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HILLSBOROUGH: Reinhardts will dedicate life skills to help in Africa

They’re looking for donations to support their engineering mission work

By Deb Dawson, Special Writer
Jason Reinhardt, son of Gene and Diana Reinhardt, who live on Amwell Road, is moving to Uganda in February to help the poor.
For the past 12 years he has worked with Engineering Ministries International (EMI), an organization that provides engineering to missions located in the developing world.
Mr. Reinhardt is trying to raise $25,000 in support for transportation and living expenses for one year abroad. He has already raised $5,000. The money will go toward airline tickets for himself, his wife and two sons, storage for his furniture in the U.S. (they live in Colorado), security in Uganda, work papers, visas, immunizations, malaria pills, speech therapy for his oldest son and schooling for his oldest child, who is three.
He anticipates that he’ll do design work for up to 15 different projects in Uganda. In the past EMI has designed such things as orphanages, schools, hospitals, churches and clean water pipelines. By design he said he means "taking the missionary’s vision, putting it on paper and handling the construction management.
"We try to bring those who work in the construction a sense of work and nurture them, care for them, and show God’s love for them," he said.
In the 12 years that he has worked for EMI he has traveled to 15 countries, including the Czech Republic, Sierra Leone, Honduras, Ethiopia, Jordan, China, Kenya, Egypt and Tanzania.
He got started in the field after a college study abroad in South Africa.
"It was there my heart broke for the poor," he said. "I realized contentment wasn’t tied to how much (money) you have. I would do something that was actually going to help people. I wanted to do something that was actually going to fulfill people’s needs rather than fulfill people’s wants," he said.
Other than a quick stint working at a church camp, this is all that his has done since graduating from the University of Delaware in 1998.
"My ‘motto’ in high school was "do good and have fun doing it,’" he said. "My sophomore year of college I committed my life to Christ. In my study abroad in South Africa, I helped serve in an orphanage where children has lost their parents to AIDS. It was there that I determined that I didn’t want to get a job that would just make a rich person richer, and that I would find more satisfaction in fulfilling people’s needs rather than filling people’s wants." Mr. Reinhardt and his wife, Jalina, are 35. She is a nurse, and will also volunteer part-time at the local orphanage and medical clinic while they are in Africa.
His mother, Diana, said, "Jason was very active in Sunday school, Vacation Bible School and youth group in our church." She and her husband are affiliated with Clover Hill Reformed Church. Mrs. Reinhardt said her son has received some support from churches here, most of them Reformed, and from some individuals as well.
His father, Gene, said, "There was a lot of surprise" about his mission career decision.
"He was loving, always happy, very outgoing. In terms of school and studies, he was always more interested in philosophy, psychology. His strengths were in math and science, which lead him to engineering. We created a culture in our family of trying to help others. We tried to maintain a giving state of affairs in the family."
To help support Mr. Reinhardt’s mission trip to Kampala, Uganda, donations can be made online at www.emiworld.org. Checks may also be sent with account #2050 indicated on the memo line, to EMI, 130 E. Kiowa, Suite 200, Colorado Springs, CO 80903.