5Crawfords

Our pastor had to postpone our meeting with the church missions board as some of the members are gone this weekend. But... eMi contacted us yesterday to invite us back to Colorado Springs to interview. We will meet with them on Thursday March 22 and Friday the 23rd. Pretty exciting! We're flying into Denver on Weds. afternoon, then flying back to the bay area Friday night. Another whirlwind trip, but nothing compared to the Uganda trip in November!

Well, once again, God has given us a huge boost of confidence. Our dinner with our pastor and his wife was awesome. They were very encouraging to us about our plans, and were excited about what we're doing. He also asked us what we're doing for support, and when I told him we were raising our full support, he said that he really wanted the church to support us and also said that he'd like to bring us in front of the church missions board to present our vision. The missions board then makes a recommendation to the pastoral staff, who then make the final decision on which missions to support. He said that ultimately he'd like to bring us up in front of the church to share with everyone what we're doing. He said we could play our DVD and also have a chance to speak to share our heart. What an awesome blessing that is. Before we went tonight, I just prayed that God would give us the words to share our heart and that he would take care of the rest. Our pastor and his w...

We're taking our pastor and his wife out to dinner tomorrow to share what God is doing in our lives. They've been aware for awhile now that we were considering this, but we haven't yet told them we're going ahead full steam. I'm excited to talk with them about this opportunity but also a little nervous since we really want our church standing with us while we're overseas. We were talking today about how 'naked' we would feel going over there without a large group of people who knew exactly what we were doing and who were following along with what God is doing. We feel honored to have the chance to serve with eMi in a capacity that could directly impact hundreds or even thousands of African lives. The more time has passed from when we decided to do this, the fear and nervousness has turned to a feeling of awe of the opportunity we have to be a part of such an awesome ministry. So please pray that we're able to communicate what we feel is our overall m...

This was taken from the church downtown where some of the staff members attend. It is a Calvary Chapel church whose pastor is a twenty-something American. The worship team was all native Ugandans and that was pretty cool - half the song was in English and half in Lugandan. We will probably choose a church that was less American, and also one that isn't downtown since that was Alisha very least favorite part of Kampala! The shot you see comes alive at night, and feels like Times Square as far as the number of people and 'Matatus' (taxis) out and about:

...this was taken from the window of the "hotel" where Alisha and I stayed. The outside area to the right of the road where you see tables and so forth is somewhat of a "fast-food" stop at night, where they make "Rolex's" - a homemade tortilla with an egg cooked like an omellete spread thin over the tortilla with fried cabbage inside. Healthy? Not really since the tortilla is essentially lard. Delicious? Yep.

I spoke with an old friend from college last night, Phil Darke. He's involved with a group that is starting an orphanage in Honduras, and has made a few trips there in the past couple of years. God layed these words on his heart a short time ago, and I thought it was worth repeating: “If it is not from God, it will fail. We need to get out of our “comfortable” lives and our comfort zones, and start going where we can only go if God is with us. We need to start dreaming dreams that will be fulfilled only if God is behind them, is their source and driving power. Have you ever done something that you thought didn’t have a chance, that you knew would fail if it wasn’t from God, because you knew that there was no way you or your church could make it happen on your/their own? – We need to start thinking and acting like this.” I think this is a good synopsis of where we're at and somewhat of a motto for our whole endeavor. If and when we land in Africa in the coming months, I can hone...

The phone interviews went well today. Alisha went first this morning and spoke with the Human Resourse administrator for an hour, then I spoke with the same gal this afternoon for another hour. Both of us felt like she asked really good questions that allowed us to give an honest account of who we are and where we're at in all of this. She was very nice and we both had an easy time talking to her. From here, she will meet with the HR board to discuss us, as well as review the returned forms from our references. At that point she would decide whether to have us come out to Colorado Springs for an interview with the executive board. Tentatively, we've talked about the dates of March 22-23 to be in Colorado Springs if all continues to go well. Thanks for your prayers. Talking with the HR gal today was very encouraging in that it made us both feel excited to move forward. The more we learn about and interact with the eMi people the more impressed we are with the organization...