I have wonderful news for those of you who were praying for rain when our outreach team was in Senegal at the beginning of this month. The rains did come after we started to pray and the team was able to be involved in tree planting for the rest of their time in the nation. The local people were particularly impressed and kept talking about how our team had been the ones to bring the rain. Or, to be more exact: our God was the One who brought the rain in answer to our prayers.
As September draws near, two more Africa trips lie ahead of us: one to Togo in West Africa, and the other to Mozambique in South East Africa. The Mozambique team will be going there to train preschool teachers; among the gifts they'll be taking with them are illustrated manuals that we're making for the teachers, and simple everyday items (like the plastic tubs donated to us from the ice cream shop) that can be used for creativity projects and for educational games.
Just one week from today, I'll be heading down to Togo, where I'll be teaching in the French language PCYM - a school that trains Africans to work with children, youth and families. Before I go to an African PCYM, I always write to ask what gifts I can bring with me - things that they are not able to buy locally. The requests vary from one location to another: sometimes they ask for "luxury" items like chocolate and cheese; sometimes they request more "ordinary" things like paper handkerchiefs, plastic bags or ballpoint pens .... if those things are difficult or expensive to get in the local area. So last week I wrote to Togo, to ask what they would like me to bring for them this time.
One of their requests was very obvious and something that is close to my heart: they run an after-school homework club for dozens of neighbourhood kids, and so they asked me if I could find some educational games or activities that they could use to stimulate these kids mentally and help them to make progress academically. The second request was rather surprising and actually made me laugh: they asked if I could bring a couple of bags of "croquettes pour chat" (dry cat food) as they are no longer able to buy it locally and their cat is beginning to miss it. I had to smile. I think it's the first time that I've been asked to take a gift to the missionaries' cat! Needless to say, Tamba, Teddi and Tobi were very excited about the idea of sending some of their "croquetas" to help the missionary cat in Africa.
Okay, I confess that I didn't really catch this trout myself (although I did email the photo to my younger brother, an aspiring fisherman, in an attempt to impress him with my catch!) I actually just bought the trout at our local Mercadona supermarket. It's part of my strategy to "eat oily fish more regularly" as they're rich in omega-3 fatty acids which (even though that sounds kind of disgusting) are allegedly helpful because they contribute to lubricating joints and hindering inflammation for arthritis sufferers. That may not be the totally scientific explanation.... I think it's the BBC news version. Anyway, as I've always preferred fish to meat since childhood, the idea of eating more trout, salmon, mackerel and fish in general isn't a challenging one to me. Today's trout (yes, I baked it in the oven and I ate the whole fish!) was absolutely delicious. I'd rather have a fish than a steak, any day!
Back from his recent visit to Ireland (where he wanted to visit all the old haunts from his childhood and youth), my Dad had to go back to hospital today for the results of his recent tests, including the biopsy that was taken when he had an endoscopy a couple of weeks ago. As my parents had actually been expecting, the news was not good: Dad has bowel cancer and will need an operation to remove the part of his colon that has the cancerous tumour in it. First he'll have an appointment with the anaesthetist to assess his general health and the possible risks involved in such an operation at his age. Then, all being okay, he'll be given a date to go in for the surgery as soon as possible. I know that my parents would appreciate your prayers at this challenging time. Thank you for that.
I went back to the doctor yesterday for the results of my recent x-rays. I'm afraid the x-rays of my neck show even more disk degeneration than the previous x-rays (taken in 2009) but at this stage the doctor can't propose anything other than pain killers and anti-inflammatories when needed. She was more concerned about my feet, however, as there seem to be even more osteophytes (bone spurs) which are making it more and more difficult for me to walk or to find shoes that are comfortable to wear. The next step is that I'll be going to see a specialist at the hospital - probably in Malaga or Torremolinos - to see what can be done: possibly the making of orthotic insoles or special shoes, as it's not yet at the stage where surgery would make much difference. I'm awaiting the hospital appointment in the post, and hoping it arrives before I leave for my trip to Africa. Thanks for your prayers.
