September 2019 update

An EMI Staff architect and engineer consult with the construction

site manager during a routine inspection on a project in Cambodia

The Jordan at Jericho ministry plans to be a sustainable organic

farm whose profits will be fed back into the Cambodia church.

(photo cred. Anna Seeley, EMI)

An EMI team in the Tunduru province of Tanzania

last month working at the KIUMA ministry center –

the only resource for education and medical care

in this remote and underserved part of the country.

(photo cred. Jenni Keiter, EMI)

For the first time in our 37 year history, EMI sent

a team of engineers into the country of Iraq last

month to begin designing a new community to

permanently house a group of Yazidi refugees

whose homes and communities were devastated

by the recent war in N. Iraq & Syria. Please pray
for the Iraqi church, which was hit especially hard.

(photo cred. Randy Larsen, EMI)

Things slow down a bit over the summer at EMI since it's our shortest project cycle and many of our staff take time for vacation and connecting with supporters. But as you can see from above, things don't completely stop! And come early August, things speed right back up to full gear as a new crop of interns and onboarding staff come to Colorado for our EMI Orientation.

We held our first ever 'CEO Weekend' up in Breckenridge this past weekend, where we invited a couple dozen people who are invested in EMI as donors, volunteers, or both to come hear about the latest vision and mission of EMI. It was a very encouraging weekend as we got to connect with many people who are a big part of the work of EMI...but who in many cases hadn't met hardly anyone else connected to EMI!

EMI CEO John Dallmann talking about EMI's vision at the
CEO retreat in Breckenridge last weekend.

A former EMI staff couple prepared all the food for the weekend.
They did not disappoint!

I gave a short talk on our Core Value of Diversity...and how EMI's
definition of diversity (i.e. it's all about God) differs from the
world's definition of diversity (i.e. it's all about us as individuals).

On Saturday, we took a small group of brave souls on a hike.
Since most people were coming from low elevation places,
this moderate hike became quite a challenge since the trailhead
was at 11,000 ft.

The Rockies are very different from the mountains we're used
to on the West Coast (Sierras and Cascades), but they are
nonetheless beautiful in their own way.

This is my favorite hiking shirt...it shows where my heart really is. :)

For the Crawfords, the summer went fast - lots of hiking, visiting with family, fiends, and supporters, and enjoying some beautiful weather here in Colorado after a pretty brutal spring, weather-wise. Alisha and I had been set to go to visit our Nicaragua office in early June, but a couple of health issues came up with the staff and their extended families, so we decided to postpone the trip for later this year or early next.

It probably won't be long before I'm the shortest one in this group.

Biking near Vail

Coming up soon, I'll be off to Cambodia for our annual Directors conference - my first time to Asia (apart from a short layover in Dubai, which is technically Asia I suppose). Though it will be several days of long meetings, it's always an important time for EMI as we discuss so many things of consequence for our ministry. Please be praying for this time! I'll send out and update after I return.

Alisha and the boys are back in school (have been for over a month now) and time continues to fly by. Graysen is playing on the JV soccer team, Jonah continues to get more and more into oil painting, and Brodie is refereeing a lot and starting to work on college applications. He has already applied to UCCS (Univ. of Colorado at Colorado Springs) and was accepted into their Computer Science program. He is thinking this of living at home and attending UCCS, which for a smaller and lesser known school has a robust Comp-Sci program (military towns are helpful for some things).

It's always fun when Alisha gets to join EMI events too.

This kid heads to university next year!

Group 'Zoom' calls have become a standard part of family birthdays
lately...both my mom and dad turned 80 in recent weeks.

Thank you for praying for us! Oh, and the cats and rabbits are doing well - quite happy that the hot summer is beginning to turn into a cooler fall.

I posted this on Facebook recently...time flies!