Uniting Brazil (intro)

Updates on the Brazilian mission



Monday, 23 April 2012

Construction in Progress



For the last two years, I've been working on a shopping center at work. Every day that I've been at work has been a struggle to get calculations accurate, designs completed and drawings issued to site, so that this shopping center can be built as planned. The architect has changed his mind a lot of the time, and the contractor has needed our help a lot of the time, too. It's all come down to this week. On Thursday, April 26th, our 22 000 square meter shopping mall opens up to the public, and it's going to be amazing!
It's very rewarding to see the product of something that you've been working on for so long, because there are many, many...many frustrations along the way. Just working with your head down, not yet being able to see what all your efforts are accomplishing. But that's where the secret is. Before it all started, there was a dream. A plan. A vision that some client saw in his mind, and he got all the right people involved to make it happen. When I visit site, now, I can finally see in concrete what he saw in his mind, and it's marvelous.
I'm sure you can see where I'm going with this, but I'm very excited about my own dreams, and my own visions that God has given me in my mind. They have only been planted in my head up until now, but I must continue to work, head down, trying to reach them. Again I refer to those two verses in Philippians 3 where Paul says we must press on! It would be difficult to only work on the processes to reach the dream without taking a step back every so often to remember what that dream is all about, and what it is that we're working so hard to reach. We're heading towards eternity with Christ with the hope of a future greater than our present. So much greater.
Maybe today you're struggling to get through this part of your life. Maybe even just today is a struggle, at work or with family, or friends, and it's putting a strain on your faith in Christ. Situations like these make it so easy to forget why we found that faith in Him in the first place, so I want to encourage you to take a step back and remember Who it is that we're chasing, and why we've surrendered all to Him. In a time when He could have abandoned else because the foreign prospect of being rejected by God, Jesus, Himself, chose to press on to achieve a final product that would reunite all of His creation back to God. That love that He felt for us on that day that kept Him going is the same love that we are pursuing after to be in the presence of soon.
So keep rejoicing, keep praying, and know that even amidst the tough times, we'll get glimpses of our final goal; whether it's a touch from Christ, or a word from God, or a healing, a blessing, a gift, a friend. We know that the end is our goal, not the journey. :)
This week, I got accepted by ABBA to be a full time volunteer there in Sao Paulo. This is the first glimpse of my final product in Brazil. It's a great incentive to reinvigorate my passion! Now for the next goal: University!