Animals together

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by Martin Scott
Posted in Biblical Observations

Jesus might have had a little twinkle in his eye when he sent out the disciples imparting an identity to them:

I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. So be as wise as snakes and as harmless as doves.

Apparently on the ‘wolf restaurant’ there are all varieties of dishes with lamb as the star of each dish: roast lamb, boiled lamb, barbecued lamb, lamb in salsa… They seem to just love eating lamb! Just a tad vulnerable I think.

It struck me the other day that if Isaiah has a value as a backdrop to so much of the New Testament we have two passages there that tie in: Isaiah 11:1-9, and the shorter passage Isaiah 66: 25

Wolves and lambs will eat together.
Lions will eat straw like oxen.
Serpents will not bite anyone.
They will eat nothing but dust.
None of those animals will harm or destroy
anything or anyone on my holy mountain of Zion.

For those who have followed our journey through the ReConquista we have come to understand that Paul’s Gospel had at its heart ‘convivencia’, and that the body of Christ as royal priesthood carries a catalytic responsibility for the society where it is located so that the society might be a place where at a real level convivencia is manifest. This is indeed a tall challenge when we look at the state of the world as we have it, but we would also contend that society has been hampered from experiencing anything approaching convivencia by the invasion of empire into the church. Imperialism draws on (supposed) external authority to legitimise its behaviour as the ‘good’ manifestation of power so as they can at least give benefits to those who comply if not punish those who do not comply. In Christendom terms it means we can name some nations as ‘sheep’ nations and expect increasingly for some kind of Christianised laws to be applied, allowing us to purify the land through increased border controls.

This is why we are convinced that there is a revolution (a turning around) that is at hand. 500 years after the Reformation there is a rooting out of imperialism. For empires to really shift there has to be a shift in the church. The breaking free from the paradigm of ‘the few at the centre who shape the future, promising benefits to those who comply, while in reality the benefits make their way back to the centre.’ At the last supper Jesus set the pattern of breaking the centre. He gave himself away, including to Judas, thus any former centre had been dissipated. Pentecost follows the same pattern – on all flesh, and with an emphasis on the margins. The margins became the new focus – hence not a hope of a rebuilt temple in Jerusalem!

In these days something has to be pioneered, and maybe the place where this could take place is in ‘secularised’ Europe. I consider it is certainly easier to see such a shift in a place where the church is already marginalised. Easier never to dream of being a centre when without power, than of having a key place at the table of power (early church vs. post-Constantine). All that has to be dealt with is ‘fear’ and all that needs to be increased is faith.

Lambs among wolves – that is a fear inspiring identity, and requires a faith increase.

Convivencia – the lamb and the wolf lying down together, eating together. The vision of the kingdom, a vision of convivencia. Sadly, as we have seen in the ReConquista, the wolf identity was too often taken by those who claimed to follow Jesus. At best we end up with wolf against wolf (war) and at worst the followers of Christ place on the table their ‘enemy’ to eat: a complete reversal of the Jesus’ paradigm.

This next phase will require faith at a new level, and with it many changes of paradigm. It will require mission being understood as relocation. Sent among. It will require witness more than evangelism. Or maybe evangelism will not be something done but something proclaimed – a new order of being and relationship, and that will have to be witnessed to. It will require an understanding that we are not here to get as many out of the world into the church, but as much of heaven into the world.

There are many ways this can be expressed. Of late the understanding of Israel and then the church as royal priesthood has been illuminating. The pursuit of the path toward nationhood by Israel marked her failure, and the alignment of church with Imperial power so that there was a mutual endorsement of each other likewise marked her failure. But if we can recover the vision of this being God’s world, and that there is a redeemed people so that the presence of heaven might be beyond that redeemed people (‘the two hands of God’ as per the early church fathers) we will see a profound shift and progress. Maybe if we can embrace new paradigms more opens up than is closed down. Of course we will lose something – our specialness in the wrong sense; an understanding of grace as salvation as opposed to a gift-calling to serve and to lay down one’s life; a shift from power to love; from the taking of life to the giving of life.

