Book of the Month: Factfulness

by Rachel

It's actually probably been years, but we used to have a blog feature entitled "Book of the Month."  There are a number of books our team has read which have informed our views and thoughts.  You're welcome to check them out here.

So, a few months ago I was reading Melinda Gates's new book, The Moment of Lift.  Excellent book, by the way (even though it's not the focus of this post).  I loved getting to read about the amazing work the Gates Foundation is doing to promote the development and empowering of women around the world.  Each chapter focuses on a different aspect of difficulties that women face, and people/organizations around the world working to ensure that each woman is seen as a life that is valuable; in fact, a life that has equal value to those around her.  Apparently, when the Gateses were forming their organization, they leaned heavily on the advice and wisdom of a man named Hans Rosling, a medical doctor and professor of international health.  He too had written a book....so off I went to check it out.

Hans Rosling was a Swedish doctor who spent years working in Mozambique and the Congo.  He then moved into more public health roles and investigated a number of disease outbreaks (including the 2014 West Africa ebola epidemic).  He passed away in 2017, and the book Factfulness was his last work.  Dr. Rosling's premise is basically that the world is a much better place than we think it is.

He uses a number of actual statistics from the world--infant mortality, life expectancy, kids attending school, average household income, even number of endangered species--to demonstrate that while most people interviewed will guess that things are getting worse, statistics show the opposite: that things have actually been improving over the past several generations.  Not only does he use statistics to demonstrate this, but the book is divided into 10 chapters of WHY he thinks we view the world the way we do.

As an American, coming from one of the most affluent countries in the world, who has now moved to Burundi, one of the most impoverished countries in the world, reading the book was actually surprisingly eye opening.  I tend to think of the world as either the "American" camp or the "Burundian" camp, while in reality there are so many more middle countries than either extremely rich or extremely poor.  You can't put Burundi in the same category as South Africa, or Egypt, or Thailand, or India.  Life expectancy and income are much higher for the average citizen of one of those countries than Burundi or Malawi, for example.  Rosling demonstrates that many of us use an "us and them" mentality when we look at the world, instead of recognizing that there are many different levels of poverty and development, and that the difference between a salary of $1/day and $4/day can have exponential benefits for the individual and society.

One of the lines Rosling uses towards the end of the book is this: The world can be bad, but getting better at the same time.  He's not asking us to pretend that everything everywhere is ok.  It's clearly not, and there are many many problems to overcome and injustices to surmount.  But, we can also celebrate the work and developments that have occurred over the last 100 years, even 10 years, as well.  That knowledge can give us hope that our efforts and the efforts of so many are not in vain.

As an addendum, I'm including some of his data graphics below.  The book is full of them, and it's a book that's fun and easy to read.  You can also compare your knowledge of the world to various Nobel laureates, billionaires, scientists, and chimpanzees...and see how you stack up. ;)

More African Children's Books

by Rachel

Several years ago, I posted a very short blog on some of our favorite African children's books.  Maggie was just starting to get interested in reading, and we had a total of 4-5 books with a Swahili/East Africa theme to them.  Over the past several years, we've acquired a few more but there don't seem to be a ton of children's books featuring African countries or themes.  Lots of books about animals, I suppose, but not so many on African kids.  Well, Jess has been doing some research on good African books to use in our home school curriculum next year.  Since our family was state-side with access to an awesome library, we were the guinea pigs who were sent to check out the books and see if they were appropriate to use or not.  It was so fun!  And now, several months later, I feel like I've probably read over 75% of all the books in print in this category. :)  Here are some of our favorites if you want to check them out with your kids.

Africa is not a Country  I love this one because it really highlights the fact that there are over 60 countries on the continent of Africa, and talks about a typical day in the life of a kid in many of those countries.  Nice pictures and maps, and serves to educate people in a fun way about Africa's differences, not just similarities.

Nelson Mandela's Favorite African Folk Tales  This one is also great...a collection of folk tales from many different countries in Africa, assembled by Mandela.  The audio version is cool and award-winning, read by such celebrities as Samuel Jackson and Whoopi Goldberg.  And as with many African children's books, the artwork is fantastic.  I liked the fact that the stories came from all over the continent.  There are lots of collections of folk tales out there, but this is one of the best.

Wangari's Trees of Peace  My mom got us this one.  It's about a Nobel Peace Prize winner, a Kenyan woman (Wangari) who got Kenyan village women to start planting trees in order to improve deforestation.  Good message, good awareness of a problem and the woman who found a simple solution, and good artwork.

Mama Panya'a Pancakes  This is a cute story about how generosity leads to more generosity.  In other words, a little boy invites all his friends and neighbors in a small Kenyan village to eat pancakes with him and his mother.  His mother is worried they won't have enough food.  But when their friends show up, everyone brings some food along and they have a fun time together.

There are also many stories I found about the perseverance and ingenuity of children in a variety of contexts and countries.  In particular, I enjoyed Galimoto (A Reading Rainbow book about a little boy  in Malawi who makes a toy out of wires),  Yatandou (the story of a girl in Mali who helps her village rent a machine to grind millet), One Hen (how a boy in Ghana used a few coins to buy a chicken and eventually an entire farm), One Plastic Bag (a woman in Guinea who recycles plastic bags/trash to make crafts for sale), and The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (the inspiring story of a boy in Malawi who made a windmill to power his family's farm by looking at a library book).    It was great to check these out, and I look forward to another installment of books written for the 9-12 age group.

