wouldn't normally have planned to work with two training schools so close together, but it just happened that B2b was scheduled to begin immediately after our third PCYM block came to an end.) B2b stands for, "Be the leader that God wants you to be," and it's a foundational, inspirational course for young leaders aged around 18 - 25.

So last night we went out for "tapas" (Spanish snacks like calamari, baby octopus, roast potatoes, chorizo, chicken pieces...) and ice cream with our B2b staff team of nine people. The students are all arriving this afternoon and the course actually starts with a late afternoon welcome and orientation time.

Now that the hot summer days have arrived here in Spain, our Sunday evening church service only begins at 7.00 instead of at 6.00. This allows people to make the most of their family time on Sunday - going to the beach, or whatever - before coming together as a congregation to worship the Lord. After two weeks in the Netherlands, I'm looking forward to singing worship songs in Spanish again. Three new believers are being baptised tonight and so it will be a time of testimony and celebration.

Genuinely surprised!

I'm co-leading this Principles in Child and Youth Ministry school with a Swedish friend called Ingela. She was a student on a PCYM that I led in Scotland - back in 1991 - and it's been a lot of fun, nearly two decades later, to lead this European PCYM together.

Both of us turned 50 at the beginning of May: I on the 4th, and Ingela just one day later on May 5th. Now that more than a whole month has passed, my birthday was not at all in my mind when some of the PCYM students asked if we could come over to their place for a surprise get-together this evening. So I was genuinely surprised when it turned out to be a double 50th birthday party with snacks and gifts for Ingela and myself.

I've always imagined that surprise parties cannot really be a surprise, and that the person must surely suspect something is afoot. But my South African friends caught me totally off guard when they threw a surprise braai (barbecue) for my fortieth birthday, and now I've been surprised again with a belated 50th party. Maybe I'll not be so unsuspecting when it comes to my sixtieth!!

In some ways, the biggest surprise of all was that my 50th birthday found me back in Europe. I would never have suspected that at all at the time when I was celebrating my fortieth. But, when I had my thirtieth birthday in Europe, it's equally true that I would never have imagined I'd be living in Africa when it came to my fortieth. And so, now in 2009, I'm not sure how confident I would be to predict where this next decade might take me.  

Tonight, at the birthday party, one of the people in the group asked me if I have any dreams or desires for this next decade of my life. And, to be totally honest, the biggest desire of my heart is that I would "finish well" - that I would continue to be sensitive and obedient to God's direction and never settle for second best. Studies show that only 30% of Christian leaders finish the race well. My heart's prayer is that I would be among the 30%.

S-PCYM

Our so-called "special" child and youth ministry school is now in its third block, and we're back in the Netherlands with the same twenty students that have been part of the course since the beginning of this year. During this two-week block, we're looking at how to understand and work with children and young people of different ages.

It's been raining every day since we arrived here, and so it's quite an adjustment from the warm weather that we'd been having in Spain. I'm not used to wearing a coat or needing so many covers on my bed. But it's nonetheless good to come together again with these students and to dedicate some more weeks to encouraging and equipping them for their ministry with children and youth.

Hallo and goodbye

How time flies! The first week of the LDC is already behind us. The delegates arrived last weekend and we've had a very full first week with wonderful times of teaching, prayer, worship and personal ministry. We've also enjoyed a week of lovely weather, eating our meals outside in the sunshine. Five weeks of LDC still lie ahead of us, with teaching and application on a wide variety of subjects relating to spiritual leadership.

Meanwhile, back at the "animal adoption centre" in Generalife Street, Tamba has had her spaying operation and has recovered well. Even as we've been saying "hallo" to all the LDC delegates, we are hoping that we will soon be saying "goodbye" to all the kittens! They are particularly cute and are now at the optimal age for going to their new homes, and so we're really hoping that they will leave us very soon. We've put notices up in all the local veterinary surgeries, but the busy LDC schedule means that we're not at home very much these days and so it's not easy for people to reach us by telephone if they want to come and choose a kitten. I'm hoping that we might get a few phone calls even this weekend.

Semana Santa

No, you English speakers, despite the "santa" in the name, this has nothing to do with Christmas! Semana Santa is the Spanish name for Holy Week - the seven days leading up to Easter Sunday - and it's a big thing in Spain. Here in Málaga province, many towns, large and small, are known for the pomp and extravagance of their Semana Santa parades. A lot of men are needed to carry the huge and heavy statues of the "Virgen" (virgin Mary) and often there are groups of masked and hooded characters (which to me are strangely reminiscent of the Ku Klux Klan.) Adults and children alike dress up to be part of the procession, or to line the streets and watch it go by.

From my perception, the strangest thing of all about these semana santa celebrations is that there is sometimes no evidence at all of honouring or celebrating Jesus! After all, He is the reason that we celebrate this week in the calendar of the church around the world; we want to remember the fact that He loved us enough to die for us... and that God was strong and powerful enough to defeat death and bring Jesus back to life again. Recently I was reading in Ephesians chapter one, and was so encouraged by verses 19 - 20, which say that God's power at work in our lives - yours and mine, if we are followers of Jesus - is exactly the same power that He used when He raised Jesus from the dead and seated Him in heaven. Wow! Sometimes I forget, or take for granted, that this very same resurrection power can be at work even in my ordinary, relatively unimportant life in the 21st century.