Royal priesthood as calling, or maybe we can suggest it will manifest as a true convivencia. Space opened up where all can live together, where hospitality reigns, where it is not dependent on age, gender, race nor religion. Holding that space in humility with the clarity that Jesus alone is the way to the Father is a challenge. He exhibited what it was to create convivencia. Those who set themselves against that were the religious exclusivists, those who would not give hospitality would find that their future would be harsher than that of Sodom. The way of Jesus is not one way among many, but it is the way for the many to live together.

Challenging days ahead. But as lambs we have to be.

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Gibraltar: an ending

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by Martin Scott
Posted in Strategic Prayer

It is quite amazing to be home… a journey that effectively began some 9 months ago when we were convinced that we were to give ourselves to the ReConquista and the expulsion of the Muslims from Spain. The final four days of that journey were spent both on La Linea (the Spanish side of the border) and in Gibraltar itself. Before arriving home yesterday Gayle and I spent one final night in Granada on a hill overlooking the city. Granada, being the final Muslim kingdom to surrender, was quite a place to reflect back, at sunset, on the past months. We are not sure what more we will do in direct focus on the ReConquista / expulsions. In the immediate we know something has been completed and we will need time to reflect further. There are so many parallels to the Civil War (36-39) and this might indeed pull us.

In a few days we will head north to the Basque Country, being joined there by Noel and Tricia Richards. After all-but 8000 kms (5000 miles) we plan to kick back for a week!

So Gibraltar – the place where Tariq landed in 711 with a relatively small invading force from Morocco. In a few years from Gibraltar the whole of the Iberian peninsula (with a small exception) was Muslim. The majority of those in the land before and after that invasion were Spanish / Portuguese (excuse the anachronism). They converted from ‘Christianity’ to ‘Islam’. Being the entry point this is what led us there and shaped our plans to end in that geography. We were so glad that we were joined by 8 from the UK (Roger & Sue, Graham & Nicky, Julie, Steve, Lee Ann, Kay), 4 from Sweden (Claes & Kina, Bjorn & Maria), and very thankful that the three who came with us in the first few days of travel some months back were at the end of this phase too – Sam (France), and our Spanish friends who have welcomed us again and again to the land, Noe & Loli. In Gibraltar itself we were welcomed by Stewart and Louisa Duthie who many of us knew from Bridgend in Wales almost 20 years ago. They created wonderful space for us and it was so good to reconnect. So a great group of people all who carry so much history in God. Gayle and I could never have accomplished very much without this group of people.

It is genuinely hard to report on the time there, and certainly we are less able still to make an assessment of what took place. We know as we drove away Sunday night that a huge weight was off our backs, even if we had slept only a few hours each night these past days. Gibraltar was not only the entry point for Islam into the land, but it is a portal from heaven to earth, and as such there are always layers of history in such places. Our focus then was not simply on the entry of Islam – indeed that was barely a focus – but on seeking to align ancient purposes of right trade, hospitality as opposed to piracy and borders that exclude.

We had a big focus on piracy. In our first years in Spain (2009-11) we had a focus on a threefold manifestation: piracy (at work in the banking system), betrayal and murder / destruction (we owe those insights to Michael Schiffmann). As we have travelled we have seen again and again that there was a pattern in the expulsions of betrayal followed by murder. In Gibraltar we sought to shut down the root of the spirit of piracy, not simply in relation to that geography but as it affects the western world system. We worked toward this and on the final morning focused sharply on closing it down and opening what has increasingly accompanied us in our travels – ‘convivencia’. A living together, giving one another space regardless of gender, age, ethnicity or faith. We see this as that which the body of Christ, as a catalyst, is responsible for. Of course the outworking is very challenging. It can leave us as vulnerable and open to being persecuted, and open to living out the Pauline gospel once again! This we consider is the trajectory for the coming years. Vulnerable… lambs among wolves!

We were acutely aware that the era we are living in is so focused. Empires, regardless of what adjective goes with that, are not simply being challenged, but are being exposed and are showing real signs of crumbling. Hard borders will give way to inclusive boundaries. Simply put we believe that our time in Gibraltar contributed to that trajectory. Of course we are probably more impacted as we were involved so our sense might well be exaggerated, but there is a real sense of a before and an after.

