Now that I'm here...

Dear Friends,

 I hope this email finds you doing well!  Some of you I’ve just seen and spoken with as recent as this weekend, others of you I haven’t had to chance to see in quite a while!

Anyway, I’m writing to share with you an opportunity that has arisen for me to serve with Engineering Ministries International (eMi) once again. I’ve been meaning to write this earlier this week but, alas, I am writing this as I’m flying en route, somewhere over the Atlantic.

I’ll try to first explain a little bit into how I’ve become involved in this aspect of eMi’s ministry.  Back in 2008, whilst I was working with ACTS in Uganda, there was a fairly large civil conflict in Eastern Congo, with many Congolese becoming displaced as they fled from the conflict areas.  This was one of the first disaster response (DR) situations for which eMi was involved by helping to send engineers to assist with the work that Samaritan’s Purse was carrying out within the Internally displaced (IDP) camps housing thousands.  Eastern Congo happens to border Western Uganda, which also happens to be where I was working at the time.  In the end, eMi was able to send the needed number of engineers and I continued with the work on gravity flow water systems in Uganda.

In the few years since, eMi has continued to grow its DR involvement and now has become a valuable source for technical experience to other NGO’s in need of engineering assistance in similar crises.  In 2010, I attended the annual eMi conference in North Carolina, where I participated in eMi’s inaugural Disaster Response training session.  Following that, I completed a more in depth Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) training course for Samaritan’s Purse responders last spring in Calgary.

Thankfully, the past year has been relatively quiet on the DR front, with no significantly large events since the drought in Ethiopia and Kenya last fall.  However, two weeks ago, I received an email put out to eMi’s DR team members, asking for volunteers to potentially assist with a growing Cholera outbreak in Sierra Leone.


Now some of you know that I have been working in a remote area of Northern BC for the past year and that project just happened to wrap up at the end of August.   It took one week to confirm the funding to send a team, but it was exactly during my drive down to Vancouver that we received confirmation that eMi would be sending three engineers  to assist Living Waters International (LWI) with their response to the current Cholera outbreak.  Timing wise, it has been a blessing in regards to being able to arrange time away from work.

It is currently the wet season in Sierra Leone and the heavy rains have resulted in the contamination of poorly constructed wells and other water sources which in turn is responsible for the growing outbreak of Cholera in the region.  Among our team’s goals will be to help test existing wells for water quality and chlorinate any that are shown to be contaminated, an important step to stopping the spread of this virus.

You can read more about the Cholera Crisis, as well as LWI’s response plan on their website, water.cc/cholera.  eMi also has a page describing the situation and the anticipated work at  emiworld.org/disasterresponse_SierraLeone.php.

I would very much appreciate your prayers for our work with LWI, as well as for the crisis as a whole.  The situation is expected to get worse in the next few weeks  but only time will tell to what extent.  Furthermore, as we have been focusing on the efforts in Sierra Leone, flooding is taking its toll in the nearby country of Niger.  Furthermore, an earthquake has struck in Costa Rica which may potentially require further eMi involvement.  So please keep these other areas in your mind as well as it is strong reminder of how quickly these situations can escalate and the ever present needs around the world.  If you are able, LWI and many other organizations are in great need of additional funds to enable them to increase and sustain their levels of support through these particular times of need.  So please consider assisting financially as this will directly translate into supporting the treatment of a Cholera victim, most of whom are usually society’s most vulnerable, the children and elderly.

Thank you very very much for taking the time to read this and share in this journey with myself and my teammates.  I count myself very fortunate to have a network of friends and family who help to support and allow me to serve in these capacities.   If you yourself are, or will be, serving in missions and would like to share, pleas e do!  I always take pride and encouragement from seeing those around me using their talents, time and resources to bless others.

Lastly, I’m not sure how much time I’ll have to update my personal blog during these coming two weeks, but at the least, we will be in daily correspondence with the eMi’s Colorado office and they will in turn be updating the website periodically with our progress and work so you can catch our work there!

Thanks again for partnering with me.


Sincerely,
Wes