With over 2,200 projects completed worldwide, EMI is a ministry that gets things done. We mobilize amazing design professionals, fellows, and interns with a heart for missions. Together with our staff, and with the support of our donors, we help ministries fulfill their purpose and impact lives for generations to come.
Become an integral part of planning and creating long-lasting change domestically and internationally by signing up to The BLUEPRINT as a monthly donor today!
Your support makes project trips around the globe possible, trips like EMI Canada's upcoming mission to Ecuador to support the design of a birthing house and EMI Canada's work to help Grace Church on the Drive in Vancouver to reimagine their space to better serve the local community—and the Great Commission.
Serving Moms and Babies in Ecuador
This June, a team from EMI Canada will be heading to Ecuador to meet with Fundación Pachamama, an organization dedicated to conservation of the Amazon rainforest who also have a special focus on maternal and infant mortality.
In the remote Amazon basin where the Achuar and Shuar peoples live, access to health care for mothers and infants is extremely limited. Fundación Pachamama has developed a program that trains Indigenous women to act as community health workers. The women are now conducting prenatal visits, attending births, providing postnatal care, and acting as a connection to the public health care system.
EMI Canada has been asked to help with a critical piece of Fundación Pachamama’s vision for the region: the construction of a birthing house. The facility will consist of four rooms for birthing, ultrasound scans, initial treatment, emergency treatment, medical storage, and 24-7 midwifery support.
Essential to the hygiene requirements of the birthing house will be a clean, reliable water source. EMI Canada will be assessing the available municipal water supply and creating a concept plan for the backup water and wastewater systems. EMI Canada will also provide a cursory architectural, structural, and electrical review to the building plans already created by Fundación Pachamama.
While the practical needs are great in this isolated area of the rainforest, the spiritual need is also great. Most people in the Achuar and Shuar people groups have never heard the Good News of the Gospel. This is an exciting opportunity for EMI Canada to go as the hands and feet of Jesus into a place where the Gospel has not yet reached.
Please pray for our team as they pave the way for other ministries to serve God and share His love with the Achuar and Shuar.
A New Vision for an Old Space
Grace Church on the Drive is a Cantonese-language church that has grown five-fold, with many of their new members immigrating from Hong Kong. Their 100-year-old building has served them well, but with the recent growth, the church is considering a significant interior renovation to allow for enhanced church functions and unique community outreach opportunities.
With little idea of where to start, Grace Church reached out to EMI Canada for visioning and planning work. EMI Canada was identified by the church as the perfect blend of technical design and planning skills with the heart of a ministry.
Earlier this month, a team from EMI Canada traveled to Vancouver to help the church clarify their vision, identify potential technical risks, and meet with church leaders to discuss programming needs.
While several technical challenges were evident, an exciting list of possibilities began to take shape that would open the doors of the church to the surrounding community. Potential uses for their ground floor space include a coffee shop/library, administration offices, counselling rooms, and multi-purpose space to accommodate other opportunities like kickboxing, after-school programs, and more.
EMI Canada will provide Grace Church with a report outlining an initial spatial relationship concept for the ground floor space, as well as a list of potential challenges, roadblocks, and risks to be anticipated when renovating a 100-year-old building in a large city. When complete, it will be a fresh new beginning for the church and the community they serve.
Like the birthing house in Ecuador and Grace Church on the Drive in Vancouver, EMI Canada plays a crucial role in developing a safe, secure foundation on which ministries can flourish as they share the Gospel in word and deed. For EMI Canada, that foundation is built on the support we receive from individuals and ministries equipping us to go out and share God's word with the world.
Your gift to EMI Canada through the EMI Fund will help us to continue designing a world of hope that impacts individuals and communities for generations to come. Please give now to begin building a better future today.