Friends and Fruit

We have just had five days of rain and we are seeing green shoots springing up everywhere, it almost feels like the beginning of Spring. What a difference water makes and of course its true in the spiritual realm too. More of the water of the Holy Spirit Lord, as we head into our second year in Spain.
This term, because the School of Frontier Missions (SOFM) has been cancelled it is an ideal time to get around the Villa clearing areas, repairing and painting in preperation for our next Discipleship Training School (DTS) which starts mid January. This is a six month course with the last three months in North Africa and we are believing for 15 students and six group leaders. My time will be spent concentrating on the group leaders, training them up for leadership in future DTS’s, for the field, or back home in their church situation.

We have just spent some time with Rita’s sister Larna and her partner Chris. They are on a Mediterranean cruise and had seven hours in Malaga. We got them back to the ship with just minutes to spare. We had visions of having to take them to Lisbon, their next port of call, at one stage.


During the month our friends Brian and Sue came over from Germany for a week. On the Saturday we went to Gibraltar and had a great time enjoying a little bit of England. While they did the official tour, we went around the Botanical gardens and here is Rita holding on to something that is familiar. Once we met up again it was time to relax for a drink. On the way back to the car we had to wait for a plane to come in. Yes to get back to our car we had to walk across the runway.

When we travelled back from the UK, Carol a friend for many years came with us (next time you must come John) She is quite a live wire and with a little bit of persuasion got Rita into the Med for the first time. She managed it just before our full year was up. Then there was the Flamingo dancing, woops I mean flamenco dancing. That was such a good night and the girls dressed up for the occasion. It was a real Spanish night because it started with the tradition paella dish. Great if you like seafood.

We had a little bit of excitement a couple of weeks back. We had a large snake 4-6ft in our courtyard area and it had a rat in its mouth. Rita was not amused but hey, lets look on the bright side, we have a resident rat catcher at the Villa. Come to think of it, we haven’t seen any rats recently, or the snake come to that.

I will close with a picture of an avocado tree. What is so special about it? Well it has not given fruit for many years, so earlier this year a few of us prayed that it would become fruitfull and well you can see for yourselves. Praise God. Don’t worry we are not becoming tree huggers.






Well, that is about it.
Lots of love to you all.