Here in Alhaurín de la Torre, our new little church congregation will be having a special communion service tonight to remember the fact that Jesus shed His blood to bring us new life. And on Sunday evening, the children and teenagers will all be part of a special Easter service when we can celebrate the resurrection together.

For many people, Jesus isn't honestly a big focus at Easter time: whether they have "religious" actitivities like here in Málaga, or whether they turn their attention mainly to Easter bunnies and chocolate eggs, many people leave Jesus pretty much in the background. I don't know what your "semana santa" is usually like... but my prayer for you, as for myself, is that Jesus will be at the centre of it, and that your Easter will be full of the joy of knowing His new life and resurrection power. May God bless you this Semana Santa... and may your Easter be a happy one!

I've been adopted!

If you receive my newsletters, or if you read any of my blog postings for last August, you’ll know that my moving from Africa to live back in Europe brought a considerable financial challenge with it. I don’t receive a salary for my work; instead I trust God to provide for all my needs. The most usual way that He does this is through financial gifts from Christian friends and family. Living in Europe is three or four times more expensive than living in Africa, and so I’ve needed to trust God for a pretty substantial increase in my monthly support.

Over the past couple of months, as I became aware that I’d been well and truly “adopted” by a stray cat, I realised that the responsible thing to do would be to have Tamba spayed, so that she wouldn’t have any more litters of kittens. But spaying a cat costs 80 - 100 euros down here, and I knew I couldn’t afford that sort of money - certainly not at a time when my monthly income was barely enough to cover the costs of rent, food and other more necessary living costs.

But even as I thought about this dilemma, I was reminded very clearly of something that happened back in the beginning of 2006, when I still lived in Cape Town. I received an email from a man I hadn’t yet met at the time (the husband of a friend) saying that he had received money for Christmas and, when he prayed, he felt that God told him to send the money for my dog. Well, this was rather mysterious, as there seemed to be no obvious reason why either of our two dogs would need such a large sum of money.

Just over a week later, we were out of town for a few days and a young friend was looking after our house and dogs. When we got home again, we discovered that one of the dogs had had an accident and that part of her beautiful collie tail had been broken off. She needed to have the infected part of the tail amputated so that the skin could be stitched over it again. And yes, you’ve guessed it: the cost of Zola’s operation was exactly the amount of money that my Scottish friend had sent “for my dog.”

Later that day, I was reading my Bible and I had to smile when I came across Psalm 36 vs 6: “You take care of both people and animals, oh Lord.” This rather unusual incident spoke to me very clearly that I have a heavenly Father who is interested in every single detail of my life - and even in providing enough money for me to take care of my animals.

Last month, as I reflected that I couldn’t justify spending money on something as unimportant and “unnecessary” as spaying a cat, I simply prayed: “Lord, you gave me a home in Cape Town and you even provided for my pets there. Now I’m transitioning to a new home in Spain and, if I’ve been permanently adopted by this cat, I know that I can trust You somehow to provide a solution for getting her spayed.”

I remembered that I had read an article in a local newspaper about an organisation that trapped, spayed and re-released feral cats, so I decided to try emailing a few animal charities in the area and asking if anyone knew anything about this group. Before very long I received an email from them, saying that they hold spaying sessions every four to six weeks and that they would be very happy to spay my cat simply for a donation. All I needed to do was wait until the kittens were weaned, and then make an appointment to take Tamba in for the operation. We’ll be doing it a couple of weeks from now, just before the LDC begins here in Spain, and around the time that the kittens will be going to their new homes.

It may seem insignificant or unimportant - after all, it’s only an animal - but this little incident reminded me yet again that I haven’t only been adopted by a cat. Like we read in several different Bible verses (Galatians 4 vs 5, for example) I have also been adopted into the family of God. I am His child and I have a heavenly Father who provides for all of my needs - even something as ordinary and unreligious as a spaying operation for a cat!

I don’t know what your needs are this week, and whether they seem big or small, important or not so important in the scheme of things. But I do know that, if we’re living our lives for God, He is faithful to take care of all kinds of practical needs that might otherwise be a concern for us. (Matthew 6: 33) You can trust Him to take good care of you and your needs too.

See how they grow...

For me, one of the most rewarding things about working with PCYM is seeing how the different students grow in their relationship with God and in the development of their ministry with young people. Since arriving back in Spain this weekend, though, I've enjoyed seeing a different kind of growth: the huge difference in Tamba's kittens during the two weeks that I've been gone. At six weeks old today, they are now incredibly cute and very lively. Sue has enjoyed being "grandma" while I was away - and seeing the kittens pass their mini-milestones of being weaned and toilet trained. In just two or three weeks' time, they'll be ready to leave mum and so we're now beginning to look for good homes for them.