Word and Deed

Book of the Month: Burundi country guide

noreply@blogger.com (Alyssa) — Tue, 21 May 2013 13:15:00 +0000

(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!

La Fête de Pentecôte: Looking at Pentecost as a Language Learner

noreply@blogger.com (The Drs. McLaughlin) — Sun, 19 May 2013 13:00:00 +0000

(from Eric)

Today is the Feast of Pentecost. The coming of the Holy Spirit. Coming as I do from a very broad range of church backgrounds when it comes to charismatic/Pentecostal issues, this annual day always raises questions about the role of the gift of tongues (and others) in the church. Different interpretations of this day can even lead to divisions. But let's put that all aside for a moment.

If it is nothing else, Pentecost is the day where the followers of Jesus begin to carry out the work Jesus had given them. After his resurrection, Jesus had told his followers to wait in Jerusalem for just such an event, and then they will go out and be his witnesses to the world.

I guess a lot of different things could have happened to fulfill this promise of Jesus. But we got a specific something: The followers were visited by a great wind, as well as some flame-like/tongue-like things, and they started to speak in such a way where people from many different countries could understand them in their mother tongue, i.e. their "heart language".

And what did these people say about that? "We hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God." (Acts 2:11) And thus the mission of the church began.

This year is unique is our lives, as we are neck deep (or perhaps even forehead-deep) in learning a language. And we are about to start learning another. So, I can't help but connect with the story on this level. Jesus is about to send his people out to all the world to declare the mighty works of God in Jesus, and he kicks it off like this. And lo and behold, the people understand what's happening. The Gospel for all nations is proclaimed to numerous peoples all at once, to each own in the own tongue. It's like a tiny preview of what will continue to unfold for thousands of years.

The relationship of the mission and the miraculous sign of God seems way too close to be coincidental.

Interestingly, all these people were Jews. So, I would guess (though I surely don't know) that most could speak to one another in a common tongue, maybe Greek, maybe Aramaic or Latin. So, strictly speaking, this sign may not have been necessary to communicate facts. But the importance of the heart language is maintained, and people are amazed to hear such things addressed to them, since it is their tongue.

It goes without saying that each of us would give our nose in order to have the Holy Spirit come like a wind and enable us to be immediately understood perfectly by those who communicate in French and Kirundi. Hélas, I don't anticipate that happening.

And yet, I think the story of Pentecost still captures the mission of our time in language study, namely to be able to declare the goodness of God, the mighty works of God, to the nations of the earth in their own tongues. That they would know that it is for them.

And it appears that God is interested in gifting himself to us to see that that happens.

And that is encouraging.

Learn by Drawing

noreply@blogger.com (onewhostrives) — Wed, 15 May 2013 15:51:00 +0000

by Carlan

Those of you who are educators no doubt recognize the subtle homage to John Dewey's quintessential quote "Learn by doing" in the title of this post. While I cannot endorse the consequences of his secular humanist & reductionist/mechanist philosophy of instruction, I can affirm the accuracy of his observation. Some paths only become apparent as you walk them, some lessons can only be learned by trial & revision.

Following on the tails of Jason's post about the EMI trip, I'd like to share a brief example of incredible blessing I have received during the process of designing an Emergency Department with Jason, the EMI folks, and some special guest consultants from Grace Community Church and LAC+USC Medical Center. It started with thinking...and dreaming. "What would an ideal ER look like? What are the critical pieces and how would we arrange them? How much space do I need? How much space do I have?"

If you enjoy design as much as I do, you know the intoxicating allure of opportunity. I was asked in July for a list of my top 20 favorite things. I listed a new notebook/journal as one of them -- so many blank pages of opportunity. But even before I began drafting blueprints, I realized I did not know the answers to many questions about how to design an ER. Cue the first round of learning by drawing - pre-sketch learning. The very process of dreaming about a real ER for real patients occupied by real students, nurses, and doctors changes the level of precision and detail needed. "How many ER beds are required to serve a 300-bed hospital? How many patient visits do we expect through the ER? etc., etc."

