New place - new job - new title - new ?????

It has been two and a half months now that I have been working at Engineering Ministries International (eMi).  If you don't know the story about how we got here, please feel free to wonder through the blog and learn a bit about our family.

A recurring theme these last few months is new.  We are in a new town, we have new grocery stores, our kids are in new schools,  we have new doctors and orthodontist, we have a new church, I have a new job, and to add to the mix - I have a new title.

I have recently been named the Director of the Latin America (América Latina) office for eMi.  This brings up about a million questions starting with "What does that mean?".



It also causes me to pause and think about new things.  When I first think of new things, it seems that my first thought is Christmas and Birthdays.  New things often are associated with gifts.  Some new things don't feel like gifts.  Sometimes a new thing is very hard.  Our daughter Joanna has been going to a new school.  If you were to ask her, she would clearly let you know that she is NOT enjoying this "gift" of a new school.

When I think of all the new things that sit in front of me, I have an overwhelming sense of not knowing, of certainly not having the answers, but also not know the questions.

As Christians we have also been given a new thing.  It is a new life.  It is a wonderful gift, but like my new title, it comes with questions "What does that mean?", and like Joanna's new school, it is not always an easy gift to receive.  Sometimes we would rather not have that gift.

It comes with instructions, so does my new job.  Sometimes I don't want to read the instructions.  Sometimes I don't want to ask those wise and willing mentors that have gone before me.  Sometimes I just want to work it out myself.  How many of us have opened those Christmas gifts and quickly started building - hardly taking time to throw the instructions to the side.

So what do we do with new things - the exciting, the hard, the sad, the painful?  I believe that there is a reason that God puts new things in our lives.  I find that I naturally focus on the gift that I have been given, but I wonder if I miss the point when I do that.  I think that God desires that we would keep our focus on Him, not His gifts.  That means that my response to His giving of a gift is not to rip into it and figure out how it works, but to go sit on His lap, kiss His cheek and hug His neck - and then thoroughly enjoy His gift.  Isn't that what we love about giving gifts to our children?

This is a good reminder for me as I begin this New thing in a New place with New people.  These are all wonderful gifts - sometimes they are hard gifts - and I need to spend time in my Fathers arms thanking Him, resting in Him, and enjoying Him.

It is OK.  He doesn't expect me to be able to instantly know what to do with these new gifts, but I do believe that He wants me to trust Him and enjoy these gifts.

Thank you Father, Thank you that you give good gifts everyday.....

Back home

It has been a few weeks now since I have returned home from Peru.  As I look back on my time in Peru, there are a few things that stand out:

• This was my first trip as co-lead.  I learned a lot about what goes into the balance between getting the project work done and ministering with the team.  While there, I spent a lot of my time on the survey crew, which was good for getting work done and moving forward, but there were relationships that I missed because of it.
• I was with the part of the team that spent nights with the missionary family.  This provided some great perspective on living in Latin America with a family.  Example was when Ruth (mom) sent her two little girls off to school on the public bus.  I could see the struggle in her of wanting to find that balance between safety and releasing our kids.
  
• I was impressed with the importance of language for communication .  One afternoon I found myself crammed with four other adults and two boys in the backseat of a five passenger small pickup.  None of them spoke a lick of English.   I was riding with the pastors' extended family and I so much wanted to hear their story and encourage them.  But all I could do is laugh with the kids and pass the time with very basic small talk.
• It was amazing to see the body of Christ displayed by 13 people who didn't know one another, but then challenging as to why we don't see that in our churches.

I experienced these things through the lens of the Latin America re-launch.  How do we launch an office while slowing down to disciple staff and volunteers?  What will the challenges look like for each of our families?  If we are truly going to be an office open to local design professionals, language is critical, how do we balance language with work? From the beginning, is there a way to build the culture of an office to encourage functioning as the body of Christ

I am well aware that I don't have the answers to any of these questions.  I do, however, feel that questions like these are the right ones for us to be asking.

It has been very good to be home.  For those of you who were praying for us, thank you.  

Now I am starting to prepare for the next trip.  In February, I will be leading a team to Nicaragua to help out a Young Life camp as they look to make improvements to their camp.

Presentation Day

Today was the first day since we have been here that I didn't bounce in the back seat of the 4-wheel drive vehicle to get to the new site for Promesa, it was the first time all week that I didn't climb up and down the sides of mountains over 11,500 feet in elevation, it was a day for pulling all the work that had been done in the past week together and preparing for a presentation to the Pastors of the local churches who are the leaders of Promesa.

