Fourth month of the Bible reading challenge

Today is Good Friday, the day when we remember that Jesus died on the cross to make it possible for us to have our selfishness forgiven and begin a personal friendship with God. If you've been part of the Reto 2013 Bible reading challenge, I hope that you've enjoyed the Easter readings in the March booklet and have found that they strengthened your own communication with God. In recent weeks, I've been asked to send the Challenge 2013 booklets to Mali, Togo and Lebanon... which may mean that they're now being used in eleven or twelve different countries, and in five or six different languages. That's encouraging! You can download the April booklets (Old Testament readings from the lives of Moses and Jeremiah) by clicking on the links below.

To download the English booklet, click here.

Para descargar el libro en español. haz clic aquí.

Flying back to Spain today

We've had lots of snow over the past week. Some areas, like Arran, have had no electricity for the past five days, and the TV news has carried heartbreaking pictures of farmers in Northern Ireland who are losing all their sheep and newborn lambs in deep snowdrifts. It's not really been too bad here in the central belt, but it doesn't take much to close British airports, and so I'm hoping there won't be a disruption with my flight from Edinburgh to Malaga today. It looks as if it's a good twenty degrees warmer in Alhaurin, even though the forecast there is for continued winter rains over the Easter weekend. 
We're running a "Pathways" retreat next week on the theme of different ways of connecting with God and enriching your relationship with Him. Then the countdown will begin, as staff and delegates start to arrive for this year's leadership development course, which will run from the last week of April to the first week of June.

Don't forget to use your GPS

Do you use a sat-nav in your car? I find them amazing. Even if I'm just driving in the Malaga area, and going to a part of town that I'm not familiar with, I love the security that comes from knowing that I'm on the right track and that my little GPS device will even warn me what lane to get into, so that I'm positioned well and prepared for the road that lies ahead. This morning, in my personal time with God, I was reflecting on the fact that walking by faith is rather like travelling with a GPS. Once you make a personal decision to invite God into your life, it's like buying a sat-nav and putting it into your car; you now have everything you need to keep your life on track and draw on all the wisdom you need for life's decisions - even in the challenging parts of the journey.

But having a GPS device in your car is no use at all if you simply leave it sitting in the glove compartment. You have to activate it - to switch it on and tune into the satellite - before it's able to give you any kind of direction for your journey. And it's the same with faith: being a Christian is like having the sat-nav and carrying it with you in your car. But "walking by faith and not by sight" (2 Cor 5: 7) is like switching on the GPS and listening to what God's Voice has to say about the direction your life should take.

This morning I was reading in Psalm 92 vs 5, where it says, "How great are your works, oh God. How profound are your thoughts." Sometimes we don't see God at work in our lives, because we haven't taken time to ask Him what He thinks about our life and the situations we face. As I thought back to November and December 2011, to those first difficult months of my Dad's critical illness and especially his time in the intensive care unit, I realised that the simple fact of being a committed Christian was not in itself enough to see me/us through those challenging times. I needed to to "tune in the GPS" and be in connection with God on a daily basis to find out what He had to say to us in the face of impossible medical odds and pessimistic predictions from the doctors involved. (Some of those "GPS readings" are still posted here on this blog. You can find them by looking down the list on the right until you come to the postings for the last months of 2011.) "How great are your works, oh God. How profound are your thoughts." Yes, if we want to see the works of God in our lives, in our families, in our church, I really believe that we need to be committed to tune in to the thoughts of God about those situations. How else can we know what to hang our faith on?

Thinking over the past two days about how God has fulfilled, and is still fulfilling, the promises He made about my Dad's life, gave me increased faith to trust Him for other promises that He has made to me personally over the years. I thought of a promise God gave me when a leader prayed for me back in 1985, and realised that it's only been partially fulfilled. I thought of some of the promises He gave me in 2007, when I was leaving South Africa and moving back to Europe. One of those is also in Psalm 92, where God promises that those who trust Him will continue to bear good fruit, even as they grow into old age.

