Greg and Stephanie did their own updates separately, so read them both! At the end is information about Greg’s upcoming project trip from the eMi website.
From Greg:
Hello Everyone,
Christmas felt, well a little odd. We Houstonians have had our fair share of hot weather on Christmas day, but I don’t think we’ve ever had one where the weather didn’t cool off at all for the entire month. It felt odd.
Christmas here is not as big a deal as Easter, but everyone celebrates it none the less. We decorated our house with a Christmas branch for 1000 UGX (50 cents) on Christmas eve. In this picture you can also see the set of wise men Stephanie bought me for Christmas.
Both of us got time off for Christmas, we took it easy. We thought about going to Kenya during that time but we decided we needed a break from traveling (if you read our last update, you’d see why). Our exhaustion may or may not have been divine, since the violence started around the same time we would have been there.
The new interns have now arrived and they are a great group of folks. Intern Orientation was successful and all of us are ready to serve God this semester.
This month will be a big month for me since I’m going on my first eMi project trip. I’ve done a lot of prep work for it, including both trips I made to Kapchorwa (see updates 1 & 4), so it’s exciting to see it finally happen.
eMi’s main ministry is the project trip. It mobilizes a team of engineers from all over the world to come and offer design services to a ministry in need. The prep work and project report is done by the interns and full time staff before and after the project, but most design decisions are made during the project trip.
The goal for this project trip will be to design a sustainable potable water system for the people of Ngenge village (pronounced Nay-Nay). We will attain this water by either drilling large scale wells or redirecting water from mountain streams. We will decide which option is best on the project trip. Then we will design a network of pipes that leads down to the local villages so everyone can have quick access to water. I will attach the entire project scope at the end of this update, you can also find it here.
For preparation, I’ve created a series of maps of the area and attached village names with estimated population statistics. During the project trip I will help the team by analyzing the surface water currently in use.
So, I ask all of you to join me in prayer during this time. Specifically during our project trip, February 17 – 27. Here are some things to pray for:
1. We need to have a lot of meetings with various people in the area. So please pray we will find all the right people at the right times.
2. Most of the team will meet each other for the first time when the trip begins. So please pray for our team dynamics. That we don’t get at each others throats during the long working hours and cross cultural situation, and that all of us will work our hardest to provide the best design for the people of Ngenge.
3. God tends to do things in people’s lives during eMi project trips, so pray we will all be open to God’s teaching.
4. Pray that we have a heart of service for the people of Ngenge
5. Finally, and most importantly, pray that we will listen to the villagers ideas of what they want, and give them a design that they will use for years to come. There is a lot of potential for projects of this kind to fail due to miscommunication, making our work fruitless. If we tell them to go to a bore hole, but they don’t want to, they will continue going to the bacteria ridden stream they’ve used for years. But if the community sees the project as their own, there is a higher probability for implemented changes to become permanent, passed from one generation to the next.
Thank you all for your prayers and support during this time.
And lastly, our pair of rabbits has multiplied. We now have 4 baby rabbits, that may or may not be slightly cute.
Thank you all for your Prayers, please send us prayer requests if you have any.
Greg
From Stephanie:
Hello! Thank you everybody for your prayers and support. Sometimes it feels so strange that our time in Uganda will be ending in June. I miss my family and friends back in Texas, but I get very sad also when I think about leaving Kampala. For some reason it feels more like a hometown than Houston ever did. I think its because we walk everywhere, and everybody else walks everywhere, so your always running into people you know and saying hi to your neighbors as opposed to going from your garage to your car and back to your garage again. It’s nice. Greg has already told you about his project trip and the prayer needs for that. Here’s a few more prayer requests and praises:
Greg and I have found a cell group in our neighborhood. It’s not actually with the church we go to every Sunday, but with a different church that we go to every now and then. They have cell groups all over the city. It’s very organized.
School is going well, and my class has grown from 7 students to 9 students! The 6th grade also now has their own teachers (which is wonderful for them) so now I am back to just teaching the 5th grade.
This upcoming week is Spirit Week at Heritage International. The kids will be dressing up according to the different themes every day, and they will also be learning about how to be peacemakers. Please pray that everything goes according to plan (I’m sort of in charge of it) and that the students really learn something from it. The number of students at Heritage went up a lot this year, and I think we are experiencing some growing pains that come along with a large influx of students from varying backgrounds.
Thank you so much for your prayers,
Stephanie
Galatians 3:26 – 29 (our theme verses for Spirit week)
Project Scope (From eMi website):
The Kapchorwa district lies along the northern slopes of Mount Elgon and reaches down to the plains area to the north. The plains area includes a series of settlement camps in the area of Ngenge (the largest settlement camp in the area). In the Ngenge area, there is a serious lack of potable water for human consumption or use. A number of boreholes exist throughout the area, however, over half are not functioning and of the remaining working boreholes often provide little or low quality water. There is insufficient water supply currently for the population, estimated to number approximately 4,000 people. There is a high amount of water-related disease and death due to lack of potable water and personal hygiene.
This is one of the most poverty stricken areas in the country where disease, malnourishment, poor personal hygiene and death could all be greatly reduced by improved adequate water supplies. In Ngenge and environs, the people were originally cattle keepers; however, due to threats from cattle-rustling tribal groups from the north and neighboring Kenya, many of these people have been displaced to these settlement camps where the Ugandan military provides protection. There have not been raids in the area for approximately a year and many people are looking to resettle in their land; however, are reluctant based on the limited water supply. In addition, many are now looking to agriculture as a substitute to cattle-keeping. However, the plains areas are susceptible both to drought and flooding.
Systemic change is possible, given the availability of natural resources which could be harnessed (i.e. ample water supply from streams on the mountainside). This change could potentially affect the quality of life of the entire Kapchorwa District having a population of 193,510 according to the 2002 Census. Readily available water resources could be utilized for cash crops to grow, including aloe vera, rice, maize, sunflowers, greens, beans, tea, etc.
EMI's role will be to assist with both short and long term planning for water use in the settlements in and around Ngenge. Short term planning will include evaluating interim water supply measures such as repair of existing boreholes and low technology water treatment. Long term planning includes: 1) Performing a feasibility study to assess various large scale water supply options to assist in systematic change in the community. Known potential water supply options include water from a mountain stream and drilling new large-scale production wells in the plains. 2) Completing a preliminary/schematic design (for a general cost estimate and fund raising) for water source/collection, potable water distribution, and irrigation. 3) Based on community meetings, assisting the church in forming a business plan for a large scale water supply and giving feedback to the community on their action plan for long term health and hygiene. |
