Bayardo Arce - Chinandega Nicaragua - October 2011

I am going to put up a few posts of some the of the past projects that I have been on.  

My first experience with Engineering Ministries International (eMi) was to the community of Bayardo Arce, on the out skirts of Chinandega, Nicaragua.

The project in Bayardo Arce was to design a sewer collection system for a community of approximately 600 residents.  Food for the Hungry has a relationship with this community where they are working on transforming communities by educating the young, providing basic health care and supporting local Pastors as they reach out to the communities.  

We were tasked with completing a topographic survey of the community and to layout a sewer collection system.

Here are a few pictures of our trip.

The collection system that we designed would drain to this manhole, where it will connect with the municipal system.  We were kind of surprised to find pretty normal looking manholes.  However, the lids of these manholes had not been lifted in years, and I will refrain from publishing pictures of the inside of the manholes.....

Here is a typical street in Bayardo Arce.  The water that is running in the street is "gray water".  Generally, gray water is water that has been used for body washing, clothes washing, dish washing, etc.  In this community, that water runs in the street and becomes a incubator for various insects and diseases.

Each home had a pipe similar to this one where all the water that is used in the home just dumps out on the street.  This was about the nicest setup that we saw in Bayardo Arce.  They even had a sidewalk and some shrubs!

Here is a picture of a trench that was dug to try to control the waste water.  The white PVC pipe is the drinking water that is circulating through the community.  As you can see, the pipe is running through the waste water.  In many places, the drinking water pipe is joined with duct tape.  Which indicates two things.  There is VERY low pressure in the drinking water pipe, AND there is contamination.

Much of our survey was completed using this total station.  Which brings up the funny memories of trying to get equipment like this through customs.  On each trip I have been on, going through customs in countries like Nicaragua is always an adventure.  Here you have a few gringos (and engineers at that) trying to explain in very broken Spanish just what a total station is to a customs officer who speaks very broken English!  Makes for laughs at the end of the day.



Here are two of the friends I made in Bayardo Arce.  As I am sure you can tell from the picture, they had quite the personalities....

 Here I am with three of the Nicaraguan staff for Food for the Hungry.  They stuck with us each day making sure that we didn't get ourselves into too much trouble.  I really appreciated how committed Food for the Hungry was to using local staff to build relationships with the communities where they worked.

Sharing our story

Last Sunday was a big day for the Burgi family, and it didn't have anything to do with the Super Bowl!  We had our first opportunity to share with our church family about the changes that have been happening in our lives, and a glimpse of what is to come.

We were tasked with answering three questions:

1. Share the story of how to got here...
2. How can the church support us now?
3. How can the church support us once we head out?

The first item took a lot of thought and a lot of time to work through.  I have tried to capture parts of the story here in this blog, but I am sure there are many many things that I have left out.  Don't worry, I am not going to recount it all here.

Sharing with the church was encouraging, scary, and sad.  It is sad to think about not seeing this family for a while.  We have built so many memories through joy and pain.  It will be hard to let those things go.  Each step that we take seems like another step into the unknown.  It is a little scary to step into the unknown.  At the end of our time of sharing, the church prayed for us.  It was wonderful to know that there is a family that supports us and this ministry as we move forward.

Decisions

Last Sunday night we had a "family meeting" at the Burgi house.  We had asked the kids to spend a few days thinking and praying about the possibility of dad joining full time staff with eMi, which would create MANY changes in our lives. We ended those days sitting on the couch in the living room processing through our thoughts, fears, questions and ponderings.

In the end we all agreed that God is active in our lives, that He has been leading us in this direction for a few years now, and that out of obedience to Him, we will act.  We will go where He leads.

Hebrews 11:8 "...And he went out, not knowing where he was going."

So it feels like we have made one decision that puts to rest one question.  However, in answering that one question, I think we opened up about a million other questions.  Since that meeting, Matthew has been a wonderful source of new questions.  There are so many things that we just don't know.  In our devotions, we recently came across:

Isaiah 52:12 "...for the Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rear guard."

