Transformación de habitación

Habitación is our Spanish word for bedroom. As a 12th birthday present, Gabriela wanted to have her bedroom transformed from pink to blue. So our house has been filled with the smell of wet paint this week, but now the transformation is complete and the walls are pale blue instead of pale pink.
She'll have a roommate next week to enjoy the new habitación with her; my niece Kasey, who is just fifteen months younger than Gabriela, will be sharing her bedroom while she's here on holiday with my parents.

Birthday buddies...

It's Gabriela's birthday today; she's twelve years old. Which means that it's time to take another buddy photo with her good friend Teddi, who was born when she was nine and a half. We've been taking a photo every year, and it's been fun to watch both Gabriela and Teddi growing bigger in every picture.

Unexpected expenditures

Well, the dead computer saga has come to an encouraging end: although the old laptop couldn't be resurrected, I was able to buy a new one while passing through Gatwick airport on my return trip from Austria to Spain. The purchase was made possible by a recent unexpected financial gift; you can read the whole story in my July newsletter.
Another unexpected expenditure last week was that I broke a tooth during my journey home, and needed to make as dentist's appointment as soon as I got back to Alhaurin. God provided for this too in a surprising way. When I went to collect my defunct laptop from the computer shop in Malaga, the manager agreed to waive the usual €45 fee for diagnosing the problem. This turned out to be just the amount needed for my dental treatment that same day.

July is also the month for some expected expenditures and not only unexpected ones: it's the time of year when I have to renew my car insurance and, as I've had the car for two years now, it will need to go in next week for its first ITV. (MOT if you're from the UK; Roadworthy if you're from South Africa.) So I'm getting all these little practical things sorted out before my parents and niece arrive next week for their Spanish summer holiday.

Austrian Adventure...

A whole week has passed, and the Equip event is behind us now. The participants from all regions of Europe (East, West, South, North and Central) are on their way home, and we have heard really positive feedback about the skills they learned and the things God did in their lives during this time.
It's been rather special for me to be back in Vienna, because I used to live and work here in the 1980s. I've enjoyed seeing some of the old places, tasting some of the typically Austrian things that I hadn't eaten for decades, and being able to walk around and pray for this city that I loved so much when I lived here. I even discovered that I can still speak Austrian German... and some long-unused words have surprisingly surfaced from the depths of my memory!
Just a couple of days ago, I received an email from Malaga, saying that it would cost 1022 euros to repair my ailing computer. Well, common sense tells you that this would be a waste of money and that it would be a better idea for me to trust God for a new laptop instead. I'll really need a computer for working on the different projects that I've committed to for these summer months.

Computer casualty

Well, I've arrived in Vienna, we've been meeting as leaders, and the participants will all be arriving this afternoon. My computer is back home in "hospital," though - having lapsed into a coma just before I left Spain. So I may not be able to write news and post photos here as I had hoped. Anyway, I still appreciate your prayers for this equipping event and all that God wants to do during the coming week. I'll post more news when I can.

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.