Comfort or commitment...

This morning I was reading a well known story in the book of Acts. Two of the disciples, Peter and John, had been arrested and put in prison for healing a lame man and telling people about Jesus. When they are finally released and reunited with the rest of the believers, that group of first century Christians turns to fervent prayer. Nothing unusual about that, but it's what they pray that's so interesting.

These early believers were facing opposition and persecution, so you'd imagine that their common prayer would be, "Oh, Lord, please protect us from these hostile authorities and keep us safe." They were being threatened, after all. Instead (Acts 4: 29), they prayed, "Lord, hear their threats and give us great boldness in preaching your word.' Talk about asking for trouble!

Our natural tendency is to pray for what keeps us safe and comfortable, rather than for what accomplishes the will of God and shares the gospel with those who are lost. We need to learn how to lay our own comfort aside and pray for what will make the greatest impact on our world. 

These early believers also prayed for miraculous signs and wonders, vs 30 - 31. They weren't afraid to create a stir.
And what was the result of their prayer? The Holy Spirit came in power and filled them with courage.

In our modern world, we sometimes feel that we don't see enough evidence of the Holy Spirit's presence and power. Perhaps we would see more of the Holy Spirit at work if we cared less about our own comfort and cared more about the Kingdom of God.

A week of wanderings...

I mentioned in a previous post that I was going to be looking after Ada and Gabriela's two little dogs while they travelled to Melilla, North Africa, where Gabriela will be at University over the coming year.

When some people hear the term "six pack," they think of beer; others think of strong abdominal muscles. I think of this pack of six canines that I walked all over town, across the countryside, through the forest and up the mountain for a whole week. Those little dogs were well exercised and when Ada got home she said they looked as if they'd built up some muscles. They'd walked 40 miles (65 km) over the course of the week.

You'd think that managing six dogs (transporting them in my tiny car, walking them on-lead in the town and wandering off-lead in the forest) would be a challenge, but actually it was amazing to see how the spirit of "the pack" set in, making the whole group very sociable, obedient and happily amenable. We must have formed quite a sight, but it turned out to be pretty easy to take six dogs for a walk at the same time.

A different kind of wandering happened when I got word from my friends who lead KKI in Taiwan. Together with their grown up family, they were spending a few days' holiday in the south of Spain and asked if we could meet up somewhere. In the end, we decided to meet in Ronda, a town high in the mountains that is famous for its spectacular bridge spanning a deep gorge. We had a nice Spanish-style lunch together, and then we wandered around the quaint streets of Ronda's old town for a bit.

Just getting to Ronda took me on quite a circular tour of Málaga Province  and it gave such an overview of the vast variety of landscapes here in Andalucía. Driving to Ronda (upper route on the map below) I was passing through olive country, bull farms, endless stretches of dry, ochre-coloured fields on either side of the road. Coming home again (lower route on the map) I was winding my way among craggy mountain peaks, strange rock formations, and mile upon mile of green forests. What a beautiful place I live in!

When I wasn't wandering the countryside with dogs or friends, last week's schedule included some intense but fruitful meetings - mostly KKI related - as we planned for our upcoming European conference, worked to clarify our international training guidelines (curriculum for PCYM), and met to talk about the Switzerland PCYM in particular.

Heavy thunderstorms and torrential rains have hit us here for the weekend (having already caused flooding and burst river banks in other parts of the country) so there won't be much wandering happening over the next two days. It looks as if it will be a time for staying indoors, writing, reading, and perhaps watching a movie or two. (Today I turned my TV on for the first time since April.)

Starting September...

It's September, the summer ministry activities are behind us now and the autumn activities are all beginning. For me, this includes starting to work with new groups of coaching trainees, both in English and in Spanish. It means gearing up for the all-Europe KKI conference that we'll be holding in Germany this October. It means beginning to work more intentionally on the communication and preparation for the leadership development course that we'll be holding just a year from now. And it means getting involved in a variety of other projects with the international teams I'm part of - both in KKI and in the University of the Nations.

This week has turned out to be quite a busy one, as a number of different projects have coincided. In the mornings, I've been starting up with new coaching clients, and re-starting with coachees that I connect with regularly all year. In the afternoons, I've been giving some English coaching to one of my young neighbours who is studying tourism at University and needs to prepare for an English exam next week. And in the evenings, I've been working till 10 pm with two other KKI leaders on the task of re-clarifying some of our ministry values that relate to working with families.

I've still found time for our morning walks with the dogs, though, and here too we can see that the seasons are beginning to change. It's dark now when I wake up, drink my coffee and have my quiet time, and sometimes the sun is just rising as we head out for our morning stroll; the sky can be quite beautiful. For the next week, I might also have some sunset walks, as I'll be looking after my friends' little dogs while they're in North Africa for a few days (see previous post) and will need to take them out for a stroll before leaving them in the flat overnight.

