Down memory lane...

Back in the 1980s, I used to live and work in Vienna, the capital of Austria. Apart from a brief visit with an outreach team in 1997, I haven't had much opportunity to return there and see how the city has changed over the past twenty years. So I'm looking forward to flying to Austria this weekend and working with the EQUIP event that we're going to be running next week in downtown Vienna. As well as being a time to invest in training missionaries from all over Europe, this will also be an opportunity for me to reconnect with some places and faces from the past. I'm staying on a couple of extra days after the conference event, in order to be able to revisit some of the sights that used to be such familiar landmarks to me.

South African visitors

In a surprise turn of events, I met up yesterday with friends from my church in Durbanville. They had been attending a wedding in Spain, and were able to come and have lunch and coffee in Alhaurin before I took them to the airport for their flight back to South Africa. They also served as "couriers" to bring me a birthday present from Helen in Cape Town (lots of little goodies that were my favourite things to eat when I lived there) and to take a little Spanish present back to her.

Green growth... future fruitfulness

The LDC is over now, and last weekend the delegates began to head home to their different nations on different continents. They leave encouraged by the things they have experienced and by the good things that God has done in their lives. Perhaps the only piece of negative feedback was the fact that the weather was cooler and more rainy this year than normal (at least by Spanish standards) and some of the people hadn't brought enough warm clothes with them. In order to increase the course's fruitfulness in their lives, several of the staff will be connecting with delegates by skype over the coming months and giving them leadership coaching as they seek to apply the skills and principles learned during these rich six weeks together. I'll be coaching three ladies - one in Thailand, one in Cambodia and one in Australia.


The jacaranda trees are now in full bloom in Alhaurin de la Torre; they're slightly later this year because of the cooler weather than usual. They look so pretty along the main boulevards of the town, and there are also several of them in the street where I live. With their bright purple blossoms, they remind me a lot of the years I lived in South Africa. A couple of years ago, when I had left South Africa and moved to live in Spain, God spoke to me about the importance of allowing Spain to really become my home, just as South Africa had been. A verse in the book of Jeremiah (see here) tells exiles to "settle down, plant gardens and eat what you grow in them." In Cape Town, I had grown tomatoes and other vegetables in my garden, and so, full of enthusiasm, I decided to begin growing some tomatoes here in Spain - on the roof terrace of the first house I lived in, and later on the downstairs terrace of the house where I live now. Unfortunately, the weather always seemed to conspire against my tomato-growing efforts. Either the sun was so hot that the plants shriveled up before they had a chance to bear fruit... or the torrential rain was so relentless that the baby plants were drowned and killed off before the first blossoms began to appear. I just didn't seem able to raise the bumper crops of tomatoes that I'd had in Cape Town. If I'd been taking the tomatoes' fruitfulness as a symbol of ministry fruitfulness in this new land, it could have been very discouraging indeed.


This year I decided a new strategy was needed. I started the tomatoes off in plant pots, so that I could move them under cover whenever the heavy rain came back with a vengeance. And when they looked strong enough to survive, I transplanted them into our little garden on the terrace. This week, to my great delight, I saw that the first green tomatoes were beginning to appear, and that there were plenty of other blossoms promising a crop of tomatoes later in the summer months. At last, during my third year in Alhaurin, I am finally able to "plant gardens and eat what you grow in them."

Course countdown

What a rich time we've had together during these past five weeks of the leadership development course. These leaders from all over the world have told us that they've been encouraged, affirmed, and equipped for the next leg of their journey in ministry and missions.
The countdown has begun now and there's only one more week until everyone starts heading home again. During the last week, we'll be considering the topic of mentoring: how can these leaders be more effective in equipping and releasing the next generation of leaders emerging in their nations? Then we'll conclude the week with a time of debriefing and commissioning.
This year we're offering the delegates the opportunity of ongoing coaching by skype over the summer months, so that they have continued support and encouragement during the season of beginning to implement new goals and strategies in the places where they serve the Lord. Those of us who have been staff on the LDC and have completed coach training will be available to serve them in this way for the next two or three months.

It's the weekend...

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.

Birthday boy...

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. 

Birthday Cake

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.