News - October 2018

The last few weeks have been a mixture of sadness, joy and anticipation about the future. Our last retreat at the centre, led by John Bell, was a beautiful celebration of the diversity of gifts from the globe. The final service of thanksgiving for the life and ministry of Los Olivos was moving and truly memorable. The stories and testimonies of those present at that last service echoed the words of our many friends over the years. We are humbled and grateful for the way in which God has touched so many of you through our ministry of hospitality over the past 8 years, and thank you for your friendship, love and support.

The first week of October was also very special, as the sculpture of John of the Cross was moved from the courtyard at Los Olivos to the gardens of the Carmelite Priory in Ubeda, the place where he died. The move was logistically complicated and quite stressful, but his new home is just right. It felt like the sculpture had been created for that spot all along, standing on the mediaeval turret of Ubeda's city walls with the stunning landscape of rolling mountains and olive groves in the background. On the sixth of October, the Carmelite brothers organized a special inauguration event, at which local authorities, including the mayoress of Ubeda, were invited, along with all the local media. Daphne Tengbergen, the creator of the sculpture, was able to join us from the Netherlands, and it was lovely to share with her too.

On the 16th of October we officially sold Los Olivos, after weeks of packing and moving furniture to a storage facility in Granada. We signed for our new house in Benalmádena on the 22nd of October and have been slowly settling down in our new town. The building works will start in just a few days and we hope to move in before Christmas. In the meantime, Guy continues to work for Keytree Spain and the Madrid office, whilst Daniel is taking a break from the faculty to focus on the building project. He will resume his new role as internationalization coordinator in January. Finally, our programme of retreats for 2019 is nearly full now. You can find an updated version of our Malaga retreat programme below (pdf link) and on our website, www.losolivosretreats.co.uk , as well as further information about the venues and speakers.