Animals at the manger...

My flatmate's from Peru and her little figures for the nativity scene by our Christmas tree look just like indigenous people of South America. There's even a llama among the animals watching the baby Jesus in the stable! However, these are not the only animals showing an interest in our manger. Tamba's kittens, Teddi and Tobi, seem intrigued by the tree, the shiny paper and the small figures. We've had to put a rug at the foot of the tree, so that no little shepherds get knocked down and smashed on the floor.

Strengthen the feeble knees...

I've been having problems with my left knee on and off for the past six years, and have sometimes had to wear a brace to give it some support and make walking less painful. To my horror, something also happened with my right knee this week: it keeps giving way with a sudden and stabbing pain. Kitted out with an elastic brace on both knees, I began to feel embarrassingly like a racehorse! And then, to add insult to injury (or maybe it was to add injury to insult) I began to have trouble with my back again, and a physiotherapist suggested that I wear a brace to give more support for a while to the disks in the lumbar region. I'm wrapped up in so much elastic this week, that I'm beginning to feel like a walking advertisement for orthopaedic supplies!!

There's a verse in the New Testament (Hebrews 12:12) which says, "Lift up your weak hands and strengthen your feeble knees." In context, it's encouraging the believers to take heart and not to give up when they encounter challenges in following and obeying God. This week, with a knee guard on both legs, it seems that I've put it into practice somewhat more literally.

In real life, though, it's true that we do sometimes need "a little extra support." How good it is to know that we can not only depend on the Holy Spirit's strength, but can also be helped along by the prayers and encouragements of others. Today I'd like to say thank you to the friends and family who so faithfully support me in prayer. May God bless you this weekend.

Commuting and computing...

I'm "commuting" this week between two homes and two sets of animals. While my friends are away for a week, I'm house-sitting at the villa, and looking after their dog, cat and chickens. This is the villa that serves as a leadership retreat centre, so I began the week by preparing breakfasts for a small group of leaders who were finishing a few days of consultation about ministry and missions in the Catholic nations of the world. Now that the group has left, I've been cleaning the rooms, washing all the bedding, and getting things ready for some new guests who'll arrive next week. That's the "indoor" part of my job for this week. The "outdoor" part involves feeding the chickens, cleaning the hen house, checking for newly laid eggs, watering the citrus trees which will provide us with lots of oranges and lemons over the winter months... and, of course, taking the dog for her daily walk in the nearby woods.

Then, at some point during the day, it's time to head back to my own house and check up on how Tamba, Teddi and Tobi are settling in to their new home. They're beginning to get used to the flat now, and they welcome me at the door when I arrive to give them fresh food and water for the day. Teddi continues to enjoy sitting on the balcony and is beginning to get himself noticed by the patients who go in and out of the health centre.

Once the "commuting" is done for the day, it's time to start the "computing." One of my goals for this month is to make further progress on the curriculum project I'm working on this year: translating a manual of pre-teens resources from German into English. This involves working for several hours every day on the computer.

Then there are also a number of church meetings to be hosted at the villa: the prayer meeting tonight, the youth group tomorrow evening, and the church service on Sunday evenings. And, just to add even more of an international flavour, I'm going to be speaking this week to a group of ladies from Norway. (They're from the church that's attended by one of our S-PCYM students and they're in Malaga this week for a ladies' retreat.)

Well, that's all for today. I'd better go now and hang up the laundry...

Downsizing...

Well, I moved house this week, and all the packing and unpacking of boxes is almost over now. Moving from a four-bedroomed house into a single room meant that I needed to "downsize" a bit: I had to give some things away and put other things into suitcases that I'll store under the bed. The cats also had to make the adjustment from the old house to the new flat, and they spent most of the first day hiding under the bed with the suitcases. After a while, though, they began to explore a bit - no doubt surprised that there were no staircases for them to play on. They sat on the balcony, seemingly bemused that they could see the outdoors and the people walking by, but not actually get out to the street. And, of course, they're also having to adapt to new people in the house, and to having children around.

After a few days, though, they seem to be getting used to the new place, and they enjoy playing around on the tiny inner terrace where we hang our laundry. The flat is near the centre of the old town, and looks out on the new health centre/clinic. Teddi seems to enjoy lying on the balcony, watching the ambulances come and go (as long as they come and go quietly; he hasn't heard one with a siren yet!)

So this will be our home for the next few months (six months for Tamba and me, and slightly less for Teddi and Tobi, who will be moving to Scotland at the beginning of next year.) It will also be my place of work for a while, as I have quite a lot of computer work to do during the next three months.

Meanwhile, some friends - a family from church - will be moving into the house where I lived for the past twelve months, so perhaps I'll visit the "old place" again now and then.

No longer homeless

One of the first friends I made after moving to Spain last year was Ada - a Peruvian lady with a ten year old daughter. Ada used to share a flat with her sister, but this sister recently moved to live in Madrid. However, the lease on their flat here in Alhaurín continues until the end of March next year.

On Sunday evening after church, Ada came to me and asked if I would consider moving in with them to share their flat over the next six months. It would help her with her monthly rent payment, and it would give me a housing option that is possible with my current income. So I went to see the flat tonight and we decided that I would move in at the end of this month. Of course, this means that I'll be homeless again at the end of March, but perhaps there will be a better, longer-term option at that time.

Ten year old Gabriela has always wanted to have a cat, and so she's thrilled that I'll be moving in, at least for the first few months, with Tamba, Teddi and Tobi. She's also just begun to learn English at school, and so I'll be able to help her with her homework. Of course, living with Ada and Gabriela will no doubt also be very good for my Spanish, as it means I'll be surrounded by it every day.

Thank you so much to everyone who prayed for the "miracle" of finding a home within my budget. Your prayers have been answered and I have a new place to live - at least for the next six months. No doubt I'll be asking for your prayers again at that time... and knowing that God will once again have something new in store.

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.