Obamania Lives On in Kenya

Sorry for the post lapse.  We've all been down in North Carolina for an excellent conference (more later), except the Cropseys, who have been otherwise occupied (more later).

For those who don't remember "Strawberry-Flavoured Magic Obama Chewing Gum", I really can't blame you, because it was quite a while ago.  But lest you think the lack of Obama posting means that Kenya has bailed on their presidential enthusiasm, we have a follow-up for you.  Obamania in Kenya has waned somewhat, but overall they remain strongly behind the American President.

One of my favorite manifestations of this is the Obama belt-buckle.  There are many of them, manufactured in China and imported with impunity, with seeming disdain for the American phenomenon in which the Obama fans and the Belt-Buckle fans don't really overlap that much.  My favorite one is one where you can see the President, but if you rotate it slightly, an image of the first family is reflected.

At any rate, about a month before we were leaving, I told all our guy interns that I would pay double for an Obama belt-buckle.  One of them graciously took me up on it, and actually gave it to me as a gift.  The accessory is actually too shiny to photograph very easily, but you can see me sporting it below.  I still have it, so ask to see it any time.

One day in the hospital, someone passed me this (below).  That's right, a $1,000,000 US bill with Obama's picture.  But it gets better, because this is actually an evangelistic tract, if you magnify the print on the back of the bill.  I looked up the company that made them, and it's an American company, so I guess they manufacture these for use in Kenya.

One of our Kenyan friends shared this picture with us, which is a sign in a Kenyan village, that apparently was the ancestral home of President Obama's family, complete with genealogical lineage.

Kenya does have a unique claim on Obama, but the spirit of East African unity means that Obamania is far from limited to Kenya (as seen in John's eye trips to Tanzania and Sudan).  Here is a snapshot of "Obama Shop" (a.k.a. Obama-rama) taken in Burundi, so we have more to look forward to.  (Note: if you look closely, you can see a woman behind the glass motioning for the photographer not to take this picture.)

Eric's New CD: Kenyan Recordings

I've been writing songs since I was sixteen.  I'm not sure why I started, but there were certainly times when I thought their primary benefit would be that I would land a record deal and perform music for a living.  If you are reading this blog, then I probably don't have to tell you that this is no longer true.  However, music has continued to play an interesting role in my life, and "the boundary lines have fallen in pleasant places."

When we were at the aforementioned World Harvest Mission retreat in Kenya, I got the chance to play some of these songs for my fellow missionaries.  I saw on their faces a resonance with the joys and sorrows that I was trying to tell the story of.  And it was great.  (If you want another perspective on that, as well just a great piece of writing, click here.)  

And that's what I hope this project is:  Another way for people to experience the story of our journey to a far-off place full of hope and grief, beauty and pain.  I have printed 200 copies of a CD that is a collection of songs I recorded and/or wrote in Kenya.  Some I have posted on the blog before; some are new.  All are pretty raw, but all strive to tell the story of this certain place and time.

Quantity

Now and Then: 1 CD $7.00Now and Then: 2 CDs $13.00Now and Then: 3 CDs $18.00Now and Then: 4 CDs $22.00

If you're interested, you can buy 1 (or more) copies here for $7 (shipping included), just to cover the cost of the printing.  The Paypal link is here for online purchase, or email me for an address to send a check.  We'll ship it out to you as soon as we can, traveling around as we are.  $5 if you get it in person, and for mp3 fans, click here for free download.  For a sampling, click here.  Happiest listening.

World Harvest East Africa

Just before we came home to the States, Alyssa and the McLaughlins got a chance to attend the World Harvest Mission's first (but hopefully not last) East Africa retreat.  This was very gracious of them, since we weren't technically WHM missionaries yet.  It was a fun 4 day retreat in Mombasa where we had a chance to meet different missionaries working in Kenya, Uganda, and South Sudan.  WHM is not a big mission, so the group size was small enough that we got to meet everyone.  A great group of quality people, one we are proud and excited to be a part of.  Here 's a photo of our group (everyone except Rachel and Ben, actually, since he was napping at the time).