Book of the Month: Being Mortal

(by Eric)

Several years ago, we did a BOTM post on Atul Gawande's book Better.  Gawande is a surgeon and writes with an incredible sensitivity and appreciation for digging deep enough into an issue to appreciate its nuances.  His style is reminiscent of a medical Malcolm Gladwell.

I first heard about his new book Being Mortal one Sunday at Kibuye, when Jason was reading it outside his house on his Kindle.  (Marvels of technology...)  Arriving back in the US, my desire to read it intensified.  Why?

Because Gawande has raised issues that American society has a desperate need to have articulated.  The population is aging, and the idea I hear the most is this:  I would be happy to live and long and productive life, or I could die tomorrow.  It doesn't matter.

However, this is an awfully incomplete sentiment, since the majority of people will not experience either of these alternatives.  The norm, for better or worse, has become a life that ends only after a significant period of increasing dependence and disability.  And we don't know what to do about it.  So we don't really talk about it, and we barely think about it.

Enter Being Mortal.  One of its main points is that the medical field is ill-equipped to navigate this conundrum, because it is a kind of historical accident that society has ended up putting the aging culture in the hands of the medical establishment.  So, as a doctor, the book is useful in helping me recognize my own feelings about aging and end-of-life care.

It is a very personal book, where Gawande shares stories from his grandmother-in-law and his father, and well as a wonderful story about his grandfather in India, which he uses to debunk the idealism of the traditional model of caring for the aged at home.  He talks about deciding when too much medical care is too much.  And he talks about retirement communities, assisted living, nursing homes, and hospice, all in great depth.  He often speaks about how things don't work, but he also showcases several people thinking outside the box to find improvements and bring these important aspects of society into better focus.

He doesn't answer all the questions, but he gets our cerebral wheels turning, and does leave the reader with some helpful take-home points.  He is (as far as I can tell) a nominal Hindu and a functional secular humanist, so he doesn't have much to say about death itself (and what may or may not come after).  As a Christian, I can look elsewhere for that.

Rachel and I find ourselves discussing his ideas with almost everyone we meet.  We've roundly recommended it, and even bought it for some people.  As one reviewer said:  Only read this book if you will ever grow old and/or die.

Book of the Month: A Praying Life

(from Eric)

The current McCropder team book study is on "A Praying Life" by Paul Miller, who helped to found our mission agency, World Harvest Mission.  We've been enjoying it immensely, and I still think the most succinct way of getting at the heart of the book was the first comment I ever heard about it: "Amazing, here is a book about the importance of prayer that doesn't make me feel guilty!"  Though that statement may sound weird to someone who is not a Christian, I would imagine most Christians would have no trouble identifying with the idea.

But to frame a description in positive terms, Paul Miller founds the idea of Christian prayer on the idea of dependency on God, our Heavenly Father.  We pray and we ask like little kids ask their parents, constantly and unashamedly, because we realize how powerless we are.  As our knowledge of our insufficiency increases, we will naturally pray more.  We stop praying when we (mistakenly) think that we are up to the task.  Thus Jesus prayed all the time, because he was supremely aware of his dependency on his Father.  Paul Miller says that he does his best parenting in prayer, which is to say that there is so much in his kids' lives that he cannot control, regardless of his efforts, so what better thing can he do than to bring his needs and concerns to his loving Father, who actually is able to help?

Since starting work at Kibuye Hope Hospital, the percentage of our life over which we have no control has increased.  (And, truth be told, it wasn't overwhelmingly high before that)  To put in another way, the illusion of the degree of control I have over my life has been partially undone.  I can't treat this problem.  I have no way of knowing what is going on here.  This system seems indecipherable to me.  I can't figure out how to explain this adequately in a foreign language.  I don't even know what I don't know, so how do I move forward?  I can't do this.

But we can pray.  And we do.  We pray before we round.  We pray before we head to work.  We pray before we operate.  We pray at bedsides, in conference rooms, and in quiet offices.  We need help.  More to the point, we realize that we need help, and so we pray.

There is so much that we can't do.  But let us fill Kibuye Hope Hospital with a reliance on a good God who is indeed present with us, and who is even now working out his unseen plans among us.  To become "A Praying Hospital" is no consolation prize, and the temptation (for all us) to think of it that way is another evidence of our illusion of control and sufficiency.  Wouldn't it be better to stop praying and get on with doing something about it?  No.  Not really.  Because I can't, really.

All of this would be bad news, were it not for a Goodness and a Grace that is more solid and more real than all the evil and the darkness that is or that ever will be.  But given the reality that is ours, we will come, we will ask, and we will trust.

Book of the Month: The Fate of Africa

(By: Eric McLaughlin)

 

 

I like to borrow books from the Faders.  They are focused readers.  Not exactly the place to go for leisurely fiction, but if you want some good perspectives on Burundi, Africa, International Development, Culture and Theology, Raising Kids Cross-Culturally, or Poverty Alleviation, they have some good choices.

So I borrow them from time to time, interspersed with some Agatha Christie and Stephen Lawhead to balance things out, and it leads to some very formative discussions.  In France, Jason was slowly working his way through a veritable tome that frankly scared the literary daylights out of me.  It was about 800 large pages with small print and small margins.  It was called "The Fate of Africa" by Meredith Martin, a history of the continent's first fifty years since independence.  The giant scope of the topic did nothing to alleviate my anxieties, but as Jason solidly extolled its merits, I decided to give it a go.  After I did, John devoured it in a record 10 days (pressured speech, spending sprees, and other clinical signs of mania being absent at the time.)

