Chocolate and cheese

After another morning of meetings, we took some time yesterday afternoon to drive into the mountains and give our international group of leaders a taste of Switzerland. At the beginning of the week we had watched a video which explained that Switzerland is "more than chocolate and cheese," and told us a little about the nation's Christian heritage. Yesterday, however, our experience of Switzerland was very much about exposure to its chocolate and cheese. We visited a well-known chocolate factory, where we heard and saw how chocolate is produced, and had an opportunity to sample different kinds of chocolate at the end of our tour. Then, after visiting the picturesque medieval village and castle of Gruyères, we were joined by some Swiss KKI friends for a traditional dinner of cheese fondue - made with the famous Gruyère cheese (my favourite!) that is produced in that region of Switzerland.

Today, after worship, we took time in the morning to consider initiatives related to the importance of the family, and had a session in the afternoon to evaluate some of the training courses that we offer around the world - to consider ways that they can be improved or offered in different formats. This evening we heard about different areas of ministry with children and young people at risk, and took time to pray about issues like human trafficking, and the plight of the girl child in many nations. Tomorrow we be our last full day of meetings, and we will be praying into various leadership issues and roles in our international ministry. Thanks for your prayers.

Our week in Switzerland...

After some rainy days at the beginning of the week, we were blessed with crisp sunny weather today in Switzerland. I began the week staying at friends' home near Yverdon; then the four of us in the KKI European leadership team drove into the mountains for two days of meetings in a little Swiss chalet with a stunning view over the valley and down to Lake Neuchâtel. Now we're in our third home of the week - in a local church property consisting of a small conference centre and old people's home in the historic centre of Yverdon. 

We'll be here until next Tuesday for the annual meetings of our KKI international leadership team. One of our tasks this week is to consider some refinements that we're making in our international purpose statement - some rewordings that reflect the things God has been saying to us about the importance of our families, our generations and our lifestyle in the way that we express the Kingdom of God and serve Him together. We're also looking at some of our current strategies for mobilising young people in making God known and being a blessing to the nations - such as the Gateway strategy in Asia and Africa, and our new Planting Together (tree project) vision partnering Europe with Africa. One evening we took time just to listen to God in prayer and to write down the things He spoke to us about ourselves and our ministry in the years to come, and this evening we had a time of praying for each other and for our different needs.
Today I had a trip down memory lane, when a few of us took a short drive to see the YWAM training centre in Lausanne - the place where I did a school of evangelism in the 1980s before going with an outreach team on my first trip to West Africa. Tomorrow, after another morning of meetings and prayer, we'll be taking time out for an outing together. Although rain has been forecast, we're trusting the day will be nice enough for us to enjoy the beautiful Swiss scenery. We'll be visiting a chocolate factory, going to the "cheese" village of Gruyere, and then ending the day with a meal of Swiss cheese fondue.

From Sleepover to Switzerland...

I leave for Switzerland on Sunday morning, and will be spending the following ten days in Yverdon - where I'll be busy with the annual meetings of the King's Kids European leadership team (ELT) and international leadership team (ILT.) Before I leave, though, I have a rather full weekend ahead of me. Tonight, ten pre-teen girls will be arriving at our house for a sleepover, and then tomorrow they'll be performing a dance at another special breakfast our church is having for the women that we've met through the ABC food distribution to needy families. Forty ladies have signed up for the breakfast this time, including some of the women who've been attending our Alpha course for new believers.

Raindrops and umbrellas...

