Finishing with fondue... and with thanksgiving

Swiss cheese fondue has been a favourite dish of mine since the first time I worked with a YWAM training school in Switzerland - way back in the early 1980s. So it was a special treat for me yesterday when we decided to have fondue as a typical Swiss meal to bring an end to these weeks of child and youth ministry school here. Our PCYM staff, students and families form a group of more than thirty people, so the dining room needed to be set up with many small tables, with a fondue set on each. Then, after our special Swiss meal, the "dessert" was made up of different kinds of sweets and specialities from all the nations that we come from. (I brought tablet and shortbread from Scotland, the Dutch brought liquorice and peppermints, the Swiss gave different kinds of chocolate, and there was also a variety of different sweets and chocolate from Germany, Finland, Sweden, Norway and Belgium.) It was a lot of fun.

When I've lived in other countries - like Scotland, South Africa and now in Spain - I've sometimes asked Swiss friends who came to visit me to bring a pack of ready-mixed cheese fondue with them, so that I could enjoy a taste of Switzerland there in that other country. I've never owned a proper fondue set, but have always "made do" with a saucepan or some other way of heating up the cheese. So it was a lovely surprise yesterday when we, the school leaders, were presented with a thank you gift for our work in organising and leading this course... and the gift included a genuine earthenware fondue set. I'm looking forward to being able to enjoy cheese fondue sometime when I'm back in Spain again.

And so our PCYM is coming to an end. We've been having a couple of days of "debriefing" and evaluation, when we can look back at the past nine months and be encouraged by hearing each other's testimonies of what we have learned and how we have grown in God. Yesterday we took time to pray for the different nations that the students are working in, and today we'll have a special time of commissioning and prayer for each individual student. We've also made kind of a "diploma" for each student and each of their children who have been part of the course since the beginning of the year, and we'll have a presentation of these certificates before finishing the day with a time of worship and thanksgiving to God. Our prayer is that these students can take the principles they have learned in PCYM, and apply them to make a difference in the lives of hundreds of young people and families in Europe and beyond.

Living a quiet life?

This morning in my quiet time, I was reading Paul's letter to the Thessalonians when I noticed the exhortation in chapter 4 verse 11: "Make it your aim to live a quiet life, to mind your own business and to earn your own living." Well, at first glimpse, this is totally not the life of a typical missionary. Often our life is anything but quiet as we travel from one location to another in order to reach people with the gospel and "make disciples of all nations." Far from minding our own business, we seek to influence and transform individuals, cities and even whole nations. And because many missionaries live by faith, rather than earning a salary, some people might think that we don't really "earn our own living." It would seem that we are not at all following these instructions from the Bible.

Of course, these words were originally written to the believers in Thessalonica, and I guess that they were addressing specific issues and problems among the young Christians in that city at the time. Perhaps they had lived wild and immoral lives; perhaps they had been known as gossips and busybodies. We know from another letter (2 Thess 3: 10 - 12) that some of those new believers were living lazy lives, expecting others to provide for them, and just spending their time meddling in other people's affairs.

However, the reason they were exhorted to live a "quiet" and godly life was "so that you will win the respect of those who are not believers, and you will not need to depend on anyone for what you need." (1 Thess 4: 12) Wherever we are and whatever our situation, this should still be our aim today - to live lives that are honouring to God and that are a testimony to others of His life-transforming power.

And for those of us whose income as missionaries is made up of financial gifts from others, it's also a reminder that we do not ultimately depend on people to meet our needs, but this generosity on the part of friends and supporters is ultimately our provision from our God and heavenly Father who promised to supply all our needs. I thank God regularly for the friends and family who stand with me in this way and are therefore such an important part of the things that God has called me to do as a missionary.

So, perhaps our life is not always "quiet," and perhaps we don't always "mind our own business," but let's pray that you and I will be diligent and fruitful in our mission of reaching others with the truth and love of God.

