Preston's upcoming trip to Liberia

Dear family and friends,

I’m writing to tell you about a chance that I have to use my architecture background on the mission field to help in reaching the poor in Liberia, western Africa.

Several years ago, before Janelle and I moved to China, I learned about an organization called Engineering Ministries International (EMI — www.emiusa.org). EMI organizes volunteer architects and engineers into teams that help mission organizations around the world with the design and construction of facilities. Though my first contact with EMI did not lead to an immediate opportunity, they contacted me in November about the possibility of joining the team for this project in Liberia. I was humbled and excited, because Janelle and I have been desiring to get back into the mission field, and I have been praying for many years that God would use my design background in a way such as this. So, I see this opportunity as an answered prayer.

The needs in Liberia are eye-opening, as the country is still recovering from two successive civil wars between 1989 and 2003, which left widespread destruction and poverty. (In 2010, Liberia had the third lowest per capita GDP in the world.) The project we will design is a new hospital for ELWA Ministries ("Eternal Love Winning Africa" — www.elwaministries.org), operated in partnership with Serving In Mission (SIM — www.sim.org) and Samaritan's Purse (www.samaritanspurse.org). The project is located in Paynesville, just east of the capital city of Monrovia. ELWA is led by local Liberian Christians, and has been operating since the early 1950s, with the hospital dating to 1965 (though temporarily closed and completely looted in 1996 during the civil war). The new hospital will better enable ELWA to reach its objectives of providing quality, affordable healthcare for its target communities, ministering the Word of God to the reached and the unreached, and training local ELWA staff members in technical excellence.

While our team is in Liberia, we will be meeting with the ministry partners to fully document and understand their needs, learning about local construction materials and methods, and providing master planning and conceptual design for the first phase of the hospital. After we return to the US, we will be spending 40–80 hours to complete the design for the phase one project, which will begin construction in May.

I will be in Liberia February 11–19.

I am seeking to recruit a core team to pray for the trip, for the work of the whole team, and for Janelle, Logan, Nathan and Owen during my absence. I will provide specific prayer requests for this core group to lift up for each day of the trip, and I will give updates on the requests after I return. If you would like to be in this core prayer team, please let me know.

As you have probably also guessed, one of the reasons I am writing is to let you know that I am raising support to help cover my cost for the trip — approximately $3,000. That said, I want to make very clear that I know it is God who provides, and I look to Him without worrying whether He chooses to provide through my friends and family. If He does burden your heart to help support my going on this trip, please see your support not as a gift to me but as an act of worship to God, that the glory and goodness of His name might be proclaimed powerfully in Liberia.

If you do choose to offer financial support, please go to http://emiworld.org/donate_staff.php, and follow the instructions for donating to a project trip volunteer. You will, of course, be provided a receipt for your tax-deductible donation.

I am thankful for each of you, for your time reading this, and for the prayer and financial support that you will provide in this wonderful opportunity.

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.

— Romans 15:13

Sincerely,

Preston