Well friends, I arrived in Brazil Friday morning, August 1st about 7:30AM local time.  My departure from the US was decidedly less ceremonial than I had hoped.  I wanted to write to you beforehand to tell you all about the new journey I was embarking upon.  But the truth is, I scarcely slept my last week in the US and was completely engulfed in preparing for this leave up until the very hour I left.  I simply didn’t have time.  And had I the time, what was I to say?  What had I to tell you about a journey that I had yet to take?  While it is true that God makes the end known from the beginning, the end doesn’t really make much sense until we’ve experienced everything in between.  And that, my friends, is yet to unfold.  But what I can tell you is that today is a new day.  And not just any new day.  Today I write the first page to what is guaranteed to be an epic adventure.  An amazing tale that will undoubtedly shape me as well as others, in times and spaces and measures unknown.

For those of you wondering what the heck I’m doing here, my assignment here is no different than my ultimate assignment in the earth: to make order out of chaos.  Vague enough for you?  To simply, I will examine the way the HR Services function is operating, put processes and procedures in place to improve, and measure the performance.  Additionally, with my Finance background, I will overhaul their billing practices.  I am not here to do the work for them, but to empower them to run their own business more effectively and efficiently.  Sounds simple, but I know it will be anything but.  That’s okay, God’s grace is sufficient.

Over the course of the next 12 months, I will keep you updated on all of my new adventures and share with you how I’m adjusting to life in a new country where the seasons are flipped, the language is different, and the culture is so drastically different from my own.  But I plan to soak it all in.  I will not live in an expat compound as I’m sure Global Security would prefer, but rather, in a bairro where my neighbors are Brazilian and I can hear live jazz, samba or bossa nova on any given day.  I will live where they live, eat what they eat, and if only by a prayer and a wing, speak their language!  “Desculpe, eu não falo Português” is not acceptable for me when someone asks me a question, so ya’ll better pray for me.

I start work tomorrow, so the adventure begins!  That’s right, no rest for this weary soul.  Not yet…