Now granted, I'm not in Calgary yet, but while I wait here in eMi's Colorado's office for something more useful to do, there is much to tell about precisely how I got here.
I decided a long time ago that I wanted to serve with Engineering Ministries International for a semester after I graduated from architecture school. I originally found out about eMi during my freshmen year at Carnegie Mellon University. Our Intervarsity chapter had a guest speaker from eMi come to talk to us. My friend and future roommate changed her major to civil engineering because of that talk. I actually don't remember much about what was talked about.
As I went on with school, I could not help but be sometimes frustrated with architecture. Even though I had talent in it, I was struck by how futile it felt to be designing fancy buildings for rich people. My internships proved to be much of the same. The architecture firm that I worked for one summer had to accommodate the request of a client for a huge 6' thick backyard pizza oven with a built in plasma screen which might be used once a year. Although they decided against this, I could not believe how some people spent their money.
While being frustrated with architecture school, I went on many missions trips while in college, doing homeless ministry and VBS camps. I ended up spending three spring breaks in Kensington, one of the most dangerous, drug-infested neighborhoods in Philadelphia. When compared to architecture school, these were some of the few times I felt truly alive during the semester.
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| Philly Missions 2010 |
During this time of my education, many natural disasters happened: Hurricane Katrina, the Haiti earthquake, the Japan tsunami, etc. I remember very clearly feeling so paralyzed, not knowing how much money to donate and to whom and simultaneously realizing that I could not possibly give enough to help the problem much. Then, I remember the light bulb coming on: I was in architecture. I could actually physically help people in need. I already knew about Shigeru Ban, an architect who designed emergency shelters with cardboard tubes. This simple material change prevented the tent supports from being sold to make weapons and tents left un-usable. I was inspired at how such a small thing could have such a big impact.
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Shigeru Ban's refugee tents
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After my roomate served with eMi and visiting several eMi info sessions at Urbana 09, I decided to apply to eMi for the summer term after I graduated, because I'd have more experience to offer. Because they had an extremely large amount of applicants for the summer term, eMi rejected my summer application. I was really bummed because it was the only thing I wanted to do for the summer. During my spring break, my mom told me of some project needs that she saw on eMi Canada's website. She encouraged me to email Steve, the Canadian office leader. I emailed Steve and recieved a nice email back encouraging me to apply to eMi later and that he himself was not able to do engineering missions until later in his life. Although the email was encouraging, I was still discouraged that I was still not able to serve.
Literally two days after that email was sent, Steve sent me another email saying that the Canadian architectural intern position had suddenly opened up. I saw this as a huge answer to prayer and said yes but I would pray about it. I quickly did all my fundraising in about a month, which in and of itself was a huge miracle. I was very blessed in the fundraising, because many of the donations came from people I wouldn't have expected and the amounts some people were donating were mind-boggling to me. Furthermore, just the amount of people who said they would be praying for me was amazing.
So although I was prepared to leave for Canada on June 1st, life is nothing but unexpected.
My last two years of school, I was involved with our school's Urban Design Build Studio. While I was getting ready to come to eMi, my design build project was going along as many design build projects usually do, which is to say, horribly behind-schedule. Our project leader and professor mandated that we must finish the project to get our degrees. In retrospect, this was a wise decision, given that the project would not have gotten done if people were to start leaving. About a week before I was to leave for eMi, we were still painting the pieces of the barely-constructed structure and nowhere near done. I had two commitments that were both important to me. Unless I could find a time-turner, a tough decision needed to be made.
I talked to a ton of people, prayed a ton, and thought a ton. In the end, I decided that I needed to be someone who has personal honor and upheld my previous commitment of finishing up the UDBS first even though I desperately wanted to serve with eMi. I am reminded of Colossians 3:23-24 "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving." I was working for God and I needed to glorify him in my schoolwork as well as in the missions field. Even though I was very upset, I felt at peace with this decision and I made a difficult phone call to delay my internship with eMi to the fall term.
So here I am, sitting at eMi's Colorado office, desk, just feet from the people who that answered my bad-news phone call from a few months ago. It's really weird to be thinking about this now, but I believe that God had some plan in it all. I have already been blessed by getting to know the interns in this semesters and I'm sure God has a plan in this, even if it really doesn't make much sense right now.
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