See how they grow

If you come to my house, you'll see that everyone seems to be growing up: Tobi, who used to be tiny, is now the same size as Tamba. But the biggest changes over the past year have been in Gabriela and Teddi, as you can see here. The two of them continue to be big buddies, and she's enjoying the fact that he hasn't moved to Scotland yet.

An unexpected trip

After having to work from home for much of last week, so that the painter could work on the house, we decided to take a trip at the weekend to the lakes near El Chorro. Ada and Gabriela had never been there before. We also took the dog with us, as it's one of her favourite places and she loves to swim all day. Just before coming home, though, I had a different sort of trip: I stumbled over a rock and put a hand out to break my fall. Suddenly the pain was excruciating, and my hand was so swollen up that driving home was rather a challenge. Turns out I've caused an injury called gamekeeper's thumb, or skier's thumb, and I've to wear a brace for the next four weeks to stabilise the joint and allow the ulnar collateral ligament to repair itself. So I'm having to do some tasks one-handed for a while, and am trusting my hand will be fine again in time for my Switzerland trip at the beginning of September (when I'll need to be able to type up a lot of notes during our university meetings.)

Bye bye blue...

We enjoy inviting people to our house and blessing them with our hospitality. Whether it's the LDC staff who stay with us for a few weeks in spring, or one of Gabriela's friends who comes for a sleepover, or just friends from church who join us for a meal or a cup of coffee, we enjoy welcoming them to our home. Whenever people came to us for the first time and we gave them directions, we always told them, "Drive up the avenue and it's on the right hand side. You can't miss it; it's the blue house."

Well, we won't be saying that any more. As of today, "la casa azúl" is no more. Like some other houses in town, it suffered "cosmetic" damage during many winter months of torrential rain, so the owner arranged for the insurance company to cover the costs of repainting the facade and damp-proofing our extra downstairs room (which used to be the garage.) The front of the house was painted today and is now "almond" instead of blue. The indoor painting will happen tomorrow, and then probably the window bars the following day.

We still hope to welcome many friends to our home; it's just not going to be "the blue house" any more.

New birth at breakfast

Everyone talks about the present "economic crisis," and we've seen how unemployment has affected the lives of many Spanish families. We're currently giving out food to more than 250 families - through the ABC, a charitable organisation that some of our church members have started here in Alhaurín. We have favour with the local authorities, and the mayor was there with us when we moved the ministry to newer and larger premises.

It's our prayer that the people reached through the ABC will begin to understand something of God's love and care for them, and that they might also start coming along to church services. Last Saturday, we held a special ladies' breakfast in the house that we use for church services, and more than a dozen local ladies turned up for that. We decorated tables out on the terrace, served a lovely breakfast, put on a short presentation of music and songs, and even offered a programme for the children who came with their mothers. A florist friend made up beautiful gift bags with a plant in them, and the ladies were suprised and touched to receive these.

My friend, Ada, shared the story of how she'd experienced God in her own life, and many of the ladies were in tears as they heard of how God had been with her, even in challenging and difficult situations. Later, Ada had the privilege of praying with one of the ladies who wanted to begin a new life with God.

We were encouraged by the success of this first breakfast, and plan to put on some others in the future. In the meantime, I'm going to be giving English classes at the ABC this month, so that the people can get a little training that might help them when they are job-seeking. Thanks for your prayers.

Swimming with Simba

Well, our days of house-sitting and pet-sitting are almost over. Yesterday, my friends arrived back from Canada and tomorrow my parents fly back to Scotland. So my month of feeding chickens and turkey, walking the dog and swimming with the cat is finished now. (Well, not really swimming with the cat; he only watches us. The photo shows me having an early morning swim - watched by Simba - before going to the airport.) Both the dog and cat seemed to enjoy hanging around when my parents were relaxing by the pool.

One year on

It's a year now since I bought my car. After two years of not having a vehicle, it was such a blessing to get it. Although I haven't ventured far from Alhaurín, I've still covered more than five thousand kilometres over the past year, and it will be due for a service soon - a chance to learn new car-related Spanish words, I suppose. My car's the one on the right, by the way, not the one on the left, which is an old car that I spotted recently at the marina in Benalmádena.

Summer guests

I've been busy playing tour guide and holiday host over the past week to my parents, my brother and my niece. They spent much of their time just relaxing by the swimming pool, but one day we took a trip inland to the lakes at El Chorro, near Ardales, where we swam, played on airbeds, did some cliff jumping (fromhigh rocks on an island into the deep water), went out in a pedalo with a water slide on it, and picnicked under the pine trees. Brandy (the border collie) had the time of her life - swimming all day and retrieving objects that we threw into the water for her.

On another day, my Scottish family came to my house to have a South American meal with my Spanish family. Ada made a couple of Peruvian specialities: a fish starter called ceviche, and then the main course was a chicken and rice dish called chaufa de pollo. With my parents, brother and niece in the photo below are Ada and Gabriela (my Peruvian friends that I live with here in Alhaurin) and another friend, Adriana, from Colombia.

Gabriela had her eleventh birthday this week. She and Kasey went to the local carnival together, had a sleepover at my house, went out for chocolate and churros, had fun at the swimming pool and the beach... and went to a couple of birthday parties.

My brother and niece flew back to Scotland yesterday, but my parents will be staying on for another two weeks... probably just relaxing by the pool and enjoying the warm weather.