Though it is not for the faint of heart or the person with only a passing interest in our fair continent, "The Fate of Africa" is definitely worth the effort.  He starts with the beginnings of the independence movement with Ghana, Cote d'Ivoire, and Egypt, and moves slowly forward, giving fascinating case stories of different countries at different times.  He's pretty equitable, so by the end, there aren't many countries left that you haven't heard a good bit about.  If you've ever been taken by a desire to have places like Malawi, Equatorial Guinea, and Central African Republic be more than a blank name on a map, then here's your chance.  The stories are very engaging, sometimes almost spellbinding, usually in their awfulness.

The reason Jason never made this a Book of the Month post is that it's hard to summarize something so huge, but I'll give a few things I took away:

1.  Martin has done his research really well.  The scope of his discussions necessitate that you often take his judgements at his word, but in general, I find myself trusting him.

2.  For several decades, the fate of African countries was strangely caught in the crossfire of the Cold War.  Western powers would support a despot out of fear that communists would gain a foothold there, and vice versa.  African leaders would play this dynamic up to their advantage.

3.  The Algerian War with France resulted in the end of the French government at that time, with General de Gaulle being called into power by popular acclaim, not a legal process, to restart the French republic.  It's interesting, since many military coups in Francophone Africa were by former soldiers of his, who took over the government, when it seemed defunct.

4.  Zimbabwe (Rhodesia) was led by a frankly racist white government that seceded from Britain to avoid Britain being able to set any eventual timeline for future black rule.  Mugabe's subsequent actions are still unjustified, but it's interesting to know what he was up against.

5.  The UN debacle of Somalia was unfortunately timed right before the Rwandan genocide, making everyone more reluctant to intervene than usual (plus all the Americans were watching a famous White Bronco car chase).  The story of Rwanda (and Burundi) is fascinating, especially as to how the conflict spread into Congo, and led to the toppling of the regime of the largest country in Africa.

6.  The first African head of state to lose an election and leave office was in 1991 in Benin. 1.9.9.1.  Wow.

7.  Nelson Mandela really was incredible, and his successor's bungling of the AIDS crisis is almost as incredible.

Lastly, I would have loved to hear him talk more about the one country which seems to be an exception to bad leadership, stagnant poverty, and an ever-widening gulf between rich and poor - namely, Botswana.  Quiet little Botswana somehow turned it's mineral wealth into a middle class and solid developmental progress and democracy.  How?  What did they do differently?  I guess any good non-fiction book leaves you with a good reading objective for the next book.

But I keep checking the Fader's bookshelves for a book on Botswana, and nothing has shown up yet.



Book of the Month: Healing Hereafter

by Rachel

This month, I have the special privilege of reviewing a book written by a good friend of all the McCropders, Jay Dykstra.  Jay, Eric, and John were all medical students and CMDA members together.  Jay and his family now live in western Michigan, where he works as a radiologist and faithfully supports lots of missionaries.  From what I remember, Jay’s book, Healing Hereafter, came out of the aftermath of Rob Bell’s controversial book Love Wins, where Bell argues against the existence of an eternal Hell.  Jay has worked extensively through the years mentoring high school and college students and has taken this opportunity to compile his thoughts and answers to tons of controversial and common questions raised by many Christians (both new and experienced).  Some of the questions he investigates include “Are children who die automatically guaranteed to go to Heaven?”  “Are we predestined to Heaven or Hell, and what does that mean?”  “Where do believers and non-believers go right after they die?”  “Is Hell eternal?”  “What does a Heaven free of sin mean for things such as free will?”  With admirable thoroughness, Jay spends almost 500 pages addressing these questions.

Let me start by saying that this book is absolutely recommended reading.  I may not necessarily agree with all of the conclusions that Jay comes to (not that he’s wrong, just that some things are hard to know) but the questions he writes to answer are important things for Christians to consider.  He spends some time at the beginning of the book arguing why the response of “God’s ways are higher than my own and I can’t hope to understand them, so they will just stay mysteries and I’m OK with that” isn’t a good way to look at things.  It was a good challenge for me to not just shy away from things that are confusing or uncomfortable and instead examine the evidence in front of me.  That being said, I still maintain that all of our logic is not going to get us to God; just because something “seems logical” to me does not mean that it is true of God, and that God’s infinite being and His infinite wisdom are beyond my complete understanding.

I realized as I was reading this book how many of my beliefs about the afterlife are not necessarily based on the Bible, but instead on what I would like to be the case.  I would like there not to be an Eternal Hell.  I would like that everyone goes to Heaven.  But Jay spends a lot of time reviewing Bible passages to see what is actually contained within on the topics of Heaven and Hell.  And I have to say that some of it was quite surprising to me, a lifelong Bible reader.  There was more than one occasion that I exclaimed out loud, “That’s in the Bible?!” and immediately double checked.  Jay is very thorough and goes over many arguments and counter-arguments as he works through his questions in a logical and systematic manner.  It’s quite a tome, not exactly light reading, but he does include several Cliff’s notes versions in the back, a condensed and ultra-condensed version of his arguments.  You might not like some of the conclusions he comes to, but he has spent a lot of time doing his homework on this and it’s all from the Bible.  Of course, two people can read the same passage and come to two different conclusions, but Jay’s reasoning makes sense.

