Being a little wild...

In recent years, you may have heard or read about "wild swimming." It probably sounds like the latest new water sport, but in fact it's nothing more than putting a label on what everyone used to do before the existence of indoor swimming pools. Nowadays, especially in cold places like the UK, when someone says that they're going swimming, they probably mean that they're heading down to their local sports centre where the indoor pool has heated, chlorinated water. "Wild swimming," on the other hand, involves swimming outdoors - in rivers, lakes or in the sea.

Here in Southern Spain, every tourist hotel, even in the coastal resorts, has its own swimming pool. Go to any beach, however, and you'll still see that tourists are roasting in the hot sunshine and engaging in the original wild swimming: taking a dip in the sea.  Preferring to avoid the sunburned, half naked masses, I usually like to head inland to one of our "embalses" - the turquoise lakes that serve as reservoirs for much of Andalucía. When I first moved here, my friends had a border collie, and swimming with her in the El Chorro lake reminded me a lot of swimming with my border collies on the farm dam in Cape Town.

Normally my parents come to spend part of the summer here in Spain, and I plan in some holiday time to play tour guide and take them to different places around the region. It looks as if they're not going to be able to come this year, and so I've planned a different approach to "holiday" this summer. I'm continuing with my coaching appointments and other ministry commitments right through the summer months of July and August, but I'm planning in some free days now and then to visit local beauty spots and explore places I haven't been to before. And I decided it could be fun to combine my dog-walking with wild swimming on some of these half-day excursions. Nelson (the black labrador that I've been walking for the past year) is my adventure buddy of choice, as he just has the kind of personality that's always up for a new challenge. Clambering over rocks, hiking through forests and splashing in lakes are right up his street.  Our first swimming trip was to Pantano del Agujero, a small lake that I discovered only recently, just north of the city of Malaga. A river was our next choice and, as mentioned in a recent post, we found our way to the pretty Barranco Blanco, a river and waterfall area that featured in an old television shampoo advert.

Last week, we headed back to the same area, but further downstream, where we hiked down through the forest and came to a spring called the Poza de los Huevos. In centuries past, people came there to dip in the cloudy water of the pool, as it is a natural source of manganese mineral water and was effective in healing skin conditions. Right next to the spring, however, is a small waterfall and a pretty natural pond of crystal clear water. There, Nelson and I had our third experience of "wild swimming." That particular river changes its name a few times on its journey. Up at Barranco Blanco, it's the Alaminas River. Further downstream, it's the Pasadas River... and by the time it reaches the sea, it has been joined by other tributaries and is called the Fuengirola River.

This week's adventure involved a different river, though the river wasn't where we did our swimming this time. Alhaurín is one of the towns of the Guadalhorce Valley, and yesterday we headed down to the Desembocadura del Guadalhorce - the mouth of the Guadalhorce River. Although right on Malaga's doorstep, it's a wetlands area, known for its birds and wildlife, so we decided to go and check it out.

The river is fast flowing and no longer so crystal clear by this point, so it wasn't suitable for swimming, but we did have a pleasant walk all along the river bank, past a few lagoons, and finally arriving at the sea. As luck would have it, we ended up on Guadalmar beach, which is one of the few Malaga beaches that allows dogs to run and play off-leash, and to swim in the water with their owners. So Nelson and I were able to do some wild swimming after all. (Nelson swam more than I did, as the water was a bit cold for me at that time in the morning.) After walking all along the beach (and playing with plenty of other dogs) we turned back into the delta area. Dogs had to be on the lead at this point, so that they wouldn't run around and disturb the otters. Sadly, we didn't see any otters, but we did see plenty of interesting birds before completing our circuit and arriving back at the car again. We'd had a good walk, and had added a fourth wild swimming destination to our list.

Reaching both halves of the world...

Statistics show that around 80% of all responses to the gospel are made by children and teenagers. Only around 20% of people come to know the Lord when they are “older.”  Any church or mission that wants to be fruitful for God has to tailor their ministry to serve the needs of young people and families, because that’s where most of the harvest is going to be. As a well known video of the past decade expressed it, we need to think smaller and aim lower. That’s why I’ve dedicated my whole life to working with children, youth and families, as well as equipping workers to reach the emerging generations. 
(If you want to watch the whole video, you can see it by clicking here: World Congress on Great Commission )

But 2017 statistics tell us that 51% of the world’s population is under the age of 21. What hope is there for the other half of the world, the people who reached adulthood and middle age without ever making  a decision to follow Jesus? Probably most of us have family members, friends and neighbours who are in their 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s and beyond. How realistic is it that we can keep hoping and praying for their salvation?

Well, Jesus set the example for us. While he spent much of His time with the young - the disciples, who were probably mostly teenagers (as evidenced by the fact that most of them weren't married yet) and the children and families in the crowds that came to hear Him preach  - He didn’t give up on the prostitutes, the tax collectors, the “sinners” and the religious people who were set in their ways. He kept reaching out to everyone, knowing that no one is ever beyond the reach of God’s love and grace.

