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Name: Greg
Gender: Male


Interests: My two Greatest loves in life are Jesus my Lord and Savior and Stephanie (friend_of_issac), my gorgeous babe-wife. I also enjoy science fiction novels, comics, rock music, video games and have recently gotten into academic Bible study.
Expertise: I Graduated from Texas A&M University in 2004 with a degree in Civil Engineering specializing in Transportation. I am currently working at a Civil Engineering Firm


Message: message me


Member Since: 4/23/2004

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Saturday, June 14, 2008

EuroLog: The UK
Writing from Bath this morning, where Steph and I are hanging out with my friend Ben Burden. Bath is a nice town, I'd love to live here if my better half would live with me.

Day 1: First we carried all of our stuff from Uganda (2 daypacks, 2 backpacking backpacks, 2 full size suitcases, 1 carry on suitcase and one very large purse) through the network of Underground trains in London to our new friend Marcos' house. He is a friend of Ben Burden who was nice enough to help out 2 missionaires with their stuff. Then we found our hostel and managed to check in just before management left.

Day 2: The next day we spent a few hours at the British Museum, lots of funny pictures. Then we went to the Museum of Methodism due to my friend Chad Suhr's reccomendation seven years ago. Unfortunatley we could only stay there 15 minutes since they close at 4 pm. Then we stopped by the tower of London for some pictures of the outside of it.

0354

How I felt after carrying all that stuff


Two Babes


Some Greek Temple or palace, I didn't read anything while there.


Egyptian Gods


King Tut punching me


Piggy Pot


John Wesley's Church


The Original Wesley Pulpit


Charles Wesley's Piano


Statue of Wesley


Steph on Aldersgate Street


The Tower Bridge


The Tower of London Mote and Football


A Letter Jane Austen wrote to her sister Charlotte. This is also the same way she wrote all her books.

Day 3: The next morning we got on a coach to Bath where we met Ben at the bus terminal. He showed us a wonderful time around the city, though he refused to visit the Jane Austen Museum with us. He showed us a beautiful church of England Abby Bath is a beautiful city that is fun to just walk around in.

So far today we just want to rest and do laundry. Ben is nice enough to let us stay here for two days.


Circus in Bath


Bath Abby


Some Pipes


A very odd art exhibit. It's 12 plates sitting on a table with a video projector showing the top of a dinner table. Sound was included, it was odd.


A cool fountain


Ben and one of the many pigs that are placed around Bath

Currently Reading: Hunters of Dune
Current Music: Tour guides telling me about a dozen different topics.


Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Supporter Blog - Goodbye Uganda
Stephanie and I are now leaving Uganda, with no immediate plans to return. So as I leave Uganda, I thought I would share some of my thoughts regarding our time here.

Professionally, working for eMi has been tremendously encouraging. I have grown a lot as an employee and hope to continue growing in Colorado Springs. There were several factors involved here, but I think chief among them were my fellow interns. Seeing their strengths encouraged me to try harder. Getting direction and guidance from such wonderful project leaders was also a strong component.

On a personal note, I think the main thing I’ve learned has been what I take for granted regarding "needs." When I go back to America, and there is always running water, electricity, nice roads, families of four who live in 5-bedroom homes, couches, wide screen TV’s and grocery stores, I hope I can remember Uganda, where none of those things were available on such a wide scale. I hope I can remember that my per diem to cover food was more than typical worker’s daily wage. I hope I can remember families of six sharing a single room home that is less than a hundred square feet. I hope I can remember how privileged my life is in America, and thank God for it.

I am curious if a life in America is for Steph and I. While I lived in America after college, I grew restless and ambitious, leading me to an internship with eMi. Will I get restless and ambitious again? Does God want me to live in the USA for the rest of my days or does he have something else in mind for me? I’ve never felt so unsure about the future as I do now, it is partly liberating, and terrifying. But God is a good God and I am certain that if I put my faith in Him, things should turn out ok.

While I’ve been here, God has shown me that I am entirely too hard on myself. I’ve always had self esteem issues. God’s been showing me I am a good person through the wonderful relationships I’ve made. My friends here really like me. I haven’t felt this accepted by a group of people in years, if ever. People are constantly telling me that they will miss me, and that the office will not be the same without me. The part of me that thinks I’m an awful person can barely believe them, but they mean it. I will really be missed here at eMi EA.

If I believe Jesus really can change lives, I also must believe that he can change my life. So now I hope and pray that God will give me a better self image.

So I think about all God has done for me during my time here and I think about all the laughs I’ve had with the friends here, and then I remember the fact that I’m leaving soon. It almost brings tears to my eyes. I love Uganda, I love the people here, I hope God brings me somewhere else (or back here) where I love the work, people, and place as much as I do Uganda, but I don’t know if that’s possible. But once again, if I trust in Him, I’m sure I’ll be in good hands.

Goodbye to Uganda. Hello to Colorado

Greg

Currently Reading: I'll start Hunters of Dune on the plane tomorrow
Current Music: American Idiot


Friday, June 06, 2008

Supporter Blog - Update #8 – Project Trip Report - Iganga
The Iganga project trip was successful, though there were a few design challenges. The purpose of the project was to design a secondary school for 300 students who live on campus. The campus will be funded by a retired Irish couple who came down to share their vision for the site with us.

As I mentioned earlier, the design challenges were numerous. First of all, the property had power lines running through the middle, meaning we couldn’t build buildings 15 m on either side of the power lines, which eliminated 20% of the site. Then we discovered a spring in the middle of our site, further limiting what we could do. Our architects had to be creative and strategic in their placement of the buildings, but they got it done.

