The rain in Spain...

Andalucía seems to be a land of extremes. At the end of August, as temperatures soared, the emergency of the day was the raging forest fires in the mountains not far from Alhaurín. Hundreds had to be evacuated from their homes in the Coín and Mijas region, and at least one person lost his life. Now,  just a month later, this week's emergency is due to the widespread thunderstorms and the torrential rain that has deluged this southern part of Spain. It's the first real rain we've had in four months, but we seem to be getting four months worth of rain in just four days! Buildings have been damaged, some cities are flooded, and a woman in Granada is being treated in hospital after being hit on the head by a large falling branch.

Here in Alhaurín, after a week of strong winds and pouring rain, I've decided it's time for this blog to have a more "autumny" look. I've also faced up to the fact that our summer swimming days in outdoor pools are now a thing of the past. At the beginning of this week, a friend told me that he would be emptying their swimming pool this weekend, and that I should pop over to their house if I wanted to swim one last time before the water was drained out. Well, I did go over for a visit, but the cooler windy weather was already beginning, and I decided that the water would be just too cold for these old lungs! And it truly was my last chance, because the next day the heavy rains began with a vengeance!

However, the arrival of autumn rains also heralded a new experience for me and a couple of friends. Alhaurín's sports centre and indoor swimming pool is conveniently situated right in my street, just five minutes' walk from my house. I've been saying for some time that I wanted to join the sports centre, so that I could get some exercise over the winter by going swimming now and then. It didn't work out last winter, because of my extended trip to Scotland when my Dad was in hospital. So, this week, very early on a dark rainy morning, I headed to the "piscina cubierta" with friends, Anja and Mariasún. I'm pleased to have made a start on my winter exercise programme and I hope to keep going once or twice a week during the weeks that I'm not travelling or busy with seminars at the retreat centre.

Meanwhile, it looks as if the rains are going to be with us for another few days, and I'll need to wait until the middle of next week before I'll get some more sunny weather for hanging my washing out on the line to dry. Whatever the weather in your part of the world, have a great weekend!!

Glorious glorietas.. and living by life's landmarks

I'm beginning to think that the unofficial motto of our town is, "You can never have too many roundabouts." If you drive from one end of the town to the other, along a beautiful tree-lined avenue some 8km (5 miles) long, you'll pass no fewer than ten roundabouts - and each one is a work of art, with its own story of what it represents. When my parents were here on holiday a few years ago, we drove all the way across town with our video camera, making a movie of all the roundabouts on the way. At that point there were eight of them; a ninth one was unveiled in 2010 and the tenth one (top picture above) was just completed this week.

In Spanish, they're called "glorietas" or "rotondas" and, when I first came to live in Alhaurin, I was struck by the way the roundabouts were everyone's landmarks when they needed to give you directions. If someone was telling you how to get to their house, they would invariably begin by saying, "You know the roundabout with the 100-year old tree?" or "You know the roundabout with the three balls?" and then they would give you directions to their home from there.

In life too, we need landmarks. It's much easier to find your way to the right destination if you have a clear idea of where your starting point is. As a new school year begins, we're also beginning a new programme of discipleship input with the children and young people at church. Among the topics for the coming year is a series of lessons looking at the ten commandments. If our children and young people understand these basic landmarks for life, they'll have a good foundation for making their way into the future.

Dog evangelism...

One of my favourite outreach activities is something that I like to call "dog evangelism." But, before you start to get worried about my sanity, let me quickly explain that I'm not trying to share the gospel with dogs. I've just discovered over the years that making friends with people's dogs is a great way of making friends with the people themselves!

When I lived in Cape Town, and used to take my two border collies for a walk, I got to know the names of many of the dogs that we encountered on our strolls around the neighbourhood where we lived. Here in Spain, I don't have a dog. And, even though one of our cats, Teddi, is bigger than all the dogs in our street, I'd look a bit silly walking around with a big fluffy cat on a lead! But there's a little park right in front of my house and, as an incorrigible dog lover, I chat with everyone who's walking their dogs there. I've got to know many of them: Coco, Perla, Dory, Lobo... (Those are the dogs' names; not the people's names!) 