And if you're interested, here are some blogs that these folks are writing.  Good stuff there.  We'll most likely include them in our blog roll in days to come.  Just in case you need more blogs to read. :)

Scott and Jennifer Myhre (field leaders, 2 docs working at Kijabe in Kenya)
Travis and Amy Johnson (Uganda, FP doc and his family)
Bethany Ferguson (South Sudan)
Scott Will (South Sudan)
Michael and Karen Masso (South Sudan)
Jessica Ankney (FP doc in Uganda)
Anna Linhart (Uganda)

A Month of Goodbyes

By the time we left Tenwek, I must say that we McCropders all felt thoroughly appreciated!  Kenyans are very good at saying goodbye.  They have ceremonies and speeches and times of gift-giving.  Our missionary community, too, was very gracious in their send off.  Driving away for the last time (for now), I had no regrets about this person or that person who I wish I could have seen again, or someone I hadn't gotten a chance to say goodbye to.

The goodbyes started early August, actually, a month before we left.  Since the Cropseys left a month before the rest of us, no one wanted to throw two goodbye parties, so we said goodbye early!  The Tenwek missionaries threw us a party and (even though we're a bunch of wazungus/white people) gave several nice speeches.  Here we are outside the party getting a group photo:

Then there were goodbyes from our Kenyan friends.  We had a musical coffeehouse night that all of the interns and many residents attended...full of music, snacks, and laughter.  The Bible studies that many McCropders had been a part of had goodbyes, too.  Pizza, meals, beautiful gifts of baskets and such.  We were also invited out into the village for chai one last time.

 Our church had several goodbye moments.  During the last Sunday service, Eric and Jason were able to lead worship and sing some of our favorite Swahili songs.  We were all invited up for a sendoff prayer as well.  That night, many people gathered together again in the church for a musical celebration and again, well wishes and a send-off to the McCropders in thanks for our service.

 And finally, the morning of our departure, the surgery department had a special thanksgiving worship service and passed along gifts and thanks to Jason and Rachel.  We feel so blessed to have been a part of this community for the past two years.  Goodbyes were well said, but still hard, and we look forward to hopefully returning someday, if nothing else to greet all the people who treated us so well and so kindly.

Relentless Recruiters

The McCropders have always been pretty shameless about recruiting people to join us either short-term or long-term.  We believe that everybody has skills or resources that can be used to further God's work around the world.  We realize that not everyone is called or suited to pack it all up and move overseas, but there are many ways to be involved from the U.S.A. as well.

With that said, we'd like to make our readers aware of some "job openings" on the McCropder team.  And don't worry, your last name doesn't need to have any portion of McCropder in it!

1)  We would really like an early elementary teacher to join our team in Burundi starting the Fall of 2013.  By that time (Lord willing), we will have finished our 10-month French language program in France and be in Burundi.  We anticipate that our first year in Burundi will be composed mostly of learning Kirundi (local language), building our houses, and setting up things at the hospital.  In order for us to properly invest in language and cultural learning, we will need someone to teach our precious children.  [In 2013 -- Anna (3rd grade), Elise (1st grade), & Micah/Abi/Maggie (Pre-school).]

2)  Since we will also need to build houses, we would love to have someone with construction and/or engineering experience to oversee that project.  We don't have a timeline yet as to when construction would begin, but we're estimating Summer/Fall 2013.  We'd also love to have some input from architects as we work on the design of our houses.

Note:  Individuals volunteering for these positions would be expected to raise financial support for their travel and living expenses.

If you or someone you know might be interested in exploring either of these possibilities, please contact us.  Of course, these are not the only two needs that we anticipate, so please get in touch with us if you want to talk about how your skills or resources might be useful to the work in Burundi.            