I’m not much of a theologian.  I like to think in terms of practical and concrete.  I can’t sit down with Jay and have a deeply theological conversation about his conclusions.  But I know that the book helped me examine my beliefs on Heaven and Hell, come to some different conclusions than I had previously, and expand my knowledge of Scriptural teachings.  And on a brief side note, all the proceeds from this book will be donated to various charities supporting orphans, women, and families, so that alone is worth the purchase price. :)

Book of the Month: Ministering Cross-Culturally

(By Alyssa)

As we’ve mentioned previously on the blog, our training at Mission Training International has been invaluable to us. We’re especially putting into practice these days the concepts and exercises learned at the language acquisition course (PILAT) as we begin a new language with completely new sounds and utilize language partners to learn out of the classroom more than most of us did in France. The second course we all took at MTI (SPLICE) also included very valuable information and reflections for us such as insight into how we handle stress, deal with conflict, approach transitions, rest and keep the Sabbath, grieve losses, build community, endure and enjoy paradox, and face cultural differences. One book highly recommended relative to the last point was “Ministering Cross-Culturally”. I bought the book at MTI in May 2012 and finally read it on the plane to Burundi. :) But, I did find it fascinating and extremely relevant, so I thought I would review it here: 

The authors utilize Jesus’ incarnation into the Jewish culture of His day as an example of how we can become incarnational in the cultures we serve. We will never fully become Burundian but we can sacrificially adopt language and certain cultural ways of life to more effectively live out the gospel in community with them. That won’t be possible if we don’t first understand our own cultural background and biases and then also humbly observe and study the new culture’s values before passing judgment. Part of our time here at Banga is dedicated to observing the rural Burundian culture in addition to beginning language learning. The challenge is that language (of which there are four in Burundi) is just one of ten primary message systems found in every culture! 

After providing a basic values self-assessment, “Ministering Cross-Culturally” highlights 6 basic value categories where cultures tend to emphasize one side or the other of the spectrum. We don’t yet know experientially where the Burundians will fall in most of these categories, but likely significant differences will manifest themselves as we observe and function in the culture. We pray for grace to give and receive especially in those tensions! 

1. Tensions about time: Time versus Event orientation - concern for punctuality vs concern for the details of the event no matter how long it takes, concepts of lateness, etc. No question as to where most Americans fall on this spectrum! However, “our attitude should be the same as Christ Jesus, to satisfy the time and event priorities of others before considering our own.”
2. Tensions regarding judgment: dichotomistic vs. holistic thinking - black/white judgments vs. open-ended judgments.
3. Tensions associated with handling crises: crisis vs noncrisis orientation - anticipating crisis and emphasizing planning vs downplaying the possibility, delaying decisions, and focusing on actual experience. This will be interesting to observe in the hospital setting. In Kenya, there was certainly more of a noncrisis orientation and a lack of a sense of urgency that led to cross-cultural conflict at times. Developing relationships went a long way in narrowing that gap, though, so we begin to pray now for friendships with hospital staff. 
4. Tensions over goals: task vs. person orientation. The conflict is clear there! “Wherever we serve, our objective should be to live in such a way that we respect, love, and share our very lives (including our priorities and goals) with those to whom we seek to minister.”
5. Tensions about self-worth: status vs. achievement focus - prestige (often identity) ascribed by birth and social status vs by one’s own achievements. Of note, “Jesus rejects both orientations as inadequate!”
6. Tensions regarding vulnerability: concealment vs willingness to expose vulnerability/ error/ failure.

Thankfully, we interact with these differing cultural values in the people God has placed around us only “empowered through faith and freedom in Jesus Christ and living in the Spirit and not in the flesh.” 

Book of the Month: Burundi country guide

(From Alyssa)

Being a small impoverished country of 10 million people without an ocean coastline or safari animals, Burundi is generally included in tour books of East or Central Africa with just a few pages of acknowledgement. So I was shocked to discover this 384 page country guide of Burundi at a bookstore here in France. And bonus for language learning: it's in French! I've enjoyed reading this recently published (November 2012) book on Burundi and have learned a lot about our future home. The first third of the book gives a lengthy account of the history, culture, language, arts, etc. of the country as a whole and I share with you now some of the highlights:

• In the introduction and throughout the book, the emphasis is on the Burundian people. The authors explain that the best reason to visit Burundi is to encounter the people - to experience their friendly welcome and to learn of their culture and community and history. They emphasize the need to take time to experience Burundian hospitality and friendship - as opposed to trying to see and do many things on a Westerner's schedule. (One interesting side note on the differences of Western vs. Burundian time is that the words for "tomorrow" and "yesterday" are the same in Kirundi!) We've really enjoyed the opportunities we've had thus far to begin friendships with Burundians and we look forward to developing these relationships as a priority during our years ahead in Burundi. We appreciate your prayers for patience and wisdom with that long process and with the different concepts of time, too!
• Nature: Burundi is a beautiful country with rolling green hills, tropical vegetation, and even beaches on the shores of Lake Tanganyika. While lions and giraffes no longer live there, one can still find hippos and crocodiles and many species of tropical birds. I'm so thankful we get to live in a pretty place.
• Language: Official languages are French and Kirundi. Swahili is also spoken frequently, especially in the cities. And, as has been confirmed by John and Jason in their recent visits, in daily conversation, the three languages are often mixed together. To make things more complicated, Burundians often speak indirectly and even use parables to express themselves. Through oral traditions, they've shared history and culture with subsequent generations, and as only 58% of the population is literate, radio is still the primary means of media communication utilized. Though we've all come a long way in French this year, our journey towards effective (Fraswarundi?) communication is only beginning!
• History: While Burundi has a turbulent past through colonization (by Belgium) and independence (1962) followed by civil war in the 1990s, Burundians have been seeking peace in recent years. This is evident tangibly in a common greeting in Kirundi: "Amahoro", which means "Peace". The publishing of a guidebook for tourists is another evidence of improved peace and stability in the region. One interesting history fact is that David Livingstone and Henry Morton Stanley traveled through Burundi together in 1871 after their famous encounter, "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?". There is a large stone outside Bujumbura erected to commemorate their meeting.
• Religion: The guidebook estimates that 60% of the population is Catholic, 15-20% Protestant, and 10-15% Muslim. But it also emphasizes the widespread following of traditional beliefs, including "sorcellerie" (witchcraft - animism). Please pray for wisdom for us as we seek to share the power of Jesus triumphing over the fear of evil spirits. 
• Random facts: Burundian drummers are quite skilled - originally utilized during the time of the monarchy for official ceremonies, now primarily for tourism. Food staples are cassava, bananas, potatoes, and beans. Primary exports are coffee and tea. Football (soccer) is well loved in the country, especially by President Nkurunziza who used to be a football coach and professor of physical education. Running is also commonly practiced - of note, a Burundian won an Olympic gold medal in the 5000m race in Atlanta in 1996.