Growing up...

If you've been reading this blog for a while, you'll remember that when I first moved to Spain, I lived for several years with my Peruvian friends, Ada and Gabriela. Gabriela was only ten years old at the beginning, and I became sort of a surrogate grandmother (as her own grandma was in Peru.) In August 2010, one of my blog posts showed this photo of how Gabriela and Teddi were both growing up.

Nine more years have passed since then. Now Teddi is the ten year old, and Gabriela is already twenty. This week, she moves away from home, going to study at University. She's actually studying with Granada University, but will be based at the campus that's in Melilla, a Spanish city on the north coast of Africa.

Ada will fly down with her this week, to help her settle in to her new accommodation. While they're gone, I'll be "babysitting" - looking after their two little dogs and taking them for long walks in the forest with my usual gang. We'll be a six dog pack for a whole week.

A full and fruitful summer...

I'm back in Europe, after a full and fruitful few weeks working with our Planting Together outreach project in West Africa. You can read more about our adventures by clicking the link in the post below. Thank you for standing with us in prayer as we planted trees, did children's ministry, construction work and medical ministry... and saw Muslim's making a decision to follow Jesus. What a rewarding few weeks it was!

I'm in Africa

I'm in Africa this month: www.barbinafrica.blogspot.com

More river adventures...

Back on July 19th (see earlier in this blog) I wrote about two of our river adventures during the early part of July.  One week, we headed east and I went river trekking in the Río Chillar, taking Nelson with me, as he's the most athletic of the four dogs. For our outing day the following week, I took Nelson and Buba and we headed westwards, to the Río Verde, where we were able to swim at one of my favourite spots, the Charco del Canalón.

For our third river adventure, last week, we headed north, high into the. Snowy Mountains (Sierra de las Nieves) to the Río Turón. Because it's so high up in the mountains, the Turón has water all year round, so there are lots of little pools along the way and there are several deeper swimming spots where "diques" - old stone dams - have been built along the course of the river in the past.

This time I took three of the dogs with me (Bonnie the chihuahua came too) and we all had a refreshing swim in the cool mountain waters of the river.  The original plan was to walk to two or more of the dams, but the other dog owners advised that there wouldn't be enough shade along the way, so we went to a more forested area and had a walk along the shallows of the river instead. The dogs had fun, as you can see in the video.

Our very last river adventure of July was today and was probably the most "adventurous" of all. Although it was a shorter route than most of the others, it involved a level of canyoning that meant you had to clamber over enormous rocks and swim along some stretches of the river where it was too deep to walk. For this reason, Nelson was my only canine companion again for that trip today.

Although it was a little more challenging than I'd expected, it was stunning - a once in a lifetime experience. Some parts of it were so deep in the canyon that they were like caves or tunnels made of rock; sometimes there were tiny waterfalls trickling down on top of you as you swam. There were unusual shapes and patterns in the rocks, almost like stalactites in places.

On the advice of people who'd been there before, we parked at the bottom end of the canyon and, instead of walking up the main road to the town of Benahavís, we crossed the wooden footbridge and made our way up the canyon by walking in some "acequias" - irrigation channels that run parallel to the river, but high up above it. 

Once we reached the little town, we made our way to the Charco de las Mozas, a famous pool where people jump from very high rocks into very deep water. That's the starting point for the descent of the river, and from that point onwards we were climbing, walking and swimming for the next two hours, until we came to the end of the canyon and the river was edged by kind of a stony beach, where families had already gathered for a day of swimming and picnicking.

After we'd eaten our sandwich and changed out of our wet clothes and shoes, we did a short hike that had been mapped out and signposted by the town council. This one also followed the path of acequias, but the town had conveniently installed metal walkways on top of them at points where there was no room to walk next to them. So we didn't need to do any more walking in water; it was all very pleasant and "civilised."

I joke about our super-chihuahua, Bonnie, but Nelson is the real super hero. He coped admirably today with our canyoning triathlon (climbing, walking and swimming) and even needed to do a bit of abseiling when a man helped him down a particularly high part near the end. (I'm told that there used to be a knotted rope there to help canyoners in the past, but it's long gone and so you had to fling yourself down a two metre rock slide, right in the path of a cascading waterfall. Nelson was a bit reluctant to hurl himself into the void and so someone kindly helped him down.)  He went wild with joy when we reached the end of the route and a Belgian family was there with a dog about his size. The two of them splashed around for ages. But no sooner did we have our feet on dry ground than Nelson was ready for action again; he seemed to thoroughly enjoy the hiking trail and one final dip in the river. 

It's been so much fun to take one or more dogs with me on these river trips during July. As I don't particularly "go on holiday" in summer like many people do, one of my goals for my pre-outreach months this year was to set aside one day every week for something touristy or fun - visiting a new town in the region or embarking on a new experience, like these four river trips with the dogs. It's been thoroughly enjoyable.