reflections on site

Dear all….

I’ve been back for 2 weeks plus….and just before that, I ‘ve been staying at home in Melbourne, unable to travel anywhere becos of my sprained ankle.

This past week, I’ve been starting to do sth constructive (literally). Yesterday, I went to visit an uncle who had a civil engineer firm to visit some construction sites. I have learnt how to handle ‘difficult’ people who seemingly ignore the engineer’s instructions. The situation was like this: a tripod like steel structure, at least 4-5 meters in height was built at a large church in Kuching to display a cross at the top. The problem of the structure was that the structure’s base was not built to the engineer’s specifications by one of the subcontractors. From then onwards, the engineer had incurred an unnecessary liability in case this structure was to fail in the future. The engineer then expressed his dissatisfaction to the responsible contractor in the nicest way possible, instead of firing the gun on the spot.

Sadly the contractor, whom I knew was a church elder, was the one who was more obviously responsible for this incident. He tried to protect his subcontractor who performed the task by saying that he was an experienced at his job. Additionally, by allowing the subcontractor to perform the modification on the structure without the engineer’s knowledge and approval showed his dishonesty and unreliability of handling the project. Moreover, both the engineer and the contractor are Christians, and this particular project involves a church!

Wow…that was certainly a mouthful for the day. Imagine the sort of gossip and distrust towards this church elder if he continues in his ways. I can my uncle snickering at this contractor while he preaches the gospel, performs the Holy Communion and chairing church board meetings. How about other non Christians who are working with this contractor? Surely it will be hard for him to preach the gospel to his colleagues. Of course, we should not generalize all contractors who are Christians behave like this person whom I’ve described here. There are many other Christians around who work with a clear conscience, and truly aim to display the likeness of Christ towards their coworkers through their behaviour.

Indeed, we know that as university students, we are the salt and light to the friends around us. It will be more challenging for us to proclaim Christ to the people around us when we start work, knowing that the people whom we are trying to evangelize to are in the same rat race as we are. But take heart and don’t give up! God will surely give us the strength and grace to proclaim the gospel to the ends of the earth, and we as Christ’s ambassadors have the responsibility to do this to our best capabilities. Amen.