This week, while reading and meditating in Colossians chapter 4 (see verses 2 and 12 - 13 in particular) I became freshly aware of the importance of fervent, discerning prayer if we are to see the non-believers around us really open their hearts and minds to the claims of God. When Paul tells the Colossians that Epaphras “wrestles in prayer” or “prays hard” for them, the Greek word is agōnizomai, which means to agonise or to engage in a battle.

In this season of living in Spain, God has brought many non-believers across my path. I chat daily with around a dozen people who are out walking their dogs; I interact regularly with half a dozen people who live in my neighbourhood. But it hasn’t escaped my notice that most of these people are in their 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s. They’re not in the age bracket that most usually responds to the gospel.

Does that mean it isn’t worth the effort? No, it means that even more effort is needed in prayer and spiritual warfare. I want to live wisely, making the most of every opportunity (Colossians 4 vs 5) so that my conversation will be gracious and attractive, giving the right response to everyone. (Colossians 4 vs 6). I ask you, my friends and prayer partners to pray that God will give me many opportunities to speak about His amazing plan concerning Christ (vs 3) and to please pray that I will proclaim this message as clearly as I should. (vs 4) I invite you to devote yourself to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart (vs 2), not only for the people I interact with daily, but also for the friends, family members and neighbours that God has placed within your own circle of influence.

You could continue to pray for my neighbour who was recently diagnosed with cancer, that her heart will become softer towards the gospel. You could pray for the Cuban lady who’s been joining me on my early morning dog walks. Then there’s the 70 year old Spanish lady who has bad diabetes and whose husband suffers from Parkinson’s ...  I’ve been training their young German Shepherd dog to walk politely on the lead, so that they’re not afraid to venture out on walks with him. This lady, too, has been regularly coming on long walks with me this summer and this gives us plenty of opportunity for conversation.

These people are not young, but they still need Jesus. Please pray with me for God’s love and truth to touch them and to make a difference in the everyday situations that they face.

Thank you… and please know that you are also in my prayers. I pray that you too will know open doors and that God will touch the lives of the people that you know and love.

Running with the pack

A new "pupil" has joined the pack for our daily walks.  German Shepherd, Hugo, has just turned one year old, but he had never been out of his own garden. His elderly owners were afraid that he might be too strong for them and pull them off their feet; they had discovered that he barked and lunged whenever he saw other dogs.

After evaluating him, I was able to reassure them that he wasn't an aggressive dog at all, but was simply a "reactive" dog. Fear and nervousness was causing him to respond when other dogs rushed to their gates to bark at him. I offered to take him out with my gang, to get him used to meeting other dogs and to teach him to walk politely on the lead without pulling.

It's only been a week and a half, but already he has turned out to be a dream of a dog: quiet, submissive, obedient, and very polite when meeting the many other dogs we meet on our walks. His owners are absolutely thrilled. The lady, who's in her seventies, comes with us on our morning walks (which allows us to have long conversations) and in the evening I take the four dogs by myself.

With the sun beating down for most of the day, I'm having to be creative when it comes to finding places and times for us to get our exercise. The forest continues to be a good option. This morning, just after sunrise, I drove to a wooded spot not far from Villa Rehoboth, and we went for a long walk through the shady woodland. There were some stunning views across the countryside to the backdrop of the mountains (the Sierra Nevada, which is covered in snow during the winter time.)
If you know Villa Rehoboth, where we had the leadership retreat centre, you might be able to spot it here in the distance. (You can click on the photo montage to make it larger.)

The forest is an endless panorama of innumerable different shades of green until, every now and then, some oleander bushes growing up from the river gorge provide a sudden splash of a different colour.

My summer ministry commitments this year include quite a lot of coaching and fair bit of computer work as I prepare for international travels coming up in the autumn. This means that my schedule is relatively flexible for a change, so I can plan my daily exercise (dog walking and swimming) around the different work tasks that need to be completed each day.

I've discovered that Nelson enjoys swimming too, so we've gone on a couple of little hikes to places where we can swim in a lake or a river. Last week we hiked down to a beauty spot with a lovely waterfall that had featured in an old shampoo advert of the 1980s. Nelson, as you'll see in the insert, thoroughly enjoyed splashing in the water and fetching sticks.

It's unusual for me to be in Spain for the whole summer; usually I'm in West Africa for outreach, but there will be no Planting Together initiative this year, as we prepare and gear up to take a much bigger group of participants down to Senegal in 2019. My first trip this year will only be at the end of August, when I head to Thailand for an international missions gathering. In the meantime, I'm coaching missionaries on four continents, and enjoying making time for swimming and walking with the dogs.

A walk in the woods...

Summer is well and truly with us now - albeit slightly later than usual. Down here, near the southern coastal region, our temperatures are varying between 20 and 32 degrees celsius, a good ten degrees lower than the scorching temperatures of the inland towns and cities like Madrid and Toledo.

Even so, it still feels just a bit too hot to take the dogs out for a walk in the afternoon; the hot air only starts to become bearable after 7 pm (which is the reason why many Spaniards head to the beach at that time, and then only eat their evening meal at 9.30 or 10.00 pm.)

So yesterday afternoon, after church, I bundled all three dogs in the car and drove up the road a bit to a forest area where we could enjoy a walk in the shade, instead of in the blazing sunshine. 