"The Future of Medical Missions"

We will always be grateful to Samaritan's Purse for these past several years.  They are an organization of faith and integrity that has made it possible for us to do what we do these past two years, both financially and in other ways as well.  And we hope that in years to come we can continue to partner with this organization in many different ways.  One of the ways they have supported us is through publicity.  This month is no exception:  the McCropders were featured in the quarterly World Medical Missions newsletter, On Call.  Read the full story here, or click the link below.

http://www.samaritanspurse.org/index.php/WMM/On_Call_Newsletter

The Year of Dental Disasters

The Fader family will remember 2011 for many wonderful things in Kenya, but 2011 will also go down as the Fader Family Year of Dental Disasters.
Just kidding. These are not our teeth. But this is a common look for Kenyan teeth in our area, due to excessive fluoride levels in the ground water in our area, and also due to lack of sufficient dental care. If you'd like to read more about dentistry in Kenya, you can find some great stories here.

Our dental drama began six months ago when our 5-year-old began to grow her first permanent teeth... in a nice straight line of their own... behind her study little baby teeth.

Take a look, and share our horror in anticipating ghastly orthodontic bills in her future. (Our fears abated when we realized that there are no cosmetic orthodontists in Burundi... maybe we can just teach her to keep her teeth covered with her lips.) We emailed our friend and dentist, Hank, back in the USA. He broke the news that those front little teeth would probably have to be pulled. And that those new teeth should move forward into line with time. Let's hope.

Meanwhile, upon taking a careful look in our 2-year-old's mouth, I discovered funny-looking small bilateral discolored dots on her first top molars. Strange. Tenwek's dentist, our friend Peter Kuyaya, referred us to a pediatric dentist who was coming for a visit a few weeks later. She diagnosed that those little teeth had not formed properly during Abi's infancy, probably due to her illness in the orphanage before she came home. She said Abi would need crowns on those molars. Who has ever heard of a 2-year-old with crowns?!
The girls were troupers as Anna had 5 teeth extracted, and Abi had her tooth bling inserted.
Anna was thrilled with the results.We were also pretty pleased with the total combined bill: $210.

A few weeks later, Abi knocked her upper lip into the corner of something, and soon thereafter, one of her upper middle teeth turned a shade of gray. Emailed pictures to Hank again. Nothing we can do about this one.

Just as I was thinking our dental drama was over, I felt a dull pain in my lower jaw. Then I felt a hard bony something poking through the gums back there. Wisdom teeth. Sigh. More emails to our friend Hank. And another visit to our friend Peter. An x-ray showed that these teeth are coming in at an angle that requires extraction by an oral surgeon. He gave me chlorhexidine rinse to keep infection away until I could have them removed in the US. Adding insult to injury, chlorhexidine turns teeth yellow. After I had been rinsing daily for few months, Anna told me, "Mommy, if I were going to draw you with your teeth, I would use a yellow crayon!" Sigh. I'm not complaining, however. This is definitely preferable to the fluorosis pictured above.

Anyway, tomorrow is the day for the extraction of my four troublesome wisdom teeth. You could take a moment to pray for no complications. You could also pray for a dentist to come and work with us in Burundi someday - we could definitely keep one or two dentists busy.

And just when I thought our dental disasters were almost over, Anna now has a canine tooth coming in significantly behind her line of baby teeth....

What About The Blog While Stateside?

Some of you may be wondering:  Now that all the McCropders have relocated to the US for the year, what will henceforth be the pattern of this blog?  This year is certainly not a "year off", and missions communities have come to call this time "home ministry assignment" or "HMA".  Yet, without daily interaction with African culture and medicine, many blogs hibernate in a pretty severe way while stateside.

This post is to let the blogosphere know that we are aware of this, and are determined to fight the current.  Leaving Kenya is more of a beginning than an end.  We continue to be very interested in helping connect those of you who have been following our journey, either here on the blog or elsewhere, with our experiences.  We need you to pray for us, and we know that an influx of stories helps to keep you engaged.  Some ideas of what to expect:

1.  Kenya stories and thoughts:  We have lots of back-logged ideas that didn't get posted in Kenya, and now with super fast internet, we can blog twice as fast!  There are medical cases, family stories, and general thoughts that never made it, and as long as we're diligent, we don't anticipate running out any time soon.    John buys a cow.  Eric trusts Jason to take him up a mountain on a motorcycle.  Continued Kenyan Obamania and more.  Look for lots of gross eyeball pictures in the future! (Sort of kidding)

2.  Readjustment to the US:  I thought our most common question upon returning would be "How was Kenya?", which is natural and, of course, unanswerable.  I've been surprised that the most common question is "What is it like readjusting to US culture?"  Given the interest, we will share some on this, and we'll try not to go overboard, since this blog is more about connecting to Africa than connecting to US culture.