Draft #3.2 of the ER at Kibuye Hope Hospital (18 Mar 2013)

And then you draw something...only to realize halfway through the assignment of space that you needed an area where private conversations and evaluations could take place. Scratch draft #1; on to draft #2. Each time you draw it out, you refine your design and deepen your understanding of the space. "How big exactly is a patient bed? Are they fixed or mobile? Will we be able to wheel the X-ray machine in here?" One thus enters the second round of learning by drawing - inter-sketch learning. Certain relationships simply do not become apparent until all the elements are on the page. Then the glaring absence of bathrooms becomes obvious.

But you're not done yet. Once you've researched all your answers, revised all your sketches (I switched to little paper cutouts of patient rooms, trauma bays, bathrooms, nursing stations, etc so that I could just rearrange them on the floor without redrawing everything all the time), and reassembled all your various elements, you draw a "final" draft. Satisfied that you have considered everything to be considered, you run it by your friends and team. They like it. Yes! So you ship it off to your architect friends for some sort of rendering process whereby it becomes AutoCAD files. Wham! Round three of learning by drawing - post-sketch learning.

"Final Draft" of the ER at Kibuye Hope Hospital (27 Mar 2013)

"What building materials are you using? How wide are the walls? What building codes/standards are you using?" One finds that he has indeed not considered all the salient features of this construction when designing the ER, and a tug-of-war commences in his heart. "How much of the 'final' design can be saved while correcting for these highly relevant issues?" In my case, this dilemma didn't last long as Jason and the EMI team quickly identified the footprint available as too small for the "final" draft. But what happened next was a beautiful gift straight from the Lord.

John Hixson, one of two architects who volunteered to help me in this process, responded thus when I reluctantly told him to scratch whatever work he had already done on the project as we'd be going back to the drawing board:

"P.s. I love the work God has called me to! I have redesigned things 6 times and loved every moment of it! This is truly a pleasure!!!"

And I find that there is even a fourth round of learning by drawing - supra-sketch learning. To embrace being subject to process, to discovering en route what needs to be known to move forward, to trust in One with grander plans than a big building in a small village in a tiny little country without enough doctors. It reminds me of one of my favorite scenes in all of cinema - where Jesus checks his lines while working as a carpenter. Couldn't He have cut that table leg perfect on the first pass? Nope, He made Himself subject to process too. It was part of being with us. And getting to be with Him and His people every step of the way through this process has been a genuine joy.

Masterplanning at Kibuye

noreply@blogger.com (Jason and Heather Fader) — Tue, 14 May 2013 20:17:00 +0000

By Jason

I have recently returned to France after an exciting 10 days in Burundi with an EMI engineering/architecture team, putting together a 20-year plan for Kibuye Hope Hospital. As the work began, we were not sure whether the university and hospital leadership would be available for collaboration, since our primary contact, Bishop Elie, had just passed away 3 weeks before, but the leaders who are filling the sizable gap that he left are doing a phenomenal job. We couldn't have asked for more engagement and interest from the leaders of the university, hospital, and church as we set out to create a master plan. What a great time it was to get to know many future colleagues. The picture below shows the EMI team and those involved from the leadership of the university, church and hospital.

During the 10 days we worked together in country, the team of extremely competent engineers and architects from multiple specialties and countries worked hard to identify current and projected needs for electricity, water, sewage, buildings, roads, patient volume, hospital flow, natural light, ventilation, and so much more. As we worked together in the same room you could hear comments such as "What if we use a roof monitor to get light into this corridor?" "Which instruments need an isolated ground?" "What if we move the entrance over here?" and "I think we have to move from seepage pits to lagoons."

By the end of our time there, we had developed a draft master plan for the 62-acre site. We will all spend the next many weeks refining that plan which is pictured below. (The existing buildings are hashed and the non-hashed buildings would be new construction). It is a massive plan no doubt, which calls to mind a quote from William Carey: "Expect great things from God. Attempt great things for God."

For the hospital itself, I have posted below a rendering of what currently exists(top), and then what we are proposing for long-term expansion (bottom). The green buildings happen to be the old vs. new Operating Rooms and surgery ward space.

Finally, I didn't take many pictures myself, thinking that I would just copy the pictures from the others at the end of the trip. In retrospect I should have known that when you travel with a team of engineers, their pictures tend to look something like this:

Many, many thanks to all the EMI team members and their families who sacrificed to be a part of this trip. Your efforts are very much appreciated.

