Thailand Highlight #9: The Food

Being somewhat of a bigger guy, I was a little worried about having enough to eat during the trip.  Then I quickly realized that I had nothing to worry about.  Monkey, our Karen host at the build site, along with many helpers cooked up some great meals every day for the huge group of us.  When the Karen medics are on FBR missions in Burma they normally eat two meals a day of plain rice.  We were given special treatment with lots of rice, but also vegetables and occasionally some meat.  Despite the fact that I couldn't tell exactly what I was eating, and a few unusual animal parts, it was always delicious.  The Karen enjoy food that is way too spicy for me.  I usually passed on certain things like the fish paste, to avoid melting my face off.

When we came back to Chiang Mai we didn't have any trouble finding good food there either.  I'm a huge fan of real Thai food, it never got old.  I didn't realized how much different it is than "American" food until I ate a couple of french fries on the way home in the airport.  It felt like I ate some rat poison or something.  Makes me realize how unhealthy my meal choices are sometimes.

Family style meal at Monkey's - the bowls of rice just kept on coming.

Some very spicy seafood.  I freaked out a little
at first because I thought it was moving.

Thailand Highlight #10: Team Bonding

After much traveling, I made it back home to Colorado Springs on Saturday - just in time for some snow.  Now I'm just trying to recover from jet lag, unpacking, and doing laundry.  Since I wasn't able to post much during the trip the past three weeks, it's a little bit difficult to try and make up for lost time now.  If I tried to describe everything that happened on the trip and all the stories, that would make for an extremely long post.  So, I will just go over some of the highlights from the entire trip, sort of a SportsCenter Top 10 if you will.  We'll take them one at a time so I have more time to write, starting with #10...

10) Team Bonding
Spending time with a group of people 24/7 for a couple weeks is a quick way to get to know each other.  It seems like ages ago that our eMi team met in the airport at the start of our journey.  These guys are professional engineers, architects, and builders who are actively using their gifts to serve others and I love to see that willingness to follow God's leading.  Matthew, Dan, Bill, Steve, Brent, David, Seth, Rex, and I are all such different people from different places, and all came together for one purpose.  We worked hard, encouraged each other with our testimonies, and had a lot of fun.  Whether it was listening to Thai cover bands on the radio for three and a half hours packed in a van, helping each other carry buckets of dirt in 95 degree heat, or singing worship songs for a house church service, we were a real team.  I feel fortunate to have been able to work and spend time with these guys.

By His Power

Well unfortunately I haven't been able to get to a computer long enough to write anything about the trip until now.  Even so I will probably just scratch the surface of what's been going on the past two weeks and how God has been working.  Anyway we finished our construction training and building project on Friday and have since been back in Chiang Mai.  This week is the ECHO Conference on sustainable agriculture, community development, and appropriate technology.  Seth, Rex, and I are attending the conference to represent eMi as a ministry and do some networking with other organizations.  Hopefully we'll learn a lot about different development strategies at the same time.  So we'll be here until Thursday and then fly to Seoul, then back home  by Saturday.

About a week and a half ago our eMi team arrived in a small jungle village in Mae Sariang near the northern Burma border.  The work site was at our host Monkey's house, a post for the Free Burma Rangers.  We worked with a group of Karen medics, some amazing believers who have extreme dedication to their calling to help their people in Burma.  The building process went very well thanks to answered prayer and very hard workers among both the eMi team and the Karen.  The FBR team learned very quickly how to build with earthbags and put together the hypar roof system.  After discussion with the lead missionary doctor and the team, we have a lot of confidence in their ability to make it happen for the clinic in Burma.

There are so many good stories but I don't have time to tell them all right now.  Needless to say, God did some amazing things through this project.  He used the experience to teach me that our work is by his power and we are capable of nothing without Him.  But right now I'm just happy I don't need to haul any more buckets of dirt in the heat and humidity of the jungle.

More details and pictures will be sure to follow when I get a chance.  Again, I want to thank everyone for supporting me in this, I know you have played a huge role in the success we had.  And of course, thanks be to God above all.

