5Crawfords

How does the work of EMI help spread the gospel? Connecting the dots from EMI projects to meeting the physical needs of the poor in the developing world is a fairly easy line to draw. Clean water, reliable power systems and safe buildings that our projects create are all desperate needs of the poor in Africa, India and other places around the world. But understanding how the work of EMI promotes the spreading of the gospel sometimes takes a bit more effort. A recent update I received from one of my former projects provides a great illustration how EMI’s work enhances the spread of the gospel around the world – in this case, Uganda. A few years ago, I led a team of 11 design professionals to master plan a university campus for Africa Renewal University (ARU). Since that time, ARU has taken the plans our EMI team provided and moved forward at a speed that’s uncommon amongst development organizations. ARU started out as Gaba Bible Institute (GBI) 6 years ago with 35 students....

We're halfway through our visit home to the USA (to renew our UK visas) so we though we would update you all on things...the visas, my last project, and my upcoming project trip back to Uganda... UK Visa update Good news on the visa front - we just found out a few days ago that our UK visas have been approved! It was an answer to prayer that they were not only approved, but the approval only took 11 days (they only guarantee an answer within 12 weeks). We had allowed 6 weeks in the USA before our return flights (a bit of a risk!), so fortunately things worked out. Now, we are all set to head back to the UK on August 27th. Now, about those driver's licenses... A brief summary of our time in Colorado Springs, though most of my time was spent at the EMI office and meeting with other EMI staff people. It was a busy but great visit for us, as we got to see a number of friends (not all though, sadly) and I got to play in a soccer tournament with my old team! T...

A nice British family It’s hard to believe, but Jonah and I leave the UK to return to the USA to begin the visa renewal process just 3 weeks from tomorrow! We’re going home 8 days before the others to attend a family reunion, while the others are staying in the UK since Brodie’s school doesn’t get out until mid-July! In some ways, it feels like time has flown by, and in other ways, this has been the longest 10 months of our lives! It’s been great, rewarding, hard, fun, boring, exciting, frustrating, gloomy, enchanting, etc. and un-etc. ;) The Colchester Baptist Church, where EMI-UK's office is located. We're in the back corner and stare out the window at brick walls, but we're very grateful to the church for giving us two rooms to work in, rent free. This is also our home church - we really like the people of this church. We have a list a mile long to accomplish for year two, many of it renewing exactly what we had to do for year one. It’s an expensive undert...

The office has looked like a print shop lately as we got our latest project report out the door, on schedule!! I don't know if it's 'legal' to do this, but I'm going to blog out of order! That's because right before my last project trip, Alisha's parents came for a visit and took us out West in England to see a part of the country we'd never been to. The pictures are way better than anything I could describe, so I'll let them do the talking...with some minor commentary in the captions. It was sure a nice getaway from the miserable weather we had all Winter. It's improved some over the past month, but even still, high 40's and low 50's doesn't feel very much like May! As for a current update... *Our project report was finished and mailed out two weeks ago! The three interns did an awesome job of finishing it up and we are really excited about how it turned out. And most importantly, the ministry was very pleased as well, though...

The earliest reference to Colchester was in AD 77. It’s finally starting to feel like Spring here in Colchester! The temperature hasn’t been in the 30’s for over a week now, and we’ve actually had a number of days into the 60’s with plenty of sunshine. It’s amazing the difference it’s made. So, a good time to update on how we’re doing here. This picture was from a few weeks ago, before Spring arrived. We took the boys to the Clacton-on-Sea pier during their Spring Break...and froze! We did let them ride one ride - the roller coaster to the right. Given the weather, they were the only ones on the ride at the time! My niece Holli Morrow has been staying with us after graduating early from HS. She will have been here 8 weeks when she leaves in 10 days - it's going to be very dull without her around. First off, some news. Though perhaps you’ve already learned this from other bits we’ve put out on Facebook or by email, we’ve decided to stay in the UK for...