Awkward French Children's Books

noreply@blogger.com (The Drs. McLaughlin) — Thu, 02 May 2013 11:57:00 +0000

by Eric

I have read a lot of French children's books this year. Early on, we paid a few euros to get a library card downtown, which is about a 20 minute walk away from the school, and we go there every couple weeks. It's a good outing for the kids, they love to read, and it's good language practice for me.

The language is pretty simple, and I've got pictures to help me! (Though interestingly, French has a unique verb tense reserved for written narratives, so the verbs are always a bit different from what we learn in class.)

Every society has a culture to its children's literature (if it produces any), and it's one thing to recognize that, but it's another to not feel weirded-out when you experience the kid's books of another culture. I mean, I was weaned on the stories of my culture, and so those values are pretty deeply ingrained.

Some French kid's books are awesome, and some are down right beautiful (Le Petit Prince, for example). However, some are rather strange, and I thought I'd share a few of the categories of "strange".

1. Animal "Violence". If there is an animal in a story, then someone is going to die. American books are largely influenced by Disney and company, where such things are considered too "harsh" for kids, so the chicken in the pasta dish needs to be mentally separated from the chicken in "The Little Red Hen". For the French, if the protagonist is a chicken, he may end the story by being a yummy dinner. Even more frequently, the animals eat each other. In Et pourquoi? Little Red Riding Hood tortures the wolf by repeatedly asking "Pourquoi?" ("why?") until he eats her whole, and then she continues her terrible interrogations from inside his belly. The story ends by the wolf having had enough, and so he takes a knife and slices his belly open. He dies, and Red Riding Hood walks out smug and unharmed. This example is a bit mild, since I never checked out the more violent ones, so I can't remember the titles.

2. Nudity. It may in fact be true that, as an American, I'm a bit prudish. Yet there you have it, so it's a bit weird for me to see kid's cartoons with full frontal nudity. I quite like the Emile series of books as seen below. However, this one is a bit weird. Emile decides that he has become invisible, and so he can't figure out how his mom can still see him. Then, epiphany! It's his clothes! So, he takes them off, so he can be truly invisible. The book ends with him walking into the living room to be surprised by a female friend that has come to pay a visit. Naked Emile, feeling no need to cross his legs, sits down on the couch next to her, relieved that he's invisible, because otherwise this would have been a really awkward moment...

3. Just Plain Bizarre. It's difficult for me to know whether some American stories come off as equally strange to a French reader. However, there are some weird ones out there. Les Poissons Savent-ils Nager? (Do Fish Know How To Swim?) unfortunately became a favorite of our kids, even finding its way into a prior blog post. The story, in brief, goes like this:

One day, the fish will decide to walk out of the ocean and join society. They will make their fortune hunting shrimp. The will buy clothes, eat flowers, and otherwise integrate into human society. The shrimp will get wise and head into the forest to get away. While hunting for mushrooms, the fish rediscover the shrimp's hiding place. Shrimp hide in the treetops. While attending a fish/human wedding on tight-ropes in the forest (not kidding), the shrimp are rediscovered, and subsequently hunted by fish with rifles (see #1). The fish grow wings, and the flying fish hunt them. Finally, the shrimp escape underground. In despair, the humans build a rocket to seek the shrimp in outer space, and the fish build a boat to look on other continents. Boat sinks, and the fish discover they like living underground. Meanwhile, the shrimp come out of hiding and take up fishing to feed themselves. Shrimp and earthworms live in a utopia-like ever-after.

You can probably guess that the language-learner has a lot of "is this really saying what I think it's saying?" moments.

4. Docteur Dog. This gets a category all its own. I picked up this book, about a dog who cares for all the maladies of his hygenically-impaired family, thinking that it might be amusing, and I could pick up some medically-relevant vocabulary. Well, it started off OK, with someone who has a cold and then indigestion. It explains the popular origin of these diseases (not washing hands, for instance), and then Docteur Dog prescribes a treatment.

Then, it goes south. Well, first it goes north, to headlice (with some colorful illustrations), then south, to pinworms. It proceeds to go from bad to worse, and the finale is grandpa, who has bad gas (from too much beer and beans), having such a forceful episode on the toilet, that he and his porcelain bust out through the ceiling of the house, and go flying through the neighborhood.

