From August 15 - December 15, 2010, I will be working as an architecture intern with Engineering Ministries International in Colorado Springs, CO. I will be helping to design a girls orphanage in Sudan, so I have the great opportunity to travel to Juba, Sudan for a couple weeks to work on the project there too! I'm so excited for this big adventure that God has me on for these next few months and I've created this blog to share that excitement with you! Thanks so much for visiting, your encouragement and support is always appreciated!
Pike's Peak, view from The Hideaway (our retreat center)
I just got back to my apartment after a busy but excellent week at orientation. For the last seven days, 28 interns and a few new eMi staff have been spending all of our time at a retreat center about 30 minutes north of Colorado Springs. The week had multiple elements: eMi vision casting and internship logistics, team building/outdoor activities, personality/strengths tests, culture training, and of course, spending time and getting to know one another--architects and engineers embarking on the same adventure around the world! In my strengths and personality tests I discovered (but pretty much already knew) that I am quite the extrovert, so I thrived in the midst of meeting and making new friends that have the same heart for using design and engineering to do good in the world and help those in need. Everyone got along great and I think everyone was a little sad to be leaving each other today. But at the same time, it was so exciting to see everyone off today as they go to where God has sent them for the next four months, be it India, Uganda, the UK or Costa Rica! (the two Canada interns will be here in Colorado with us for a couple more weeks)
eMi Fall 2010 interns and new staff
Tomorrow is our first official day in the office. I think this next week will bring further training-- some in the office and some out-- like perc testing and AutoCAD. I also just received and email today regarding my project trip! So tomorrow I will hopefully be skyping with the team there to get more information about what I will be working on here in the Springs before the trip. I'll let you know about it when I find out more!
Prayer requests:
-Please pray for safe travels for my friends as they head to their offices:
Uganda office: Daniel, Dan & Jonathan
India office: Nate, Katie, Mark & Cara
Costa Rica office: Bethany, Alfonso, David & Erika
UK office: Valerie, Ginnie & Deb
-A few of the project trips heading out of the Colorado office are still looking for volunteer engineers and architects to join them! Please pray that the Lord would bring these teams the people and skills they need to be as effective as possible on their project trip!
-My project is still searching for an architect or two, a civil, structural, and electrical engineer, and a surveyor. We still have a month or so for these laborers to join the team, but please pray that God will also bring the right people for this project to the team in Cairo.
-Please pray for my adjustment to life here in the Springs, and that I will continue to seek God to find comfort in times of loneliness or homesickness. This last week's constant socializing distracted me from the realization that I won't be going back to Minnesota for four months. As much as I know I will love being here, today I've felt that little pang of homesickness that is inevitable when moving away (for awhile) for the first time.
Thank you for all of your prayers!
Check out my facebook or flickr for more pictures of this week!
Aaron and I arrived in “the Springs” on Friday afternoon after spending Thursday night and Friday morning with my friend Dave in Boulder. We also got to get lunch with Aaron’s friend, Calla, in Laramie, WY, on Thursday on our way to Colorado. It was really great to have the flexibility to stop and see friends on our way down. It broke up the drive time and made the trip more eventful. By the time Friday rolled around, though, I think both of us were ready to be settled in Colorado Springs!
I’m happy to report that we only had one convertible-top-down-on-the-highway casualty: the maps flew out of my hands about half an hour from the Springs. Thankfully, we didn’t need them for much by then and I had my phone to direct us around the city once we got here. But other than those (which were a few pieces of google-maps print outs), we didn’t lose a thing!
I also got wicked sunglasses and jorts (jean-shorts) tans.
I have two roommates here, Lindsay & Melissa, both are EMI interns as well. Lindsay is my direct roommate, and she is an interior design graduate from Louisiana State University. Melissa is a civil engineering graduate from Denver (but originally from St. Louis, MO). So far we all get along great! Haha, that’s easy to say after only spending one night here together, but I honestly think we will live together well.
Today is technically my first day on the job with EMI (on a Sunday!) That’s because today we head out for a weeklong orientation/retreat at a resort called The Hideaway. It’s only a half hour north of CO Springs, and all EMI staff and interns (from all the offices—around the globe!) will be there. I’m excited to finally meet the rest of our CO Springs staff, but also to meet the teams from other offices as well. We get back to the Springs on Friday, and then start the regular work week next week.