For day two of Lent, the 40 Acts initiative is encouraging us to consider which items we could carry with us in order to be more prepared to be a "good Samaritan" to someone in need. For example, you could carry an extra coin in your pocket in case you encounter someone who doesn't have a coin for their trolley at the supermarket.  Our weather here in Southern Spain has reverted to an almost incessant torrential downpour. As it's interspersed with occasional sunny intervals, it's easy for people to go outdoors without an umbrella and then get caught in a heavy shower of rain. My second "act of generosity" for this week is to carry an extra folding umbrella with me, so that I can give it away to someone who gets caught in the rain without one.
When my friend Jacqui comes to Spain at the end of the month, we might possibly see a whole lot of umbrellas when we go to visit the medieval city of Cordoba. They hang like colourful decorations above some of the narrow streets. This is because the umbrella was, for thousands of years, a symbol of protection and authority that was reserved for kings, queens and religious leaders likes priests and popes. The umbrella form was even incorporated into religious architecture such as Cordoba's famous mosque, which began life as a church, served as a mosque for centuries, and today is a Christian Cathedral again. It's a world heritage site, and one that Jacqui and I hope to visit when we take a couple of days "tourist time" before the busy seminar and LDC season of April and May. 

Don't give up..... give out!

Today is Shrove Tuesday, Mardi Gras, Pancake Tuesday... or perhaps it goes under some other name in your part of the world. Tomorrow is the beginning of Lent, a time when religious people traditionally give up certain things, usually certain kinds of food, for the 40 days leading up to Easter. Even non-religious people sometimes find that Lent is a good excuse for starting a diet: giving up chocolate, chips, or whatever their particular stumbling block happens to be. The truth, however, is that the true message of Easter is the story of God's amazing generosity. What He gave up was His own Son, allowing Him to die on the cross so that you and I could have a real friendship with God again.
Stewardship, a UK charity whose mission is to transform generosity and help Christians be more effective in their giving, has launched an initiative called 40 Acts - a celebration and a challenge which they hope will transform the way we think about Lent and will help us to live out the generosity of the Easter message over the next forty days. Instead of giving something up, why not give something out instead? From now until Easter, they are challenging Christians to live a lifestyle of generosity and to engage in daily acts of kindness that will make an impact in their world and be a blessing to those around them.
Pancake day isn't a tradition here in Spain - you can't just go out and buy them in a shop - so Gabriela and I planned to make pancakes for our first act of kindness at home. I showed her how to make the batter and we made some pancakes as a surprise for her Mum when she got home from work. If you'd like to get involved in "giving something out" for Lent, why not check out the  40 Acts website or sign up for their emails with suggestions for different acts of kindness and generosity over the coming six weeks?

Preferred perching places

The owners of our house had designed it with all kinds of built-in concrete shelving - presumably for holding speakers from the music system or television. Our cats, however, consider these to be a perfect, custom-built playground. Each has their own favourite spot for taking a nap or being in a vantage point from which to survey what the rest of the household is up to - whether from the little shelf next to my bedroom door, or from the very highest one in the living room. Tamba surprised us all this week, however, by disappearing during a long session of vacuuming and finally being discovered high up on a kitchen cupboard above the sink!
We had fun celebrating Ada's birthday yesterday - seeing a movie, walking around the Plaza Mayor, and finishing the day by having supper together - but it turned out to be the last of the dry sunny days and this morning the torrential rain was back again. That, of course, is always an invitation for the cats to find a more cosy communal siesta spot on a warm bed... but once the noisy thunder and lightning started up, Tamba recruited Tobi to the new place of refuge on the kitchen cupboard!

The first ice cream of the year...

The weather seems to have been much better this winter than it was last year. Yes, we've still had some days of incredible torrential rain, but they've been interspersed this year with plenty of crisp dry days, and even some warm sunny days that herald the promise of spring and summer on the way. The ice cream parlour at the end of our street decided that it was time to open its doors again for the new season and, as this is the schools' mid-term holiday week, Gabriela and I went there yesterday to eat our first ice cream of 2011. Mmmm, delicioso!

Today is Ada's birthday, so we'll be doing some celebrating this evening. Swedish and Spanish are on the menu: she announced that she'd like the Swedish meatball dish from Ikea, after we've been to the cinema to see the latest Disney movie, "Enredados." If you have kids, you may have already seen it in English: "Tangled" is the story of Rapunzel.