We look forward to experiencing firsthand the people, culture, and places of this interesting country. And here's our first picture of all 17 of the McCropders (since we added baby Toby) who will be arriving in Burundi in 80 days!

Book of the Month: Keeping the Sabbath Wholly

Shortly before leaving for France, all of us met up in Philadelphia with the leadership of World Harvest Mission.  They asked each of us how they could pray for us, and Jason said, "My whole year in the US, I've been carrying around this book called...something about 'sabbath' and 'rest'... Anyways, I finally put it aside, because I knew I would have time to read it."  It stuck with me, because it typifies our lives so often.

We are so busy, too busy to rest.  The Lord commands us to rest, but he'll understand, since he values the work we are doing: caring for the sick, caring for the poor, seeking to bring his light and good news into darkness.

And I won't deny that this is a hard question.  I recently read Luke, and noted that there are 3 separate occasions where Jesus heals a sick person on the Sabbath and the Sabbath-observers criticize him for it.  That's a tough fact when every day, including every Sabbath, critically ill people are likely to show up needing help.

HOWEVER, I have come to believe that much (maybe all?) of our stubbornness to follow God's Sabbath command to rest is rooted in our belief that it is, in the end, us and not God, who will really get the necessary work done.  Also, (this is a huge one for me) our value, especially as Westerners, is found in our productivity, and so rest can make us feel worthless, and so we feel very uncomfortable with it.

Our friend Janet gave us this book and I finally got around to reading it.  Keeping the Sabbath Wholly with a great subtitle of Ceasing, Resting, Embracing, Feasting.  Marva Dawn is a PhD (Notre Dame) who was teaching at Regents at the time of writing the book.  Overall, it's a great comprehensive look at what Sabbath is and why it is so significant in the Bible and for the Jewish people, yet so often overlooked by Christians.  There are a couple particulars that I think are worth sharing here:

• To "cease" on the Sabbath means not only to rest from employment, but from all work, so that physical and mental rest actually takes place, and we can also cease from placing our value in our own productivity.  This is in contrast to a day off work when we can catch up on our long to-do list and feel good at the end of the Sabbath that we've accomplished so much.
• Dawn puts an emphasis on Sabbath observance regularly, one in every 7 days.  This is hard for doctors with call schedules.  However, her point is that there is value in the rhythm of 7 days, and  that we were created to function in such a rhythm, going further to challenge the reader that it is impossible to be "too busy" for Sabbath, since Sabbath rest increases productivity on the other 6 days to an extent that more than compensates for the day of rest.
• She argues (largely from Jewish tradition) for ceremony and ritual as a way on magnifying Sabbath observance.  Special foods, special prayers, special family activities can add to our anticipation and celebration of Sabbath.  Regarding feasting, she makes the astute observation that our society does not know how to feast, because it does not know how to fast.
• Perhaps the most significant idea she shares is from Abraham Joshua Heschel, who argues that Judaism (and by extension here, Christianity) is a faith that aims at the sanctification of time as opposed to Western civilization's primary drive to conquer space.  He points out that the first thing in the Bible to be designated as "holy" is the seventh day - a holy time, in contrast to a holy place, which is the case for most other religions.  The implication of this, for me, is profound as it runs counter to my constant desire to be more efficient.  Time is, in a sense, irreducible.  You can't spend an hour with someone in only 58 minutes, no matter how efficient you are.  And I think this inability is a gift to our society and it's obsessions with control and production.

There it is, in a nutshell.  The book is worth the read.  Missionaries, and especially missionary doctors, seem to do very poorly with understanding God's gift of rest to us.  So pray for us, that we would understand, that we would trust, and that we would obey.

Book of the Month: Fierce Compassion

Resurrecting the category of blog posts entitled Book of the Month,  I would like to introduce my very favorite book of 2012:  Fierce Compassion, by Kristin and Kathryn Wong. 

  

Fierce Compassion recounts the true story of Miss Donaldina Cameron, who courageously rescued Chinese girls who were sold into slavery in San Francisco in the early 1900s.  I loved this book for the amazing story itself, for the inspiring example of the heroine, and for the captivating writing style that kept me turning pages late into the night.

The stories and the backdrop are fascinating for themselves, especially thought-provoking in light of current events including modern immigration trends and human trafficking awareness.  Prior to reading this book, I knew next to nothing about Chinese immigration to California at the turn of the last century.  In hopes that many of you will also have the opportunity to read this book, I will refrain from explaining the story.  Suffice it to say that Donaldina Cameron lived a life of tremendous adventure (including daring police raids), heartbreak (lost love), and satisfaction in hard work (rescuing slaves and changing the tide of slavery at the time). 