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Posting a good quote

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by Martin Scott
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We are in Gibraltar and making a plan or two. While on the road we have read a little of The Day the Revolution Began and a few days ago we read Wright in the opening paragraphs of a chapter on Romans. These depth contained in these few sentences slowed us right down:

The primary human problem that Paul notes in Romans 1:18 is not “sin”, but “ungodliness”. It is a failure not primarily of behaviour (though that follows), but of worship. Worship the wrong divinity, and instead of reflecting God’s wise order into the world you will reflect and then produce a distortion: something out of joint, something “unjust”. That is the problem, says Paul: “ungodliness” produces “out-of jointness,” “injustice.”

For us very profound. And if our paradigm for God’s core is ‘power’ then we head in one direction, if ‘love’ then the direction changes…”

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Getting up to date

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by Martin Scott
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A couple of hours ago we arrived in La Linea – the Spanish side of the border with Gibraltar. A bed and a shower in a room – luxury for a night or two!! Dust, sand and who knows what else went down the shower plug!! As per usual we have been without WiFi for the past days, so a quick catch up here.

After leaving Huelva we drove to the Portugal side of the border, then drove on to Lagos (not the Nigerian one….) to meet a Brazilian couple who have been there a few months. As is often the case they have to figure out what to from here. Changes / transition like that are enormous, and much easier to speak into than live through. The necessity of the desert is that is the place where you can see what cannot be seen and hear what cannot be heard.

Our main focus in Portugal was two situations – Ourique where there was a decisive battle in 1139 that helped establish Portugal as a nation and overcome the Muslims and Evora that Gerald the Fearless took from the Moors in 1165. He later went on to take the city and taifa of Badajoz (1169). Both situations surprised us a lot. There was not the heavy element that we had discovered elsewhere in our travels. It felt as some aspects had already been undone. Maybe there had been others there long before us, or the Christian presence was living in a different spirit to the ReConquista? It felt as if it should have been heavier!! Mr. ‘Fearless’ is certainly someone of interest, described as the ‘El Cid’ of Portugal he likewise seemed to play both sides, reminiscent also of a certain Juan March whose legacy we are sure to encounter in the next few days…

We slept the night the Portuguese side of the border in Elvas before crossing over to Badajoz. We wanted to be there fresh and ready. Badajoz had come to our attention in a dream a few weeks ago when a Spanish man came to me asking that we don’t forget Badajoz and the life threatening storm coming to it. It was a very strong time there. That city needs joy, laughter and songs. If ever we need a throw-back to some kind of March for Jesus (‘Shine Jesus shine…’) then Badajoz is the location. It is great to have ideals – no Imperialism, the Pauline Gospel restored and all that – but a group of people singing on the streets would do something in that city!

We experienced so deeply the blood shed there, the forgotteness of the city. When things come this city is one that gets hit harder than other cities in Spain was our sense. Taken in the ReConquista, taken by Wellington at great cost – and not cost to his troops alone, but to the city as his disciplined troops went on a rampage of rape and pillage, then in the Civil War when there was the repeat of that history with rape and pillage and some 4000 civilians were murdered after the city was taken. Truly those events were storms, and not simply life-threatening but life-taking storms.

We went to the old bull ring where the slaughter took place. No real acknowledgment of the event. I asked a man walking his dog about one of the sculptures that we knew was supposedly to be a memorial to the victims of the Civil War brutality. A neighbour in that area and he did not know what it was. FORGOTTEN. We said we would not forget you Badajoz as we poured out wine, and the city needs those who will be there to remember the city. If the story will not be told, it will not be remembered, and if not told and remembered it will not be owned; if not owned it can only repeat. Maybe in our travels this was the most challenging of all the places we have been. Come on you singers!!!

