On the road back

..she left the place where she had been living and set out on the road that would take them back to the land of Judah. -Ruth 1:7

It is now most definite that I will be making the trek back to the emiUK office as a long-term volunteer.  I have purchased a plane ticket that will take me back to the UK on February 1, 2010.  After arriving back in the UK, I will be submitting my visa application which if approved, will allow me to stay in the country until April 2011.  Please pray that the visa is approved!!!  

This past semester as an intern in the new emiUK office has been a wonderful and growing experience.  Being away from friends and family for so long is never easy but it allowed me to put a focus on my relationship with God as well as focus on who God has created me to be and how best I may serve Him.  I have always had a compassionate heart for those who need God's love, and this semester God has given me a passion to serve some of His people through the ministry of emi.  Because of this I have a desire to return to the new UK office to be a servant there to assist in any way I may be needed.  As an office that is only just beginning its third semester of interns and composed currently of only one full time staff member, there is much to be done.  We are still looking for an office space where all the staff, volunteers, and interns can fit into together, negating the need to split everyone up in different locations.  Despite the needs and the small staff number, God is working in and through this office.  He is bringing excited and willing people from all over the world to serve with the up and coming office as well as providing needed projects in India, Africa, and Eastern Europe.


The long-term volunteer position is an unpaid position.  I have been blessed with the opportunity to do some part time drafting for a london architect (the same one who came on the BORN project in India with me!) which will cover the majority of my living expenses! Whoot!  However, it will not cover everything and thus, I am again asking for your support for my next year of service with emiUK.  I need $2000 to cover visa and flight expenses.


Each semester, the office is going to send out another team to do a project.  Thus, I will have the opportunity to help with four more projects and the opportunity to go on three more project trips similar to the one I went on as an intern to Bihar, India.  To be a part of any of these project trips, I need to raise about $900 per trip.  

The next project will be designing a technical school in Liberia for a ministry called ABC Children's Aid.  This ministry is a Christian organization whose goal is to help Africa's orphaned and vulnerable children become godly contributors to their communities and the world.  They are in need of a technical school which will enable their work among the orphans of Monrovia to flourish and grow.  Liberia has a population of 3 million people, 250,000 of which are orphans.  ABC Academy is already making a difference by showing love and compassion to children who are in great need.  This project will allow emi to take part in the development of the future, not only in the lives of these children, but of Liberia as a whole. 


This project trip will take place mid-March.  If you are interested in serving on the project team check out the website
http://emiuk.org/projects/projectprofile_11003.html
and if you would be interested in supporting me financially, please contact me by e-mail: chricar1@iit.edu



Thank you all for your continued support and prayers!! Happy Happy Holidays!!

britian...to be continued

"I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!"

Galatians 2:20-21

It seems that for the next year I am looking at coming back to the UK to continue assisting the eMi UK office in getting off the ground!!?! I have been blessed with an opportunity to work part time for an architect in London (the same architect that went on our project trip to India with me).  This would pay for my living expenses so that i could then work part time as an eMi volunteer! I would be helping the intern program to get off the ground, continuing to help with drafting, and putting together reports for more project trips like the one I just returned from!

I am super excited about this prospect and would love for your continued support in prayer and finances for this upcoming year.  It's a little bit scary stepping out in this way, but I'm praying that God will continue to give me the faith to do so!  There is so much to be done and it's quite exciting that I am able and qualified to help do it :)  I need to raise financial support for my plane flight to and from the UK and for visa costs, which comes to about $2,000. If you would be interested in helping me financially, please e-mail me at chricar1@iit.edu

a BORN resource and training center

Jai Masiki!

(Praise the Lord!)

 I have returned from Patna, India in the state of Bihar with joy and a renewed since of passion and privilege to serve our Lord, Jesus Christ.

My previous post Namaste explains about the area of India where our project trip lead me to as well as the background of the ministry of BORN. If you haven't read that, I suggest reading it through before reading the rest of this post. It may reduce your confusion. :)

 First and foremost, to those who have been praying and to those who gave towards my internship, thank you so much for your support! Our team spent two weeks in India designing a master plan and numerous buildings, during which everyone stayed safe and healthy thanks to your prayers! And in a couple of months time, the ministry will have plans for a campus headquarters that will assist them in their vision to continue reaching the millions of people living in Bihar who do not know Jesus.