Packing My Bags

Making final preparations for my travels to Thailand, I realize this is actually happening.  It seems like not very long ago that I was considering the internship with eMi, having no idea what I would end up doing.  And now in a short time I will be heading across the world on one of the most unique projects eMi has done.

This has been somewhat of a crazy time preparing for the trip.  It's unusual for eMi to have an actual build project, which means a lot of designs have had to be completed beforehand, construction supplies and materials found in country, and generally a lot of work in a short amount of time.  To make things more complicated we've temporarily lost our project leader, Rex.  His mom passed away on Tuesday night and he has had to completely reschedule his travel plans around the funeral.  Even though the death was expected, it's obviously still hard on him especially while there is so much to do.  I've been trying to fill in for him as best I can, because I want him to be able to focus on his family and be able to process things over the next few days.  This means the rest of the team will be flying out to Thailand, getting transported to the work site, and starting construction of the earthbag and hypar roof project without our leader.  Seeing as Rex is the designated expert on earthbag construction, he has assigned me the task of researching and learning as much as I can to lead in that area until he arrives.  This should be interesting.

God has certainly done some amazing things as far as bringing much needed help and pulling things together at the last minute.  I have no doubt that He will work some miracles during this trip to provide for us and for the ministry we are serving.  My hope is that our team will be an encouragement to the Free Burma Rangers and give them increased motivation for the work they do in medical support for the IDPs and refugees of Burma.  These members of the FBR are on the front lines of a war zone, risking their lives to help these outcasts.  They have given up lives of comfort and safety to share God's love with the hopeless.  I'm guessing they could use some encouragement.  I'm also excited about the potential impact that this building technology could have for people there and around the world.

This week a team of volunteer engineers with eMi participated in a training exercise with TSC Global, a secular organization that developed of the hypar roof.  We learned techniques to construct a roof system very similar to what we will be building in Thailand.  This was a huge advantage and we feel much more prepared for the project.  Also one of those last minute acts of God I was talking about is that Steve, one of the top guys from TSC, recently decided to join us on the trip to help with the roof system.  He is a believer and he will be a great help to us in the field.  So thank God for that.

Members of TSC explain procedures for mixing latex and concrete

Getting the right shape with mesh strips in tension over roof frame

Applying the latex/concrete mix to the hypar membrane

Over the next three weeks I'm not sure how much I'll be in contact, especially at our remote location (which has no address).  The trip includes about a 14 hour flight to Seoul, South Korea and a flight to Chiang Mai, Thailand.  From there we will drive to Mae Sariang near the Burma border where our prototype build site is.  So it's going to be quite a bit of traveling (about 33 hours total), and with the 11 hour time change it will be pretty exhausting.  After the first week and a half we should be done with the construction training.  During this time the team will also be gathering information and developing designs for the medical school to be built in Burma.  At the conclusion we will present preliminary designs and results to the ministry.

This is Monkey, who will be our guide in Mae Sariang

The last week Rex and I along with the other intern, Seth, will attend an appropriate technology, community development, and sustainable agriculture conference in Chiang Mai.  This will give us a chance to show people from all over the world what the team has accomplished and to promote eMi.  Seth, the team architect Bill, and I will spend our last day in South Korea networking and exploring, then on October 8 we'll finally return home, God willing.

Please pray for us as a team, that we would bond well and get things off to a good start without our leader.  Even though things are hectic and I feel a little unprepared with all the uncertainties, I have a great feeling about the trip.  I think God is going to do some really awesome things in the hearts of the volunteers, the Free Burma Rangers, and myself.  Again, I can't thank everyone enough for the support I have back home and everywhere else, it really keeps me going.  Thailand, here I come...

eMi Partnerships

The main goal of eMi is to partner with other ministries that are already sharing God's love with people where they are.  This is a pretty cool video of how eMi projects work in the East Africa region.


EMI from Halle Project on Vimeo.

A Day at the Office

Having two weeks under my belt at the eMi office here, I'm starting to feel a little more at home.  Just in time to get ready to leave for my project trip.  We leave for Thailand on Saturday morning, less than a week away!  Most of my work lately has involved frantically trying to finish design drawings for the construction training part of the project, making travel arrangements, and preparing trip details for our team.  Needless to say my project leader, Rex, has kept me busy.

