I'm Back...

There haven’t been any blog posts lately, and it’s partly my fault. I’ve been really busy since coming back from our safari and I want to give everyone an update on what I’ve been doing.

Dave and Teresa took off on Tuesday, January 9. That left me with about a week to get a draft copy of the Westminster drawings and report finished so that we could get their input before our final publishing. I worked some extra hours in order to provide WTCS with a substantially complete draft of the final product. The following week (January 14-20) was crazy as well. Monday was office cleaning day (I can’t believe I’m going into this much detail) and Tuesday we shifted to our new duplex (you don’t move in Uganda, you shift). On Wednesday the new interns arrived and I spent the rest of the week doing intern orientation and Westminster related things. The next week? You guessed it…Westminster Theological College & Seminary in Uganda.

So maybe you wonder why I spend so much time on this project. The simple reason is because interns really only work on one project at a time. The real reason is because I care a lot about seeing Westminster grow, and so I want to do everything I can to labor towards that end. There’s such a need for Biblically-trained, Christ-centered, grace-focused pastors in Africa and this school is eager to continue training men and women for leadership roles. A secondary reason is because I care about having accurate and informative drawings, for two reasons. First, well-made plans are necessary when it’s time to actually begin construction—I want as little confusion as possible about floor elevations, wall locations, and door openings so that the space is utilized efficiently. Second, the plans are being used, right now, for fundraising in the States. (Emma, Dave, and Darlene left on Feb. 20 for a three week trip.) As potential donors view the plans, I hope they recognize all the effort that has gone into this campus and are moved to fund the future construction.

So, back to the timeline of the last month…on February 5, I left for a one week project trip to work with a group called Africa Renewal Ministries. We stayed at Bethany Village, an orphanage community about an hour from the eMi office (15 minutes in a car and then 45 minutes in a boat). The community is made up of about eight homes, each with house parent(s) and 15 brothers and sisters. There is also a primary school on a portion of the site that serves about 550 children. It was exciting to be at this location, first because it is an eMi project that has been constructed (we did the master plan three years ago) but also because of all the kids running around.


ARMs has a sponsorship program helping over 4,000 children all over Uganda. Part of their pledge to the sponsors is that the kids will receive a Christian education. As ARMs looked to the future, they realized it would be better to build their own secondary school than send the children elsewhere and pay school fees. Enter eMi, for the second time. Our team consisted of about ten people (picture to come soon), but I spent the week working primarily with an architect from the UK and a landscape architect from the US to develop a master plan and building designs for the secondary boarding school. It was actually really difficult for me at the beginning of the week. At that time, ARMs wanted to put about 1,000 students on ten acres. I was marginally ok with the density (it’s Africa) but not ok that the ten acres was divided into three different plots that didn’t touch. Ugh. Tuesday and Wednesday of that week were rough for me as I didn’t think the project would ever be feasible.



As the week progressed, the ministry acquired more land that connected the sites and made agreements with other people to create pathways through their land. By the grace of God, a master plan came together by week’s end. The night before our project presentation was different than last time. When we were at the Eby’s for Westminster, we spent about four hours discussing theology and went to bed at a decent time. On this trip, we were coloring, scanning, and prepping until late in the night. I didn’t put the final touches on the PowerPoint until about 2 AM. Ahh, it was like working on a project with my friend Darrell all over again.


I arrived back home on February 12 and was thankful to be reunited with Amanda. We were only able to talk two times during the trip because the cell phone reception was very weak. I spent the rest of the week working like crazy to get the final report for Westminster finished. Here’s the rendering of the final site plan for you to enjoy. We ended up have 37 drawing sheets—that’s quite a few for eMi. If you are interested in seeing some of the other plans, I’d love to share them with you. Or, if you’re interested in donating to Westminster, I can put you in touch with those people as well.



As you pray this week, please pray for two things related to the construction of Westminster.
1) That God would bless their fundraising efforts in the US.
2) That God would work out the details as Amanda and I consider coming back to serve as construction manager for WTCS. Thanks!