With this enormous growth and even larger aspirations, the BORN ministry is in need of a campus of buildings to sustain the movement’s growth, station their headquarters for the church plants, train their pastors and leaders, hold large conferences, and give back to their community. This is where eMi stepped in to help. A team of seven of us from the eMi UK office travelled to Patna, India in order to design the buildings. Mike Woods (UK staff), the eMi project team leader; Martin Evans (UK staff), head architect; Richard Fryer (UK), structural engineer, Erin Curtis (Ohio), civil engineer; two architect interns, Miriam Wallace (Australia) and myself; and an interior design intern, Michele Shetler (Indiana), made up the project team.

The first week and a half of the trip was spent in Patna, learning and getting to know the director and pastors of the BORN ministry. We were exposed first hand to the poverty and backwardness of living that affected the majority of people in Bihar. But regardless of the poverty, the hopeless state of the caste system, and the quest for enlightenment through idol worship, there was also beauty and God to be found in that place. We came to know many of the BORN pastors well, and it was astounding to witness their passion for Christ and for spreading His good news. We spent our time in Patna mostly determining the best design solutions for the large, rural, and oddly shaped five acre plot of land they had purchased and want to build on. Including an administration building, guest housing, a teaching building, student housing, staff housing, and a large multi-purpose hall, the design task was a large one. But God brought together a team with talents to fit the need perfectly.

Master Plan

The ministry decided that they wanted architecture for the buildings that would make a statement for BORN and ultimately for Christ. So even though the ministry is still completely relying on God for the funds for the building construction costs, they decided to go with a design we came up with that features the cluster of buildings fitting under one large, concrete canopy roof. The roof acts not only as a strong defining element of architecture, but also helps passively cool the buildings by increasing air flow between the building top and roof bottom which draws the warm air from the buildings up and out, reducing the amount of energy and money needed for air conditioning. In the hot climate of Bihar, this would be a very useful and sustainable method of cooling.

I mainly helped design the Staff Housing (shown above) as well as the Administration Building

The buildings were all designed around a large green, as a cloister so as to give them a space for large conferences and gatherings, as well as a space that ties the entire site together and provides a nice area for outdoor prayer and reading. We integrated a brick detail into some of the buildings to also tie them together and provide more architectural interest. By the end of our time there, jali was a word we could repeat in our sleep! Jali is traditional brick work but with the bricks placed in a way which appears more decorative but also lets air flow through little openings which again assist in the passive cooling of the buildings. The designs were done in brick and concrete construction so as to keep consistent with the typical materials and construction methods used around the area. In the end, we feel that we came up with the best design that would function just as the BORN ministry needs it to now and in the future, providing an architecture that would be pleasing to be in and experience, as well as keeping in mind environmental and sustainable building techniques, materials and low cost.

sketch of the entrance to the campus

sketch of the Administration Building reception area

The team spent many hours and put lots of hard work into coming up with the best design for this ministry, however, we were also able to experience a little of the culture of Patna. We attended a village church service, a baptism, an evening of vacation bible school for village children, a ride across the river Ganges, and a bit of driving around and site-seeing. God is certainly moving in the state of Bihar through the BORN ministry and it was a privilege to be able to be a part of the movement.
 I found it amazing that being around Christians from halfway across the world, living in a completely different culture than my own, I still felt the family bond that we shared through our faith. The welcome, acceptance, and shared responsibility were things that we could instantly relate to each other through. But what struck me the most while I was there working for and amongst these pastors was how much passion they had for Christ and for their lifestyle. They had all completely dedicated their lives to serving Jesus and to spreading his word throughout the state of Bihar. For some this meant being disowned and cut off from their Hindu or Muslim families. They had to leave their homes, move their families to strange villages, and they worked seemingly night and day! But despite all of this hardship, they were the most joyful and loving group of people I think I have ever met. It's a simple truth, but one that is so easy to forget in the busy, consumer-driven world of the west.

Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man.  Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their fathers treated the prophets.  But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort.
Luke 6:22-24


What a privilege it is to be excluded and insulted because of our allegiance to Christ- and not just a privilege, but a JOY. We have the love and the provision of our creator, what else could we possibly need?

sketch of a prayer nook looking toward the teaching building

sketch of the cloister green looking towards the multi-purpose hall on the right and the teaching block on the left

For the last few days of our two week project trip, we were able to travel to eMi’s office in Mussoorie, India. The scenery, with beautiful mountains and fresh cool air, stood in stark contrast to the poverty we had just witnessed in Patna. In Mussoorie, we were able to present our designs for BORN and receive feedback from professionals who have had years of experience designing within India. It was a wonderful way to finish our time in India.

India Pictures are posted on Picasa!

http://picasaweb.google.com/carissa.emi/India

Namaste! नमस्ते

(Hindi Greeting)

Next Saturday is the big day.  We fly out of London Heathrow to Patna, India and travel from there to a small village to the site where we will be designing an outreach center.  Our team is made up of five professionals and three interns from the US and the UK.

Bihar (in red), where our site is located, is the district of India, sort of like a US state, that is one of the poorest areas of india.  It is located in the Northeast of India, not far from Bangladesh and Nepal. The Ganges River runs through it and life revolves around the rainy flood season and the dry season. With 5 percent of India's total land area, it contains 10 percent of the total population. Only about one-eighth of Bihar's population lives in urban areas, making the state one of the least urbanized in India. Most of the population is engaged in agriculture.   Bihar has one of the lowest literacy rates among Indian states (below 40 percent).  The native language to 4/5 of the people is Hindi. The predominant religion is Hinduism, accounting for 83 percent of the popluation, while Islam accounts for about 17 percent.  Bihar also claims the birthplace of Buddhism and is an important site for the religion of Jainism.  Less than 1 percent of Bihar's population is Christian.

The ministry we are designing this outreach center for has the vision of bringing a church plant to each village in the Bihar district! Which is quite an undertaking knowing that most the population is rural.  However, they are having great success and are now in need of a big space in which to hold training for their leaders and a small bible school and short term housing for missionaries.  That is where eMi comes in! We are going to design an outreach center for them that will give them a home base for the amazing work they are doing throughout all of Bihar.  Our hope is that we can do most of the conceptual design work in the two weeks that we are there in India with the ministry at hand.  Then when we come back to the UK it will be hammering out details and construction drawings.

Bihar has traditionally been known as the graveyard of missions since the arrival of the first Baptist missionaries in 1792. Despite over 200 years of missionary endeavors, Bihar's 90 million people are living in over 40,000 villages without a church. The most recent movement of God through BORN (Bihar Out Reach Network) which is a network of mission agencies and churches to penetrate Bihar with the gospel and to plant churches is slowly turning the graveyard into a vineyard. But much remains to be done.

 http://www.bornbihar.net/

So off I go. 

I am super excited to be designing rather just messing with CAD drawings! also excited for Chai! and to experience a Diwali celebration (the festival of lights and the triumph of good over evil)!

Alvida!   अलविदा।

If you could please pray for health and safety of our project team as well as for the completion of a functional and affordable design for the BORN Ministry while we are away that would be most appreciated! 

Prayer Requests

• For spiritual growth during my time in London
• For safety for the six of us during our project trip to Patna, Bihar, India
• That the projects that I am helping design and produce with eMi would impact the people we are designing the projects for in a positive way for God's Kingdom
• For continued faith that God is preparing something for my life after this term with eMi, even though I don't know what it is yet!
• For the continued growth of the eMi UK office, which just started up this past summer and which doesn't have a permanent office space yet

Thanks for all of your prayers everyone!

Know Thyself

So eMi orientation was largely focused on learning more about yourself, your tendencies, your learned cultural norms and how they differ from other cultures, and how to best work and interact with other people with different personalities and strengths than you.  Thus, I learned that this is me in a nut shell:

For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do.  -Ephesians 2:10


Personality

according to the DISC Profile: SCi/CSi
S: Stable, Steady
C: Compliant, Correct
i: Influencing, Inspiring

according to the Myers-Briggs: INFP
NF: Idealist
I: Introvert
N: Intuitive
F: Feeling
P: Perceiving


Spiritual Gifts

1 Missionary - Faith
2 Giving
3 Service - Helps
4 Mercy - Hospitality - Administration
5 Voluntary Poverty


Strengths 

1 Achiever
2 Ideation
3 Empathy
4 Input
5 Learner


Mission Statement during my time with eMi

To praise and glorify God through loving and serving the physically and spiritually poor within my sphere of influence by creating healthy, sustainable, and inspiring built spaces.

