Driving
along Route 4, you will find that an imposing, unrestrained and rising intricately
designed archway stands on the golden open country, and the square-shaped solid
buildings on both sides serve as a foil to the highlight of the intricate archway.
This is the main entrance of Raising Center Developing Zone. Being simple and
natural, it has preserved the traditional Cambodian style, appearing solemn,
dignified and peaceful.
Standing on Route 4 while
facing the main entrance of Raising Center, you will see everything in a glance:
The Healing Love Hospital, the Compassionate Heart Temple, the High Thinking
School, three Guest Houses in the model of the Cambodian high-leg house, and
the meditation area all in Cambodian taste. They have appeared on the vast yellow
plain one after another and are very eye-catching.
If you passed by this place
three months ago, you would have seen only tall grass the height of a man, vines
and uncultivated land, desolate and uninhabited. In the short period of three
months, this wasteland has become cultivated and build upon, new buildings have
appeared from the loess one after another. This is a miracle of God's creation.
Looking at the intricate archway,
which seems very natural and was not painstakingly carved, an expert architecture
would admire the design and making the one-piece construction. Seeing its graceful
lines and sharp corners on both ends bend into the air, displaying a leisurely,
carefree and unrestrained mood, no one would believe that under its gentle,
fine and graceful external appearance is steel hammered into shape and finally
welded together. Even more so, the pillars that support the archway are an application
of a high technology of structure and mechanical theory. If the reinforcing
bar structure of the pillars supporting both sides were calculated incorrectly,
it would not have been able to hold the crossbeam made of steel, or withstand
the strong winds coming from all direction of the plain.
If you take a walk on the
Cambodian loess plain, especially after a rain or during a rain, you will feel
a softness under your feet, and sink into the mud if you are not careful. You
can not see any stone in the Cambodian loess, although every walkway in the
Raising Center has been paved with crushed stones. (These crushed stones were
bought by Master with US currency in order to prevent people from slipping
and
allow them to walk safely. Therefore, these walkways with the crushed stones
should be named "The Golden Walkways.") It truly was not easy to build the
reinforced bar structured archway, the Compassionate Heart Temple, the Healing
Heart Hospital
and the school on this clay loess land.
A resident fellow brother
who was responsible for building the main entrance was originally only skilled
in carpentry and had no experience in this area at all. After he was assigned
this task, he consulted expert construction architects everywhere and humbly
discussed with workers about how to build it. On the blueprint, two pillars
were placed outside of the crossbeam. However, during the construction of a
wooden model, he unknowingly forgot about the two corners. After more than
ten
days when the construction of the archway had already been completed, and after
comparing with the original design, he found that the two "horns" were missing.
When he added these two pieces to the wooden model, the more he looked at them,
the more he felt that they did not match; other people also felt that they
were
unnecessary. Looking again at such a delicate, graceful, gentle and carefree
archway as a whole, they felt: Why did they want to destroy the mood that God
has created? Maybe this was the order that God wanted to pass on - let all
sentient beings in Raising Center be nourished by God and grow leisurely and
carefree.
God has revised the design
of the main entrance without leaving a trace. Other construction sites have
similar stories to tell and their experiences are lessons learned from God.
The construction of the first
Guest House introduces the architecture technology from Formosa, plus the Cambodian
native high-leg house modeling design. Starting from working out a blueprint,
purchasing construction materials, to constructing on the spot - building the
foundation, constructing the sewer; nailing the wooden attic, the stairway
and
the floor; installing the bathrooms, equipment and mount railings on the long
corridor, the participating fellow practitioners all felt that "everything was
hard in the beginning" just like the difficulty of "the loftiest towers are
construct from the ground." However, from impossibility, a dormitory with twelve
rooms already stands before their eyes. In less than three months, many such
new buildings have appeared from their strength in unity.
Fellow practitioners who
participated in the construction of many of the buildings told me, "When we do things, we
always rely on our previous knowledge and experiences, plus external information.
However, during the process of building these structures, we felt that our original
designs were only some kind of concept and were not necessarily what God wanted;
so Hes would use external or inner power to adjust or revise them. During the
construction, a hand of the Creator joined the operation to complete these perfect
structures, often in some strange combinations of circumstances. God never painstakingly
requested us to do so. The accomplishment of everything was to not to be known
beforehand when we first came here in early April. Witnessing that one structure
was finished in about twelve days and another building was also completed in
about the same period of time, we know that we built a miracle of the world
with the determination and willpower of our "Heavenly Soldiers". Let us and
the dear Cambodian villagers share this joy! This is an order of God. This
is a compassionate and loving offering of the Master of the era!"
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