There's a little old lady  in her late eighties, whose house is back to back with mine. She walks with a stick, and she used to hobble around the block with a little fat dog who looked equally advanced in years. The dog got sick and had to be put to sleep, so the old lady and her daughter recently got a puppy from a dog rescue centre. Now six months old, little Bonnie, who looks something like a long haired chihuahua, is probably fully grown and still only reaches half of Teddi's weight and height! Last week I was talking with my friend (the lady, not the dog) and she was in tears as she told me about her concern for her daughter. The daughter, who's about my age, had lost her husband last year, and then last week she lost her beloved cat who had reached the grand old age of eighteen. My elderly friend told me of her concern that her daughter was not coping well with these losses and had begun to slip into a deep depression. She felt as if she had nothing left to live for. I felt such a sadness in my heart, that there are people who have no hope of seeing their loved ones again, or who have so few meaningful friendships that the loss of a pet leaves them with no sense of relationship in their lives. What a difference it makes if we know Jesus as the best and most faithful friend of all. I could only pray with my elderly friend, trusting God to help her daughter and give her strength and hope again.

Early this morning, when I was walking to the post office, I stopped in the park to greet another doggy friend: Trueno (it means "Thunder") is a crazy, 7-month old puppy with a black eye that makes him look like a pirate. As I chatted with Trueno's owner, another dog, a big boxer, came up to join in the game. On learning that his name was Mutley, I realised that this dog's owner was English. I met her again when I was walking home from the post office, and we got into a conversation. She told me that Mutley will go to the kennels tomorrow, because she's going on a trip to visit her grandchildren in Norway; and I told her that I'd coincidentally just arrived back last week from the same region of Norway. Then I happened to mention that I had lived in Cape Town for many years and had had to leave my two dogs down there. An amazed expression crossed her face, and she said, "This is spooky. I've just been making some enquiries about the possibility of going to work in Africa... I want to do voluntary work with disadvantaged children, and some of the opportunities are in Cape Town." She looked even more surprised when I told her that I had been doing voluntary work in South Africa, and that much of it had been with disadvantaged children.

As we talked further, she told me that her husband had died at the beginning of this year, after a long illness. They had known each other since their school days and had been married for nearly forty years. She began to cry as she explained that she needed a fresh start now and wanted to invest in a new project that would give her life meaning. "I've lived here since 2004," she said,"But I haven't made any friends or had a deep conversation like this with anyone." As our "deep" conversation had only been for twenty minutes or so, I realised yet again that many people live with a deep level of loneliness. They don't know what it's like to have friendship with God, or to have deep and fulfilling friendships with other human beings. Mutley's owner, J.., asked me if we could meet up again when she gets back from Norway. So I gave her my phone number and we're going to get together for coffee in a couple of weeks' time.

It can be so easy to go through our lives, walking down the street or shopping in the supermarket, without realising that many of the people around us are carrying their own private  sadness or pain, and perhaps don't have anyone at all to share it with. I am so thankful for my "dog connections" that enable me to get to know people that I might otherwise never meet or have an opportunity to speak to. Thanks to my doggy friends, I am able to add human friends to my prayer list, trusting that God can touch their lives and one day reveal His love to them.

You may not be a dog lover like me, but what are your favourite ways of meeting new people that you can pray for and form friendships with? Drop me a note by clicking "comments" below, so that I can also pray for you and the people you share your life with.

Meet the team

This morning we had our first meeting as the new staff team of the Leadership Retreat Centre (LRC) in Alhaurín de la Torre. Our team has recently increased in number, as we've been joined by Joseph and Abbey, who just got married last month and who will be serving over the coming year as cooks and caterers for the retreat centre. Joseph's parents, Stephe and Rite, are the leaders of the centre. Wilrens, Franziska and myself all serve in staffing and leading the different leadership development courses and retreats that we hold here. And Anja is Stephe's administrative assistant, serving in a lot of areas to do with organising and communication.
We have a varied programme of seminars and retreats lined up for the coming fifteen months - notably the 3-week Strategic Leadership Course (SLC)  every November, and the 6-week Leadership Development Course (LDC) every April-May. Retreats for married couples, for women and for leadership teams are also planned for the coming year, as well as a number of shorter training events such as the coach training workshop and an equipping week for preschool teachers. Thanks for your prayers that God will move in our midst, and that people's lives will be touched and changed when they come to spend time with us here.