In the image above the background building is the palace of congress for arts – built where the old bull ring was, the bull ring where the slaughter took place. It should be a sign of hope and of a new future, but the reality is (and we found this before when visiting Badajoz years ago) that the old allows a semblance of a new to manifest but only allows it to be a semblance, as in reality it swallows it up. In the foreground is a sculpted work in metal that was placed there to remember those who had been slaughtered. This was the piece that I asked the man about. It has no plaque, it was opened with the families of those affected present, without any speech, without any mark of silence or acknowledgement of what had gone on. FORGOTTEN.

From there, pre-Gibraltar, we went to Hornachos, ‘the last refuge of the Moriscos’. A small village, but something strong there. When we left we felt something very strange. We might not need to visit Morocco in this trajectory as from Hornachos we were able to call for the new convivencia in Spain. The last refuge had seed in it to call for the future. From that time on we have been more focused on the future than the past. Strange as we are now overlooking the rock of Gibraltar. The place of power and where the Muslims first came. What of the past will we need to address here? We are not sure. What of the future needs to be called for – that is what we will discover. We are rested and ready. Today is the first time we have been in the shadow of the rock knowing this is the right time.

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Niebla and Huelva

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by Martin Scott
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Always a few challenges on the road regarding charging devices and good internet access and now we discovered that our phone contract does not give us roaming in Portugal. A little difficult as we are due to meet a Brazilian couple who relocated to Lagos, people I met many years ago… So now almost sorted!!! But we had a great day yesterday, a great day for us, so here goes (and one image today that I managed to find on the internet – we do have some great images so use your imagination!!)

Way back when we were living in Cádiz we went on a trip up through Spain connected to the expulsion of Jews from Cádiz and with the promise we would find angels at a key point. It was in a season when we encountered swifts at key moments, including one that flew in our window, flew round the room and out again, then repeated this twice more before flying off. In Niebla we found an openness in the Spirit, felt that was the place, prayed and swifts showed up. That was probably 2012/13.

Yesterday we visited there but this time connected to the ReConquista (it is very interesting to note the parallel aspects to the Jew and Muslim story in Spain). Niebla, now a smallish town was once the centre for a sizeable kingdom that went right across the south of Portugal (the Algarve). In the centre of town there is statue of ‘the last king of the Algarve’. Mûsâ Ibn Muhammad Ibn Nassir Ibn Mahfûz (the last king / emir) was defeated by Alfonso X in 1262 who had sided with a rival Muslim leader then when he had his objectives met took control. Our prayer time there was strong, I pushed into the history and (of course somewhat subjective) there was a deep sense of touching the history. I also – and will continue to do so – prayed into what we now believe was a specific curse left across Spain through the expulsions of there being no rest in the land. Gayle has picked up on the descendants of those who went before and prayed for them including those in Morocco.

We then left to go back to our van, back through the gate of ‘socorro’ (help but more of rescue) – the gate that Alfonso entered the city. There was one person sitting near our van, and only one person in that area. I asked him a question about one of the Spanish words on a plaque. He instantly opened his phone and searched it for us. We began to talk. ‘Are you from here?’ ‘I am from Morocco but am Spanish.’ He was born in Niebla but to Moroccan parents. We talked a little about what we are doing and then he opened up about his own faith (Islam) and issues of racism and suspicion which of course have increased since the Barcelona attack. He said that now walking into a cafe he senses he is looked at differently with people wondering if he too might be a potential terrorist. We then did a small prophetic act with him – put some money in his hands as a sign for his future and for the future of Spain. Could he even have been a descendant of the former emir?

At this point two photos that are on a phone we cannot access would have been sweet!! Although neither of us are of the ‘selfie’ kind of photo taking people (I hear the shock at that revelation) we took two photos yesterday. The first was of us with the statue of the emir. The next one – and we only realised later – was of us with Samir, the young Spanish Moroccan we met. Past and present, with a seed for the future. We now pray for him to find Jesus amidst dreams and to be a young man of peace for the future, for a renewed deep convivencia. If the wolf will lie with the lamb… then we must have convivencia as a kingdom sign.