Well, Maggie was absolutely terrified, and we never finished it (which is just as well). I took the book back early, at her request to never see it again. It's several weeks later, and she still freaks out, with repetitive phrases like "I don't ever want to get worms!" and "I don't want bugs in my hair!"

Not sure how to categorize that, but it's an experience we are not soon to forget.

(Si un de nos amis français lisait cela, j'aimerais beaucoup savoir vos pensées...)

Who Packed the Parachute?

noreply@blogger.com (John and Jessica Cropsey) — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 10:33:00 +0000

by Jessica Cropsey

Our arrival in Burundi is just 100 days away! In a sense, we are entering the front lines of battle for the kingdom work of God in Burundi. Yet, we could never do that alone. We were reminded of that when we recently received an article published by the Christian Medical and Dental Association entitled, "Who Packed the Parachute?" It tells the following story:

Charles Plumb was a U.S. Navy pilot who flew some 75 combat missions during the Vietnam War. Shot down behind enemy lines, he parachuted to earth but was immediately captured. He spent six years as a POW. Eventually he was released and resumed life as a civilian in the United States.

At a restaurant one day where he and his wife were eating, a stranger came to his table and said, “You’re Charles Plumb! You flew jet fighters in Vietnam from the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk. You were shot down.”

“How in the world did you know that?” asked Plumb. The stranger replied, “Because I packed your parachute!” In amazement, Plumb stood and extended his hand. The man continued, “I guess it worked.” “It sure did,” Plumb responded. “If your chute hadn’t opened, I wouldn’t be here today.”

That night Plumb couldn’t sleep. He kept thinking about the man who had packed his parachute... Plumb wondered how many hours the man had spent at that long wooden table in the bowels of the ship weaving the shrouds and folding the silks of those chutes. With each humble act of faithful service, he held in his hands the fate of someone he didn’t even know.

All of us are incredibly blessed with a host of family, friends, and churches who support us in various ways -- providing financial support, praying for us, sending care packages/encouraging notes/e-mails, etc. Many have invested years into our spiritual, physical, and emotional growth. Others have been dear friends during the difficult (and numerous!) years of medical training. There have also been many occasions where we have been aided and blessed by people that we don't even know. Along the way, we've certainly had to deploy a "parachute" or two in order to survive some near crash and burn moments.

As we eagerly anticipate our arrival in Burundi, we feel blessed to know that so many of you have been caring for our every need, at times completely behind the scenes. You have been and continue to be God's great provision for us. And while we have no intention of using any "parachutes" in Burundi, if need arises, we will know that they have been well and lovingly packed. Thank you for walking alongside us in this journey. We wouldn't be here without you!

Book of the Month: Keeping the Sabbath Wholly

noreply@blogger.com (The Drs. McLaughlin) — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 08:34:00 +0000

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.

Cross Cultural Medicine

noreply@blogger.com (The Drs. McLaughlin) — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 03:00:00 +0000

I have been meaning to write a blog about my experience with the French medical system for quite some time now. You've most likely gotten little glimpses of our experiences along the way, like the fact that our team bought and administered its own vaccinations...Being in general young healthy adults who also happen to be doctors, we tend in general to be able to avoid a country's medical system. At Tenwek, we often diagnosed and treated ourselves because illnesses were small and it was easy to get the medicines we needed from the hospital pharmacy. So we never had to "go to the doctor" or figure out the health care system, except in the sense of working in it. :) Which counts for something, but of course being a patient is much different.

It likely would have gone the same way in France...again, young healthy adults/physicians who in general don't need to see a doctor and if they get sick can usually diagnose themselves. Even our kids fall into this category...a friend of our gave us the "developmental stages" questionnaires to give our kids, and Alyssa and John brought otoscopes/ophthalmoscopes for looking into little ears. But for the fact that I got pregnant. Since I am not a proponent of home births, in the end I needed to establish care with a French midwife and spend two days in a French hospital for the birth of Baby Tobias.

Just as well. It was a good language learning experience for me, and also a fascinating look into another developed world's health care system. I can in some ways see how health care costs are kept down. Every month, and only every month, I went to visit my midwife. I paid her 21 euros for my visit. She had no nurse or receptionist...I would simply wait outside her door and she would come get me when she was ready. She would answer the phone on her desk when it rang. She took my vital signs herself and charted everything in the computer. Not such a bad system, it seems.