That is a wonderful reminder that God is actively going before us.  Even though we don't know where we are going or how we will get there, we know that God is already there preparing that place for us.  The other comfort for us in this verse is that God is our rear guard.  As we consider the realities of leaving our home, friends, church, school, work, etc, it is comforting to know that God is guarding what we have left.  None of these things is left un-cared for or un-protected.  We can confidently keep our eyes forward to what God is preparing.

Matthew 6:33  "But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you."

The next step

A little over a week ago Wanda and I traveled to Colorado Springs, Colorado to interview with eMi.  Since that trip, we have answered one question many times.   I thought I would try to write out my answer here:

Caring friend:  "How did the trip go?"

eMi office downtown Colorado Springs

Jon : "Great ....  What are you doing for Christmas?"

At this point there would be an uncomfortable pause, and then I would tell more of the story.  You never know just how long someone wants to stand around and listen to me retell the last year of my life.

Anyway, the trip was great.  Wanda and I enjoyed traveling on our own for a couple days, the kids stayed home with Grandma and Grandpa Comfort.  All of the logistics of the trip went perfect.  Then we spent about a day and half in various conversations with a number of the staff at eMi.  Wanda and I were struck with how open and honest eMi staff were and how easy it was for us to be open and honest as well.  It was good to hear a more complete description of what they do and it was exciting to hear their passion for what they do.  Much of the discussion was centered on the Latin America office.  There have been a number of changes in that office that will require that it be shut down in 2014.  eMi is planning to relaunch the office somewhere in Latin America in 2015, and they would like us to consider being a part of the relaunching.  As we talked it became evident that staff for this office is one of the top staffing needs for eMi right now.  Oddly enough that is where we had some interest.

So, where do things stand now?  eMi has invited us to join them on staff as part of the Latin America relaunch team.  We are spending at least a few days in prayer over this.  If we continue on this path, then the next step will be to begin the process of communicating with our friends and family about how they can support us in this ministry.

I find that at various points in this journey I have felt very confident in the path forward.  I am honestly not sure if that was confidence in my abilities or in God's faithfulness.  Either way, I am not so confident now.  The path forward leads into places I have never been.  Places I can't see.  There are SO many unknowns.  However, there is one thing that I do know God is leading.

When the rubber hits the road

Such a simple phrase that gets a lot of use, I wonder what phrase we used before we had rubber and roads to hit them with.  I am sure there is some literature scholar out there who could help me with this, but that really isn't what this is about.

Wanda and I have been talking a lot over the last couple years about how God is leading us and where God is leading us and when God is leading us.  For quite some time, the recurring themes have been daily obedience, setting aside our self, and waiting.  In the past month or so, that has changed to obedience, setting aside our self and GO.  Waiting for things is hard.  Our daughter Rachel (8) is hilarious as birthdays, holidays, Christmas, and vacations approach.  Each day that she has to wait her energy ramps up.  I am always amazed by that phenomenon.  Someone should study that.

Now we are looking "going" straight in the face.  We don't know when, where, how, and I am sure a million other details.  What we know is that as we obey, and as we set our selfish desires aside, God is leading us to go.

Our first step that we felt God leading us toward was completing and submitting applications to Engineering Ministries International (eMi).  This is the organization that I have done a couple short term trips with over the past few years.  Now the "rubber is hitting the road".  Looks like we will be heading to Colorado Springs sometime in the next couple months to interview.

All the conversations have been nice.  Filling out the application was interesting and good for me.  But now, when it looks like we might actually have to do something......  I am sure this is only the first of many, many times that the "going" part of go will give me pause.

There are so many unknowns that pave the path we have begun to walk.  We know that God leads us: "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path." (Ps 119:105)

A great reminder to stay in God's word because that is our light.  Sometimes our light shines far into the distance, and other times that light doesn't seem aimed so high.  Either way, we know who lights our way, we know who makes our paths straight and we know who give provisions along the way.  Praise be to our Lord Jesus Christ.

Not deserving

This morning I was overwhelmed with God's kindness to me.  I was drawn to Psalm 37.