One aspect of her story that particularly struck me is the way in which she began her tremendous work.  It all started when an old family friend told Donaldina about an opportunity to teach rescued slaves in Chinatown, San Francisco.  Donaldina first told the woman that she was definitely not qualified for that sort of thing.  When encouraged to consider trying it for just a year, Donaldina agreed try it… for a year.  It’s amazing what great things can follow a willingness to give something a try. 

Fierce Compassion is a beautiful and inspiring true story of how Donaldina Cameron’s convictions, struggles, and dedication were used by God to bring justice and compassion into brokenness.

You can find this book for yourselves here.   

May Book Review - Lit

In his triple-entendre named "Lit! A Christian Guide to Reading Books," Tony Reinke (Crossway, 2011) outlines a comprehensive and intensive method for extracting more gold from the books we read. Reinke's informal style (who puts an exclamation mark in the title of a book?) belies his time-intensive technique (prepare questions for each chapter before reading, outline each chapter after reading) but serves well to balance the core thesis which is that reading for insight requires disciplined mental effort but yields a better product than what most of us do (not read) and what a select few already do (read with a pencil in hand).

Lit! is a quick read with an argument that does not require any substantive paradigm shift for a Christian already committed to literacy and education - God is the Author of all truth, the Bible is the most concentrated truth in literature, and that other books can serve to enlighten readers on certain aspects of truth even if not completely accurate on all counts. What I found most helpful from Reinke's work was his admonition to consider your purpose in reading your selected book and to have on hand books of various purposes. Classic fiction may make good bus stop or doctor's office reading. Weighty theological tomes are best read during your freshest mental hours (usually dedicated study or devotional times). Solid non-fiction may service best after dinner or before bedtime. And when picking up a non-fiction volume, identify what you wish to learn from it prior to bending its spine back. Pastors, theologians, and writers will find Reinke's specific strategy of chapter outlining and question asking/answering in the margins inspiring if not ambitious.

The single most interesting concept is actually a quote from Socrates who decried the loss of oral tradition in education. He anticipated that teaching students to read and write would soften their recall, dull their intellect, and destroy the strength of rhetoric and argument. Reinke and others have noted that more and more of our information comes via visual rather than literary media - fragments of content, context-less particles of data streaming from innumerable sources somehow stitched together in our psyche to create a picture of truth and the world. Ironically (for Socrates, not so much for Reinke), this made me thankful for the teachers, friends, and parents I've had who imparted to me a love for words.

So if you're done with your last non-fiction book and looking for a moderately motivational, definitely encouraging, relatively relaxed read, spend a couple days with Tony Reinke - he just might ignite a new passion and perspective on 'pencil-in-hand' reading.

-Carlan

Book of the Month: Miracles & Moments of Grace

A bit of a disclaimer here...this month's BOTM was actually chosen because it features some authors you may know.  Us. :)  Last year, we received an email from a woman named Nancy Kennedy.  She was interested in writing a book of stories from Christian physicians and had found our blog, wondering if she could use some of our material.  Nancy had just finished a book entitled Miracles and Moments of Grace: Inspiring Stories from Military Chaplains, and was continuing the series by sharing medical stories.  

We agreed to share whatever she was interested in, and so she chose and adapted several stories from our blogs.  One is John's "Sudan on a Wing and a Prayer," Eric's blog on resembling Jesus, and my blog on a miraculous cord prolapse survival story.  Also featured are stories from some of our fellow Post Residents:  Malin and Sara Friess, who worked at Tenwek and Kijabe Hospitals, and Dan Benedick, who worked at Shell Hospital in Ecuador.  

In all, there are 50 different short stories about doctors and their experiences with patients.  I haven't actually read most of it, since it was just published this week and arrived at our house today, but I look forward to reading some more miraculous, emotional, and humorous stories.  I'm not sure if this is the kind of thing you can find at the library, but it is available for purchase on amazon.  

Book of the Month: Better

This book doesn't necessarily have anything to do with Africa...but it does have a lot to do with medicine.  I was first introduced to Atul Gawande's work when I found a copy of one of his New Yorker articles on health care in the bathroom.  I spent a very long time in the bathroom that day, reading his article on what's wrong with health care, why it costs so much, and what we can do about it.  Come to find out, Gawande knows what he's taking about:  he's a Harvard trained surgeon who also happens to be an incredible writer.  I found one of his books, Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance, on the Faders' shelf at Tenwek and devoured it in two days.

It is difficult for me to say for certain, since I am decidedly a medical person, but I think Gawande has a knack for explaining complex medical issues in layman's terms.  He seems to write about things in a way that makes a lot of sense and is incredibly interesting.  How else could I have stayed so interested in a chapter on hand washing?  The book is a great look at how we do what we already do...better.  As physicians, we almost always have the best of intentions.  We know what has to happen.  But how does it actually get accomplished?  If, for example, we know that washing hands stops the spread of disease, and it's easy and cheap, 100% of people must wash their hands, right?  No, not even close, says Gawande.  Why?  How do we improve?

He illustrates his point and talks about various aspects of the problem by focusing on a different issue each chapter:  polio vaccines in India, APGAR scores, trauma surgery and developments in the military, cystic fibrosis, malpractice suits.  It's nonfiction, but Gawande's way of making his point through story left me flipping pages rapidly.