GPS: God's Promises Stand. What promises are you believing God to fulfill in your own life? Even if it takes time, there is absolutely no doubt at all that God will do what He promised, as we continue to trust Him, "walking by faith and not by sight." It can be in our lives, just as it was for Joshua in the Old Testament, who told the people before he died, "You know deep in your heart that not one of all the good promises the Lord your God gave you has failed. Every promise has been fulfilled; not a single one has failed." (Josh 23:14)

GPS: God's Promises Stand. But if we don't know what those promises are, we don't know what to hold on to. If we really want to see the works of God, we need to be willing to commit enough time to hearing the thoughts of God. We need to be committed to activating our GPS and maintaining our daily connection with God, so that we have constant access to His wisdom and direction for our lives.

The anniversary waltz

Many, many thanks to everyone who sent cards, email greetings and comments for my parents' special day, as they celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary with family and friends. It was truly a night to remember, as we reflected on God's faithfulness and the miracle He had done to make it possible for Dad still to be with us in 2013. Here's a family photo taken on the night (my niece Kasey, my brother Graham, Mum, Dad and myself.) And, especially for those who asked, here's a little video clip of my parents dancing to their song: The Anniversary Waltz.

The anniversary miracle...

Today is my parents' Diamond (60th) Wedding Anniversary, and the fact that we can celebrate it together is very obviously due to a miracle of God!

No, the miracle isn't that they've been together for 64 years (they had dated for four years before getting married), the miracle is that my Dad is alive and well to celebrate this special day. And, just this week, God added a little extra miracle that just served to prove that He is God and that no one else can do the things that He does. Let me tell you about what happened this week...

Back in November 2011, when my Dad was "dying" in the intensive care unit after surgery complications, we were told that none of the ICU doctors believed he would ever leave the hospital alive. Although all the outward signs seemed to support this diagnosis, I was holding on to a promise that God had given me from Jeremiah 33 vs 3-4 and 13b: God says, I have loved you with an everlasting love and I have drawn you to me with loving kindness. I will build you up again, and you will be rebuilt. I will turn their mourning into gladness. I will give them comfort and joy instead of sorrow."

But some weeks had passed since I wrote that promise in my journal, and Dad's condition had been very up and down, with several miracle improvements, but also lots of near death experiences where we, his family, were called to the hospital in the middle of the night to say our goodbyes. On that day when doctors told us that no one believed he would ever come out of the intensive care unit alive, I went home and I asked God again to tell me what we should expect. "Lord, will Dad still be alive at Christmas time or should we be preparing our hearts to lose him before then?"

God drew my attention to a Bible passage that is often read in church at Christmas time. Isaiah 9 vs 2: The people walking in darkness have seen a great light. On those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned."  It seemed that our family had been living in the "shadow of death" for so many weeks, but on that day I felt that God said to me, "No, he's not going to die. He will still be alive at Christmas time and, more than that, he will live to celebrate his Diamond Wedding anniversary." (which at that time was still about sixteen months away.)

With thankfulness in my heart, I began to pray: Lord, if you do this, there is no way that anyone could ever doubt that you are God. The doctors have given up hope and you alone are the one that can make this happen. It would be so amazing, Father, if Dad not only lived to celebrate their special anniversary, but was even able to dance on that day, as he did at the celebration of their Ruby Wedding and Golden Wedding. (My parents have done ballroom dancing throughout their lifetime.)

Well, this seemed like a crazy prayer, when my Dad was lying in the ICU, unable to move any of his limbs or even to breathe without the help of a ventilator. Even as the months went by (almost eight long and painful months in hospital) and Dad slowly began to make a little progress, medical staff still seemed to have some doubts about whether he would ever be able to walk again. When he was finally released from hospital last June, it was only on the condition that my parents were able to install a stairlift in our home.

But Dad has continued to improve over these past months, getting his appetite back, building up his strength and walking with a stick. If it weren't for some ongoing challenges with the stoma bag, his life would almost be getting "back to normal" and my parents would be able to get on with their lives again.

