5Crawfords

Someone in our family had a 'milestone' 40th birthday this month, but we won't mention her name. We're driving to the West Coast in a couple of days to visit family and have a little vacation. Sadly, we won't be making it up north to Oregon this time as we wanted to see our SoCal friends/family since it's been two years since we've been down there. We've also never driven the southern route west so the boys are very excited to see New Mexico and Arizona for the first time (I've never been to NM or AZ either!). Before we head out, here's what's been going on with the Crawford's and EMI this past month: PROJECTS We sent 4 project teams out from the US office this semester to work in Haiti, Ghana, Estonia, and Ethiopia. So far, I've helped out on two of them - a new medical clinic in rural Ghana, and a foster home center for up to 80 children in Estonia (the first time EMI has ever done a project in this former Soviet state). For ...

May in Colorado - high 70's one weekend, 3" of snow in our backyard the next! We’re settling back into Colorado, slowly but surely. We do miss our friends and life back in the UK, but we're also enjoying being back in America as well. Overall, it's kind of a weird time. The boys got reconnected with soccer teams straightaway, and got into our neighborhood schools within a few weeks as well. That was great for them as it helped them feel much more connected with being back. Alisha went through the paperwork of getting her California teaching credential converted over to a Colorado license and just a couple of weeks ago finally received the license! That has kept her from being able to apply for a job to date, but she has also been torn about whether or not to teach. Having her teach would help us financially here in Colorado, but we both want her to do what God wants for this time of life regardless of finances, so that’s where we currently sit – waiting on Go...

The local Malawian villagers, fetching water (note that it's often predominantly the women and children who are tasked with fetching water in African culture). In March, EMI sent a team of Civil Engineers to the mountainous rural areas of Malawi to assist World Vision with a problem they were having with an enormous water pipeline project they have been trying to implement. They had started the project in 2005 with the hopes of diverting a natural spring up in the mountains to several communities in the hills below, miles away. In all, the system was hopeful of providing a stable water source for up to 40,000 people across many different villages and communities in the region. To date, they had installed about the first 33km (20 miles) of the pipeline, which would serve about 4,000 people. However, for some reason, the pipeline has been fraught with problems from the outset with no reliability in the system. In fact, the main trunk line had been installed twice and still wa...

A 'Welcome Home' sign for us All bags (& people) arrived home safely! The last month and a half has been a unique time for our family! Coming back from the UK without a definite place to plant ourselves was a big faith step, but one we felt God was leading us to make. Now that things have settled a bit, we are so thankful for God's provision over the past 2 months. Here are some highlights... 1) After spending a few weeks on the West Coast at our parent's houses in California and Oregon, we made the trek out to Colorado without a place to land! Fortunately, our dear friends Fred and Laurel Beck graciously and generously opened their home to us. After a little more than week with them, our other dear friends the Reynold's allowed us to stay with them for a week and a half too. In the interest of spreading ourselves around (and against the protests of the Reynold's!) we then headed back to the Beck's for the last week before our house came availa...

Cute kids in the nearby village - a good way to start any blog post PART IV of VI Saturday February 1 st Yesterday, a chunk of concrete fell off the top of the large thatched roof over the dining hall (there is a 2-foot wide concrete cap at the ridge line of the thatched roof to protect water from getting in). It’s a tall structure (30 feet), so if anyone had been struck it probably would have killed them. Fortunately that was not the case. So today, the ministry hired a contractor to come replace the entire concrete cap. The chunk of concrete that fell off the roof The dining hall - the concrete chunk fell from the peak of this roof and then slid down the back side to the ground. The chunk landed on this patio - fortunately no one was injured The workers were out early in the morning removing the remaining cap, so I got the chance to look at it. It was easy to see the problem. First, the concrete mixture was very weak – I could break small pieces off with my...