Our KKI leadership team meetings have come to an end, but I'm staying a few extra days in Minnesota to connect with friends here. Some Scottish friends are having a Spanish holiday in Alhaurín, staying in my house and looking after the cats, so that gave me the opportunity to visit a friend here and her two Scottish dogs - a Westie and a Scottie. We've gone for multiple walks around the neighbourhood, and also down to the nearby Minnehaha Falls Park, here in Minneapolis.
Today we drove a couple of hours northwards to visit another friend. who took us on a drive through the Jay Cooke State Park, where we stopped to cross the swinging bridge across the St Louis River, which was rushing wildly due to the freshly melted snow.
Then we drove onwards to Lake Superior, making a short detour into the state of Wisconsin before crossing back into Minnesota and eating lunch in the lakeside city of Duluth, where we also walked on the solid ice at the edge of the partly frozen lake. We spotted deer by the roadside and it was a lovely outing on a brisk, but fairly sunny day.
As happens every year in March, I've travelled to another part of the world to meet with our KKI international leadership team. This year we're being hosted by King's Kids USA and are staying in the wintery state of Minnesota. Not so many weeks ago, temperatures here were well below zero - at one point as low as minus forty - but, to my relief, things have thawed a bit now and the temperatures are not too far below and above zero. It's no longer snowing here, but the thick snow is still lying everywhere and the lakes are completely frozen over - as seen in the pictures here on the right, which were snapped from the room where we're holding our meetings, one in the afternoon and the other in the evening sunset. We're staying at a little retreat centre belonging to the local church that our friends attend, and the "tree house" that you see at the edge of the lake is one of several little prayer cabins on the property.
On our first day here, we took a trip into Minneapolis to visit the Mill City museum, which tells the history of this part of the world - in particular how the falls on the mighty Mississippi River made it the biggest flour mill centre in the world at one point. This helped us to pray with understanding, as we took time in intercession for the city, the region, the USA and the work of KKI in this part of the world. Below (at the end of this post) you can see a picture of our leadership team, and two of our international elders, taken as we were crossing that old stone arch bridge over the Mississippi.
One of our ministries based in this region is called "Life Rice." Formerly called "Kids against Hunger," it's an initiative that allows whole families to work together packaging fortified emergency meals for people on the verge of starvation (such as refugees and victims of natural disasters.) Together with a handful of families from the local church, we worked one afternoon to pack 8,800 meals that will be sent to help Venezuelan refugees who have fled into neighbouring Colombia to escape the current crisis there.
Now we're well into the "business" part of our week, as we evaluate the progress made since last year and work further on the various action steps and decisions that will serve the ministry worldwide. Questions like communication, leadership structures, updating of child protection policies, new initiatives in youth ministry training... are all part of our agenda this week. We also took time to pray for, and write to, all our KKI regional leaders on the different continents of the world. Thanks for your prayers as we continue to meet over the coming days.
My morning walks in the countryside near my home are a wonderful time for praying or for meditating on a Bible verse that I've read in my early morning quiet time. While walking the dogs the other day, I also found myself reflecting on a valuable lesson about Christian community and spiritual disciplines.
I realised that I could never manage to give Nelson and Hugo as much exercise as they give each other. While Buba, Bonnie and I do our sedate 3½ km walk in the morning, the other two chase each other across the fields, probably covering 10 km at least, and ending the time fully satisfied with their workout.
It struck me that it's exactly the same for us as human beings. Whether our goal is physical exercise, losing weight, spending time in Bible study or developing a deeper prayer life, what a difference it makes to have a friend by our side, someone who can encourage us to be all we want to be and do all we want to do.
A well known passage in Ecclesiastes 4: 9 - 10 says that, "Two are better than one, because they have a better return for their labour... and if one falls down, the other is there to lift him/her up." With a recommendation like that, why would we choose to go it alone? Even when it comes to growing in God, it always helps to connect with a friend or be part of a community of believers.
I mentioned in a previous post that we had begun counting and "donating" our steps to help research into multiple sclerosis: click here to read that post. The aftermath of pneumonia meant that I had a slow start to January, and my recent Barcelona trip interrupted our usual daily routine in February. But our goal, nonetheless, was to clock up 300 kilometres to donate to charity before I leave the country on my upcoming trip to Minnesota. I'm encouraged to report that the dogs and I have reached our target and our contribution currently stands at 313 km.
Today I was reading in the book of Acts, chapter two. It happened shortly after the death and resurrection of Jesus and it's the story of when the Holy Spirit first comes to the group of believers gathered in Jerusalem. The events of that day were pretty spectacular: there was the sound of a powerful wind storm; while still indoors, the believers saw something that looked like small flames on each others' heads; and then they spilled into the streets and began declaring the acts of God in lots of different languages. The people who heard them were amazed because they were hearing the gospel in their own languages, spoken by a crowd of Galileans who had never learned any of those languages. No wonder three thousand people responded to Peter's preaching and came into the Kingdom of God that day!
Yet, even when God manifests Himself as powerfully and obviously as He did in these first few verses of Acts chapter two, there are always going to be people who doubt it and dismiss it. Despite the miracle of hundreds of Galileans declaring what God had done in all the languages of the known world, and despite the fact that it was only breakfast time, there were still some in the crowd (vs 13) who said, "These people must be drunk."
It's not a very convincing perspective, in my opinion. I don't know if you've ever had the misfortune to have to make your way through the city centre after the pubs have closed. How often did you hear the neighbourhood drunks fluently praising God in other languages? The effects of too much alcohol generally tend to make people less coherent in their own language and not to make them speak clearly in a language they have never learned.