An amazing extra miracle happened just this week. My parents went on Tuesday afternoon to their usual ballroom dancing group (Dad started going again recently, even though he wasn't able to dance, but could only sit and watch.) Friends there gave them a bouquet of flowers and congratulated them on their 60th wedding anniversary. And then the "impossible" happened. Mum and Dad took the floor and were able to dance a waltz together, just like they did on their wedding day sixty years ago. Mum told me that there were many tears around the room as people watched this miracle happening before their own eyes!

And so Mum and Dad have been "practising" a little at home - in anticipation of being able to dance that waltz together again when we gather to celebrate their special day with a few friends and family. God has done exactly what He said He would: He "rebuilt" and restored my Dad, despite everything that the doctors and the statistics said to convince us that it was foolish to hold on to any hope.

To those of you who were standing with us in prayer during those difficult weeks at the end of 2011, be encouraged that your prayers were part of making this miracle possible and allowing the power of God to be demonstrated in an amazing way. May God bless you and may you continue to see miracles in your own situations as you trust and follow Him in 2013.       

Happy Anniversary, Mum and Dad!

Back in Europe

After an uneventful overnight flight from Dakar, we arrived in Madrid at 4 o'clock in the morning yesterday. I had a long 12-hour wait before my connecting flight to Málaga and so, instead of just sitting around in the airport, I decided to catch a bus into the city centre. I live in Spain, but I hadn't yet had an opportunity to see the sights of our capital. Madrid's temperature of 3 or 4 degrees felt bitterly cold after twelve days of African sunshine in Senegal, but I enjoyed being able to take three or four hours to see the Royal Palace and some of the other buildings that are landmarks of the city.

Our ILT (international leadership team meetings of King's Kids International) came to good closure on Sunday and Monday. We were able to spend lots of time in prayer for people and initiatives relating to the African continent and, among other things, we made a decision to hold our next large international gathering in Africa during 2015 (instead of during 2014) as this will give us more time to gear up and prepare for maximum participation from our people around the world.

Now, back in Málaga for today, I'm washing all my laundry and catching up on computer work related to KKI and LDC, before leaving for Scotland tomorrow to celebrate my parents' diamond wedding anniversary with them.

A free afternoon... African style

We've talked a lot, we've prayed a lot, and we've spent lots of time listening to God's voice. Now it's Saturday, and we have a free afternoon amidst the otherwise full schedule of our leadership meetings. Some people have gone into Dakar to visit a children's ministry there. Others are taking a boat trip to Gorée Island, the former slave colony where captives were held before being shipped across the Atlantic. Others, like myself have stayed back at our accommodation (that's my room on the ground floor of the first little house above) to chat and catch up with old friends, or to have a swim in the hotel's pool.

The hotel has a nice long swimming pool, with water that's warm from the African sunshine.
That almost makes up for the fact that most of the beds don't have any pillows, and some of the rooms don't have any light bulbs! Our African friends simply smile and say, "TIA" (This is Africa!) Some of the more adventurous in our group went out to drive around the nearby Pink Lake on quad bikes.

Later, some others of us also set out on an adventure. A guide from the hotel,took us out in an open Land Rover, like the one you see here, next to the camels. First we went to the Lac Rose; the lake is pink because of the algae in it and is one of the richest sources for salt production in this part of the world. In fact, the salt concentration is great than that of the Dead Sea in Israel, which means that you'll float on the surface, even if you try to dive to the bottom.

Next, the Land Rover headed off on a roller coaster ride over the sand dunes; surrounded only by sand, it felt like heading out into the Sahara Desert.... until suddenly we came to the top of a dune where we could see the Pink Lake on one side and the rolling waves of the Atlantic Ocean on the other. As we headed back to the hotel, we stopped to speak with a man who was making pictures out of the sand. We bought one or two, and he offered to make more for us when we bring our outreach teams to Senegal this summer. The sand pictures are a good souvenir of this part of Africa, and he surprised me by giving me a gift of a small picture showing the Lac Rose.