Hot for the holidaymakers...

My parents and my niece arrived here on Monday, and it's been such a hot week that they've spent most of the time by the pool so far. With temperatures in the high thirties, it's quite a contrast to the cooler, rainy weather that they left behind in Scotland. It's been a real blessing to have a big swimming pool to ourselves every morning. That's happened because my friends are attending Spanish classes for a few weeks, and so we're going round to their house every morning to feed the chickens, to check that the dog's doing okay (I'm relieved to see that her eye seems to be improving all the time - see 7th July) and, of course, to cool off in the pool. My niece spends hours in the water every day, and even my Mum swims more than a hundred lengths whenever we go there. Dad's also been enjoying cooling off in the water; it's the first time he's been swimming since having those brain operations at the end of last year, and so it's nice that he can just pop in and out for a short dip when he feels like it.

An anniversary and a birthday...

Today's the fortieth anniversary of man's setting foot on the moon. (Well, it was still 20th July in the United States, but it was already 21st in other parts of the world when we saw live pictures of the momentous event.) Those who were alive at the time can no doubt remember seeing it on TV and hearing those now-famous words: "That's one small step for man; one giant leap for mankind."

Today is also my birthday. No, not the day that I was first born on planet earth, but the day when I really understood the gospel and was "born again." Just two years after Neil Armstrong took his "one small step" onto the moon, I personally took my "one small step" of deciding to live the rest of my life for God and not for myself. Thirty eight years later, I can see that this single step has been the determining factor for my whole life, and I am so thankful for the privilege of having walked several decades in friendship with God.

Whatever happened to...?

Some of you have asked me whatever happened to Tamba's four kittens who were born at the end of February this year. (Click here to read the story.) Well, we ended up having all four kittens - Teddi and Tobi, Timmy and Pickles - at our house for a whole three months. We discovered that the Spanish can be quite superstitious, and we began to despair of finding homes for the babies. People would phone to ask about adopting a kitten, and then they would change their minds when they discovered that the kittens were black.

Finally, when they were twelve weeks old, the two short haired kittens, Timmy and Pickles (on the left above), went to a new home with a nice Spanish family that lives out in the countryside on a farm-type property. When no owners were forthcoming for the two long haired kittens, Tobi and Teddi (pictured on the right above), it was finally decided that they would be adopted by my parents, who live in Scotland and who'd been thinking about getting a couple of kittens there. We decided that I'd keep them short term and then they would travel to the UK once they'd had their rabies vaccinations and got their passports.

Following in Tamba's footsteps (see here), Tobi was spayed today and Teddi was neutered by our vet who volunteers time with a local animal charity. (No more black kittens will be born in this household!!) They're recovering from their operations even as I write this. The vet took their rabies blood samples while they were under the anaesthetic, and now it's just a case of waiting six months for their passports to come through. So we'll be a three-cat-family here in Alhaurín until the end of this year. As I'm looking for a new home at the moment, I'm hoping it will be a place where the cats can easily go outdoors.

When a friend heard I'd kept two of the kittens, she commented that I had given them very "spiritual" names. Well, the truth of the matter is that I'd originally just given all of them names beginning with T - so that we had Tamba, Teddi, Timmy, Tobi and..... Sue gave Pickles a name change along the way! I had not at all been aware of giving the cats "spiritual" names, and so it was kind of a surprise when I checked out what their names actually mean.

Teddi is the short form of Theodore or Theodora. Of Greek origin, this name means "a gift from God." Tobi is the short form of Tobias or Tobia. This name comes originally from Hebrew and means "God is good." At this time of making a new home in Spain, having a pet (I never planned to have five of them) is a reminder to me of God's goodness and, like my car and my tomatoes, is a stake in the ground to say that this nation is becoming my home.

Sunset and swimming...

Hot sunny days prepare the way for beautiful sunsets in the evening, and some of the sunsets have been stunning during this week that I've been house sitting at Villa Victoria.  After working (indoors) on the computer during the day, it's such a pleasure to sit outdoors in the evening and watch the amazing colours as the sun sets.

This evening, our little church youth group will be coming here to the Villa for their weekly Bible study, and then they'll finish off their time together with a sunset dip in the pool. It'll be a fun way for me to end my dog-sitting week before I go to pick my friends up at the airport and then drive home to live in my own house again.

Wheels at last!

Well, I finally did it! I bought a car this week. If you've followed this blog or my newsletters, you probably know that I've been searching for a suitable vehicle for the past nine months. As far back as November (see here, for example) I realised that vehicles don't lose their value as quickly in Spain as they do in the UK. As the months went by, it was rather discouraging to discover that the money I'd saved up might buy me a five or six year old car in Scotland, but it would probably only get me a 10 or 12 year old car in Spain. Somehow I just couldn't bring myself to buy an "old banger" that was even older than the car I'd left in Cape Town, and that might constantly cost me money in maintenance and repairs. So I kept hanging on - waiting and wishing, hoping and praying... 

