Anzo turns 6...

Anzo turned 6 on June 24th. He had a "Space" birthday. Heather wanted a rocket ship piñata but the lady at the piñata shop didn't know what a "rocket" looked like. Heather drew a picture and the lady said, "oh a firecracker". Either way she made a piñata that looked just like Heather's picture. We hung it like it was flying over the table with aluminum foil stars hanging around and "space guy" floating by a coat hanger (Anzo's fireman wrapped in foil).

All the kinds swam for the most part (not sure what that has to do with space) and then after smacking the piñata we ate the cake, which was a vertical rocket cake ready for take off.

Anzo also lost his first tooth on his birthday!

Happy Birthday Anzo!!

see more pictures here

Jordan?!?

Unbeknownst to most, Jordan has been lingering in the back of our minds the past several months. eMi hopes to open an office there to service the Middle East and north Africa. I just returned from a project trip to Jordan to advise Habitat for Humanity Jordan on construction management issues to make their construction process "better, faster, cheaper..."

Heather and the kids remained in the states (see previous post) while I traveled to Jordan. The trip with Habitat was amazing (read the technical details here in EricEMI.blogspot.com). We finished the construction of the roof system of a house outside of Amman. I found Jordan to be very different, much more different from the States than Guatemala. I quickly found this out during a early conversation with the brother of the woman for whom we were building the house. He asked the typical question about the ages of my kids. I told him I had a 7 yr old and 3 5 yr olds. after I told him they were not triplets he assumed I had two wives just like him. I quickly realized I was "not in Kansas anymore" The cultural differences abound in a culture based in Islam instead of Christianity. About 2% of the population are "Christian" and only 0.2% are "evangelical" (1% Catholic and about 1% Coptic).

I have always been drawn to those who are against the gospel. In Guatemala the gospel is evident and culturally accepted as a base of society. Jordan, on the other hand, is one of the most Islamic of the Middle Eastern countries by percentage. It is relativley safe for Christians to live there though it is still illegal to "convert" muslims.

Randy, while working in the eMi Guatemala office, encouraged me to go with him to start the Middle East office but it looks like they will not be openning the office for a significant amount of time. When the EMI project trip to advise Habitat came up I was excited for the opportunity. Habitat was asking for construction suggestions and then requesting someone to return for a 1.5 to 2 year commitment to implement the suggestions. This peaked my interest. While we were praying about Jordan the news came up about the possibility of the eMi Guatemala office moving. As this option was investigated by eMi they decided to move the office to Costa Rica. At the end of last year Heather and I had roughly decided on leaving Guatemala at the end of the summer 07 because our original 3 year commitment was just about up and the summer was a good time. Ironically the office will be moving to Costa Rica in September.

Heather and I always pray that the Lord narrows our options down to only one that we feel is right. I think that if eMi were to stay in Guatemala it would be much harder to move to Jordan because we are so happy with the work here. We don't feel drawn to move to Costa Rica nor would we want to switch organizations in order to stay in Guatemala. Well that certified our thoughts of leaving at the end of summer but neither of us are ready to leave the mission field.

When going on the project trip to Jordan I was unsure exactly how much help I would be. I have never been a professional construction manager nor a practiced structural engineer but I found that my experience with building low cost, masonry single family homes in a 3rd world context for the past year and rebuilding homes in the "Stan" project proved to be invaluble. I was able to engage myself in the discussions and be a valuable asset to the assessment team as we quickly found several ways to improve the current designs as well as alternate design technologies to improve the process altogether.

For a while Heather and I have had a desire to understand the muslim culture and the thought process of the Middle East altogether because we want to understand the mindset of Jesus and the authors of the scriptures better. Jordan allows us these cultural insights as well as being right next to the Holy Land to explore and understand. One cannot come to Jordan as a "missionary", you have to come as a professional in some other field and live your life as a missionary. God has made a way for me through engineering.

We have made no definitive plans yet but we do see an obvious trend and leading. There are still many talks to have regarding specific job description and location. Much prayer to be done in ensuring God's leading. There are still other options that still remain possibilities and we will wait until the option is clear before proclaiming our path but we wanted everyone to know that Jordan is a very real possibility that is becoming more and more likely.

Pray for us as we seek the Lord in this time of change.

US visit...

Many people were unaware that we were back in the states. We really only had time to visit family. This was the first time in 2 1/2 years that we all could travel as a family because Anzo's adoption has been completed. We passed through immigration at about 2am on May 14 and Anzo became a citizen of the United States. This was the highlight that glimmered among an otherwise difficult travel.

Beyond the kids being so tired they were throwing up in the airport in line at immigration, we managed to have our laptop stolen somewhere between immigration and the shuttle stop in front of the airport. We realized this en route to the car rental place. As I went back to look for it, unsuccessfully I might add, Heather went on to rent the car. The car we had asked for was not available so we got a minivan at the "bargain" of the same rate (the minivan should have been cheaper). The people gave Heather the key and told her to press the alarm button to see the lights flash to let her know which van was hers. She proceeded to load all the luggage and the 4 sick kids by herself. When I arrived she was ready to go but my GPS wasn't working and it was the middle of the night in LA. We found our way to the highway and later realized that the minivan had a GPS system but Advantage failed to let us know that or how to work it. Down the road Abi needed to vomit again and I rushed outside and wretled with the automatic side door to open and the sliding door fell off the track! I managed to get it closed and we continued. Later we even managed to get a flat and the spare was under the middle of the car inbetween the driver and passenger seats! Even the people at the tire shop had to triple team it for and hour to get it back in shape.

We did manage to get to Heather's uncle Dale's house and visit with his family as well as her grandmother Betty who has been bedridden for several years but still is quite fiesty. The journey continued on to my brother's house where we were able to visit for two days. It was really good to be with my brother and his family. Our kids had lots of fun playing with cousins and it was a relaxing couple days after hectic travel.

Next on the list was my parents house in Reno. We stayed there for a couple days and I enjoyed having extended conversations with both mom and dad. We were able to be there for Dad's angiogram and explore new health needs for him. We were also able to spend some time with Holly (Heather's virtual sister) and Darren and their baby girl Addy. During the weekend we travelled to Heather's mom's house in Paradise and spent most of our time outside at the lovely park down the street. The kids enjoyed her new Chihuahua "Chloe". We returned to Reno where I left for Jordan (read seperate post) and Heather continued to the beach in Brookings, OR and see her brother Bryce. She and the kids also spent time with her dad and Cathy in Lake Almanor. All in all it was wonderful to see everyone but it is good to be back home in Guatemala and have things settle down a little. I am back in the office and getting back to finishing the work left in the office before the office moves to Costa Rica in September. I am the only one in the office until Tom returns on July 17.