Relationship with God,  Work

Hope in Western Australia

I’m sitting in the departures lounge of Perth airport preparing to board the ‘red eye’ flight that leaves at midnight and arrives in Melbourne at 5:30 a.m.

Its been a great weekend.

I arrived in Perth on Thursday afternoon and then drove up to Geraldton with my friend Andy, who is the state director for Fusion of Western Australia.

Western Australia is much warmer than Tassie!

As I wrote in preparing to come, traveling to new places often helps put home in perspective.

There were about 60 people at the state conference. It was great to see their energy and enthusiasm.

It was also great to see our new Community Supported Residential units, which are a partnership with the WA state government to provide accommodation for people wrestling with Mental health.

I also loved visiting our guest house, Cameliers which we have been running in Geraldton for over 30 years. The building itself though is over 100 years old and was mentioned in Albert Facey’s “A fortunate life”.

I had the privilege of doing a bible study on Saturday morning based on a passage of the bible we call ‘The Fusion Mandate’ – 2 Corinthians 5:17-21. (I am hoping to extend the mandate to verse 14 but thats an ongoing discussion).

One of the things I was struck by anew was Paul’s phrase in 2 Corinthians 5:20:

We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.

I was struck about a few things about this statement.

The first one is that an ambassador doesn’t bring his or her own view or opinion to the table.. it is their job to represent the view of their nation. Too often I can get stuck trying to work out what I think about a situation however this passage reminds me that as an ambassador my job is to represent Jesus and not me.

The second thing about being an ambassador is the need for an embassy. When I visited Canberra with my son a few years ago I was reminded that you don’t have to travel overseas to go to a different country. The grounds of an embassy are legally part of the country the ambassador represents. When you walk through the gates, you are under the jurisdiction of that nation… you are literally in a different country.

I think when Jesus calls us to “seek first the Kingdom”, he is inviting us to establish embassies where a different set of values are the norm.

It was clear for me that our Guest house is an embassy like that. Last night a man turned up threatening one of the female residents. I love that our night manager didn’t think twice before calmly putting himself between the woman and danger and gently helped the man walk away.

Our night manager is actually a man who has had his life turned around at Cameliers and now he is doing the same for others.

Cameliers is a guest house that changes peoples lives because it works according to a different value system.

Being an ambassador isn’t a simple job.. sometimes you have to deal with people you would rather not, or do things you would rather avoid but the great news is that you are not on your own!

I'd love to hear what you think...