Huelva: Christopher Columbus

In 2014 we made a little attempt at praying into Columbus Day while in Madrid. It seems that there has been more objection to it since that prayer. There is of course a tie to the ReConquista and Columbus (1492, he sails; Jews are exiled and Granada falls). He is sent out to conquer for Spain and for God – same theme as in the ReConquista and in the Civil War.

We believe we are at a time in history when we have to go much deeper. Each generation has to be obedient to God in their generation, and what was permitted in one generation is not necessarily permitted in the next. God has been in and through Christendom, not because he approved of it, but he goes where we go. We see the same principle in the life of Israel – he is in and with the priests, the king and the temple, but none of those three elements did he call for! It is time to undo the Christendom agenda and pattern, so it was awesome to stand before the statue in Huelva and declare a shift. For us a connection with our prayers in 2014. We will head south next week toward Gibraltar to meet up with others there, and en route we will pass near to where Columbus first sailed from, Puerta Santa Maria. We had wondered if we had to go there en route, but as soon as we stepped out of the van in Huelva we both knew that this was the power source and the place to push for the shift. The statue says it all – Columbus travelling to conquer supported by the cross!!

Today we head West and head for Lagos, then to Albufeira so that tomorrow we can be set ready for two places up through Portugal: Ourique and Evora sleeping in Elvas at the end of tomorrow – right across from the place we will seek not to forget, Badajoz.

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A summary round up: Sunday to Wednesday

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by Martin Scott
Posted in Strategic Prayer

2017-08-31 10:55:14

I was hoping to blog each day but with challenges on internet, access to electricity for re-charging I have decided to get a summary blog out there bringing our travels up to date, and will major on the time (9 days away) in Gibraltar when I return home. Sorry no pictures – and that is your loss as the landscapes have been spectacular. Over the mountain pass Via Puerto de la Ragua (2000metres / 6600ft) just has to be done! This is our third extended time away and by tonight we should be across the border and in Portugal.

We are also trying to pace ourselves with an occasional down day. We had one yesterday in the national park just west of Huelva. This was the scene of a huge wild fire this summer, the evidence of which is clear. Today is Thursday, we left home last Sunday. Our first place was

Polop, one of many mountain villages in Valencia (Comunidad). In one sense we could have chosen any number of others as the history varies but there is such a pattern of hostility and violence. We chose Polop because of a very perverted response. After ‘converting’ from Islam to Christianity and being baptised local Christians then attacked and killed 300 Moriscos with the shout of ‘Now we will raise their souls to heaven and fill our pockets with their coins’. While praying by the church Gayle felt strongly that somehow not only is the memory held in the land, but that descendants – knowingly and unknowingly – continue with the memory in their ‘blood’. These things are challenging to wrap one’s head around but the complexities of generational relationships are probably much more complex than we realise. So our prayers also went for the descendants many of whom are probably in Morocco, where there certainly was a strong connection to the Barcelona attack.

Las Alpujarras: second visit

From Polop we travelled to Caniles (east of Granada by about an hour. We were deeply privileged to be introduced to Antonio and Antonia who live there on the north side of the Alpujarras. Truly people of the land. Antonio found Jesus while deeply searching in all kinds of directions while living as a young man in the Alpujarras. He understands the deep spirituality that is there, the searches that end up with the seekers mostly ending in despair. Connecting with the land and also history. Antonio is in charge of the water supplies to the fields of the area, with the same system of diverting water that has been in place for 1500 years. We slept the night in their house – sleeping in a literal cave! That was a first for us. In Caniles before we began our journey into the Alpujarras we prayed at the monument marking the Civil War. An interesting parallel again with the ReConquista is that many Republicans were on the high ground (like the Muslims) and they were thrown of it by Franco’s forces. Evictions carried out by the ‘Christians’ and throwing off people who were not looking (on the whole) to be antagonistic but were the stewards of the land. Again it underlined for us that we need to continue as Spain could be coming to another cycle. In a few days time with a referendum in Cataloñia, with one politician suggesting that if there was Independence then Cataloñia would raise its own army.

