5Crawfords

The boys out trick-or-treating on Halloween - their first time ever trick-or-treating (it doesn't happen in Uganda)! I have been asked by eMi to be the interim Disaster Response (DR) Coordinator while the current DR Director is on Administrative leave through the end of the year. Being fresh off the training conference in North Carolina, I feel like I have some idea of what's going on but it's definitely a new program to me with lots for me learn. I am excited to be a part of this aspect of eMi's ministry, especially because it is working closely with some other great ministries such as Samaritan's Purse, Food for the Hungry, Water Missions Int'l, and others. So, new to this position, I received a call yesterday afternoon from Samaritan's Purse requesting a small team of water and sanitation engineers to come to Haiti this next week to help them set up a base camp for dealing with the Cholera outbreak that is on the verge of exploding into a big problem sin...

Graysen in the Portland airport, proud to be a Ducks' fan! This past week, for my birthday, Graysen and I flew out to Portland, Oregon to see the #1 ranked Ducks' football team play UCLA in front of a nationally televised audience. My parents picked us up from the airport and drove us to Eugene, where I went to the game with my dad while Graysen stayed back with Grammy at their RV. It was just a quick overnight trip, but we packed it in with a lot of fun and had a great trip. Most importantly, the Ducks' won big and we were loving being at ground zero of Ducks' fever! Now this week, I will be travelling to Asheville, North Carolina to attend the eMi Volunteer Conference and Disaster Relief (DR) training seminar. Attending the conference was a last minute decision but one I am excited about. I will be learning about water purification in a disaster relief context, as well as completing a course on structural assessment of buildings after an earthquake. Beyond that, it wi...

Part IV of IV At the end of all eMi trips, we try to have a day or two of ‘closing time’ where we spend time together doing something fun and also have a chance to talk through and process some of what we’ve experienced on the trip. On my past trips, this has typically been an overnight at a lodge or something small like that. Other eMi trip leaders have done larger scale activities, such as 3-day safaris or other sight-seeing trips. Well, since we were going to be in the same country as one of the seven wonders of the world, I thought the team would be mad if I didn’t get us over to see Victoria Falls. Since it was around 1200 kilometers from the project site, we had to add in a couple of travel days. But when I went to purchase our airfare, the travel agent told me that we would save about $400 per person if we waited to go home the next day! So, we ended up with a four-day closing time that included two full-days of travel! Note: In lieu of pictures in this post, I've uploaded a...

The new Samfya Bible School Master Plan Part III Thursday 9/9 This morning during our devotional time we had asked Donald (the pastor from New Zealand who has been our main point of contact) to give his testimony. One of my favorite parts of eMi trips is hearing the team member’s stories. When it’s someone from another country it’s especially interesting to hear how God has impacted a life in a distant land. After his testimony, he also shared a verse with us from Colossians 3:2-4: “Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God. And when Christ, who is your life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all his glory.” It was a good reminder for me to not focus so much on the world around me, but focus on the things God would want me to focus on. I was thinking how much time I waste thinking and talking about things that really aren’t important, and how I could do a much better job of think...

The smoky skies make for beautiful sunrises at Samfya Bible School, overlooking the waters of Lake Bangweulu The eMi team with the Samfya Bible School Board and Pastor Donald and family from the partnering church in New Zealand  Part II Monday 9/6 We had our first devotional time this morning since all the testimonies were done. We studied Psalm 139 about how God knows us so completely, down to every action and thought, and the ramifications of that. It’s both comforting and a little scary to know that the creator of the universe knows every thought we have and has our days numbered. For me, it’s been a part of the process of letting go of fear, which plagued me for most of my life. But getting rid of that fear and placing confidence in God’s will for my life has allowed me to do things like this project trip – it wasn’t too many years ago when I wouldn’t have been caught dead flying overseas for 2 weeks. So today, we met with the ministry leaders (four local Zambian men who compris...

Part I Traveling - Weds. 9/1 thru Fri 9/3 Well, it’s finally our first night at the site. After 4 plane flights totaling 22 hours in the air and an 8 hour drive this morning, we have finally made it. In all, it took 52 hours to the minute to get from my front porch in Colorado Springs to stepping out of the car at the Samfya Bible School campus. Me with interns Rachel (left) and Melissa in the Johannesburg airport in South Africa, posing with Nelson Mandela - he's a lot taller than I was expecting! Just a few highlights – probably the worst part of the flying was from Denver to Washington DC. It was only a 3 hour flight but it was pretty bumpy. Fortunately, the 17+ hour flight from DC to Jonhassburg was relatively smooth for most of it. It’s actually 2 flights – 7 ½ from DC to Dakar, Senegal, where we stopped for an hour and a half but couldn’t get off the plane and then back up in the air for an 8 hour leg to Johannesburg. In Dakar, some people got off the plane and others joined ...