that’s where
you’ll find me.
If you have been following my blogs these past few years you’ll know that there’s really no telling of where I’ll end up next. I guess that’s the way of the wild, untamed Holy Spirit. You don’t know the destination of a seed carried by the wind until it is planted. This is my life, or at least how its been playing out for the last few years since I began this journey in “missions”. I’m using these quotations because this fall trip to Brazil is already challenging my team’s perspective of missions. 
I’ll elaborate in a minute… first let me tell you how I ended up in Brazil (for those of you who missed my update at Real Life Community church a few weeks ago). I had plans to stay in Nova Scotia (my home province), pick up a job for the fall and have a break from traveling. This plan lasted for about 2 weeks after getting home from leading the expedition trip in East Africa. I was asked to lead another Real Life trip to Brazil, pronto! And la la la, here I am.
Team BRAZIL consists of 8 members in total – Ryan (my co-leader), John, Josh, Alissa, Erin, Brittany, Alie and myself. We are currently living with a missionary couple in the mountains near Belo Horizonte. This couple owns a large countryside ranch that they are converting into a missionary retreat/training center, and yes, we are helping them achieve this goal! There are lots of buildings to be painted, indoors and out, many things to be destroyed and rebuilt, sanded, varnished, and touched up. We have a lot of work ahead of us. Their project is currently 1 year behind schedule due to a lack of labour workers. And so here we are to help our brothers and sisters reach their Kingdom vision.
Except that…
it’s been a long haul to get to the point of truly believing that that is why we are here… to build a training center for other missionaries whom we will never meet. We had originally expected to be ministering in the slums, orphanages and drug rehab centers of Brazil. We expected to build relationships, love on the hurting, bring hope into dark places, preach and evangelize like we knew what we were doing, and chase satan out of the lives of God’s children – a real “mission” trip… yeah?
missionary training center fulfills none of those desires. We are barely skilled enough to see all the projects through to completion. Hello, we are not plumbers, nor are we electricians. We paint like real amateurs aaand I haven’t the strength to lift anything above a ¼ my body weight … I know, pathetic. We will never meet the people who will be blessed by this place some day and we might as well be in some North American countryside because we are so secluded that some days, well most days we forget that we are even in a third world country. I want to show you something,
Follow me…”
“Paint these walls. You will never know the heart felt prayers that will echo between them, but I already know. Build this shelter. You will never know who will find true refuge and rest under its roof, but I already know.” Our hearts began to cry out for God to show us how to serve when there is nothing in it for us. We should gain nothing from this trip, and give God everything. We don’t have the right to good “mission” stories to tell, but we have the privilege of walking the streets of a Kingdom built on true servant hood, illustrated by Jesus himself. Is this a “mission” trip, or a “Kingdom” trip”? Since releasing our expectations and receiving understanding about servant hood, we vote “Kingdom” trip. And we plead with God to show us more about this whole following Christ thing.
Just so you know, we have a very patient and loving heavenly Father – I know this because I am pretty sure that this is the 10th time in the past 3 years that God has reminded me/taught me about what His Kingdom looks like. Thank you Jesus.