I also just uploaded some more pictures on Flickr (link on right), but here are a few from our road-trip extravaganza!
Ah! I can't believe the day has come when I'm on my way down to Colorado Springs! The few days before I left went way too quickly, and I was definitely hit with the sense that I was going to miss Minnesota. I can't wait to experience these next four months and I wouldn't trade this opportunity for staying in Minnesota, but there are plenty of reasons why I love home and will miss the many people that make it so wonderful!
I'm driving out to Colorado with my co-intern, Aaron Nawrot. He's an architecture graduate from Philadelphia University, but calls Buffalo, NY, home. Most of our other co-interns are getting to the Springs today or tomorrow, but we're road-tripping for a little R&R and adventure before we start at EMI. So, Aaron got to experience Minnesota on Sunday and Monday, then yesterday we headed out to where we are now, Rapid City.Oh yeah, and we're cruisin' in a convertible. Awesome.
enjoying the wind before the storms rolled in. good thing driving in Southern MN gives you ample warning when rain is ahead!
In Rapid City we are actually staying in the Black Hills--in a home completely off the grid (and no cell phone reception)! A friend of ours, Dave Greenlund, connected us with his friend, Jeff, who lives in this place in the Hills. It's built into the ground with a living roof, solar powered water systems and electricity systems! It's pretty sweet. And it's SO QUIET and beautiful there. Here's a picture, but check out my flickr link for more:
Jeff's a handy guy, but his craft is concrete work, so the walls are a concrete-type mix with logs and old glass bottles, and then there is a saw-dust-filled cavity in the middle for insulation.
We are heading to Mount Rushmore today, then we'll probably hang out in God's beautiful creation more--swimming in the lake nearby or playing banana grams outside the house before it gets dark. Since there isn't much electricity out there, it gets very dark very fast!
Tomorrow we are heading to Laramie, WY, to visit Aaron's friend, and then we will stay with my friend, Dave, in Boulder, CO. We should arrive in Colorado Springs on Friday!
Minneapolis City Hall, the beautiful building across the street from where I work
Right now I'm in my cubicle downtown, finishing up my work at my internship with the City of Minneapolis. I'm doing research here and its one of those projects that is never-ending. Thankfully, my boss here has graciously told me to pick a point at which I am done so that I will be fully focused on my next job--my internship with EMI. So, today is my last day, and I just finished the last documents I'm writing up!
My plan throughout the summer was to start packing/preparing to leave at the end of July. Ha, I haven't really started that yet and it's August 4!! For me, "packing" is always a process; it looks like this: pack a bit, run errands, pack more, make sure I have all the electronics I need & clothes washed, spend time with family & friends, pack more, and it goes on until right before I leave. This time, I'm starting to feel a little anxious realizing that this is the longest I've been away from home before,and I'll be doing all sorts of traveling--so it's a little bigger process than usual! I also need to make sure I take time to stop, breathe, and continually focus on the Lord's hand in my life. Things will get done, spending time with people I care about is important, and if I forget something--it's ok.
Me and Laura with El Toro saying goodbye
As a blessing in disguise, God decided to end the functional life of El Toro (the car my sister and I have been sharing all summer) yesterday. I say it's a blessing because though it will seem like an inconvenience for the few days I am still here, running around, it will also keep me at home, getting things done rather than galavanting around town like I usually end up doing ;)
There are also still things up in the air regarding my time with EMI. The first one is the fact that I don't yet know where I'm living in Colorado!! I'm not worried because I know God has it under control (and EMI is doing the legwork to set us up with housing), so most likely I will find out before I get there where it is I will be staying (and who I will be living with!). Please pray for the team working on this at EMI to be trusting in God's timing for housing to come through for us! I also don't know how long or when exactly I will be out of the country. It's not super important that I know right now, but I'm a planner and I like to know. But, God has been making it clear to me throughout this entire process that I need to stop planning all the time and just let Him be in control. After all, there are so many parts of this process that have happened over the past six months that I could have never imagined!