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explainations

DISC Profile
  I was way up on the scale with both C and S which tied and then I had a tiny bit of I in me with absolutely no D (dominant, driver)
I and S are People oriented while C and D are Task oriented
C and S are passive styles while D and I are active styles

the CS is a Precisionist and the SC is a Peacemaker

I is identified with an Otter: they are people persons. enthusiastic and motivational, talkative, impulsive, emotional, sociable, and value acceptance and fear rejection

C is identified with a Beaver: they are analytical, accurate, conscientious and even tempered, thorough, precise, stable, low-keyed, systematic, logical, values standards of high quality and fear criticism

S is identified with a Retriever: they are reliable, steady, understanding, patient, good listener, passive, reflective, values recognition for loyalty and dependability and fear loss of security

D is identified with a Lion: they are direct, decisive, determined, driving, strong-willed, values power and authority to take risks and make decisions and fears being taken advantage of


Myers-Briggs

I vs E
I was 9 of 10 on the Introverted side rather than Extroverted for those of you who swear i am not an introvert :P I have just adapted really well to a mostly extroverted world around me!

  I: reflective, reserved, being alone is energizing, prefer to know a few people really well
  E: outgoing, people-person, being with people is energizing, have wide range of friends and know lots of people

N vs S
I was largely N (Intuition) over S (Sensing)

 N: remember events by reading "between the lines," solve problems by leaping between different ideas and possibilities, interested in doing things new and different, like to see big picture then find out facts, trust impressions, symbols, and metaphors more than actual experience, sometimes think so much about new possibilities that never look at how to make them a reality
 S: remember events as snapshots of what happened, solve problems by working through facts until understand the problem, pragmatic and look to the "bottom line," start with facts and form the big picture, trust experience first and words and symbols less, sometime pay attention so much to facts that miss new possibilities

T vs F
I was just slightly F(Feeling) over T(Thinking)

 F: concerned with harmony and nervous when it is missing, look for what is important to others and express concern for others, make decisions with heart and compassion, being tactful is more important than telling the "cold" truth, i miss seeing or communicating the "hard truth" or situations, sometimes experienced by others to be too idealistic, mushy or indirect
 T: enjoy technical and scientific fields and logic, notice inconsistencies, look for logical explanations or solutions to everything, make decisions with head and want to be fair, believe telling the truth is more important than being tactful, sometimes dont value the "people" part of a situation, can be seen as too task-oriented, uncaring or indifferent

J vs P
I was slightly P(Perceiving) over J(Judging)

 J: like to have things decided, appear to be task-oriented, like to make lists of things to do, like to get my work done before playing, plan work to avoid rushing just before the deadline
 P: like to stay open to whatever happens, appear to be loose and casual, like to keep plans at a minimum, like to approach work as play or mix work and play, work in bursts of energy, stimulated by an approaching deadline


Spiritual gifts

Faith: the special ability God gives certain members of the Body of Christ to discern with extaordinary confidence the will and purposes of God for His work; a practical gift
Missionary: the special ability God gives certain members of the Body of Christ to minister whatever other spiritual gifts that they have in a culture other than their own; a leadership gift
Giving: the special ability God gives certain members of the Body of Christ to contribute their material resources to the work of the Lord with liberality and cheerfulness; a practical gift
Service: the special ability God gives certain members of the Body of Christ to identify the unmet needs involved in a task related to God's work and to make use of available resources to meet those needs and help accomplish the desired results; a practical gift
Helps: the special ability God gives certain members of the Body of Christ to invest the talents they have in the life and ministry of other members of the body, thus enabling those others to increase the effectiveness of their own spiritual gifts; a practical gifts


Strengths

 Achiever:  have a great deal of stamina and work hard. take great satisfaction from being busy and productive
 Ideation: fascinated by ideas. are able to find connections between seemingly disparate phenomena
 Empathy: can sense the feelings of others by imagining yourself in others' lives or others' situations
 Input: have a craving to know more. may very well like to collect and archive all kinds of information
 Learner: have a great desire to learn, and want to continuously want to improve. in particular, the process of learning, rather than the outcome, excites you