But it's a fact of life that, no matter how much evidence there is, human beings are unlikely to believe something if they are knowingly or unknowingly unwilling to. If you have decided in your heart that God no longer speaks directly to people today, you are probably one of those people who say that you have never heard God's voice. If you believe that prayer doesn't make a difference, that God doesn't hear and answer what we ask, then you'll dismiss all evidence of answered prayer as simply coincidence. If you choose not to believe in the existence of God, then you won't notice the things He does, even though the evidence of His existence is all around you. There's an element of truth in the old maxim that we believe what we want to believe... and we don't believe what we don't want to believe.
What are you unwilling to believe by faith? How tragic if that unbelief prevents you from seeing and experiencing the things that God has for you.
I had to smile this morning when I was reading in Acts chapter one. After the disciples had watched Jesus being taken up to heaven, they walked back to Jerusalem again. My Bible's translation of verse 12 says that it was "half a mile" from the Mount of Olives to Jerusalem, but the original Greek text says that it was "a Sabbath day's journey." Because walking was their main or only form of transport, it was considered work rather than recreation, and there were Jewish laws limiting how far they were allowed to walk on the Sabbath day.
I thought of last Sunday afternoon, a beautiful sunny day, when I took the four dogs for a walk across our own "Mount of Olives" here in Alhaurín de la Torre: across the fields, up the quarry road, and then meandering through the olive groves on the summit of one of the small mountains that form the backdrop to our town. (See satellite map above.) We covered six and a half kilometres just for the fun of it, and the dogs enjoyed every moment.
I thought of friends, more energetic or more fit than myself, who might do a ten mile run or a twenty mile hike just for recreation. Because our main form of transport is by vehicle, walking is something that nowadays is usually considered a free time or restorative activity.
It does raise the question, though, of what activities in our daily lives are "work" things that we might want to lay aside on our equivalent of a sabbath. Answering emails perhaps, studying for an exam, or preparing work for the next day. It might be worth considering what we want not to do at times, in order to be more fully available to rest and enjoy the Lord. In the rhythm of our life with the Lord, where and when might we want to draw the line, so that we can obey His command about rest and relationship with Him.
What a full and fruitful week! I've just arrived back in Malaga after a busy week with the Spanish language coach trainees in the FOCOS (foundational coaching skills) programme. This intensive onsite coaching workshop was the middle part of a one-year training course that equips Christians to disciple or support others in their personal growth by using the skills of "life coaching" - a conversational model that involves learning to listen well and to use great questions to help the client or coachee make measurable progress in different areas of their life or work.
Until now, the onsite workshop has been held every February at the leadership retreat centre in Alhaurín. With the closing of the retreat centre last summer, we needed to find a new location and that's how we ended up this year at a pleasant campsite in the holiday town of Santa Susanna, on the Costa Brava some 60 kilometres north of Barcelona. The sixteen trainees had been receiving personal coaching since last October, and now they arrived from Costa Rica, Mexico, Brazil and many regions of Spain to learn and practise the skills needed to offer coaching to others.
The daily schedule was very busy. We were up before sunrise (beautiful sunrises over the Mediterranean - see photo below) and the schedule of teaching, coaching demonstrations and practice times extended throughout the day and into the evening - of course, with the typical long Spanish lunch break (when some of the participants went out to walk on the beach, relax a bit and reflect on what they'd been learning.) The weather was cold in the mornings and evenings, but pleasantly sunny and breezy during the lunch break.
We were two trainers (Patti and myself) throughout the week, but we also had some "volunteers"(three trainees who completed last year's FOCOS and who have been coaching for a full year now.) They helped us observe the new trainees in action, as well as giving morning devotionals and leading the evening communion times. At the end of each evening, we debriefed the day with these volunteers, and sometimes had time to join the trainees for after-dark board games, before all heading to bed to get some rest before the next day began.
Midweek, we took the group on an excursion to Barcelona (a 90 minute trip in train and metro/ underground.) Some opted to visit Camp Nou football ground, home of the world famous Barcelona team, while most of the group opted to visit the iconic Sagrada Familia church in the centre of Barcelona. Dinner in a nearby restaurant allowed all the South Americans to sample a traditional Spanish menu of salad and paella with a glass of sangría. The outing allowed the participants to relax and renew their strength for the second half of the training week.
As we wrapped up the onsite on Friday afternoon, we took a short time to evaluate the week and to make video recordings of testimonies from the trainees. The testimonies were mind-blowing for me. This had been a quieter group with more introverts than in previous years. Suddenly, as we asked for feedback, people who hadn't so obviously been showing great excitement and enthusiasm throughout the week began to give incredible testimonies about how the coaching and the onsite workshop had changed their lives. Many shed tears as they explained how the week - as they were coached by their peers - had helped them find solutions and hope for situations that had seemed impossible to them. They also spoke of how encouraged they were to see that their own skills and understanding had developed throughout those intensive five days. When we concluded with a time of thank-yous, the trainees were falling over each other to affirm the trainers and the volunteers for all we had invested to make the week a success.
Spanish FOCOS is the only time in the year that I have to teach in Spanish for a whole week, and I sometimes feel a bit ambivalent about that. Hearing such moving testimonies of changed lives and excitement for the future makes it all worthwhile, and we could only conclude by giving all the thanks and all the credit to the Lord.