Not nice for lice! Signs of the times...

This blog post is dedicated to Val in Linlithgow, who sent me an email to comment on a previous post about the changing seasons.

A new season is beginning for us here in Spain; it's the season when the summer holidays end, and all the children and teenagers go back to school. Suddenly our TV channels are flooded with adverts about special shampoos for dealing with headlice. The most noteworthy of these involves a kids' rock band, somewhat aggressively singing, "Goodbye lice! - ¡Adios a los piojos!" to the tune of Auld Lang Syne. If you'd like a little cultural experience, you can check out the video clip by clicking this youtube link. The sheer volume of these different shampoo commercials is a sign that the marketing people are well aware of the time we find ourselves in: they know that the season of "Vuelta al Cole" (going back to school) is a time when children and teens might be more exposed to the danger of picking up lice, and that it's time to be proactive in dealing with this danger.

What about us as parents and church friends? Are we equally aware of the other challenges and dangers that our young people could face at school, college or university? Dangers like wrong friendships, teaching based on unbiblical worldviews, and temptations to get involved in behaviours that could be harmful or destructive - emotionally and spiritually, as well as mentally and physically. Are we as proactive as the shampoo manufacturers when it comes to protecting our children and teens? Are we remembering to cover them with our prayers and support them with our encouragement?

But understanding the times is important for all of us - not just for parents or for the manufacturers of headlice products! In 1 Chronicles 12 vs 32, the Bible commends the men of the tribe of Issachar - precisely because they had "understanding of the times" and "knew what they needed to do" in the season they were living in. They were not naive or distanced from reality; they knew how to pray and they knew how to act in the days they were living in.

What about you and me? Do we live in a little Christian "bubble," or do we have a godly understanding of the times we are living in? Do we know what dangers to watch out for - for ourselves, as well as for our family and friends? Do we understand how to pray and do battle in the areas where our lives and our faith could come under attack?

Do we understand the season that we ourselves are passing through in our relationship with God? Are we aware that there will be desert times as well as mountaintop times in our spiritual journey? That the balmy days of summer might be followed by some stormy autumn days or some icy winter challenges? Are we committed to holding on to the truth that God is "yesterday, today and forever" the same, and that we can trust Him to be faithful and to be close to us in every changing season of life - the hard ones as well as the good ones?

Let's not be caught off guard. Let's be wise, watchful and worshipful in every situation and season we face in this second decade of the 21st century.

A few "firsts"

