What the What?

The Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) in charge of Nangarhar Province wherein our community center project is to be located just authorized full funding for both the construction of the entire site and three years of program. Obviously, this is an amazing, border-line miraculous turn of events. I came into EMI believing projects would take months to design and perhaps years to construct. I certainly didn't expect to see the fruits of my labors during my short stint here. I cannot fathom the number and complexity of the divine appointments involved in having this project move ahead so quickly. Furthermore, just about every PRT in Afghanistan is interested in the concept and will be watching our project, looking for future funding ventures.

The ministry and the PRT are now looking for someone to live in Afghanistan for between 6 and 12 months to oversee construction. I have minimal background in construction management--I took one class in college--but this seems like an awesome opportunity to continue the work God started ever so long ago, and I am seriously considering volunteering. I don't know the specifics of how the job would work, or what qualifications I should have, but at this point I am intimately familiar with the project and could certainly offer onsite design feedback. One thing I anticipate for whomever manages this project is that, as more and more groups become interested in and supporting of the community center concept, this job may extend into potential perpetuity as some people expect around 1000 centers to be built.

As this is the only opportunity that has been revealed to me so far, I would greatly appreciate any prayers on my behalf for guidance through this process. I previously stated I didn't feel called specifically back to Central Asia, and even if I find myself there for several more months or even years, I still don't think it is my final work.

Another thing: a fellow Pacific Christian Fellowship student contacted me yesterday to ask me about what I was doing with EMI and, more specifically, how I felt led into this ministry. He wants to apply some of the lessons the group is learning to real life by connecting with a kingdom worker with whom the students may relate. I am excited about getting other students to consider how they can give their lives back to God, and sharing my few experiences of how God has given me life back again more abundantly than before.

As I continue to assess my options for ministry after EMI, I fear I may need to find a paying job to fund this semester's and future expenses. Even more, I fear I will be blinded and deafened by financial constraints that I won't be able to hear God's calling, be that into another support-driven ministry or again into commercial engineering or something entirely different. I don't want money to drive my decisions, but accept that it may be a medium through which God speaks. It's complicated. I wanted it to be simple. Too bad I can't live off theology.

Toodles, friends!