Title

Brad - Structural Engineer

Contact Info:        

Office:  +256-41-426-7849

Moblie: +256-77-561-7079

Brad@emiea.org

Alisha@emiea.org

Blog:/5crawfords.blogspot.com

Crawfords' Story

Our story of coming to eMi East Africa is pretty unique in that neither Alisha or I had ever considered overseas missions work 2 years prior to moving here.  But God is a big and creative God, and He can put unlikely people in unlikely places to accomplish His will regardless of what our plans are for our own lives.

We first learned of eMi in January 2006 from some friends who were moving to Colorado Springs and trying to lure us there as well.  But we had been hearing the call to ministry in our lives dating back into college when I wasn’t sure that engineering was the path God wanted for my life.  But hearing no other particular direction, I finished my degree and entered the workforce still unconvinced that my long-term plans included engineering. When I first heard about eMi, I was initially not interested.  I think I was as unlikely a candidate for overseas missions as you could find, as I very much disliked flying, am very close with my family and had no desire to travel overseas, let alone to a third-world country!  As a kid, I was a big Keith Green fan, and I remember him saying at one point that as Christians, we are all called to ‘go’, and only those called to stay should be staying!  Well I remember being scared to death specifically because I didn’t want God to call me to be a missionary in Africa! I was also convinced that God was leading me out of engineering and into ministry, so eMi clearly wasn’t the organization for me!  But Alisha and I had three weeks prior begun to pray and fast one day per week to dedicate ourselves to discovering God’s will for our lives in the coming years.  So in two weeks time, God (through Alisha) convinced me that this was something I should at least look into, and 1 month later I was on a plane heading to Uganda for a project trip! While I was on the trip, God was speaking to Alisha that He was wanting us to possibly move there.  And while I didn’t feel that strong of a call at the time, I did feel very comfortable here and had the feeling that I could actually see us living here if that’s what God wanted. So when I returned, we discussed the possibility thoroughly, and 6 months later we both travelled here together to ‘scout’ it out to see if our family really could live here.  While we were here, I felt the same as before – no strong calling but like it could definitely work if God called us here – but Alisha ‘red-lined’, which is to say she panicked and in her mind there was no way she wanted to move here, even though many of the concerns we had for our family prior to coming over seemed to be resolved by what we found when we were here. So when we returned home, our families were relieved to hear that we were not moving to Uganda!  And really, we didn’t discuss it at all for at least the next two months.  But lingering in the back of our minds was the question – ‘Why are we not considering this anymore?’  So finally, Alisha asked me that question one night, and that led to two weeks of conversation and prayer that ultimately ended in a decision that we would pursue moving our family to Uganda to join eMi EA. Of course, there was the one small detail of support-raising, which to me was a more daunting task that moving to Africa!  I had never done anything like that, and I just could not imagine being able to raise the kind of money that was required to move here.  So a part of me was feeling like, “Ok God, I’ll say yes, but I really don’t think it’s possible to raise the money.”  Well, with the help of some dear friends who made us a short DVD to send out with our letter, our targeted amount was raised in just over 3 months!  I can’t explain how it happened, because apart from the DVD and letter we mailed out, we never actually asked anyone for money.  But as I read in one of the support-raising books we read, God will always provide the resources necessary for you to accomplish the things He calls you to do.  It was easy to read that, but until we actually saw Him do it in our lives, it was hard to imagine it really happening.

So here we are in Uganda, sad to be 10,000 miles from home and our treasured friends and family, but excited about what God is doing here and how He will use us to join eMi in impacting the lives of the people of East Africa and share the Good News of Christ’s love with these wonderful people we get to live amongst.

Joined eMi EA:  Arrived January 2008

Family:  Brad is the youngest of 5 kids, Alisha is the youngest of 2 kids.  We have 3 boys of our own:  Brodie (5-21-01), Jonah (2-10-03) & Graysen (8-9-04) 

Professional Training & Experience:  BS in Civil Engineering from University of California at Davis; 12 years professional experience at firms in Oregon & California providing structural design commercial and residential projects; obtained Civil license in 2001 in California and Oregon.

Ministry Experience:  High School Coordinators from 1998 to 2000, College Group Leaders in 2002-2003 at Tablerock Fellowship in Medford, Oregon.

Life Verses:        

Psalms 25:4-5 – “Show me the right path to take, oh Lord, point out the road for me to follow.  Lead me by your truth and teach me, for you are the God who saves me.  All day long I will put my hope in you.”

Ephesians 3:20 – “Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to him be glory…”