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In just a few weeks' time, I'll have been living in Spain for four years. Even so, this past month has seen me do a number of things for the very first time:
1. My first Spanish bus trip
I remember many bus trips from my years in southern Africa - especially those long overnight trips from Cape Town up to Johannesburg or to Namibia. I remember, especially in the desert areas, being amazed that the bus could drive in a straight line for more than an hour, without a single bend in the road. Although I've lived in Spain for four years, I'd never taken a bus journey to another part of the country until last week, when I travelled up to Madrid and back down to Malaga again. Those 6-hour trips through southern Spain seemed relatively short when compared to the 20-hour marathons through southern Africa. There were some similarities - especially in the dryness of the landscape, and the brightness of the sunshine. Generally speaking, though, the Spanish roads had more twists and turns around the Andalucian mountains, although there were also some straighter stretches as we travelled further north. From time to time, we could see the iconic Spanish bull on a hilltop, and the fields tended to have goats in them..... Not an ostrich in sight!
2. My first Spanish conference
My trip up to Madrid was so that I could attend a staff conference of YWAM missionaries working in Spain. Although our ministry at the Leadership Retreat Centre is international, and our courses are held in English rather than Spanish, three of us from the Alhaurín team wanted to travel up to the conference and get to know our colleagues serving in other parts of the nation. The conference was held at the YWAM training centre in Madrid, and we thoroughly enjoyed being immersed in the Spanish environment and getting to know missionaries serving in other cities, such as Valencia, Bilbao, Madrid and Barcelona.
3. My first Spanish class
Although I've lived here for some years, I didn't take time out at the beginning to attend Spanish language classes. Instead I opted to kind of "teach myself" using computer software and online resources. Recently, however, I was praying about ways of getting to know more non Christians in the town, and I read in the newspaper about a free Spanish class being offered by the Ayuntamiento (town hall) in Alhaurín. Anja had just arrived in Spain this year and wanted to do some language study, so we went to the town hall and signed up. The classes began last week (with an "exam" on the first evening to test the level of our Spanish!!) What a surprise it was to discover a group of more than twenty people - from places as diverse as Morocco, the Ukraine, Finland, Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria, the USA and, of course, the UK. Some had only arrived in Spain this year, while others had been living in Alhaurín for six or even twelve years, and had already been attending the Spanish class for a long time. Based on our "exam results," we've been divided into two groups: beginners on Tuesdays and a more advanced group on Thursdays. Anja's going to attend both, but I'll be going only on Thursday evenings. It's been fun to get to know people from all over Europe and beyond (I've sometimes had to speak French, German or English to communicate with them) and I was even able to invite one lady to come to church with me.
4. My first .... ???
Well, I'm not sure exactly what this one will be, but when I prayed about ways of meeting more non-believers, I didn't only have foreigners in mind. I was also looking for more ways to get to know Spanish people. One possibility I've considered is to sign up for an "aqua-gym" class at the town's indoor swimming pool, which is conveniently situated right in my street. This is kind of an "aerobics in the water" activity, which would not only give me regular exercise that would help my arthritis over the winter months, but would also be a way of getting to know Spanish ladies who also attend the class. I'm planning to check it out, and sign up for something before the end of this month. By the time I reach my fourth anniversary in Spain (October 5th) I plan to have these four "firsts" under my belt!

Awareness of approaching autumn

I arrived back in Spain yesterday, after an encouraging few days with teachers and educators at our College of Education gathering in Norway. I had to get up at 2.45 am in order to be at Oslo airport in time for my morning flight to Malaga, and the early morning rain reminded me that I was in a more northerly part of the continent. I was looking forward to the warmer weather of Spain, after the more chilly temperatures of Scotland and Norway. And it is still warmer here, but there's nonetheless been a noticeable change over the ten days I was gone, and we're beginning to see the signs of approaching autumn. The air is a little cooler and a little windier; there are more clouds and we weigh up whether it might rain if we hang our laundry out overnight to dry. People are no longer sleeping on top of the bed, with a fan spinning all night to cool down the room. Instead, we're now sleeping under the sheets, or maybe even with a thin blanket. 

Today I went to friends' home to water their plants while they are out of the country. Being at their place is always a good opportunity to have a quick swim in the pool, but I got a surprise today to discover that the water is quite a bit colder than it was during August. However, the nice thing about this time of year at their house is that the tree in their garden is full of delicious ripe figs.

Another friend has her parents visiting from Germany this week. Realising that the summer swimming season is beginning to draw to a close, we've decided to take a day off on Wednesday to take her family to the lakes near El Chorro.  This is one of my favourite places to go during our summer season here. The deep turquoise blue of the lakes is always stunning, the water is warmer than in the sea, and you're not surrounded by the tourist crowds who sun themselves on the beaches of the coastal resorts.

We pass wind farms on the way there, and the windmills were relatively still the last time we went... but with autumn approaching, they'll soon be spinning fast again and generating power for this region of the country. Once the winter rains arrive, those windmills will be on a grassy green hillside, instead of on the dry, brown landscape that is so familiar to us in the summer months. The windmills look small when you see them as the backdrop to the lakes, but they're actually huge. If you click on this picture to enlarge it, and then look closely at the photo on the bottom left, you'll see how large the windmill is when compared to the bakkie (pick up truck) at the foot of it. That particular photo, by the way, wasn't taken here in Spain; it's one of a few windmills near Klipheuwel, South Africa, where our Durbanville PCYM students worked with children and youth in a local school. Cape Town is coming into springtime at the moment, while we in Spain enjoy the last of our summer and see the signs of approaching autumn.