Last time we were travelling the Aplujarras we were using GPS, particularly when we were going to a small village up narrow roads up the mountain gorges. Not so with Antonio. We probably covered 200 miles. No map in sight, tracks that frankly were only at times just wider than his (small) car. I even think at one point he was relieved that we made it. That was after we had climbed to the highest point amidst thunder, lightning and rain. We prayed at:

Guadix: where there is an impressive castle built for the ReConquista. Built to control and then advance from the whole area.

Laujar de Andarax: this was one of the most marked places in history. A priest was tortured, Eventually his eyes gouged out and he was forced to eat them. On the other side when the Christian army arrived they massacred many, including blowing up the Mosque where 200 women and children were taking refuge. No plaque in the town that we could find that made a record of this.

Cadiar: here there was the exchanging of whose hands the town was in numerous times over. At one stage a regiment of Christian soldiers were murdered while sleeping. And of course the response. Blood upon blood, and truly it cries out from the ground.

Juviles: here a number of prisoners tried to prevent a ‘Christian’ soldier from raping one of the Muslim women. Scores of unarmed prisoners were then killed in cold blood.

One aspect that had been with me all day was that as well as there being a curse on the land by all the bloodshed and for evicting the stewards that I could hear those who were evicted specifically cursing the land for those who would come replacing them through conquest. I heard the ‘you will have no rest, you will not find peace, but will face destruction’. Gayle reminded me later that are words from the latest Dayesh video targeting Spain. It is the sad story of so many who come to the Alpujarras seeking an alternative future. Going from one search to another, with many ending their lives either in meaningless or literally ending their lives. It was great to be with Antonio a true steward of the land, knowing every inch of the territory, the animals, the vegetation, herbs and fruit. We prayed into that curse but I do not sense that it is yet broken. More to be done!!

At the end of Monday night we came to Granada, and on the Tuesday drove almost to Huelva. Yesterday we walked a good part of the coastline, and today plan to get to Niebla, Huelva and by night time to be in Portugal.

Niebla is very interesting. Around 2012 /13 (don’t have the dates on me) we went with Simon and Amy following a word that had been given to us about the eviction of Jews from Cadiz and of finding angels. We came upon Niebla and were deeply impacted there. In the town square Gayle photographed a statue of ‘the last (Muslim) king of the Algarve. This was long before we were on the ReConquista journey. A few days ago she remembered this. We tried to find it on google maps, and eventually found the square where the photo was taken. However no king of the Algarve in sight, rather a ‘Christian’ king… Yet the palm trees in both images matched up. We found that between the time of the google map images and the photo the Christian king had been replaced by history that was further back. Replacing the ReConquista image with something more ancient to us indicates a place owning its history, and probably why we found the angels there. We will revisit as this is our door in to the Algarve. Then Huelva – a Christopher Columbus location… 1492 and all that.

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God works…

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by Martin Scott
Posted in Personal Perspectives

In all things God works. I do not consider that we read the text as ‘God works’ in the sense of he is the author of all things, but he will work in and through all things. I a day’s time we leave again and will probably be off-line to some extent. Since coming home two events have occupied our thoughts: the Barcelona attack; and a very disturbing new video from Dayesh post-Barcelona. I have watched some of it, but it is too gruesome to watch it all. It would not feed faith to watch it.

All of us have to follow our convictions. My convictions are not someone else’s and I will only be held accountable for following what I believed. Have we made any contribution these past months to enabling God to be at work in and through all these events? Maybe our prayers made a small contribution to limiting the extent of the attack, but we will never know. We have certainly been impacted by the (imperfect) convivencia from the history, and have become convinced that part of the Pauline Gospel consists of the imagination being stirred to believe we can all live together. (This would be one of the reasons why Israel should of all places on the earth be a place for true convivencia – but in that little side sentence I have raised just a few questions!).

In Barcelona there was a 3 year old that was killed. The father said:

Necesito abrazar a un musulmán (I need to embrace a Muslim).

An Iman from outside Barcelona had attended the minute’s silence and was deeply distraught. In response, the father of Xavi embraced and consoled the Iman. He also said that he did not want the Muslim community to have fear of reprisals.

If we are making any contribution I will choose to watch and read these responses, rather than watch a Dayesh video, or read of revenge from a non-Muslim source. We have one life and finding where God is at work is so important.

