Why eMi?

Two years ago, I was in Denver, Colorado visiting the YWAM campus there.  I heard a man by the name of Graeme Hackworth speak.  Graeme is from India and spoke about serving the Lord in different ways.  I ate lunch with Graeme that day and commented that I did not feel called to “be the kind of missionary who moves to Africa for the rest of their life”.  I felt that he had really encouraged this type of Christian service and was lessening the value of other types.  Graeme’s answer was challenging and one that has sparked my interest in short term missions.  Graeme’s reply was that God doesn’t call everyone to the same thing and the He uses us where we are and He wants us to use what He’s given us.  

I started college and interned with Burt Hill, an architectural engineering firm, after my freshman year.  I began talking to some other engineers from my church about ways to use engineering for mission work.  None of the Christian engineers I knew had any knowledge of places that could utilize their skills.  I began to research this and found eMi.  One week later, I met Sarah (Baird) Hoobler, a Grove City College student who was planning to serve with eMi.  I began to pray that God would find a way to use my engineering knowledge as a tool for missions.  

I traveled to Guatemala last April with a group from Grove City College for a short term mission trip.  While there, I really felt a call to use engineering for missions again.  Once home, I began to research the organizations that I had previously looked at before.  I returned to Burt Hill that summer, after my sophomore year, but spent a lot of time on the internet at night researching countries and organizations that could use Christian engineers with the types of skills that I was acquiring.  I found many secular, humanitarian groups but I came back, again and again, to eMi and their mission.  

eMi works with the same type of projects that I have worked with before at Burt Hill.  This organization is seeking to do what I have found to be my call:  mobilizing design professionals to minister to the less fortunate in developing countries.  My hope that is throughout my career I will be found doing this, whether through eMi or through some other way.