Yes, we're a three-dog team this summer. Buba's little "sister," Bonnie, a chihuahua-pekinese cross, doesn't usually go on the longer walks with Buba and Nelson, choosing the lazier option of wandering round the park with her owner instead. So she kept getting rather out of breath last week when we took her with us during the two days that her owner was in hospital. Turns out the little chihuahua has gained weight over the winter months and could do with losing a couple of pounds.

So when her owner got home from the hospital, she announced that it would be a good idea for little Bonnie to come on our 3-kilometre circuits morning and evening, to help with her weight loss programme. That's why you see her in the above photo, bearing up bravely on our walk in the woods yesterday.... and also in the photo below, looking back longingly at the road to the park.

Pruning for growth

The theme of this year's leadership development course was, "Remain in Me" - taken from John's Gospel chapter 15, where it speaks of how God is like a gardener who prunes fruitful branches in order to make room for even more growth.  Even so, the rather brutal pruning (by the town council) of the pretty yellow mimosa trees in a park near by house made for an ugly and sobering picture of what pruning can look like: it's always going to be painful! Our own experience of closing the leadership retreat centre in order to make way for the international multiplication of the leadership development course is a very real example of what pruning feels like.

It's been five weeks since the local authorities cut back those mimosa trees, leaving only ugly bare branches (I confess that I gathered up some of the logs to add to my firewood stock for next winter) and so this week I was amazed to see that new growth had already begun. By next spring, or maybe even before then, those trees will be covering the park in a carpet of yellow blossoms again.

In stark contrast, the jasmine plant at the entrance to my house hasn't produced many blossoms this year. I think I waited too late to prune it, and instead of cutting it right back in January, I did a less brutal pruning in March.  The growth has not been nearly as lovely as in previous years. What a visual parable! If we resist God's pruning in our lives, or don't respond in a timely way, we may miss out on some of the fruitfulness and the fragrance that He wants to bring from our life.

Summer in Spain

It's been two months since my last blog post. I think that's been my longest gap since starting this blog back in 2007. The reason for my long silence was that this year's leadership development course (LDC), the last one to be held here at the Leadership Retreat Centre, seemed to monopolise all my time over the past two months. We had a wonderful international group of leaders with us for this time, and it was a joy to see God at work, encouraging, equipping and transforming lives.  The above photo shows the LDC staff and delegates at the "graduation" and thanksgiving time that we held at the end of the course.

Once the LDC was over, we took a few more days to bring closure to the Leadership Retreat Centre, which will be closing this summer after ten years of very fruitful ministry. We have a sense that this local expression of the leadership development ministry needs to be put on hold for now, in order to serve the international multiplication of the LDC courses in new regions of the world. 

Among those who joined us last week for the closing celebrations was my friend, Sue, who spent ten months here when the retreat centre was just beginning in 2008. She stayed on for a few days holiday afterwards and we had fun exploring some new locations: we swam in a lovely little lake called Pantano del Agujero, and we went to visit the Iberian wolf sanctuary near Antequera. Sue returned to England yesterday, and now begins my summer season of coaching missionary leaders (including four who just completed the LDC) as well as helping to pack up the retreat centre.

More or less...

There was a man who owned a dog and a handful of sheep. He had a nice house and lush fields, but passers by were consistently concerned with the condition of his animals: the dog looked thin and unkempt; the sheep were sometimes limping due to an injury or had sores around their eyes.

Just up the road lived another man; he had two dogs and a larger flock of sheep. The difference in the quality of his animals was noticeable: the dogs looked healthy and full of energy; the sheep seemed contented and often produced new little lambs. 

One day, someone phoned the authorities to report the first man for neglecting his animals. An inspector came and, sure enough, discovered that the dog and the few sheep were not well cared for, and so they fined him and took the animals away from him. But someone needed to look after that dog and sheep, and so the animals were given to the other man, the one who lived up the road.

It's not a true story, but it makes sense to me. If someone is neglecting their animals, a different solution needs to be found. and what better option than to entrust them to someone with a good track record of taking care of his own dogs and sheep.

I've often been puzzled by Mark 4: 25, which appears in the middle of some parables that Jesus is sharing about shining our light and planting the seeds of the gospel. It says,  "Those who have something will be given more, and those who have nothing will have taken away from them even the little that they have." It sounds vaguely unjust - like taking from the poor to give to the rich. But when you think of it in terms of faithfulness, it makes a lot of sense. As in the parables of the talents,  those who prove themselves faithful can be entrusted with more, while those who are lazy or neglectful risk losing the little that they have. 

Jesus also makes this statement in the context of explaining to His disciples why He speaks in parables. In fact, one. Bible translation expresses verse 25 in this way: "To those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given. To those who are not listening, even what little understanding they have will be taken away from them." It's to do with how obedient we are. In His kindness, Jesus does not want us to become increasingly accountable for growing levels of disobedience... and so the gift of greater understanding is granted mainly to those who are faithful in obeying what they already understand of His Word. The more we obey, the more we can be entrusted with; the less we obey, the less we will understand. It's our choice!