The end... of an era

My visa expires today, and somehow this brings with it a strange feeling of the end of an era. No, I'm not speaking about my visa for Spain. Thanks to the European Community, my Spanish residence permit is "forever." I'm speaking about my visa for South Africa. When I last renewed it, back in 2006, I didn't yet know that I would be returning to Europe in 2007. So my South African residence permit was granted for another three years... and those three years come to an end today.

At the time of leaving Cape Town, I discovered that it's impossible to pack fourteen years of your life into a 20 kg suitcase. There was so much that I had to leave behind in South Africa, and so I was thankful when a Swiss friend offered to bring back a box of books for me. (The books weighed 16 kilos.) There hasn't been an opportunity to retrieve them before now, though, and so my books have stayed in his house in Switzerland for the past two years. Being in Switzerland this month (I came here with only five kilos of luggage for the PCYM!) will allow me to reclaim my books and take them home with me. Finally getting all my stuff back this week has further added to this feeling of the "end of an era."

As I look back at my life, I feel so blessed to have had the privilege of living and working in countries that are not only very beautiful, but are also warm and sunny. (I'm a fan of warmer climates, as you might have guessed!) The top two photos above show the beauty of my "old home" in South Africa, and the bottom two show the beauty of my "new home" in southern Spain. Some things are very similar.... but others are very different, of course. And so it's the end of an era in some ways.... but the continuation of a new season in other ways. Whatever the season, it's so good to rely on the love and faithfulness of our unchanging God.

The Málaga melon mystery...

A few weeks ago, the flower bed in front of my house (which is only about six inches wide and has been a bed of empty soil all year) was suddenly taken over by an exuberant leafy plant, with small yellow flowers and very large leaves. After some investigation, the cats decided that this new foliage was a good place to seek shade from the summer sunshine.

The plant has continued to grow, however, gradually taking over the front patio and beginning to spread into the street. After a while, I noticed small green fruit beginning to appear - fruit which grew and increased in size just as quickly as the plant itself had done. I began to wonder if some kind of courgette or zucchini was growing in my front yard. Then I stumbled upon a picture of arava melons growing in Israel, and realised that they looked exactly the same as the fruit in front of my house.

Interestingly, Arava or Arabah is a Biblical word; it's the name of the desert wilderness east of the Jordan - the place where Moses spoke to the Israelites at the beginning of Deuteronomy, before they renewed their journey toward the promised land. Arava melons come from that part of the world and can grow in relatively dry and hot conditions. A quick check on the internet showed me that several different kinds of melon have leaves that look rather like the plant in my garden.

Earlier this year, after reading of how the prophet Jeremiah told the exiles to, "Plant gardens and eat what you grow in them," I planted some tomatoes on my roof terrace (see here) as a symbol of establishing a new home in Spain. I'm now beginning to wonder if I'm also, unknowingly, growing melons in front of my house. I'm off to Scotland next week, though, so I don't know if I'll have any opportunity to eat melons, if indeed that's what they turn out to be. Watch this space for the unfolding tale of the Málaga melon mystery.

How's your diet?

This is a picture of Teddi, who has developed a new habit of lying on my Bibles and playing with my pens when I'm having quiet time in the mornings. This morning, however, his presence was rather appropriate, as I was reading in Hebrews chapter five, verses 11 - 14.

At the end of last year, when a stray cat began coming to my door, I named her Tamba, and a friend joked with me that this was the acronym for the Twins And Multiple Births Association. Little did I know then that a multiple birth would take place in my own bedroom and that we'd soon find ourselves with four lively kittens in the house. Six months later, the two kittens who are still with me have grown very fast, and Teddi is now bigger than his mother, Tamba, as you can see in the middle picture below.

I've been just a little concerned that this big boy and his sister are still drinking milk from mummy. This means, of course, that Tamba continues to eat enough food for a nursing mother, and all this extra nutrition is not doing her "figure" any good. This week, I tried to discourage the milk-drinking by putting a sock tube around Tamba's middle so that the kittens couldn't get to a teat. But Tamba wasn't at all impressed and, once my back was turned, she managed to wriggle out of it again.

