5Crawfords

Pictures from February 2016... For awhile there, it seemed like we did little else other than shovel snow! It was the biggest storm in 20 years in Colorado Springs - we got 24" at our house over a 2-day span. Thanks to fuel points, this was the lowest price I've paid for gas/petrol since high school. A far cry from the near $9/gallon we paid in the UK! With fellow EMI family the Kanes, watching the Super Bowl. They're from the East Coast and we're from the West Coast - so not much passion for the Broncos. Still, we passively applauded the victory. :) There's a 2nd teenager in the house now - Jonah Jones has joined the ranks. Graysen had an idea for a fundraiser at his school to purchase new sports balls. So, with a little help from a teacher and a couple other students, they raised nearly $500 for buying sports equipment by selling Power Aid drinks for the annual 'Links Laps' event where students have a set time to run the inner ...

At the desk of the Vice President's ceremonial office in the Eisenhower Building, on the grounds of the White House Some recent highlights from the world of EMI and the Crawfords... * This Fall, we led project teams to help ministries in the following countries: Benin, Kenya, Nigeria, 4 trips to Uganda, Cameroon, Madagascar and India. Most of those trips went out in September, with the project work being completed now in time for the current project semester to end in about a month's time. * This morning during our Friday morning sharing time, EMI staffer Rex Barber shared about the trip he led to Tenwek Hospital in Western Kenya back in September. EMI has a long history with Tenwek Hospital, having sent many teams to their campus in rural Kenya to help with the various stages of that hospital's ongoing expansion. Franklin Graham once said of Tenwek, "Tenwek Hospital is one of the greatest evangelical outreaches I know of anywhere in the world today." Aft...

We took the boys to Red Robin to celebrate a successful 1st quarter of the school year. The boys all did well so we rewarded them with a burger and endless fries with 'campfire' sauce. Yesterday, we learned of the tragic and heartbreaking news that an 8 th grade schoolmate from Brodie and Jonah’s middle school took his own life. Looking at pictures of this kid we found online after hearing the news, he looks like a very typical young boy with no apparent signs of the ‘pain’ that ultimately was too much for him to bear. For some reason, we expected to see a kid dressed in black, or with a ‘punk’ style haircut, or with a scowl on his face – something that would make such a desperate act seem at least a little more more foreshadowed, even if still extremely tragic. But instead, we saw pictures of a smiling kid who looked 3 years younger than his 14 years, dressed in a football uniform at practice or smiling with his 5 siblings and parents in the family portrait that se...

Waiting to depart in the airport... I've been wanting to go on a project trip with Brad since we joined EMI in 2007. So when the talk of a trip to Kenya surfaced around the office, I was really excited but didn't know how it could possibly work for our family. My excitement grew when both sets of grandparents gladly agreed to have the boys visit for a week each during the trip. Watching the boys board their plane in Denver was a little unnerving, but knowing they were headed to the West Coast for some family fun brought peace. We owe a huge thank you to our parents who turned this trip into a great memory for Brodie, Jonah and Graysen.  The boys were so excited for their first plane trek by themselves and getting to see grandparents thwarted any complaints of Mom and Dad traveling back to Africa without them. ;) As we boarded each of our three flights I was definitely aware of the distance growing between us and the boys - I think I had forgotten how long it takes to g...

One of my favorite team photos of all time - with ministry director Jane Gravis and several of the IAA kids. The ministry we’re working with is an Orphanage called ‘Into Abbas Arms’. The founder, Jane Gravis, came on a medical missions trip in 1997 as a dental hygienist, but ended up serving as the dentist due to the needs encountered. She was struck by the number of children without families/homes, so she came back and started an orphanage in 1999, intending to get things started before leaving it to others to continue forward. Sixteen years later and still serving as the ministry director, she lives in Texas full-time, traveling back to Kenya several each year. Alisha hanging out with some of her students at the pre-school. Currently, they have 43 children (the 43 rd , a 5 year old girl, arrived while we were on site). The stories of how the children come to the orphanage are as varied as the kids themselves, but many were dramatic, ranging from being left for dead on th...