I was hooked after a page or two, but I felt like we were really connecting as I read his final story.  Gawande is Indian by birth, and he went back to India during his training to spend a few months working in on of their hospitals.  He recounts an incident where he was trying to place a chest tube in a man dying from a massive pleural effusion (fluid around his lung causing it to collapse).  The hospital had a CT scan and the ability to do angiograms, but no chest tube.  No scalpel.  No pulse ox.  The man died.  As I read this account, it reminded me of all that we are trying to do in the developing world.  There are days where someone has donated some new equipment, or we open a new hospital wing, or implement a new program.  These are all GOOD THINGS.  But when patients are still dying because no one checked their vital signs, or we have run out of IV fluids, BASIC things, then it begs the question...do we need to work on doing what we already do, better, before we move on to something new?  Gawande asks the question.  Something worth pondering.

Book of the Month: Children's Books

It's been some time since we reviewed a book on our blog, not for lack of good and appropriate literature to comment on.  But to re-kick off the BOTM posts, I thought I'd post something for our younger readers.  And when I say "readers," I use that term loosely (most will likely need this blog read TO them).  Here goes, Maggie's favorite African books.  There are many good ones, so we just chose two for the time being.

1.  Why Mosquitos Buzz in People's Ears.
This book is a classic that I still remember from my own childhood days.  It's about the story of a mosquito who annoys an iguana and sets off a series of events that ultimately results in the death of an owl baby.  The animals of the jungle must then get together and decide who is to blame.  The book is beautifully illustrated, and won a Caldecott medal for its efforts.  The story is fast paced and has lots of fun onamonapia phrases that are associated with each animal.  Finally, on the last page of the book, the mosquito meets with its appropriate end.  Maggie likes to demonstrate on the last page with a great smack and a "kapow!"

2.  We All Went on Safari
This book was a gift to Maggie when she was born, from Aunt Alyssa.  It's technically a "journey" through Tanzania, not Kenya, but close enough.  Also beautifully illustrated, this book features a group of Maasai children as they go on safari and encounter various animals.  The pages have the numbers 1-10 in both English and Swahili, and there is an additional section at the back that talks about the Maasai people and gives the names of the animals in the book in both English and Swahili.  Eric and I spent more time on those pages than Maggie!


We'll try to post some more recommended kids' books in the month to come, but if you can't wait and need more good African children's books NOW, check out:  Jambo Means Hello, Moja Means One, and Elisabeti's Doll.

Book of the Month: Surprised by Hope

Alyssa first bought this book, and later Steve Telian brought us a copy of the same. Several of us have waded through its dense chapters in the last few months, and found it pretty foundational and informative.

N.T. Wright is an extremely accomplished New Testament scholar who (I think) until recently was also an Anglican bishop. He is a well-respected authority on the ongoing debate on the historical Jesus, but in this book, he takes his biblical and historical expertise to a slightly different topic.

Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church is quite a title. The book is pretty heady, but if I can try to distill his main thesis, I would say this: The notion that Christian resurrection resides in a future disembodied existence in Heaven is both false and misleading. Whoa. Instead, he shows (quite well, in my opinion) that both the biblical and historical Christian hope in resurrection is that we will be given new, resurrected bodies to ultimately live in a new, redeemed earth (which has come together with the new heaven). He argues that the reason none of us know this is largely because we've never been told, rather than that we have found this proposition false or wanting. If this piques your curiosity at all, I would refer you first to the end of Revelation as well as the end of 1 Corinthians, where these topics are explained in the most detail.

The resurrected body that we await is seen prototypically in Jesus, the first fruit of resurrection. His body is his own, complete his scars from his pre-resurrection suffering, but it has been transformed, made whole and now with new glorified characteristics, such as the ability to walk through locked doors. Paul says, at the end of 1 Corinthians 15, after a long discussion on this type of resurrection, "Therefore... always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain." Wright points out that the reason resurrection can lead to work being "not in vain" is that our present lives will also be transformed in the way of the resurrection body, i.e. that our work for the Lord's kingdom now will be somehow redeemed and persist into the new heavens and the new earth.

Why does all this matter? Why do a bunch of doctors find this foundational? I don't think I'm alone in growing up with a gospel that could be summarized as Jesus' death providing forgiveness of sins, and that forgiveness providing life in Heaven with God after death. I also found the biblical emphasis on doing justice in this present world inescapable, but I couldn't put the two together, since my worldview has this world disappearing, to be replaced with a world in which work has no role. However, if at the Resurrection, after our rest in Heaven, we are given new bodies to live in a new earth with all the pre-fall things for which we were made (space, matter, time, etc...), and if our work for the Kingdom of God now will be transformed by grace to leave some mark in that resurrected world, then my motivations and understanding undergo a paradigmatic shift.

In writing about the ramifications on "the Mission of the Church" (the last part of the long title), Wright not only points out how this affects Justice, but also selects Beauty and Evangelism as two other areas that he believes the Church will view differently in light of a true understanding of Resurrection. I leave the book itself to the curious who want to discover what he says, but suffice to say that this book's value lies in the truth it brings to our understanding of the gospel in both Word and Deed.

Book of the Month: When Helping Hurts

When Helping Hurts, by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert, has influenced several discussions among the McCropders recently. Corbett is a community development expert and Fikkert is an economist. They present a unique perspective on poverty, which in turn calls for a different way to go about poverty alleviation. The title refers to the unfortunate but frequent situation in which well-meaning people try to help, but their efforts actually do more harm than good for the people they are trying to help in the long run.

The authors begin by defining poverty. They suggest that at creation, humankind enjoyed a perfect relationship with God, with others, with ourselves, and with creation. When sin entered the picture, it corrupted each of those four relationships, and these corrupted relationships embody/define poverty. This is a different view of poverty from the more traditional understanding of poverty, which primarily implies a lack of material goods. In fact, this new explanation of poverty shows that the materially poor often have a lot to offer to the materially rich, in that relationships among materially impoverished people can often be stronger than relationships among those who are materially self-sufficient.

