5Crawfords

The Buvu Island team, from left: me, Pilot Simon (from Switzerland), Pastor Sam (Ugandan) and MAF administrator Adrian (from the UK) This past Tuesday, I was a part of a team of 4 guys who travelled by boat about 45 miles out into Lake Victoria to visit and assess an island for the feasibility of putting in an air strip. The group leading the trip was MAF, Mission Aviation Fellowship, an international missions group who use their expertise in air transport to assist other mission groups in spreading the gospel as well as to help the poor with humanitarian aid. Our group consisted of the administrative director of MAF in Uganda, Adrian, the chief MAF pilot Simon, a local pastor named Sam and myself, ‘the engineer’. The team strapping on life jackets and some wet weather gear next to the boat. We were blessed with good weather all day. A big thunderstorm out on the lake (they occur almost every day) would've soaked us in a hurry and there would've been no option but to forge on....

This past Monday morning, I boarded a bus with two of our eMi interns (Nick and Anna) and set out for Kigali, the capital city of Rwanda. We were going to work with a ministry called New Creation Ministries (NCM). NCM has been training Rwandan pastors for over 20 years, teaching classes in the native language of Kinyarwanda. It is run by two gentlemen, Gary Scheer and Gary Bennett, both from the states but have lived in Rwanda for 29 and 23 years respectively and speak the language fluently. The team: (L to R) Intern Anna, Architect Liz (who had flown in from Sudan the first morning after completing a project trip there), Intern Nick, me, Gary Scheer (NCM Director) and Gary Bennett (NCM site coordinator). It was a very interesting trip not only for the work we were doing, which was helping them plan their 5-acre site for the future bible university they are starting, but also being right in the center of where the war was fought just 14 years ago. Hearing their stories of how they su...

Me and my niece Dani at the game - please note that I was wearing my Ducks' hat with pride! This past Sunday, I went to the Ugandan National Teams' ('The Cranes') final World Cup qualifier match against group leader Benin along with a group of about 20 eMi people. It was an amazing experience. Uganda came back from being down 1-0 to win 2-1 with two second-half goals in a 3 minute span. The place went wild when they took the lead. And at the end of the game, the riot police fired shots in the air to scatter the rowdy crowd (on the opposite side of the stadium) from throwing things on the visiting players. I drove my friend Matt (from Michigan) on the back of my boda to get to the stadium. It was a kick - he held a Ugandan flag in his hand, so everyone was yelling at us in approval as we approached the stadium. Me before the game outside Nelson Mandela Stadium, on the outskirts of Kampala. (I'm walking backwards - that isn't some dorky pose) Unfortunately, becaus...

The Berry Family picture - with Grandma Delma - taken last Christmas eve down in San Diego - we were visiting my brother Brian's family a month before departing to Africa This is Alisha – I just wanted to share a story with you... When we left the States in January,my Grandma Delma (a dear sweet lady and one of my best friends), accompanied us to the airport with my parents. As I said goodbye I gave her a kiss, and had the sad thought, “God please let this not be the last time I see Grandma.” She handed me a $20.00 bill and said, “You go in and buy yourself some ice cream” (she and I both love ice cream!). Seven months later, on September 2nd, Grandma passed away in the hospital in her sleep (she would have turned 86 this December). It was a bit of a shock for me, since I was still holding on to the hope that she would pull through after having had pneumonia and a ‘silent heart attack’. Grandma performing her annual job - wrapping up the used Christmas ribbon for re-use the followi...