Slash and Burn Yard Sales

A week ago, the Faders and McLaughlins had a yard sale (not a garage sale, as the McLaughlin garage is not accessible from the street). Years of thrifty living have taught us the art of careful preservation, and so this yard sale required going against those long-honed impulses.

I took to describing the process as "slash and burn yard saling" (in reference to a global farming method) because of the feeling of recklessness that I had to constantly fight.

Nevertheless, the necessary thought process was clear: Are we taking this to Africa? No? Well, are we going to find a way to save it while we're in Africa? No? Do we really need it for the next few weeks, before we move out? No? OK, then how much should we price it for?

And knowing that we are just going to take this all down to the Salvation Army in a few hours if it didn't sell made for very easy pricing. We picked up a little cash, and definitely got rid of a lot of stuff. Anna taught each and every passerby that "you can't buy anything without a price." We congratulated her on her acquisition of capitalist fundamentals, but reassured the sale visitors that even that rule was flexible today.

I've already written about some of the heart and mind exercise that this process is putting me through. Suffice to say that it is a wild ride to follow Christ. "Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls (Ps 42)." That's about how I feel. All my possessions are hopefully starting to be treated like the shallow puddles they so often are...

Gift Giving

Admittedly, it's hard to get a gift for a McCropder, what with their propensity for the rapid liquidation of all their property these days. So, you may ask, what would one McCropder get another McCropder to honor the birth of a baby?

Car Surgery

This past weekend Eric's car developed a clunking noise. I (Jason) always enjoy working on cars, so we took it for a drive and then removed the front tire to explore. We found a torn CV boot that eventually led us to diagnose a worn CV joint. I had to read about this on-line since I knew next to nothing about CV joints. We tried to obtain a second opinion, but we didn’t know any car gurus (and didn’t want to pay a mechanic to tell us). 90% sure of the diagnosis, I set out to replace the CV joint. I did not have all the ideal tools, but I improvised with what I had. I think it all went well, but truthfully I am slightly nervous, since Eric, Rachel and Maggie plan to drive this car around the country this summer.

So where I am I going with this? Well, it struck me that this situation is likely analogous to what I will experience as a surgeon in the developing world. I will be doing operations I have never done before, where there will likely not be an expert available for consultation, so I will have to learn how to do the case from a book or the internet. I won’t have all the right instruments, so I will have to improvise, and I will probably operate on a friend at some point, making the whole experience just a bit more nerve-racking.

Hopefully fixing Eric’s broken ankle in 10 years will go as smoothly as replacing the CV joint on his car!

The McCropders and Beyonce

I have never made much of a secret of my life ambition to be in a magazine that featured Beyonce on the cover. However, I thought when I decided to pursue a career in African medical missions, that I would have to put that aside.

But no! This month's Ambassador magazine, a Detroit-area publication, had its annual 'hot docs' section (a series of personal interest stories for area physicians, and a somewhat embarrassing title for said 'docs'), and the Mc---Ders found their way into it, with a photo shoot in the McKitchen, and a few words from the crew.

Questions from the peanut gallery:

1. Why was Beyonce on the cover? She was filming a movie in the Detroit area, apparently.

2. Did you notice that Eric is wearing slippers, and that they called him 'Erica'? Yes, we did.

3. Did you have to take a lot of photos to get such a cute picture of Anna staring at the camera? Well, they were all cute, but the 'staring at the camera' took a while.

Thanks to the Tangs!

Huge huge thanks to Duc and Janet Tang for taking the McCropders out to their fantastic restaurant last night!

The Cropseys are back in town for a week, and thus we are reunited. The Tangs, a wonderful couple from Knox, run Pacific Rim, in our humble opinion, the finest of the myriad of Ann Arbor fine dining institutions. They invited us out for a fantastic meal. It was all good, but since I (Eric) am writing this, it will have to be said: Frequent this venue, and don't miss the quail and the tuna. Thanks very much, Duc and Janet, you have blessed us.

Live from Ethiopia

From the Faders:

Surprised and very happy, the Faders find themselves in Ethiopia this week. This picture shows the view from our hotel room. More than a year ago, we began the process of adoption, and now we have met the little girl who will hopefully join our family very soon!! Less than two weeks ago, we joyfully accepted the referral for this precious baby! After a very short whirlwind of preparation, we boarded a plane for Addis Ababa in order to complete the next phase of the adoption process.

This new little girl is absolutely beautiful, five months old, very tiny, a bit malnourished. We held her yesterday and today, trying to fill her with all the love in our hearts. She seemed to be studying us, rather unimpressed with our singing actually, but she did not mind the affection. Pictures of this sweet little girl will certainly be featured on this blog after we have passed all legal proceedings. We pray that God will open the doors for the final legal proceedings to be finished quickly, so that she can come home to us within a few months. Please join us in praying for her to come home soon.

Project MedSend

One major obstacle that many healthcare professionals face as they consider career medical missions is the burden of educational debt. Project MedSend was created when mission agencies began having difficulty recruiting healthcare professionals due to the dramatic rise in educational costs. MedSend offers student loan repayment grants for healthcare professionals (nurses, physicians, dentists, and technicians) who are serving as medical missionaries with a recognized missions sending agency.

