Patrick and Joan: Home Again - with reflections

Monday, August 27, 2007

Home Again - with reflections

Remembering our time in Uganda, the beautiful people and the sharing of a vision with ROTOM.

Patrick goofing off with some kids from a local orphanage.

Joan enjoying a moment with the case workers Edith, Sarah, and Admin asst. Elizabeth of ROTOM.

Joan goofing off with her Canada stickers. One Big Family.

Yep....that's a live goat on the back of this bike.

At another orphanage for babies-toddlers.....these little ones were desparate to be picked up and loved.

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Patrick's preparation for Uganda

On January 17th, I will be traveling to Uganda for one month to once again help with engineering work for organizations expanding their outreach to people living in poverty. My connection is through Engineering Ministries International’s ( www.emicanada.org ) office in Kampala, where they have an ever expanding list of projects needing topographic surveys. This work is a key requirement to help them move forward with the design of outreach facilities. Having been involved in international relief work for the past 9 years, I know that most of the rest of the world doesn’t even come close to having the qualitiy of life that we do. This helped me define my personal mission statement: • To show God’s love in all that I do • To advocate for people in need • To encourage and engage others to be a part of this worthwhile force With that, I am asking you to consider the following: 1. Providing prayer support for me as I travel and serve in Africa; specifically for: a. Safe Travel b. Health c. Attaining the project goals while fully realizing mission statements above d. Holding up my family while I am away 2. Partnering with me to help cover the costs. Design professionals such as myself, who volunteer their services to eMi, are required to raise their own support for travel, which in my case is approximately $2700. Tax deductable donations can be forwarded to eMi Canada at 4626 Bowness Rd. NW Calgary, AB T3B 0B3 (please specify on separate note “mission support for Patrick Cochrane”). Or you can go to http://www.emicanada.org/donate.shtm to donate online. 3. Maybe you have already discovered and are fulfilling your purpose in helping others; thanks for your part. But maybe this is prompting you to have a look at how you are able to get connected in some type of outreach. Everyone has talents, abilities, resources, and a deep (and sometimes hidden) desire to help make this world a better place. I encourage you to seek that out and go for it!

DART : Disaster Assistance Response Team - Nov. 2008.

EMI's vision for disaster response is to anticipate, assess, and respond to unmet needs of the poor within days of any disaster worldwide with fully equipped EMI response teams trained in disaster assessment and technical consulting

Our assessment of the water supply led us down a kilometer long lava rock encrusted trail that dropped 40 meters to the shore of Lake Kivu, where we passed 30 mostly young children carrying water jugs back up to their huts in the camp. One little girl, sobbing as she was carrying her jug up the trail, was most likely suffering from cholera, coupled with the distress of walking on the sharp lava rock with bare feet. This sight really pulled at my heart, and added to the urgency of need and intensity of effort to get potable water up to their camp....this is engineering in a disaster...

In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) six million people have been killed in a dozen years from violence and war related illness. Millions of people have had their lives disrupted having to uproot their families out of war zones and into the Internally Displaced People (IDP) camps. When Scott Powell, eMi's DART coordinator made a call for volunteers to join a DART, I was definitely interested as it offered a great opportunity to engage and leverage my faith, heart, and abilities to help and encourage people in need. Three days later I was on a flight to Goma, DRC, with John Wilder, another long time eMi volunteer and civil engineer. Upon arrival, I remember well the sense of being overwhelmed by the deplorable conditions with the immense needs that existed in the IDP camps. Even the week long DART training I went through couldn't fully prepare me for that scene. But leaning heavily on my faith helped me realize that I had been prepared for and positioned right where God wanted me to be, and this became a powerful driving force.

Our role as an eMi DART was to compliment Samaritan's Purse's disaster response with technical support in water & sanitation (Wat/San) activities at these IDP camps. Because of the increase in cholera throughout the region, the relief community was pushing to have safe water and sanitation needs addressed. Unlike a typical eMi design trip where the team is designing infrastructure for construction sometime down the road, a DART assignment presses not only for a design, but an expedient one with an immediate implementation. Our response as a DART in DRC drew upon a wide variety of design and practical skills, coupled with a keen assessment of what was available and appropriate to use in this disaster situation. For 19 days we were able to initiate or continue a number of projects providing purified water, latrines, and promotion of personal hygiene at these camps.

A special tribute came when we were at one of the camps and the people gathered around us started applauding our efforts. Without the need for translation, my response was a simple gesture of pointing upwards and then to my heart. It was clearly understood by those surrounding us with affirmative nodding and like gestures. It's not hard for people to see hope through someone who is helping to improve the quality of life such as that experienced in an IDP camp. It was an absolute honour to serve and and show God's love in the DRC, to advocate for His people in need, and to now share, encourage, and hopefully engage others to be a part of this worthwhile force.

Brenden and Patrick - together on a Mission trip

1 John 3:17-18

If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.

September 2008.

Next week, my son Brenden & I will be traveling to Chiapas, Mexico for 2 weeks as the team surveyors helping to develop a Master Plan for an orphanage and outreach facilities. We will be a part of a team of design professional volunteers serving with Engineering Ministries International http://www.emicanada.org/ Our team will be led by Tom Bastian from eMi's Costa Rica office. We will be helping guide the missions organization El Faro de Esperanza as to how best develop their 105 acre ranchland property to meet the needs of serving orphaned and abandoned children. Brenden, who just turned 24, has been working for the past year as a chainman (surveyor's helper) for Midwest Surveys out of Grande Prairie, Alberta, and has found much satisfaction and challenge in this work. He approached me and asked if we could go on a trip together to carry out a survey. Of course I didn't have to think about that at all. He reminds me that his intent is to "hang" with me and share our survey skills, and not to make it sound any nobler than that...Little does he know! What's also interesting about this trip is that after I signed up for it, I learned they were looking for help designing fish ponds for Tilapia. So I will also be able to share my skills in fish habitat restoration; albeit I have to crossover from salmonids and study up on Tilapia culture. Please hold us in your prayers as we travel, serve, and learn more about what it means to be a follower of Christ. This is a most opportune time for Brenden to be a part of a faith community. Please also pray for the security of our equipment in transit and service, as it is quite valuable and integral to completing our part of the project. And for Joan, whose love, support, and encouragement enable me to serve. Grateful to share this with you, Patrick

Description of the Land Patrick and Brenden will survey

The 43 Hectors of ranch land that currently has ¼ pasture for grazing cattle in has one small creek that passes through it even though the neighbor next door placed a dam over it. There is also have a 80 meter section of creek that passes through on corner and this creek supposedly never dries.The satellite view of the ranch shows 400 meters wide at the front where the entrance is from the Pan American highway and it has a depth of almost 1Kilometer on the right side of the property. Lots of mango, coconut and banana trees along wth various other fruit trees are on the property.The road to the back of the property where we want to build the village passes through the first creek.

Patrick and Joan

Monday, August 27, 2007

Home Again - with reflections

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Patrick's preparation for Uganda

Donate on-line

Impacting others

DART : Disaster Assistance Response Team - Nov. 2008.

Brenden and Patrick - together on a Mission trip

The Ministry

Lost and Found International, Chiapas, Mexico

Description of the Land Patrick and Brenden will survey

The site picture

Staff Missionaries at eMiC

Platial MapKit

eMiC Projects 2007

eMi Offices around the World

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