Poverty alleviation, then, is about restoring and reconciling these relationships between a person and God, others, themselves, and creation. Corbett and Fikkert gave some good recommendations on how to alleviate poverty effectively.

• We should focus on people and process rather than projects and products; the participation of all groups is critical to creating ownership and therefore sustainability.
• Systems need fixing too.
• Relief, Rehabilitation, and Development are three different stages of poverty alleviation, and they need different tactics. Using relief tactics (ie handouts) in a development situation (where people can largely help themselves through partnerships) is quite detrimental on many levels.
• Poverty alleviation efforts should start with assessing the resources that people have which can be used to help themselves, rather than assessing what they need.
• There is a good chapter on how many short term mission trips need significant revamping if they are to be part long-term poverty alleviation.

Overall, When Helping Hurts is a very thought-provoking book, and it will be helpful and challenging as we look towards alleviating poverty in Burundi, and indeed, as we aim to alleviate poverty in our own lives through restoring relationships.

Book of the Month: Guns, Germs, and Steel

I have been wanting to read this book for awhile, and so was excited to see it show up on the Faders' dining room table after Christmas. In true McCropder community fashion, we refer to anything one of us has that the others want to borrow as “kingdom” material (meaning it belongs to us all). Thus, Jason's book became the Kingdom book and I happily brought it home to read. I have to say that while the idea of the book is interesting, and even the ideas IN the book are interesting and informative, it's not a particularly interesting book to read. In fact, it's pretty dry and academic, and I would have preferred reading someone else's synopsis of the book. So that's what I'll give you, faithful readers.

Jared Diamond, the author of GGS, starts out the book with a good question. What makes the difference between conquered and conquering societies? Why was Europe the continent that took over and subdued others, rather than the other way around? Why didn't Kenya take over England, or Peru sail across the ocean to colonize Spain? Sure, the Europeans had weapons (guns), diseases (germs) and technology (steel) in their advantage, but how did they gets those advantages in the first place? Some in the past argued that there was a fundamental difference between the peoples of these countries—Europeans were more innovative, more curious, more intelligent than the average African. Diamond calls this racist, and puts forth a different, geographically based theory.

Basically, people who happened to live in Europe had several advantages over people living on other continents. The biggest advantages were the presence of wild plants and animals on the continents of Europe and Asia that could be domesticated (unlike Africa—no one has yet domesticated the cape buffalo, or rhinoceros, or even the zebra). This led to increased food production which led to the ability to feed larger groups of people—not all had to be hunters/gatherers and now some people could focus on technology and invention. Living in close proximity to animals gave Europeans contact with a variety of diseases (cow pox becoming small pox, influenza from swine flu, etc) and subsequent immunity. Also, because Europe is a wide continent instead of a tall continent (east to west axis instead of north to south) the food and animals that were domesticated could easily spread across the continent. Contrast this with food developed to grow in Mexico trying to thrive in Alaska, for example. So it's not that Europeans are superior to other races, they were just in the right place to thrive, according to Diamond.

In the end, it was probably a good book to read although it can't come as highly recommended as Strength in What Remains! But for Westerners working in Africa, I have to fight against the temptation to buy into the idea that our ways are "superior" over African methods. Look! We were able to develop better societies than our African counterparts. Which, of course, is not necessarily true, and even if my ancestors developed technologies and societies faster than my Kenyan coworkers' ancestors, it is not based on some inherent cultural or genetic superiority but rather, as Diamond states, better real estate.

Strength in What Remains

Almost no one knows where Burundi is. Usually the first response when we tell people where we're headed next is "where's that?" or "I had to look that up on a map." Many people have never heard of the tiny country before. In fact, I googled images for Burundi maps the other day and one of the first hits was actually THIS website. So, imagine my surprise when several months ago Eric and I were telling a friend about our trip to Burundi and he replied, "I'm actually reading a book about Burundi right now!" What? People write books and see movies about Rwanda, not Burundi. He went on to tell me about the book, which I just recently finished reading.

The book is called, "Strength in What Remains," and if the title alone doesn't make you want to read it, let me review the book briefly. It's a story about a man named Deo, a Burundian who was attending medical school in Bujumbura in the mid 90s when the genocide started, and his journey. He initially escaped to Rwanda, then back to Burundi, and finally to New York, where he had a horrible struggle trying to survive. Deo eventually made it back to Burundi and has opened a clinic in the southern part of the country. I couldn't put this book down. It was written by Tracy Kidder, who also wrote one of my favorite books "Mountains Beyond Mountains" about the work of Dr. Paul Farmer in Haiti (and elsewhere). He tells Deo's story in powerful fashion, making it real and personal and inserting himself as a character travelling home with Deo, full of fears and doubts about this recently post war country. He asks hard questions, as does Deo--why did God let this happen? Why did Deo live, when so many others died? But ultimately...there is hope and redemption in his story as the war ends, and Deo gets to return, and is trying to help his people rebuild a nation.

It's incredible to me to think that right at the time when we become interested in this tiny country of Burundi, a national best seller by a Pulitzer Prize winning author comes out about a Burundian man who is in the MEDICAL field and has returned to open a clinic. Perhaps our paths will cross with Deo's one day. If you are interested in learning more about the country we will hopefully spend the next years of our life in, it is a fantastic book for more info and background. Even if you don't care about Burundi in particular, it's a great book about human struggles and triumphs and emotions, written by a talented author. Hope you enjoy.