Psa 37:3-4
Trust in the Lord, and do good;
dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.
Delight yourself in the Lord,
and he will give you the desires of your heart.

There are desires of my heart that I don't believe that I deserve.  As I read that verse this morning, I was brought to tears thinking about just how unworthy I am of his love.

What does it look like to delight yourself in the Lord? What delights you?  Delight - a great sense of pleasure or gratification.  First thing that comes to my mind when I think of delight is my wife and kids, not really them on their own, but my relationship with them.  It is in the intimacy of the marital relationship that I delight in my wife, and it is in the silliness of being a dad to silly kids or in the pride of watching my kids make good decisions that I find delight. 

So maybe it is in relationship that we delight in the Lord.  How do I relate with God?  Changing seasons is one time when this happens for me.  There is something about seeing the created world go through predictable changes that draws me close to God.  There must be something about feeling connectedness to all that is happening around me.   I find delight in what God is doing around me.  I think it reminds me that He is the sustainer of creation; that He is the sustainer of me.

We are going through this stage in our lives of walking through the application process with Engineering Ministries International (eMi).  When I think of being a missionary, I don't think of having my desires met.  Seems like missionaries are supposed to "go without", and generally struggle through life.  I try hard to not think ahead and plan ahead of what God is doing, but at the same time, I have ideas of how I think things may work out, I have desires.  What if I feel that God is in the process of giving me the desires of my heart, AND it includes going to the mission field?  I feel unworthy.  I am unworthy.  But here in Psalms, it says that if I delight myself in the Lord, he will give me the desires of my heart.

God, thank you.  Thank you that along with all of creation you sustain me.  Not only that, but you give me the desires of my heart.  I delight in you, in all of you.

Called by God

I have been involved in a few conversations recently that raise the question, "Have you been called by God"? or better yet, "Have I been called by God"?

I was asked this just the other day.  My response.  No and Yes.  So the background.  I have been serving on the Leadership Team of the Church (Impact) we are attending here in Redmond Oregon for the past couple years.  As with all churches, our church has created some history in it's six year existence.  Skirting around the edge of that conversation, we have had a difficult year this past year.  Our new Pastor (Mike Sheldon) has our existing Leadership Team reading a few articles and thinking about our calling.  Are we serving on the Leadership Team because we have been called, or out of obligation to the organization.

The other morning over a wonderful cup of coffee, I told Mike that I have not been called to serve on the Leadership Team.  I was not awoken last night by an angel telling me to be on the leadership team ( I was awoken however by an angel named Joanna who was attacked by her alarm clock at 2 in the morning!).  I don't have a key verse that I can turn to where God made it clear that I need to show up for the next Leadership Team meeting.  There isn't a song that touched my life regarding my deep seated need to lead.  So, I guess the answer is No, I am not called.

I wonder how many times in my life, and I hope you wonder this as well, I stopped there.  Seems simple enough.  God didn't call me, I don't have to participate. I am sorry to say that I have been there.  I have consciously determined that there are things I shouldn't do because God didn't "call me".

But then there have been times in my life when God did call me.  He called me into full time Youth Ministry in one of those experiences where I couldn't hear the actual words, or see who was speaking them, but every fiber of my being knew that God had just showed up and "called me".

So what about all the other days in our lives?  All those decisions that we make, big and small.  From buying a car, to where to go to college, to if I should marry, to when/if we should have kids, to my occupation, to where I live. 

The other part of my answer to Mike was, Yes.  God has called me.  For those of us to profess to knowing Christ, we have all been called.  When the disciples first started following Him, they dropped everything and followed.  The accounts of what they were to leave and forget are truly amazing!  We were clearly called to love one another, to Go and make disciples, to be Jesus in this place.

God created me with a certain talents or gifts or skills,  then he has given me 44 years of experience, then he sat me and my family down in Redmond among a group of people attempting to serve Him.  So then the question becomes how will I respond.  Will I use what God has given me to do what God has called me to, or will I use what God has given me to do what I want?  In some areas of my life I have done this relatively well.  In others, I have ignored the call.