The team of 13 architects, engineers, surveyors, and construction managers spent this day combining the information, challenging one another and supporting one another.  It was brought up a few times that these eMi trips become a wonderful example of the body of Christ.  We all come to the table with different backgrounds, different giftings, different interests and different ideas.  But we also come with a common calling.  We are all there because we know that Christ called us to this work.  And so we set aside all the things that separate us in the professional work world and we experience unity in the body.  Isn't that Christ vision of the Church?  Why do we have to travel halfway around the world and live with strangers for a week to experience this?

Hard at work - in the homestretch

Enjoying some pastries at a local
Panaderia

It has been a wonderful week with a wonderful group of men and women.


Here is one of the graphics that we used with the ministry this evening to show what the school could look like at build out.

Thank you for all of you who have been following this adventure and covering our team with prayer.  We have had a wonderful trip, and it has been awesome to get to spend a little bit of time with some of the Quechua kids.

Deep into Design

It seems like the days are getting longer each day that we are here in Peru.  Doesn't have to do with the season, but more a function of the amount of work to be done.

The site that we are Master Planning for a new school that at full build out will have a capacity of around 1,000 kids is a 35 acre site that is very steep with multiple valleys intersecting the site.

From the dirt road at the bottom of the picture above, we are working on laying out a new road that would provide access to the grove of trees that looks like it is kind of glowing.   That grove is about an acre in size and is about the flattest land on the whole site (18% slope!).

The access into the land and the slope of the land are the greatest design challenges that the team is tackling this week.

Today, we will wonder into an artisan market here in Cusco and enjoy some of the local excitement.  After that, we will be trying to get the design wrapped up so that we can present to the ministry Saturday night.

On Wednesday, some of our team visited Machu Picchu, and a handfull of us spent the day in Cusco.  Here are a couple pictures from that day.

in the Plaza de Armas

Yummy meat market!

Team members John Pillar and Anita Wong

Bill Tatum sharing some of the conceptual plan with the ministry.

Praises:  

• On going health and safety.  Our team continues to be healthy and safe!
• As the team works more and more together, great relationship are being built

Prayer requests:

• Today should be the final field day.  Pray that the survey equipment cooperates (we have had some issues) and that the field crew can collect the necessary information.
• The late nights and long work days are starting to wear on the team.  Pray for excellent sleep when it is time to sleep, and alertness when it is time to be awake.
• Pray that when it comes time to communicate the teams vision of the Master Plan to the ministry that we can clearly communicate through the language barrier.
• Pray for the family that we all left at home.  They have been missing their family for a week now.  Our families miss us and are ready for us to be home.  Pray for God's grace for our families.

Falling behind...... Day 3 & 4?

I will have to admit at least two things at this point.  I don't really remember what day I am on, or when I started counting, and I am starting to fall behind......  Yesterday we were very busy running from one thing to another and the day finally ended somewhere around midnight.

We started by attending the church that meets here at the school on Sunday.  Gary MacPhee got to share a message from his heart while Chris Raber (missionary) translated.  It was a great message challenging the local church to be partners in the work of reconciliation that God has given to the local church.

After church we traveled out of town to a Trout farm that one of the local Pastors started.  They raise trout from fingerlings and use the trout as the source of food for a restaurant.  I was the odd man out when we loaded the vehicles, so I got to travel with one of the pastors, his wife, his two kids, and his mom and dad.  For those that are counting that is seven in a five passenger pickup truck.  Somehow I ended up with the two boys, Samuel and Mateo on my lap.  I think I will continue to try to be the "odd man out".

Here is a panoramic of the trout farm.  Water flow is spring feed by gravity through the four ponds.  He has done an excellent job of using the natural topography of the site to control flow.

Here is a picture of a our lunch that we ate.  The fish was WONDERFUL!

On the way home, we were all tired, I think that Danika, one of the missionaries daughters was the only one the gave in.

Our day ended with our team of 13 all sharing testimonies of our lives and what God has been doing.  It was a great time of sharing, however, 13 people sharing 15 to 20 minutes each made for about 4 hours of testimonies and stories.

Praises:

• We had a great conversation yesterday afternoon with the school leaders.  It was good to hear their hearts.
• So far everyone is in pretty good health

Prayer:

• We are starting to get tired as we burn both ends of the candle - pray for good sleep when it is time.
• Continued health as we eat more and more different foods.
• Pray for safety - we will have teams on site doing digging of test pits and surveying for the next few days.  Lots of opportunities for mishaps.

Day 2 - Lima to Cusco

Yesterday, the advance team was well taken care of by the kind folk at the New Life Childrens Home.  Along with touring the existing orphanage and church facilities, we got to see some of the ongoing construction that they are working on to be able to house more kids.