Here is the link to the article and in the video form 1:00 on you can see the two embracing:

El Periodico.

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Frigiliana

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by Martin Scott
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Our last stop on the way home. In 1569 this mountain village was attacked by what was deemed some of the most virulent of soldiers of the era. Defending themselves through rolling boulders down the slopes the village held out for 20 days but eventually the 5,000 strong force stormed the village resulting in ‘the customary bloody retribution’. Over 7,000 ‘moriscos’ died, the survivors being expelled.

We drove up to the village, this being the last place for us to visit, we were ready for one more push, but parking up we thought ‘but this place is light’. Given the history we were surprised.

It seems that artists have flourished in the village and the story of the past is in the open. There has been an embracing of the story (if we own the story we can write the ending) that has shifted something there. Each year there is a celebration of the three cultures (religions) over four days at the end of August.

It was a good place to finish this trip. Reminded that we all drink from the one pool, that there has to be respect, and that Jesus taught us to love one and all, even if they were to declare themselves to be our enemy. The gospel is not about one people dominating over another, it is not about imposing our faith on others, and it is certainly not about using the cross to crush others. As believers we can create an environment where there is freedom and respect where people can discover who they are. This is not about Jesus on the same plane as others. The incarnation is not the story of a good man!

What a mess we have made of things. Those two weeks on the road were challenging at so many levels. The level of hatred in the past… and of course here today with nationalism, white supremacy, religious and ideological wars. The source of which we know: the devil who was a murderer from the beginning, and the devil is the devil even if he uses the cross to defend his murderous behaviour.

Yes we returned tired. But the image of a fountain in the village that followed that has released water for years is one of the abiding images. Ultimately one source to sustain us all. The Gospel affirms that and the Gospel affirms that Jesus alone is the door to the Father.

Frigiliana

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Way down south: Tarifa

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by Martin Scott
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Camping in the pine trees on the most southerly geography of continental Europe – further south than a couple of African cities – was where we were the night before heading home. Being eaten by mosquitos,in spite of mosquito net was less than ideal!

Tarifa

Extreme points are often liminal spaces. In ancient times they had myths attached to them and likewise today there can be new age spirituality attached to them. With Jacob who fled his home we read that he had a major shaping dream at one of those places, a boundary place. In the dream he encountered angels, and likewise on his return he encountered an angelic meeting point. We might add to the liminal space that it was a strategic moment in his journey.

In coming to Tarifa we had now travelled as far west as we were going, and of course as far south as we could go. We had one more place to travel to (I hope to post on that tomorrow) and this would take us on the road past Gibraltar, the last place on this journey from Lugo via Santo Toribio (from May this year). Beyond Gibraltar Morocco might well pull us, and also in our travels the era of the Second republic (1931 to the Civil War) has come into focus. How can it not when for example 4000 of the priests in Madrid were killed. There will always be a next journey, but major phase of this journey ends on September 10th in Gibraltar.

In Tarifa the Lord gave a dream that had many parts to it, much of it relating to the planned time in Gibraltar. There were also tangential encouragements to Gayle and I in it. For example, we met a verbally hostile group who were not impressed with what we were planning and challenging us about our belief in God and how he could send suffering. They referenced one city where God was about to send judgement. We responded with a ‘God is not like that’ kind of response. Eventually even the most hostile calmed down, and the response was ‘we have never heard this about God in Spain’. Very encouraging. Beyond that one of the people in the crowd (a neighbour) said that he understood what we were about to do in Gibraltar and that he too had had a dream, then he went on to say ‘But do not forget Badajoz and the life threatening storm that is coming there tonight’. It was a heart cry.

The dream both helped give a strong focus on Gibraltar and re-shaped the next road trip which begins on Sunday.

Paul had a vision of a man from Macedonia calling them over. His dream re-shaped their journey, when twice he found himself pushing for doors that did not open (Acts 16:8-10). I have often wondered about the vision of the man, for the open door he goes through is that of a woman, Lydia. Maybe he did meet ‘a man’, maybe the Philippian jailor was that man, maybe the vision got him there.

