Wouldn’t you know it, a few days after I posted that last link, Kevin forwarded me another article about fistula – this time focussing on “our” clinic:

New Life for the Pariahs from the New York Times

We’ve also recently heard that the missionaries who hosted us there are on their way back to Niger . . . they had had some trouble raising the necessary support to return after some language training and “furlough” back in North America.  It’s exciting news, because he will be acting as construction manager for the Fistula Clinic . . . so things are coming together . . .

Some of you may remember that Kevin & I went to Niger a couple of years ago to help design a fistula centre.  The actual construction has had some bureaucratic hiccups, but permits have recently been acquired so that construction can move forward.

Today, Kevin forwarded an article to me about a different fistula centre, this one in Ethiopia.  I thought the article gave a good overview of what fistula is and how it affects women’s lives.  Here it is:

Fistula Article

Please continue to pray that the clinic eMi went to design will be constructed soon so that more women will be cured of this condition.

It’s been a busy weekend of talking and catching up . . . on Friday, I had a chance to get together with a Fort St. John friend who lives in Calgary now and the time ran out before the words did.  That evening, we went to a “house cooling” party of other friends who are moving out of town, and caught up with some mutual friends who we hadn’t seen for a while.  And on Saturday, we headed to Taber.

Kevin’s cousin had invited us to Taber to speak at his church.  It was a great weekend!  We stayed at their house, and their oldest is the same age as Kaisa, so the kids were well entertained.  Kevin’s Aunt & Uncle joined all of us for dinner on Saturday night, and then on Sunday we shared at the church.  The pastors were both away, so Kevin was “preaching” – that is, sharing a message beyond a simple report of what eMi does and where we’ve been.  We had a booth set up in the foyer after the service, and had a chance to talk one on one with more people (there’s even someone in the church whose nephew has been an intern with eMi in Colorado!  How’s that for a small world?).  After church, there was more visiting over lunch, and then we headed into Lethbridge to have dinner with several team members from Kevin’s Sudan team last spring.  By the time we were on our way home, we were all out of words!  Even the girls fell asleep on the drive home – and that rarely happens anymore . . .

The interns put together a video of our El Salvador project trip . . . enjoy . . .

A project is by no means over when the plane touches down back in Canada.  In fact, Kevin will likely be working on the El Salvador report right up until his next trip, in January.  Right now he’s coordinating the various pieces between the volunteers . . . it’s a fair bit harder to get feedback when we’re not all in the same room (or on the same outdoor patio ).  Please continue to pray for the team as they “tweek” the designs to provide the Father’s Heart Foundation with the best possible layouts for their buildings and their land.

But now that the El Salvador trip is over, Kevin is already starting to recruit for his next trip – to Kenya.  He’ll be working on a village development project, in partnership with Save a Village, along with the Nyangina Self Help Group.  It will be a small team – a surveyor, possibly another civil, an intern and an agricultural specialist.  Here’s the official eMi project listing, and we’ll keep you posted as details develop.

After just getting home last week, we weren’t up to planning much for Thanksgiving.  The intern who is staying with us left last week for her project trip (to SouthEast Asia), and the weather turned too cold for our annual trek to Callaway Park (they have Free Family Days every Thanksgiving Weekend).  In fact, if our friends hadn’t invited us for Thanksgiving Dinner late in the week, we might not even have had turkey!  I just wasn’t quite up to wrapping my mind around inviting people over and hosting something myself . . .

That said, it was a wonderful, lazy, relaxing weekend.  The girls had a FIVE day weekend (yes, they’re still home today) and all weekend, they really just wanted to play.  On Friday, Talia also made dinner for us – her lasagna was quite a hit.  On Saturday, we headed out to a “Pumpkin Festival” at a Calgary-area garden centre . . . complete with a straw maze, hay rides, and a grand finale of Pumpkin Smashing (they raised a HUGE pumpkin up on a HUGE crane and dropped in onto a small car activating fireworks on impact . . . it made quite an impression!)   Thankfully, most of the rest of the activities were inside, otherwise we wouldn’t have lasted long.  We’re not quite acclimatized back yet .  On Sunday, I shared about our trip with the kids at church, and in the evening we joined our friends for Thanksgiving Dinner.  We enjoyed the food, friends and conversation (and our kids especially enjoyed the hot tub!).  Yesterday we took one of the interns who was around this weekend to the Free Family Swim at our local pool, and today Talia has a friend over.  Kevin is at work today, of course, but tonight, the holidays will officially end for the rest of us as I’ve got a board meeting, Kevin has care group, and the girls have Pioneer Clubs . . . I’m thankful to go into the week well-rested!