I was charged to work on both the water and waste water, which I had never done before. My only instructions were a previous eMi project report as a go-by along with a design guide, but I managed to get it suitable for the project presentation.

On the relational side of things, Heather and I had a lot of fun getting to lead worship during the week. I forgot what a joy it is to lead worship. Heather danced with the Ugandan choir on Sunday morning, which I am certain will be talked about for years. A girl named Norah and I translated the song "I will worship" into Luganda so we could have cross cultural worship.

All in all, the project was a success. I am very sad that I don’t get to stay with eMi for a few more weeks to finish the project, but was glad to be a part of the beginning of it.



Heather Dancing with the Choir



Multicultural Worship



Our whole team

Currently Reading: Still Valis
Current Music: Robert Randolph and the Family Band


Thursday, May 15, 2008

Supporter Blog Update #7 - The Next Step
Boy have we got some big announcements with this blog entry. In fact, we have some of the biggest announcements of our entire lives. For starters we’ll get to the one that excites us the most:

Stephanie is pregnant. We will have our firstborn in October of this year. We are both excited and scared about becoming parents, but isn’t everybody?

Next: I thought I would only go on one project trip while in Uganda, but I was pleased to learn that I’ll get to serve on another project trip in Iganga to serve Abundant Life International Ministries by designing a secondary school. Click the link to read all about it. I leave in two weeks.

The final announcement is preceded by an awesome testimony.

God has really provided for us.

We sent our letters and made our calls and then just figured God would provide enough money. What blew us away was not that God provided what we needed, but that he provided ABOVE AND BEYOND what we needed.

By the time support raising was completed, we realized we had enough money to extend our time with eMi an entire semester. So we thought and prayed about it over the past year and decided to extend our time with eMi. I will serve at the eMi world headquarters in Colorado Springs.

Some of you may be thinking: What? Colorado? I thought eMi served in third world nations?

Well, yes, we do. The difference between our office here in Kampala and the Colorado Springs office is in location and scope. Here at the East Africa office, we serve ministries in Uganda and the surrounding nations exclusively. We bus/fly to the ministry site for two weeks on the project trip (see the last update) and then we come back to our office to finish the report portion of the job.

The Colorado Springs office operates the exact same way, except they serve ministries all over the world. They fly to their ministry site, stay for two weeks, and then come back to the office to finish the report portion of the job.

I won’t know what project I’ll work on or where they will send me until June, but I’m told that they’ll probably send me to Africa.

So our time with eMi will continue, even though our time in Uganda is coming to an end.

We return to Texas on July 9th where we will see friends and family for about five weeks (If you can employ either of us during this time, we would greatly appreciate it). Then, Stephanie’s parents will help us move to Colorado Springs in mid August. Doug will participate in the annual eMi golf marathon fundraiser where he’ll golf for the East Africa office (for more info or to sponsor him, email Doug: vettedoug@gmail.com). The semester will last until December and then THE THREE OF US come back to Texas for the Holidays.

After that, who knows.

Enough of the future, now I’m going to talk about what we’ve done since the last update. Both my parents, Stephanie’s parents and her cousin came to visit us for a week. Here’s some pictures:



Doug, Diana, Mari, Steph and Greg at Murchison Falls




Greg, Bob, Christina and Steph at the source of the Nile

Prayer Requests:

1. Pray for Steph’s health and the health of our Baby (16 weeks now)
2. Pray that the eMi team will serve Abundant Life International Ministries with the best design possible. That communication will be good and people’s lives will be changed.
3. We only have a month left in Uganda, so pray that we finish out our time here well.
4. Pray for Heritage International School, they are switching from an American Curriculum to a British one.

Thank you all,

Greg

(Since I’m such a dork, I put a code in the Project Trip Report – Kapchorwa update that announces Stephanie’s Pregnancy. It’s only in the section I wrote though, not in Steph’s section)

Currently Reading: Valis - Phillip K. Dick - yes that's an example of irony
Current Music: I'm starting to wish I could afford new music


Sunday, April 13, 2008

Turns out the Bible is a Forgery...
At least according to Libyan leader Col Gadaffi.

Yes, it is a forgery simply because it never mentions the prophet Mohammed. Therefore it could not be the word of God. That's what he told the crowd in Uganda that gathered to celebrate the opening of a new mosque in downtown Kampala, complete with President Museveni's attendance.

Ok, so this kind of silliness would usually be reported on at best in the religion section of a newspaper in America. But nope, not here in Uganda. The front page headline read: "The Bible is a Forgery says Col Gadaffi."

I read the article cause I was in the mood for amusement, and what shocked me was this:

"President Museveni said he would put the Archbishop of Uganda, Luke Orombi and Bishop Cyprian Lwanga of Kampala Archdiocese to task to explain the omission of Prophet Muhammad from the Bible."

What on earth, does he want to give credibility to such a ludicrous claim?

So a few days later, the Arch Bishop replied, and the front page headline read "Bible is real says Archbishop," Another shocking headline.

And then the BBC picked up on the shocking story.

I guess Americans have their silly front page headlines as well, a few pop figures drug records, prison sentences, divorces and custody battles come to mind.

Currently Reading: Chapterhouse: Dune - The last of the Frank Herbert Dune novels
Current Music: Fatboy Slim - A real throwback to High school for me



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