The Cropseys and McLaughlins both applied for MedSend grants last year. We recently found out that both families have been accepted! (The Faders did not require such assistance due to their extreme thriftiness, as mentioned in a previous blog.) We are very grateful to MedSend and its donors. Without their support, we would most likely be in the States for at least several more years in order to pay off our student loans. Now that we have been accepted as grant recipients, MedSend will begin the process of raising funds for our grants. Please pray that those funds would come in quickly.

Project MedSend will be hosting a dinner at Knox Presbyterian Church in Ann Arbor, Michigan on Thursday, May 21st. If you are interested in attending this dinner, please contact one of the McCropders.

Maggie Elizabeth McLaughlin

God has blessed us. Some pictures here.

Essential Qualities

A week ago, all McCropders save John came together, along with a number of other Post-Residents in Bristol, TN, at the CMDA Medical Mission Conference. It was a great time, and there was a lot of food for thoughts, which we'll try to share over the next few weeks.

It was also a great chance to see each other in action, and I'd like to point out a couple of quintessential missions personality traits, exhibited by my friends. As far as I can tell, Adventurousness and Thriftiness may be considered less "spiritual" quailities, but still among the most important in the missionary life.

The medal for Adenturousness goes to my lovely wife Rachel, who (with me) weighed the pros and cons of a 9-hour van ride to Tennessee at 38 weeks gestation, and decided it was still worth it. So we packed a car seat and some baby clothes, and just to be ready for anything, she also brought a pair of sterile gloves and a pair of cord clamps. Thankfully, this all went unheeded, and we unpacked it all back in Michigan at the close of the weekend.

The Thriftiness award went to Jason. After an initial admonition to save our disposable cups, to help cost-savings at CMDA, Jason showed up the next morning with the styrofoam cup from his hotel coffee-maker. As impressive as this was, I learned an older story this past weekend that makes Jason's thrift certainly subordinate to Heather's. Apparently, Heather trained for a marathon several years ago in Chicago, but in order to avoid the somewhat hefty fee, she went out one Saturday by herself, and ran her own self-designed 26-mile course. Where does one get the will-power to finish that kind of race with no external expectations and no one cheering you on? I don't know. You had better ask Heather.

Man Bites Snake - Kenyan Cultural Moment

The story is one of the most amazing incidents I've heard recorded in years. I thought of just posting the link, but decided in favor of reproducing the whole story, because of its certainty not to disappoint. A few thoughts:

1. I hope these snakes prefer the coastal lowlands, and I'd be fine never meeting one in the wild.
2. I hear they subsequently found the snake again, but that reassures me only a little.
3. I love how this primal epic struggle in Africa features the use of a mobile phone.
4. Quote of the day: "I had to bite it." Awesome.

Man bites snake in epic struggle

A Kenyan man bit a python which wrapped him in its coils and dragged him up a tree during a fierce three-hour struggle, police have told the BBC. The serpent seized farm worker Ben Nyaumbe in the Malindi area of Kenya's Indian Ocean coast at the weekend. Mr Nyaumbe bit the snake on the tip of the tail during the exhausting battle in the village of Sabaki. Police rescued Mr Nyaumbe and captured the 13ft (4m) reptile, before taking it to a sanctuary, but it later escaped.

The victim told police he managed to reach his mobile phone from his pocket to raise the alarm when the python momentarily eased its grip after hauling him up a tree on Saturday evening.

"We want to arrest the snake because any one of us could fall a victim" - Peter Katam Police superintendent

Mr Nyaumbe used his shirt to smother the snake's head and prevent it from swallowing him. His employer arrived with police and villagers, who tied the python with a rope and pulled them both down from the tree with a thud.

Peter Katam, superintendent of police in Malindi district, told the BBC News website: "Two officers on patrol were called and they found this man was struggling with a snake on a tree.
"The snake had coiled his hands and was trying to swallow him but he struggled very hard. The officers and villagers managed to rescue him and he was freed. He himself was injured on the lower lip of the mouth - it was bleeding a little bit - as the tip of the snake's tail was sharp when he said he bit it."

Mr Nyaumbe told the Daily Nation newspaper how he resorted to desperate measures after the python, which had apparently been hunting livestock, encircled his upper body in its coils. "I stepped on a spongy thing on the ground and suddenly my leg was entangled with the body of a huge python," he said. "I had to bite it."

Supt Katam told the BBC the officers had wanted to shoot the snake but could not do so for fearing of injuring Mr Nyaumbe. "If it wasn't for the villagers and officers who helped him, he would have been swallowed by the snake over the Easter holiday," said Supt Katam. He added: "It's very mysterious, this ability to lift the man onto the tree. I've never heard of this before."
The police officer said they took the snake to a sanctuary in Malindi town but it escaped overnight, probably from a gap under the door in the room where it was kept.

"We are still seriously looking for the snake," said Supt Katam. "We want to arrest the snake because any one of us could fall a victim."