Around the end of February of this year, a neighbour passing in the street knocked on my window and said to me, "You should prune that jasmine plant soon... or it won't be strong enough by the time summer comes." Sure enough, I remembered I'd once been told that you should completely prune back your jasmine tree in autumn or at least by January, so that it will regrow and be covered in fragrant blossoms by the time May or June arrives. So I got out the secateurs and pruned it back right away (see photo) but the months went by and I have to confess that it did seem to be growing more slowly than it did last year. By May there were only a few blossoms, and it was already July before we could enjoy that wonderful jasmine fragrance every time we came in or out of our front door. The perfume is beautiful now.... but the blossoms are still a little fewer than they were last year. I guess I waited too long to do the pruning.
There's a well known Bible passage (John's gospel chapter 15) about pruning. The passage says that our lives are like a vine and God is like the gardener. For our own good, He will remove any branches that are simply sapping our strength and not bearing fruit..... but verse two says that He will also prune the branches that do bear fruit - in order that they can be even more fruitful. Sometimes we resist God's pruning work in our lives; perhaps we're afraid of losing things that we care about or that we've grown used to; perhaps we're afraid that the pruning will expose our ugliness (like the bare branches above in the photo I took of my jasmine plant in February.) But the end result of pruning is always that there will be more blossoms, more fragrance, more fruit from our lives.
I've learned a lesson from the postponed pruning of my jasmine: if we resist God's pruning and are slow to respond to the prompting of the Holy Spirit in our lives, if we delay the process of having the old branches and blossoms cut off.... just perhaps we will have a little less fruit, a little less fragrance that year than if we had responded promptly and willingly to the Father's hopes and dreams for our life. It reminds me of a principle that I wrote in my journal back when I was a teenager: delayed obedience is actually disobedience. My prayer is that I will always be quick to respond to the Gardener's prompting in my life and that I won't resist the pruning until it's a little too late.
Spain feels like home to me now. After those first three years of feeling like a refugee whose "real home" was down in Cape Town, something changed last summer, and for the past year I've felt very much at home in Alhaurin de la Torre. I've got used to queuing for an hour just to make a doctor's appointment. I'm not surprised if someone invites me out for lunch at 3 pm or for dinner at 9 pm. It's become normal that most shops are closed from 2.00 till 5.00, or that many restaurants don't even open until 8 pm. I know that some days the internet will work and some days it won't (which is not so different from living in Africa.)
Even so, there are some typically Spanish things that I don't do. I don't eat olives, for example, which is a surprise to most Spaniards, and I wouldn't dream of having bread spread with olive oil for breakfast. And I don't take a siesta: I've never been someone who could stop and sleep in the middle of the day and, in fact, I find that the siesta time is a good time to do my supermarket shopping - because many people are asleep and so there aren't such long queues at that time of day.
Yesterday, however, was a totally different situation. Remembering that Monday will be a public holiday, I popped out yesterday after lunch to buy milk and a few other things that I needed from the supermarket. My back was sore when I got home, so I took the prescription pills that the doctor gave me this week, and I lay down "for ten minutes" with a book. Some time later, I was aware of the cats waking me up - as they usually do around 6.00 or 7.00 am, when they've decided that I've slept long enough and it's now time for breakfast. As I stumbled downstairs (the arthritis makes me very stiff in the mornings) I suddenly noticed that I was fully clothed. It wasn't breakfast time at all, but was only 9.30 pm and I had slept for several hours since getting back from the shops. It must be due to the combination of medication I'm taking (anti-inflammatories and muscle relaxants) because it was the second time this week that I had nodded off in the afternoon. For someone who never takes a siesta, it was a rather strange feeling to realise that this time I had slept the whole afternoon away. After a glass of juice - and the next dose of the anti-inflammatory - I realised that I just needed to head back to bed again. I don't think I've slept this much in years; I usually only sleep like this if I'm ill with pneumonia or something like that.
Despite last night's disappointment, the cats cheerfully woke me around 7 o'clock again this morning and seemed very relieved that this time I did give them breakfast.
