Keeping my eyes open.

Not long after we were married I told my husband, P, that when I was a cadet on my Summer Placement that God had called me to work in Brazil. P said, ´Now you tell me! Why didn´t you mention this before!´ The truth was that I hadn´t thought about it since then. 8 years ago I had returned to the college after my Summer Placement and shared my thoughts about Brazil with my Sectional Officer. He told me that I should work in the UK and I breathed a sigh of relief! I thought no more about it until P and I were working in our first married appointment in Erskine, West Scotland. I wondered whether my thoughts had turned to warmer climes because I was feeling a bit chilly, so together P and I sought guidance from God. Many, many times God confirmed that He wanted us both to work for The Salvation Army in Brazil and so P became as convinced as I was that God had put a massive signpost in front of us pointing in the direction of Brazil. However, not once did God tell us why He wanted us to go or what we would do when we got here.
As we are approaching our 11th wedding anniversary we find ourselves here in Brazil working in the Corps at Sao Miguel Paulista. We were both thrilled and amazed to receive this appointment; thrilled because we love working in Corps and amazed because we can´t speak portuguese! God has still not given us any word about why he has sent a girl from Basingstoke and a boy from Pompey to work here but He has given me one very clear instruction, ´Keep your eyes open´. I was sitting on the platform waiting to preach in our Welcome Meeting last August when I felt God say this to me. So, I have tried to do this in a literal sense in every meeting.
Yesterday, I was walking through the market on the way to the Post Office to collect a parcel (see photos below) when I passed a makeshift shelter made from a large umbrella and bits of cardboard. A major thunderstorm had just ended and the multicoloured umbrella caught my attention. The answer came before I even asked the question, ´Keep your eyes open´. It felt like God was talking to me again and then I asked Him, ´What are we to do here?´
I once had a DC who said, ´The call is often seeing the need´. He had spent some years working in the Caribbean. It occurs to me that God has taken the trouble to write down what He wants us to do in the Bible and Jesus was kind enough to share His manifesto at the synagogue in Nazareth (Luke 4). I probably don´t need God to tell me why I am here, I just need to keep my eyes open, see what needs doing and do it!