5Crawfords

Probably one of our family's highlights here in the UK was visiting the Harry Potter Studios. Tomorrow morning at 5:35am (BST), I head out on the train to the airport to catch our late morning flight to Uganda for my next project trip. On this trip, I'll be working with a ministry called Show Mercy International (SMI). SMI was started a few years ago by an American couple who were captivated by the orphan situation in Uganda. In 2009, EMIUK led a project team to design their 'Field of Dreams' orphanage site. This past Friday, we were invited to attend a 'Burn's Night' celebration from our dear Scottish friends David and Fiona Prentice. It was such a fun night and a great chance to experience a little taste of Scotland. We had fully intended to make it up there while we were here, but sadly time ran out on us. Someday... That site is now partially constructed (we'll be staying in the EMI-designed guesthouses on the site), but they've di...

At the birthplace of Shakespeare, Stratford-upon-Avon. Year two in the UK is going very well – much better than year one, and year one went pretty well! The two major differences this go-around are:  1) Jonah and Graysen are in school, and 2) the boys are signed onto football (soccer) teams. Of course, #1 means that Alisha is no longer home-schooling, and thus has a bit more freedom this year to do things both at home and outside the house.  She is enjoying helping with the Parents and Toddler group at the church, occasionally works in the EMI office, attends all the various school functions for the boys, and keeps up with all the house stuff. Getting ready to Trick-or-Treat after coming up with home- made costumes.  Costumes didn't go over well here as we forgot that Halloween costumes here are judged purely on how scary they are. As One Direction band mates Brodie and Jonah would only be scary if the person answering the door had teenagers. ;) The boys each l...

Overlooking Kampala - even now, it still feels so weird to me sometimes to think that this place was our home...and in many ways still feels like home to this day. Part V of V Days 11-14:  13 th – 17 th September Back in Kampala! There’s so much about this place I love. Yes, it’s a dirty, trafficky, smoggy and crazy busy city, but there’s something about it that is so familiar to me that it feels as much like my home town as any place does at this point in life. The years we spent here will go down as some of the best of our lives, so perhaps I’m a bit prone to viewing it through rose-colored glasses. But the people and familiar places all bring such good memories back that I can’t help but feel at home being here. The 'boda stage' by our house - some of our old boda drivers have moved on to become 'special hire' (car) drivers. The 'Jinja' roundabout - one of the main intersections in town. A panorama of our old compound. I got t...

Figuring out the site boundary, with my private security officer intern Michael in tow. Part IV of V Days 9-10:   11 th – 12 th September Presentation day! The last night wasn’t too bad, with most of the team only staying up until around midnight. Compared to the all-nighters that commonly occur on trips, it was nice that the team felt comfortable with where we were at to get some sleep. Jaz Lambert - our team MVP One thing that’s been difficult on this trip has been the fact that the existing nursery school has been on a school holiday while we’ve been here so we haven’t been able to connect much with the people we’re here to help. But one of the wives on the team, Jaz Lambert, has been a great ambassador for us and has been very involved in various aspects of the ministry on campus here. So after the presentation, we had Jaz share with the team some of the things she had experienced here and the feedback she’d heard from some of the people. It was very encoura...