Here is one of the existing dorm rooms.  I am certainly not an expert on orphanages, but it seemed to be well laid out where each group of 6 kids or so would have a "nanny"  that would live on site with them.  The kids were in separate rooms for gender and age bracket.








At this point, I believe that the facility could house 25 kids.  Once the expansion is complete, they will be able to house up to 50!

Here is one of the classrooms where the kids attend during the day.








The ministry prepared meals for us at the orphanage, and I was so excited to see one of my favorite memories of Peru on the table.  The rest of the team didn't quite know whether to believe me or not when I told them that they HAVE to try Inca Kola.  They don't know me very well yet, so they all agreed to try some.  I think their reaction was pretty much what every adult thinks...  Hmmm, very sweet bubble gum flavored pop.  And then move on to more familiar things like water for drinking.

Here we are standing on the second floor of one of the dormitories.  The Ministry is currently seeking funding to complete this dorm, but asked if eMi could come to the site and see if things are generally headed in the right direction.

 Yesterday afternoon, we had some extra time so we drove a few minutes out of town where there were some Inca ruins that we could see.  It was kind of surreal to stand there looking at this extremely arid and harsh land thinking about how 500 - 1,000 years ago, people had carved a living out of this dirt.

At 2 am this morning, we left for the airport to meet up with the rest of the team.  It was great to begin the process of connecting as a team.

As we flew from Lima to Cusco, the sun welcomed us to a new day, and then as we were approaching Cusco, we flew over some absolutely magnificent mountains.

And here are a couple pictures as we were driving through the streets of Cusco on our way to the house where we are being hosted for our time in Cusco.

And yes, there were kids at the orphanage.  Here is one of our eMi interns Su Hwan being attacked by a couple of the boys.

Praises - 

• Whole team is here, safe, sound, and with all our luggage!
• Good work was completed in Lima, and the beginnings of some ongoing relationships.

Prayer Request

• Health as the team gets used to the altitude.
• Clear understanding of the schools vision for growth.   This will require clear communication between the ministry leaders and the architects.
• Patience for the team as we are all tired and still don't really know one another's names.

Day One - Denver, CO to Lima, Peru

Part of our team completed day 1 yesterday.  This is what we can call the "Advance" team.  This team is made up of our project leader Gary MacPhee, interns Josiah Moore and Su Hwan Lee, volunteer Brent Ellingson from Canada, and myself.  The purpose of the advance team is to spend a day assisting a local ministry here in Lima with some construction management/oversight.

I will try to get some updates out everyday, but no promises......

Our day yesterday started with an 8am flight out of DIA, and ended with a 12:20am arrival (delayed until 1:00am) in Lima.  It was a long day, but connections worked, baggage arrived, and we all still had some humor in us when we arrived in Lima.  Alex and Christian (from the ministry) waited for us at the airport and got us back to the ministry.

This morning I woke up to these views out our second story window.

The ministry is located at the base of the foothills to the west of Lima.  Last night, we drove through some very thick fog to get to the ministry, and this morning it looks like we will have lots of pictures of low clouds....

The ministry that we are working with this morning is called "Peru Missions".  You can check out their web page and learn about some of the work that they are doing.  Our time here will be spent:

• Observing their current construction project (a dorm and the New Life Childrens Home), documenting the project with photos and measurements, and reviewing plans construction records for the next steps.
• Tour the other buildings of the children's home, church and school
• Look over the new land and talk about new school ideas for that land.

The rest of our team will be spending today traveling from all over the United States as well as from the U.K.  Very early in the morning tomorrow (3am), we will get a ride back to the airport where we will meet the rest of our team and we will all fly out of Lima at 5am on our way to Cusco.

Praises:

• Safe travel yesterday for the advance team.  Josiah was the carrier of the total station (survey equipment) and did a great job being patient with the customs officers as they tried to figure out what to do with him.
• Some good sleep and a nice warm shower this morning.  We were all able to sleep well for five hours or so this morning, and the ministry here has a nice facility to house us.

Prayer requests:

• Safe travel for the rest of the team
• As we observe the construction to date, and look at what the ministry is trying to do, pray that we would:
• hear their heart for those that they are reaching
• that we would catch the vision 
• that communication would not be a barrier
• that we would be able to make wise judgments regarding our assessment of the construction.

For those of you that enjoy geography and knowing where everything is, here is a link that should take you to a google map of where we are:

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=-12.108631816666668,-76.81727151666666&iwloc=A&hl=en&z=16