3.  The Onward Journey:  Our community of families is entering another phase, complete with new challenges and joys.  Our philosophy has been to openly and honestly share this journey with any that are interested (as well as try to generate interest in those that aren't!), and we will strive to be consistent with that, so that you can know us better, pray for us, and learn along with us from all we go through.

All this to say:  Continue to check in on the site here, as we will continue to share.  Thank you for your interest and encouragement.  It is extremely helpful to us.

The Official Start of Support-Raising

Well, in some ways, this is a pretty big milestone.  As many of you know, for the last two years, our work in Kenya has been wonderfully supported by Samaritan's Purse.  We are grateful for their support, as well as the support that many individuals and churches have given to supplement this in many important ways.  We believe that the fruit of this is some very good work being done for the needy and for the kingdom of our Lord Jesus.

This situation has now changed dramatically.  As was recently posted, our time with Samaritan's Purse has finished, and we are officially World Harvest missionaries now, and what that means is that we have officially entered the period of time where we are raising support for our future work in Burundi.  We are crazy excited about this work.  This will take a lot of financial support, and we are also excited about the chance to bring other people into this vision in this manner.  You will surely be hearing more about this in the days to come, but for the time being, we have updated our donation info page (click here or on the right-hand sidebar picture), where you will find some very easy web-based giving options.

Primarily though, if you are interested in giving and partnering with us, please contact one (or all!) of us by clicking here, and we would be grateful for the chance to tell you more about what we are so excited about and ways that you can be a part of making it happen.

Welcome to World Harvest Mission

Well, we got the word back yesterday and you're now "looking" at World Harvest Mission's newest missionaries!  We feel fully evaluated (having written an extensive application, taken psych testing/profiling, and sitting through both group evaluations and personal interviews) and are glad that WHM has agreed to take us on for this wild ride of McCropders to Burundi.

Thought you might enjoy hearing a little bit about our new family...I don't think we ever blogged about choosing an agency, which might be of interest to some.  World Harvest first came to our attention several years ago.  Our missions pastor, Bob Lynn, used to sit on the Board, and one of our other mentors, Steve Telian, had connections as well.  When the guys went to Brackenhurst (a continuing medical education conference held in Kenya every 2 yrs for missionaries) in 2010, they met up with a few WHM missionaries but quickly dismissed WHM as a potential agency because at that time WHM was only working medically at a small clinic in rural Uganda, not really the place for us.

Fast forward 18 months.  We felt that Burundi was where God was calling us next, but basically no one was working there in terms of agencies.  We approached a few and none were interested in opening new fields for medical missions.  So we returned to World Harvest.  They were not only interested, but excited about the possibilities, and officially accepted Burundi as a new field last March.

So, who is World Harvest?  They were started out of New Life Presbyterian Church (founded by Jack Miller) just over 25 years ago, and now have over 150 missionaries working mainly in Europe and East Africa.  Overall, it's a pretty small non-denominational mission and has a wonderful family feel to it.  The McLaughlins and Alyssa were able to attend the East Africa field retreat last August in Mombasa, Kenya, and we were impressed by the quality of people in the mission--real people, admitting their faults, holding to grace, loving God.  The mission of WHM is this: Laying down our lives to proclaim the Kingdom of Jesus Christ through preaching, healing, and equipping. It might not seem all that unique to some of you, but for us, it captures exactly what we want to do and we are excited to be a part of it.

World Harvest does have a history of sending groups such as ours onto the missions field.  They primarily do church planting and discipling, whereas our focus will be more medical training (and discipling as well).  There are still many details and logistics to work out, so please pray for WHM and for us as we grow together.  But for now, let us say that we are excited at this next step God has brought us along, we are blessed to be a part of this new community, and we look forward to many years to come.