We will head to Badajoz over the next two weeks. We had forgotten it, mainly because it does not feature highly on the expulsions of the Muslims. It has a history as per elsewhere of being conquered during the ReConquista, and being a border city has been a strategic place of warfare and conflict, but expulsion-wise it has not stood out.

Badajoz has opened us up to Portugal, and as we were planning these next two weeks we were looking at Portugal and asking ‘when’. The next morning an email came in from David Vincent (London). He had just been in Portugal in the region of the main battle in the ReConquista (Ourique) and suggested that there was a connection to what we were doing. And then… a journey we made in July 2012 came back to mind which again highlighted that a door was opening now for us into southern Portugal. We now leave next Sunday with a re-shaped set of places to travel to. We will not forget Badajoz en route to Gibraltar.

Maybe we will find a strong ReConquista / expulsion connection. Maybe we will come over to help ‘a man’ and find ‘a woman’. Maybe but we are grateful for dreams and seek to take them seriously.

(We do have some thoughts on the significance of Badajoz for the era we are praying into, but are always surprised by what one discovers on the ground. No two geographies are the same. We are grateful for the connection in Tarifa and are wondering if we should sleep there again the night before we go to Gibraltar.)

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Granada to Cordoba via…

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by Martin Scott
Posted in Strategic Prayer

This was a 350kms day, starting out in Órgiva through Lanjaron (west gate to the Alpujarras), up to Granada, on to Jaen and La Carolina / Las Navas de Tolosa then to Córdoba. Granada – the last kingdom to surrender and clearly a city with an impressive history. We will revisit Granada at another time, connecting there with people of the land. This time we parked up (losing a hub cap on the way on the cobbled streets!) and climbed up to the central Mosque. Obviously, and understandably, seen as a symbolic achievement by those of the Islamic faith. What a challenge… freedom of religion? It is very provocative to realise that there is no physical level battle but our warfare is heavenly, and challenging to think of the NT context where faith in Jesus was for so long a miority belief in the public arena.

We were in Cordoba by the end of the day and the next morning. This is truly an impressive city, modern and a clear place of learning. In history the development of literature and study there was right at the forefront within the world of the middle ages. Cordoba was one of the first mega cities of its time. Something of this is still in the city. The gifting is there and evident.

 

We had a very moving morning in the Cathedral – or in the Mosque? The Cathedral took over the Mosque, so it is known as the Mesquita-Catedral. Beautiful and truly awe-inspiring. What a place to unravel our string! (From Lugo where we began this journey, May 21, where we bought a roll of string saying that something was unravelling from Lugo to Gibraltar, and we have slowly unravelled it as we have prayed.) So in the Cathedral there had to be an unravelling and that is what we did.

The pivot point of the day though was in going to the battle field of Las Navas de Tolosa (1212) and the monument at La Carolina.

Navas de Tolosa

The scale of it and the symbolism really are an abomination. A bag of salt was deposited all around it and a strong renunciation. This distortion of the cross is what disempowers the cross. At the cross Jesus was stripped bare and made an open show of – the result Paul tells us was that the powers were exposed and stripped of their power! So offensive to have the cross at the centre as the weapon used against others.

The battle brought together four kings who despite their differences aligned, volunteers also from France, and three orders of religious knight orders, including the Knights Templars and the Order or Santiago (the ‘Moor killer’). It is probably no great surprise that we discovered when travelling to Toledo that the returning forces then turned on and massacred many Jews in the city.

When one talks about repentance over what has been done to Jews in the name of Jesus there is often a glad response – even from those who do not grasp ‘Identificational repentance’. Bringing up the issue of repentance to Muslims and touching on that history does not bring about the same glad response, in fact it is sadly often met with resistance. The privilege to stand in these places and feel something of the heart of God to embrace one and all is huge. It is then an offence when so much of what is on the land today betrays the God of heaven. For that repentance is both necessary and an easy step to make. It is not simply that Muslims have a long memory – the land does, and it needs healing so that another story can be written rather than one that changes characters but the script stays the same.

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