Dirk and Joy Anderson

Ministry Focus

eMi is a non-profit Christian development organization made up of architects, engineers, surveyors and design professionals who donate their skills to help children and families around the world step out of poverty and into a world of hope. Partnering with indigenous evangelistic ministries already reaching the poor, volunteer technical professionals are mobilized on international short-term trips to provide design assistance through development projects. In addition to new planning or design, Disaster Response assessment teams have become technical experts to Christian relief agencies. Our services fill the void where local design resources are not available, affordable or trustworthy. eMi project trips generate culturally pertinent, well-designed facilities for the poor, expanding outreach for the Gospel, and transforming volunteers in their perspective of world missions. 

Primary Ministry Activities

Having recently joined eMi staff at their Colorado Springs sending office, Dirk is a project trip leader and staff leader. His role includes organizing three project trips annually, along with scouting out new projects, recruiting volunteers, mentoring interns, shepherding teams, and completing projects for our client ministries.

Personal Journey - Call to Christ

Dirk: I grew up with moral parents, yet only went to church on holidays. We finally went to church after my continual prodding during Jr. High. I quickly trusted in Christ at a summer camp and became involved both in Youth Group as well as in Campus Life, growing through their leadership. In college I was involved with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship and continued to grow as a Christian by participating in the work and leadership of the ministry. The Lord continues to ignite my faith and refine my dependence on Him as He opens me to the magnitude of His redemptive heart for His people.

Joy: I attended a Christian school in my elementary years and youth group in middle and high school years, however, my parents did not attend church and God was rarely discussed at home. It wasn’t until the end of my senior year, when my neighbor shared a gospel track with me, that I realized I needed Christ desperately. His forgiveness of my sins and acceptance of me as His daughter overwhelmingly completed me and I haven’t looked back. I went to college running towards God and immediately became aware of how much I needed other people. He used InterVarsity to open my eyes and heart to those around me and to the leadership skills he wanted me to use for His glory. It was here He also introduced me to my best friend and husband.

Call to Missions Service

Dirk: Coming from a bi-cultural family, experiencing a variety of cultures has opened my heart far beyond our borders. Having a part in reaching the world for Christ has long been on my heart as I have been exposed to a strong influence toward missions through InterVarsity as well as the churches I (we) have attended in addition to committing to support other missionaries. During my initial short-term architecture trip with eMi, along with ensuing projects, I experienced the joy of God using a specific passion and skill that He has equipped incombination with extending the hope of the Gospel in cultures that have been narrowly reached. All this while being exposed to tremendous poverty and injustice in the world. This exposure catalyzed my desire to become fully engaged in serving Him throughout the world - in any place and with any people. I’m excited to engage in what seems like a ‘secular’ vocation within the tremendous context of worldwide missions.

 Joy: I first became aware of God’s call to me to serve Him when I was very young, through the example of a babysitter who went on to become a missionary herself. Her example brought ‘the world’ to the farm kid I knew to be me. My call to missions since then has been a continual unfolding and stretching of the heart. God has used my own brokenness and given me a heart for those who are hurting and lost and thirst for more. I have had many opportunities to spur on others to that person we all thirst for, Christ. In InterVarsity and through architecture, God knit Dirk’s and my hearts together with a passion to reach the world for Christ. We have experienced great joy in going on short term trips and supporting other missionaries for years. When we were first married I thought it would be only a brief time before we would go to the mission field. However, God had much more to do before I would find the same joy in pursuing, with abandon, that dream. eMi has been the doorway.

Prayer Requests

• That each of us will unabashedly pursue Christ for God's glory and worship.
• That our obedience to sharing Christ will surpass our fears above anything else.
• That we will be sensitive to where God is working and follow Him faithfully.
• That God will complete our ministry support team, having already transitioned to Colorado.
• That we will ... design a world of hope.

Support Needs

Because EMI donates their services, staff members raise their full support. Our approved monthly goal covers ministry and living expenses, self-employment taxes and medical insurance. Funds can be sent to the following address with a note that designates it for the Andersons, account no. 2112:

Engineering Ministries International
130 E. Kiowa, Suite 200
Colorado Springs, CO 80903