The flags show locations of sending
offices, field offices, and countries
eMi has worked in

The office is a pretty nice place, an older building in downtown Colorado Springs.  My desk is located in "The Fishbowl" which is the open area in the middle where everyone upstairs can look over the railing and watch what I'm doing.  It keeps me accountable I guess.  Actually it's great because I'm not stuck in a cubicle - I can only sit so long in a little box.

The staff has been really great to work with, these people know what they're doing and have fun doing it.  It is a laid back environment but everyone is very invested in their work and the many projects going on at once.  We have professional engineers, architects, accountants, and people in administration who are all strong Christians with very different stories and backgrounds.  It's a great picture of the body of Christ working together.

Every morning we have a time of prayer and devotions with all of the staff.  This is a good way to start the day because we get updated on what is going on with projects and in people's lives.  I especially like Fridays at the office.  At the start of the day is worship time (utilizing the piano right by my desk, or a guitar) and then during lunch the interns go to the local soup kitchen called the Marian House.  This gives us an opportunity to serve the community by literally serving food to the poor and homeless in the area. We also have a chance to talk and eat with these people who are going through some rough times.

Hard at work, as always

The Fishbowl

Forcing a smile through the pain

While I've been pretty busy with work, I've had a chance to get out and enjoy the great outdoors.  The interns haven't gotten sick of each other yet so we've been hanging out quite a bit.  We've found some good disc golf courses, plenty of rocks to climb on, and a small treasure from geocaching.  Yesterday a group of us made the trek up to the top of Pikes Peak.  I'm still recovering and my legs are a little sore.   But it was worth it because now when I'm walking around Colorado Springs I can see that big mountain on the horizon and say, "I was up there!"  It took us about four hours to hike up 4200 ft from the Crags trailhead.  And then three hours back down.  So with the combination of waking up at 4:00 in the morning, walking up steep slopes, climbing over boulders, temperatures in the 30's, and the lack of oxygen at 14,000 ft it was a tiring day.  I took a few pictures along the way.  All in all not bad for my first 14er (I'm learning mountain talk).  Hopefully I'll have a chance to do some more hikes like this.

Don't look down...

Above the clouds

The few, the proud, the COS interns - minus Mike who's in Africa right now (sorry Mike)

Walking In Step

Having completed my first week in the office at eMi, this long weekend is quite a relief from the busy schedule, giving me some much needed rest.  It's hard to believe so much has happened in the past couple weeks.  During the first week of orientation we discovered and discussed our strengths and spiritual gifts.  One of my strengths was "Futuristic" which basically means I am always looking ahead and seeing how things could be in the future.  While this psychological test tells me this is a strength, I usually see it as a weakness.


A lot of times I find myself thinking, "Where does God want me to go?  What if I make a wrong decision?  Is that really God's voice in my head, or my own?"  Sometimes I want God to be like some kind of divine GPS, telling me turn by turn directions for exactly what He wants me to do.  As if God's will is this intricate map that He has laid out, hoping we don't take one wrong turn and mess it all up.  There are times when I find myself getting so caught up trying to figure out the direction God is leading me in the future that I miss what's right in front of my face.

"Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails."  

Proverbs 19:21

The former president of HCJB Global, Ron Cline, spoke to us during our devotion time at the Technology Center over the summer saying, "God's will is a journey, not a destination."  So many times we make plans and think we know where we're headed, and then God changes those plans unexpectedly.  I have learned this the hard way a few times.  At eMi we have talked about how God is not calling us to a specific place or action, but He is calling us first to Himself.
 
During the summer at a Bible study with a local church group we discussed what it looks like to follow Christs' example of caring for the poor around us.  One thing that came up that's important to remember is that we can't often accomplish big things.  Usually it's the small actions we take each day that make all the difference in the lives of others.  God nudges us toward action, presenting opportunities for us to show His love to people around us every day.  As for me I need to work on not trying to run ahead of God to figure everything out, but walking in step with Him each day.

"Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit." 

Galations 5:25