Jobs, jobs, jobs

The financial crisis continues to wreak havoc across Southern Europe, and the church in Lisbon is not immune. Over the past couple of weeks, we have heard one friend talking of plans to move to Mozambique, another of a job possibility in Switzerland, and another who actually moved to London temporarily last week because an opening for work suddenly came his way.
 

Young professionals are leaving Portugal in significant numbers as career prospects and job security become a rare commodity. In a small fellowship like ours that can have a major impact. At the very least, it’s unsettling. What about all the time and effort invested through relationship building and discipleship courses. Is it all lost. Well, “lost” is not the right word to use here, because we’re working for the kingdom, and not just for a single church. But you do feel a certain sense of loss, if the person you felt was going to play significant role in the future of the church finds he needs to move on.

But God, is also sovereign, and according to Paul in Romans 8:28, does everything well. So, where He guides one person in a different direction, He will always bring in others. That’s the way he works. Over the next few weeks, we will be looking at “Soul Psalms”  in our Sunday evenings, focussing on the intensely personal struggles David and others went through and expressed through the inspired poetry of the Book of Psalms.

Psalm 62 expresses it well. “God alone is my rock... where I will never be shaken. To others, I may seem just like a broken-down wall, or a tottering fence.... but I will quietly before God and hope in him...”  Talking about jobs, I’m so thankful that Colin in Southampton at last has a firm job offer. He still has some more interviews ahead of him, but if he accepts this one, he will be starting in Bristol in September. God, you’ve been good, helping him through this time of uncertainty.