And so it seemed strangely appropriate that Teddi settled down beside me when I was reading Hebrews 5 this morning. Verses 11 - 14 speak about Christians who are slow to grow in God, and who continue to drink spiritual "milk" instead of moving on to the solid food of all the more mature teaching that is found in the Word of God.

What is your diet like? Do you simply return to your favourite Bible passages again and again? Or are you making sure that you are feeding on the whole Bible, in the both the Old and the New Testaments? It's easy to avoid parts that seem harder to understand, but it's so exciting and encouraging when God speaks truth to us through those parts too.

Well, it's not that Teddi and Tobi don't eat plenty of solid cat food; they do eat plenty of that, but they still keep returning for some "baby milk" now and then. And perhaps it's true that we as Christians also need to go "back to basics" from time to time, and be reminded of simple truths - like how much God loves us, and how Jesus died so that our sins could be forgiven.

As you and I read our Bibles this month, I pray that we'll have a "balanced diet" and that we will all continue to grow in our friendship with God.

Staying in the shadow...

During these hot weeks of the Spanish summer, everyone seems to be seeking out a shady place where they can get some protection from the heat of the sun - like in this picture of my Mum and my niece walking through Alhaurín de la Torre one day last week.

I had to think of this when I was reading this morning in Psalm 91. The first verse says, "Those who stay in the shelter of the Most High God will rest in the shadow of the Almighty." My Spanish Bible says, la protección del Altísimo (the protection of the Most High) and la sombra del Todopoderoso (the shade or shadow of the All-Powerful One.)

You see, if you want to have protection from the sun, you can't move too far away from the tree or building that is offering shade and shadow. It's the same in our relationship with God: if we want to know His care and protection, we need to stay close to Him in all areas of our daily lives. The word that's usually translated as "stay" or "dwell" in this verse is the Hebrew yashab, meaning to sit down, to remain, to live, to stay there all the time. God loves us deeply, but we can only experience the fullness of His care and protection if we make a choice to stay close enough to be "under His shadow." Fortunately for us, God is huge, and so His shade extends very far. It's not easy to move beyond the scope of His care for us.

On Sunday at church, the speaker was preaching about various people in the Bible of whom it is written, "The Lord was with him" - people like Joseph, Gideon, Moses, David and so on. You might imagine that having God with you would guarantee you a life that is always easy and pleasant. But this isn't what we see in the Bible; some of these people faced real challenges and difficult life situations.

Today, in Psalm 91, I noticed again that God promises to be with those who love Him, but He says (vs 15): "I will be with them when they are in trouble." I've experienced this in my own life; there may be troubles and difficulties at times, but God will always be with you if you stay close enough to be under His shadow.

Heading home...

Isn't it funny how times of holiday can actually feel busy and leave you feeling kind of tired at the end of the day? Perhaps it was my parents' age, or my niece's energy, or just the hot Spanish weather that made the past two weeks seem so full, and left Mum and Dad feeling that they're heading home now for a rest. The truth is that we actually spent most days over the past two weeks simply relaxing by the swimming pool.

But we also drove up to the mountain village of Mijas, where we had a tour of the town in a horse drawn carriage. And we drove eastwards along the coast to Nerja, where my niece wanted to visit a donkey sanctuary - a place where donkeys, pot-bellied pigs and various other animals have been rescued from mistreatment and given a good home. Kasey thoroughly enjoyed feeding the animals and walking one of the dogs.

While we were in Nerja, we spent hours body boarding in the very salty sea, and on another day, we drove inland and swam in some freshwater lakes. There was also time to see a little bit of the old town of Alhaurín, and my parents even tried out the open air "geriatric gym" which has different kinds of equipment to help older folks keep their muscles and joints fit.

I took my family to the airport this morning, and they'll be back in Scotland by early afternoon. I'll be heading home to join them there in just ten days time, but first I have some more time here in Spain to work on the preparations for PCYM, the applications for LDC, and various other bits and pieces of work and ministry. I'm also continuing to look for a new place to stay, as I haven't found anything suitable yet, and time is slowly running out.