Two thirds of the leadership development course are now behind us, and only two weeks remain before the delegates and staff prepare to head home to their different parts of the world.
Yesterday we decided to have a class outing to nearby Benalmádena, where some enjoyed walking on the beach, while others enjoyed walking in Paloma Park with its landscaped gardens and famous collection of cactus plants. The children enjoyed seeing the rabbits, ducks, geese, peacocks and other creatures that wander freely around the park. In the evening, we all gathered at Villa Rehoboth for a delicious barbecue and salad bar. Sadly, it was also a time of praying for and saying goodbye to one of the families who had been with us since the start of the LDC- a couple and their young son who had come all the way from Vanuatu. A scan showed that their unborn child might have developmental problems, possibly spina bifida, and so the couple has decided to pursue the possibility of foetal surgery in Germany. As we send them out, we continue to remember them in our prayers.
Looking ahead to week five of the LDC, Dagmar and I will be teaching about how to identify and write down our personal and ministry values and vision. We'll also be beginning to look at the subject of leadership coaching and mentoring. Thanks for your prayers.
I got a dog for my birthday last week: a lovely King Charles Cavalier Spaniel called Charlie. Before you start wondering what my three cats are thinking about this situation, let me explain a little better....
We're half way through the leadership development course and it's been so encouraging to see God at work in the lives of missionary leaders from different parts of Europe, Asia and North America. A first for us this year, however, is that a dog came to LDC with his family! Charlie is a well behaved boy - lying peacefully under a chair, and only groaning a little when long classroom sessions send him to sleep. He's very cute and I've joked with his owners that I am going to keep him when they leave for the long drive back to Austria. So, last week on my birthday, they came to me and said, "Here's your birthday present." I was allowed to walk Charlie home from lunch and enjoy him for half an hour before his owners came back to reclaim him.
Picking Charlie up to have my photo taken with him, it was rather surprising to realise that, back home, I have a cat who is almost as large and as heavy as this little dog. As long as I don't have a dog of my own, Teddi is proving to be a very cute alternative.
There was a season when I celebrated my birthday in Asia every year (China, Hong Kong, Thailand) because it always fell during the KKI leadership team meetings that we held in that part of the world during the run-up to the Beijing Olympics. In this new season, having my birthday during the Leadership Development Course in Europe is beginning to be a regular occurrence. Amidst the rather full LDC schedule, there's not a lot of time to add in extra celebrations, and yet we still manage to make everyone's birthday a little bit special for them. Several children and adults celebrate their birthdays during these six weeks that we're spending together. This week, I blew out the candles on a chocolate cake large enough for all fifty delegates and staff to have a slice, and then in the evening I went out for ice cream with some of the LDC staff.
We're driving back and forward to Malaga airport more than a couple of dozen times this month. After a fun and fruitful coaching seminar, we took that group of people (photo on the left) to the airport last weekend, and began to welcome the seventeen staff who were arriving to work with us during the Leadership Development Course. Over the past week we've had a time of preparing and praying for the LDC. The photos on the right show us praying for the 30 delegates, their families and nannies who will be arriving this weekend from places as diverse as Austria and Australia, Vietnam and Cambodia, Norway and Northern Ireland, Thailand and Holland, Romania and Albania.... and several more besides. The next six weeks will be a stimulating time of teaching and coaching, mentoring and encouraging.... seeing these leaders grasping hold of all that God has for them in this season of their lives. Thanks for your prayers.
Well, the good news is that our internet is working again, and that we've also finally solved the problem of being unable to send emails. I'm very thankful for that, as there are always lots of last minute emails from delegates preparing to come to LDC and sending their flight information so that we can meet them at the airport. We'll have a lot of airport runs this weekend, as we take the coaching seminar people for their homeward flights, and welcome the LDC staff who are arriving for the week of staff training and preparation.
Meanwhile the intensive coaching seminar is going well. Wolfgang is doing most of the teaching, while Stephe and I are having fun doing the demonstrations and debriefing in the sessions where the participants practise the different kinds of coaching skills that they're learning.
After the wonderful sunny weather that Jacqui and I enjoyed last week for our "holiday" days, this week has been much cooler and strangely overcast. This morning we awoke to strong winds of more than 45 kiometres per hour - so strong, in fact, that the garden furniture was being blown all over the place, and one of the green plastic tables that we use at lunch time was lifted right off the terrace, flown over the wall, and deposited a little bit down the road in a nearby fig tree. We had to send out a rescue party to recover the table in time for lunch!!
Although I've lived in Spain for a couple of years now, I'd never had an opportunity to visit some of the Andalucian cities that are the main tourist attractions of this region. The busiest season of our year lies ahead (during the intensive coaching seminar and the LDC, we leave home at 8 am, have classes, small groups and other activities for most of the day, and sometimes only get home at 9 pm or later) and so I decided it would be a good idea to take a short break before that busy time began. A friend who is also involved in the seminar and the leadership course arrived from England this week, and we planned in three days to visit some of the "highlights" of this part of Spain.
