Journals for journeys

When choosing my journals for this year, I decided on two notebooks with the same design of passport stamps. It seemed an appropriate motif for this year when I'll be away from home more than usual. It's not that I'm travelling more often than normal; in fact I'll probably be doing fewer ministry trips, but I'll be staying longer in each destination when I get there.

After a bit of drama this week, when an airline website seemed to be taking my card payment but not confirming my flight, I finally managed to finalise my tickets for my first trip, which will be in March this year. 2016 is the fortieth anniversary of King's Kids International, and so we're holding our KKI international leadership team meetings this year in Kona, Hawaii, the location where the ministry first began, 40 years ago. In order to get the best airfares, I decided to fly out at the end of February, which will allow me to have a couple of days' break before our meetings start at the beginning of March.

My next trip after that, and my longest trip this year, will be to West Africa during July and August. That will be for a two month period, embracing a KKI leadership workshop, our Planting Together outreaches, and an international leadership assembly of staff and leaders from around the world. I'll probably end up spending six weeks in the Ivory Coast and two weeks in Senegal. I'm encouraged that I've been able to find several different house sitters who'll come from Scotland to have a holiday and look after my cats while I'm away.

Meanwhile, back in my passport-stamped journal, my plan this year is to read the Bible book by book and character by character. So far, I've reached Genesis chapter 14, and I've considered insights from the lives of Adam, Eve, Noah, Abraham and Lot. Watch this space over the coming months for further reflections on lessons learned from the lives of different Bible characters.

Twelve grapes or ten commands...

We had fun this morning, and prizes galore, with the children's talk at church. For the second week running, willing volunteers tried their luck with "las doce uvas" - the Spanish tradition of eating twelve grapes, one for each chime of midnight as the new year begins. Allegedly this will bring you good luck and prosperity in the new year.

Also for the second week running, we considered the fact that living our lives successfully in the new year doesn't depend on twelve grapes, but is more closely linked to understanding ten commands. I was impressed to hear how well the children had remembered the five commandments that they learned last Sunday, and they did a great job of learning the remaining five commandments today.

Two down, one to go...

I've been spending Christmas in Scotland with my family and my home church. Our minister retired in October this year, and so I was invited to lead a few of the church services over the festive season. On Christmas Eve, I spoke about the God who went the extra mile to reach out to us and share the Christmas message with us. My theme yesterday for the Sunday service was Christmas Then and Now: we looked at the lives of several people who experienced the very first Christmas, and asked ourselves some honest questions about our own responses in 2015. Still to come is the first Sunday morning service of 2016, when we'll be considering various things that God asks us to "guard" as we enter into a new year.

Christmas jumper time again...

Click to enlarge photo

Yes, it's that time of year again. Another Christmas has come and (almost) gone. Time to take our annual family photo in the wooly jumpers that are so iconic of a winter Christmas. This is my ninth winter Christmas since moving back from the southern hemisphere where Christmas was synonymous with summer holidays.

Countdown to Christmas...

The weather is slowly becoming a little colder each day, and I'm using more firewood than I was a month ago. This is my last week here in Spain; in just a few days' time, I'll be heading to Scotland to spend Christmas with my family and my local church. During this last pre-Christmas week, I have just some work on the computer to wrap up for the end of the year, and just a couple of meetings where we're looking ahead and planning for projects in 2016. Meanwhile, here in Alhaurín, one of our local roundabouts has got dressed up for Christmas again. There's a roundabout in the middle of town that's supposed to represent the sun and the planets. Every year, the large "sun" ball in the middle is adorned with an enormous Santa hat. This year, a new surprise awaited us. All the little "planets" around the sun are wearing green hats this year; I guess they're supposed to represent Santa's elves. What I like about our Christmas decorations in the town, though, is that mostly they represent stable scenes, shepherds, angels and wise men… instead of the focus being primarily on Santa and reindeer. It helps to remind people of the real meaning of  Christmas.

This week, I have the sensation of being transported back in time to the days of Mary Poppins. When I first started making fires this winter, I noticed that there was often some ash the next day on my upstairs patio. Sure enough, my landlord confirmed that the chimney hadn't been cleaned for quite a number of years. So, this week the chimney sweep will be coming to the house to clean my chimney (but hopefully not to dance and sing across the rooftops!) I've already bought in new supplies of firewood for the winter months, and often, when I'm walking the dog on the mountain, I take a bag with me and pick up a supply of small sticks. They chopped down some avocado trees this past summer, and so there are lots of stray branches lying around at one part of our route.

Buba had her first birthday at the end of November, so technically I'm walking an "adult" dog now instead of a puppy. It's true that she's really made progress in obedience training - like coming when called, or staying still when asked to - but sometimes I just have to laugh at her puppy-like behaviour, especially when we meet other dogs and she wants to entice them to play. There are few seasons more fun than the first year of a dog's life, and I've thoroughly enjoyed watching this girl grow up.  And it's probably also been good for me to get regular exercise by walking on the mountain every day. I'll need to go swimming when I'm home in Scotland for Christmas, so that I don't feel lazy and unhealthy, just sitting around and eating Mum's home made tablet. (Delicious but dangerous!)

A call to prayer

Every four years, the nation of Spain holds a general election to choose the government and high ranking politicians (senate and chamber of deputies) who are responsible for passing laws and influencing the course of the nation. The main party leaders will take part in a big debate on TV tomorrow night, and the elections themselves will be two weeks from now, Sunday 20th December.

It's an important time for the nation, as the decisions made in these elections will have consequences at least for the next four years, and probably beyond. Society entrusts the decision to democracy and the wisdom of man. The Bible tells us also to humble ourselves in prayer and cry out for the wisdom of God. Jesus Himself taught us to pray that God's will would be done on earth, as it is in heaven. For this reason, the churches of Spain are calling for a day of prayer and fasting next weekend, the week before the elections. Congregations will be praying together, and believers are being encouraged to fast and pray as individuals.

Would you join us, please, in prayer for Spain and for the election of wise men and women who would make good decisions when it comes to the laws and policies of the nation? Let's pray for God's favour at this time, as we join with Spanish believers who are declaring, "Spain, we're praying for you!" (España, oramos por tí!)

Thoughts revealed...

This morning I was reading in the Old Testament book of Amos. It's rather intense prophetic writing, dealing with complex issues such as materialism and morality, war crimes and injustices. But buried deep in the writings of the prophet is a little verse that contains three central truths about the God of the universe.

Amos 4: 13 
He who forms the mountains, creates the wind and reveals His thoughts to man; He who turns dawn to darkness and treads the high places of the earth, the Lord Almighty is His name.

Firstly, we see that our God, the God the world will remember this Christmas, is the Creator of all things. He formed the mountains, He makes the wind, and everything else that exists - everything good, that is. He paints the dramatic colours of the sunsets and the subtle beauty of the dawn.

Secondly, He is omnipresent. That means He is present everywhere at all times, even on the highest heights, where no human foot has walked or ever will. No matter where we go, we can never go beyond the reach of His presence. (Psalm 139: 1 - 12)

And thirdly, He speaks to us. This amazing God, who created everything that exists, actually chooses to reveal His deepest thoughts to human beings. His way of thinking may be far above ours (see Romans 11: 34 or Isaiah 55: 8 - 9) but He is not beyond us. He chooses to reach out to us and He will reveal even His most confidential secrets to those who respect Him. (Psalm 25:14)

We cannot see the wind, but we are aware of its presence; we can feel it and we see what it does. God wants us not only to feel His presence and see what He does; He also wants us to come close enough for Him to reveal His thoughts to us. Let's make time for listening to God this coming Christmas season.