One last exciting piece of information-- I've gotten in touch with the person we'll be staying with in Rapid City next week! His name is Jeff and he is a friend of my former pastor, Dave Greenlund. I was talking about my internship with Pastor Dave a month ago and happened to mention that Aaron (my fellow intern who I am catching a ride with to CO) and I didn't know where we were going to stay in Rapid City on our way out. He said that since he used to work out there, that he had a couple people in mind! So, by God's blessing, we got connected with Jeff, who lives in an earth-berm house, off the grid, in the Black Hills National Forest! Sounds like this house is pretty sweet, and it's going to be fun staying in such a beautiful place! Praise the Lord for the great adventures He keeps laying ahead and for such great hospitality shown to us!
Updates Updates !
First, I received information about the project I will be working on with EMI! I will be helping to design a girls orphanage in Juba, Sudan, and possibly working on some master planning for land that this group has there as well. There are a couple reasons why I know God is calling me to this project and feel so blessed to be able to work on it!
1) A few years ago I was a counselor at Lake Wapogasset Lutheran Bible Camp. The whole summer was amazing, but there were a couple weeks in particular that stand out in my mind as weeks that God was really working in my heart and impacting me. One of those weeks was the 4th of July one, where we had a reduced number of staff and campers because we were counseling a group of Sudanese refugees. That week I was blessed with the opportunity to counsel six Sudanese girls and it was awesome. God's love shone so clearly through those girls, He gave me a heart for kids in Sudan. So, the fact that this project with EMI came along and it's main focus is designing a place to house orphaned girls in Sudan I definitely don't think is a coincidence!
2) Another cool thing about this project is that we might be exploring ways to be using alternative building materials, like earthbags, for the building. I'm interested in sustainable building and I'm excited to have the opportunity to work with local and sustainable materials for this project!
And one last really awesome part about this project is that its a little different than other Colorado internships. Usually, the project trips are around 10 days long, and then the rest of the work is done in the office in Colorado. Mine is different because I'll be working with EMI staff based out of a Middle East city, so I will potentially be spending 2-4 weeks in that city working with them on the project after Sudan, before I return to CO! Its been great seeing God surprise me with this unique opportunity, totally changing my expectations for what the next four months will look like for me. Your prayers for God to guide the team in planning the timeline for the project and what my time with them in that part of the world will look like would be much appreciated!
Finally, I have 18 days before I leave! WOW! I am finishing up with TCF next week, and finishing my internship downtown shortly after. I am still raising support, and will update tomorrow when I find out what percentage I am at.
Oh how time flies... I can't believe June is already done! I'll be heading out to Colorado in just over a month from today! (August 10)
As my summer schedule gets busier (I took on an unpaid research internship with the city of Minneapolis) I've seen God work in amazing ways. Somehow my schedule opens up enough to be able to meet with friends who are eager to hear about how I'll be serving with EMI. I've gotten so much encouragement from them! I've seen some great encouragement and support come in from my church family at Como Park Lutheran, as well. Thanks, again, to everyone who has joined my support team!
I've also been blessed by spending time with my close friends who are also serving through missions internships this next year. Their hearts for where God is sending them (everywhere from France to Miami to right here in Minneapolis!) and their ministries grows my heart for those places too, and sharing with them in the experience of raising support for missions this summer has also been a blessing. I'm excited to get on board with their ministries and send my friends as they send me this coming fall!
Other than support raising, I've enjoyed a lot of great time with friends and family so far this summer. My friend, Ivana, and I went down to North Carolina at the end of May to look at grad school (UNC) and enjoy the festivities of NASCAR Speed Week in Charlotte. A big event of that trip was going to the David Ragan (#6, UPS) Fan Club event--pretty fun!
Living at home has been such a blessing. Laura, my sister, and I have enjoyed spending some quality time carpooling to the University of Minnesota for class/work, and living across the hall from one another for the first time in years. Living with my family before I head out for four months is something I'm really glad I'm able to do. God has blessed me with such an amazing support system at home! We've also enjoyed welcoming two puppies, Kirby & Beau, into our family (my aunt and uncle's puppies), and we will all be heading out to a family vacation to the NASCAR race in Chicago this weekend.
I guarantee that these updates will be more frequent as time goes on because I'm getting so excited to for my internship, and I love to share my excitement!!!
