May 2019 Update

Easter Sunday

Design

In the next couple of weeks, the 20 design projects EMI teams engaged in this semester will see their design reports finalized. Each of these projects represent a multi-disciplinary team of 8 to 14 engineers and architects and surveyors from all over the world who traveled to a project site in the developing world to help another ministry plan out the vision God's given them. These projects included hospitals, schools, ministry training centers, and water projects in 14 different countries.

One of these teams was a multi-national group that traveled to a rural area near Lusitu, Zambia to work with a well-known ministry called Living Water to help them rehabilitate a water system installed years ago that was struggling to provide water to 25,000 people in the area. This project turned out to be one of the largest EMI projects in our history.

The EMI Zambia team

Lake Kariba - the largest man-made lake there is.

In the 1950's, the Kariba Dam was built on the Zambezi River to create Lake Kariba, the largest man-made lake in the world. As a result of the dam, over 50,000 people were displaced from their home communities and relocated to other parts of the country. One group of people that numbered 7,000 was moved to Lusitu, a small rural community upstream of the dam in a dry basin near the river. At the time, the government drilled over 90 boreholes to generate water for these people, but the water was found to be unusable due to high salt content. So instead, water was diverted from the river through a vast but basic water delivery system that included a small treatment plant.

Meeting with the Lusitu community leaders.

The EMI team surveying on the site.

Through the years, the system deteriorated despite best efforts to keep it running. Also, the population has grown and the small system is over-taxed with over 25,000 people now depending on it for water. Living Water was contacted for help, and they contacted EMI to come help them solve this complicated and gigantic water problem - the area served is over 200 square kilometers!

This spaceship looking thing was discovered. It's actually
a Chinese-made water filtration system that hadn't broke
down and could not be repaired since no information was
left behind with the equipment and no one on site had any
idea how it operated.

One of the villages served by the water system.

While on site in March, EMI's team of 10 engineers and surveyors worked with both Living Water and the community leaders to first survey the system, then to identify the problems (there were many), and finally to put together a report of recommendations Living Water can use as a road map to restore and upgrade this system. Illegal taps, massive soil erosion, insufficient and undersized pipes, and lack of functioning treatment equipment are a few of the numerous issues that the EMI team’s report is addressing.

Getting water is a core part of life for all rural Africans. It's
a common activity that unites everyone from the commoner
to the village leader. It also takes a significant amount of each
day's time to secure the water needed for everyday life.

One other exciting thing about this EMI team - it consisted of professionals from the US, UK, Zambia, and Namibia – a great example of the strides EMI has made in our diversity goals!

Discipleship

As one of 3 of EMI's Core Values redesigned back in 2017, Discipleship is a growing part of the work of EMI. If you have ever looked into how best to 'do' Discipleship, then you will relate to the fact that there are many different opinions out there! EMI has started working to figure out how to navigate defining Discipleship at EMI. One (of several) tools we have been looking at over the past year has been 'The Journey' bible study. This is a program designed for a small group to walk through over the course of a year.

The EMI USA and EMI Global Day of Prayer in late April

Late in 2018, Alisha and I joined one of these 'Journey' groups with our CEO and his wife and one of our Global Office Directors and his wife. Due to our travel schedules we're going at a slower pace, but so far we are enjoying the study and approach to growing in our faith and understanding in our relationships with God.

Home

In our 'home' life...the school year for Alisha and the boys is winding down, though it will be a little longer this year since there have been 7 snow days and 4 two-hour delays this school year! (By comparison, last year there were 0 snow days and 2 two-hour delays!) School normally gets out before Memorial Day, but due to the lost time they all have to go until May 31st.

With Brodie being an 11th grader this year, we have begun the process of looking at universities. Brodie plans to study Computer Science and would like to stay in Colorado, so he is considering the Colorado School of Mines, Colorado State, and Univ. of Colorado at Colorado Springs (UCCS). We recently visited  the School of Mines and Colorado State and he really liked both. Next week we visit UCCS.

Soccer season is in full swing – I’m coaching Brodie’s U18 club team. Graysen is also playing club, and all three boys are refereeing each weekend. My men’s team is just finishing up our season too – at this point, getting through another season without any injuries is a job well done!

#soccerlife

Bundling up is an essential part of the soccer kit for spring time
in Colorado Springs. This field was solid white 45 minutes before
kickoff. Thankfully, snow melts pretty much as soon as it stops
snowing in the spring.

Tip: Orange cleats make it easier to find your son/daughter
out on the field during games.

The 'grind' of soccer season isn't all bad, especially when you
have an out of town game in Breckenridge.

Another benefit of an out of town game in Breckenridge -
it attracts grandparents to come visit and watch games!
(We've enjoyed having Alisha's mom and dad here for
the past week!)

They've even got to experience the extremely deceptive nature
of blue sky and sunny pictures in Colorado's spring time.

Just an example of the neurotic nature of Colorado Springs
in the spring time. (Can you tell we aren't big fans of Colorado,
weather, especially in the spring?!)

Picture #1: 9:00am

Picture #2: 2:00pm (same day)

Prayer requests

We were scammed. Someone pretending to be me was able to get through our HR and Finance dept. filters by submitting a change form in my name and switching the bank account for my auto deposits. In all, two paychecks and several larger travel reimbursements totaling over $13k were stolen. It stinks, and is a big hit to both us personally and EMI’s general budget. We are working with law enforcement but don’t have too much hope of recovering anything, especially since the perpetrators and bank account appear to be foreign. Please pray that God would replace these funds. Please also pray for wisdom as we tighten down all our systems to try to prevent this from ever happening again.

Upcoming travel: I will traveling to the UK at the end of the month to attend the EMIUK board meeting. A few days later, Alisha and I will be traveling to Nicaragua to visit the office and staff in Managua. In September, I'll be traveling to Cambodia to attend our Director's Conference. It will be my first time in Asia (with the exception of brief layovers in the Middle East.)

A few more pictures...

Alisha and I joined my sister and two of her kids at a John
Maxwell leadership conference in March. Here we're pictured
with Mark Cole, the CEO of the John Maxwell Company, my
sister Traci, and my niece and nephew and family friend Doug.

It's nice having older teenagers - we can put them on a plane
by themselves to go visit grandparents if Alisha and I have
out of town travel.

This was the EMI office treat that showed up on April Fools' Day.

Gus - he loves hanging out in the tub and especially
letting the water drip all over his head. What?! He
clearly must have flunked out of cat school.