Some of you were praying with me, and some of you also contributed to my "car fund" when you sent financial gifts for my Christmas or birthday. And this week our prayers were answered, and the miracle finally happened. I'm now the proud owner of a little blue Hyundai Atos. It may not be very big, but it's in good condition and it's only three years old - far better and newer than I ever dared to hope for. Thank you so much to those of  you who prayed and contributed to make this wonderful blessing possible. There's not much public transport here, and so it's been kind of challenging over the past nine months that we didn't have a vehicle to get around in. Although we live only twenty minutes from the beach, we had been here for several months before we ever caught a glimpse of the sea!! And our lack of a vehicle kind of kept us "prisoner" here in the town. It will be wonderful to be able to get around more freely in the months ahead, and I'm also glad I'll have a vehicle when my parents and niece come for a holiday later this month.

Having a car will also be a help when it comes to house hunting. Yes, that will be my next faith challenge. My flat mate returns to England this week, and so I'll be looking for a new place to live in the year that lies ahead. Please join me in praying that my Father God who so generously provided this car for me will also direct me to just the right house or flat to live in.

Fourth of July

It's nine o'clock in the morning and it's already 31 degrees here in Alhaurín de la Torre. According to the forecast, it's going to be around 36° for most of the day. (That's about 97 degrees for those who think in fahrenheit.)

The B2b young leaders' course finished yesterday and the students headed home to their different nations. It had been a stimulating time, when these young leaders were challenged to develop godly character as well as to pursue the vision that God has given them for their lives.

Today will be a day of celebrating for us as YWAMers in Alhaurín. No, not because the B2b is over, nor because it's Independence Day in the USA or because we just had Canada Day at the beginning of the month (even though some of our YWAM friends here in the town are Canadian and American.) Our gathering today will be for the purpose of saying hallos and goodbyes. We're having a lunchtime barbecue (by a swimming pool, praise God) to reconnect with other YWAMers in the area, and to say goodbye to my housemate, Sue, who is returning to live in England next week. During July, I hope to start looking for a new, probably smaller and cheaper, place to live in the year that lies ahead, and so I'd value your prayers for that.

A stake in the ground.... literally!

Tomorrow is an anniversary: it will be exactly two years since I stopped writing my barbinafrica blog and began writing this backineurope blog instead. This one has nearly a hundred posts at the moment, and so I'll be taking some time soon to go back and "tidy up" - deleting some of the early posts from my "back to Europe" journey.

If this blog is almost two years old, that means that it's exactly two years today since I left South Africa, and so you might be surprised to hear that I still really miss Cape Town a lot! I haven't lived in Spain long enough for it to feel totally like home yet, and so I often still have a lingering sense of homesickness for Cape Town. I had lived there longer than anywhere else in the world and had embraced the South African people and culture as my own. In this "back in Europe" season of my life, I am enjoying learning Spanish and I am on a journey of getting to know the people and culture of Spain, so it's strange to sometimes still feel like a refugee whose "real home" is down in South Africa.

During May this year, I was reading the Old Testament book of Jeremiah, and it was interesting to see how God sometimes asked the prophet to do something symbolic (such as breaking a clay pot, wearing an ox yoke, or buying a field) to represent something that was going to happen. The twenty ninth chapter quotes a letter that Jeremiah wrote to the Jews who were in exile in Babylonia. These refugees were still missing their "real home" back in Jerusalem, and so Jeremiah told them to do a number of things that would symbolise their commitment to settle down and work for the good of the new nation that they were living in. Among other things, he urged them to, "Build houses and settle down. Plant gardens and eat what you grow in them."

Jeremiah 29:5

Later that day, this verse kept coming back to mind, and I had the strange thought of doing something that would symbolise my commitment to making a new home here in Spain. I couldn't plant a garden, because our house doesn't have one, so I decided to buy a couple of tomato plants and plant them in a bucket up on the roof terrace. A few weeks have passed and, as you can see in the pictures, my plants have been growing a little every day. The first two tomatoes appeared recently, and so I may soon be able to "eat the fruit that you grow."

It's just two tomato plants in a bucket but, in a symbolic way, it's a stake in the ground to say that Spain is my home now. In a strange way, allowing myself to be adopted by a stray cat (see previous postings, like this one, for example) was another way of saying that this nation is becoming my home.

Some new steps in settling down and making Spain home still lie ahead. My present flatmate is returning to the UK soon, and so I'll be looking for a new house to live in when our lease on this house expires at the end of August. I'm also still looking for a suitable car (with increased funds, after receiving a number of financial gifts for my recent birthday!) Please join me in praying that I'll find the right house and car over these summer months. I know that they will be further stakes in the ground when it comes to feeling that this beautiful nation is becoming my home.