After a final whirlwind day of Salvadorian site seeing (including some archeological sites, the museum of Anthropology, driving through the downtown core of San Salvador, and then eating dinner in a pupusaria overlooking the city), on Sunday morning we headed back to San Salvador . . . this time to the airport.

It’s hard to believe that we only met everyone 10 days ago.  And, as we said good-bye to Samuel & Charity (with special hugs for baby Benjamin) and to Joel (who was staying on to enjoy the Salvadorian surf before heading home to New Zealand), we knew that the trip was ending.  The rest of our good-byes happened in the Houston airport, as we all headed our separate ways to catch our various flights back to our “real lives.”

And here we are.  Calgary changed from summer to winter while we were gone (brr).  Grandma & Grandpa did just fine with the kids.  Kaisa woke up just before midnight last night and came out with a sleepy smile and big hugs for both of us.  Talia’s smile was just as big (and not quite as tired) this morning.  Grandma & Grandpa left early, and after we brought the kids to school, we started unpacking, did some laundry, took some time to relax.  We went out for a family dinner tonight and tried to hear all the exciting things that happened in our kids lives while we were gone.  Tomorrow, we’ll both be back at work and life will go on.

The challenge, now, I guess, is to take what we’ve seen and learned on this trip and not lose that in the busy-ness of being back home.  A friend of mine said it best in a facebook comment: “May your mind, body ,and soul all catch up to being back….but may you not loose the “God Prints” from your time away.”  Please pray with us that Kevin & I – and all the other team members – will continue to be open to those God Prints in our lives . . .

Tonight was the final presentation, when we shared with Samuel & Charity, members of the board, people from their church, and  few others, what we had put together during the week. 

There’s still more work to do, of course, but I’m always amazed at how much gets done in just one week when everyone works together.  We had the site survey, the master plan, floor plans of the family housing and the multi-purpose facility, some sections for the family housing, some options for water and wastewater and for electricity, and some cost estimates . . . .all in the 5 days since we heard the vision for the first time from the board. 

Charity said some of the board members had tears in their eyes when they saw the final product . . . seeing their vision on paper.  Samuel also shared how the master planning step was so important to them – the government was requiring site surveys and master plans before they would permit them to do anything and Samuel had been praying about how he was going to raise the $12,000 that just a local survey would cost. 

It’s still a big vision.  It’s still going to take a lot of work to turn the design into reality.  But as Kevin shared tonight, God’s vision is for one child at a time, one house at a time, one small step at a time . . . and God’s vision is so much bigger than anything even we can imagine!  Continue to pray for Samuel & Charity and the Father’s Heart Foundation . . .

As you could probably tell, the week has gotten busy.  As the computers are being used for surveying data collection, design and other important stuff, blogging isn’t given priority computer time . . . and then, yesterday just before dinner, the power went out . . . and wasn’t on yet by the time we got up this morning!  Thankfully, stoves here run on propane, so mealtime wasn’t an issue.  And this morning, we ended up heading over to a local orphanage (the directors are friends of Samuel and Charity) and set up shop there.  This meant we got to hang out with some kids too . . . I got to help a few of the girls with their handwriting homework, and I showed pictures from home to some of the kids (and stretched my few words of Spanish!).  Later on the guys offered the kids piggy back rides and foot races and the like . . . it’s just so nice to put a face to why we’re doing this . . . it’s kids like this who will be served by the Father’s Heart Foundation.  

Yesterday night, our evening devotions focussed on 1 Corinthians 12, where it talks about us being many parts but one body.  I’m reminded again that an eMi team is such a great example of that.  In the last couple days, the surveyors have been out surveying, the architects have been laying out master plans and floor plans, the structural engineer has been checking out building materials, the civil has been meeting with municipal representatives, etc. etc.  Each part is so vital to what is being designed . . . and it’s so exciting to see it taking shape . . . then there’s the local people who are part of this project.  Samuel and Charity, of course, but also the board, the local architects who have come to share words of wisdom with our team, the construction manager who took the day to tour our team through construction supply yards and construction sites, the orphanage director who gave Charity a break by cooking for us today . . . and beyond that, we all have the body back home praying for us, supporting us financially, etc. etc.  It’s amazing how God orchestrates his people to use their gifts and talents – in this case, to design an orphanage to care for orphaned and abandoned children in El Salvador . . .