The hospital experience was similar to being in a US hospital. Except of course for the fact that everyone spoke to me in French. Some interesting differences:

1. Breakfast. The French are known for their very minimal breakfasts. I literally received a tray of bread and water, no joke. There was also jelly for the bread and a tea bag for the water, but wow. The first morning I texted Eric to tell him to bring this postpartum mama more food!

2. Baths. Every morning, a nurse assistant came to get me and Toby for his bath. Daily baths, performed in a very particular ritual which involved submersion up to the neck (umbilical cord be darned) and sticking cotton swabs in his ears and nostrils. 50% of my French comprehension comes from context and I'm sure the nurse thought I was a terrible third time mom since I couldn't figure out how she wanted me to give my kid a bath. Wait, you want me to do WHAT?!

3. Linens. I was expected to bring all my own clothing, and clothes for Toby, too. I delivered in a hospital gown but no one ever gave me another (and if you've had a baby you know that you do NOT want to wear that same gown after the delivery). Before I even delivered, the nurse asked Eric for Toby's clothes. All I had brought was a onesie and a little going home PJ outfit, plus some socks and a random hat. She incredulously asked if that was it. Um, yes? In the US, onesies, blankets, hats, etc are all provided. They put every article of clothing on him after he was born and asked if we had anything warmer, so Eric had to bring him extra clothes the next day (also, he was not "allowed" to wear the same clothes after his daily bath!). For me, I never found a towel to use in the bathroom and dried off after my shower with an extra blanket. Was I supposed to bring a towel?

4. Meds. Every night the nurse would give me a pillbox with the next day's meds. I was expected to remember and take them myself. There was no UPC code on my bracelet, no one confirmed my birth date before giving me tylenol, etc. Rather...freeing, actually.

In the end, the differences were not a big deal, although it was still nice to come home to my own bed and family. The cross cultural differences were not big but they were present, and constant conversation in a different language was draining for me. Hopefully I got some good education out of the experience.

Au Revoir Kathryn Photo Recap

noreply@blogger.com (Jason and Heather Fader) — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 19:05:00 +0000

Today we bid a sad au revoir to Miss Kathryn at the Albertville train station as she headed back towards Michigan. Kathryn has been here since the beginning of January, studying French, helping with the kids, and providing lots of fun for everyone as she found adventures and wrote about them. We will miss her so much! The pictures below show some of the ways that Kathryn has been such a blessing and joy to our team during the last four months....

Helping with the Kids - Ice Skating

Sledding

Helping in Sunday School

Reading and Entertaining Children who Adore Her

Playing Music for Chapel

Studying French

Eating Together

Skiing

Traveling Near and Far

Visiting Geneva (statue of John Knox)

Playing Uno and Many Other Kid Games

Teaching Piano

Being Silly

Celebrating birthdays (Kathryn's in this case)

Exploring France

Thank you, Kathryn, for sharing your love with our children and your joy with everyone you meet. You have greatly blessed us during this season of our lives in France. We miss you already.

EMI Trip II

noreply@blogger.com (Jason and Heather Fader) — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 15:36:00 +0000

(By Jason)
Some days I think I would have liked to pursue a career in engineering - or at least what I envision engineering to be... figuring out how things work, making things, and fixing problems. Tomorrow I get to partially live out this dream by joining a group of professional engineers and architects traveling to Kibuye and working on creating a comprehensive long-term master plan for the hospital.

At this time Kibuye Hope Hospital has around 100 beds, but in order to create adequate opportunity for teaching medical and nursing students, as well as for providing more medical care, the hope is to increase the bed capacity to around 300.

Many questions arise when such an endeavor is undertaken. For example, how much space does a hospital that size require? How much water would be needed, and where would we get that water? How about electricity... from where, and what about a back up generator system, and might there be options for solar, hydro, or wind energy? What building supplies are available, and what would be the cost for such a hospital expansion? And how do you do all this in such a way that would create an organized, practical, attractive, sustainable, and efficient hospital?

This is where Engineering Ministries International (EMI) comes in. EMI sends teams of volunteer professional engineers all around the world to work on projects such as this. In February of this year, an EMI team went to Kibuye Hospital to do some preliminary data collecting, and the group put together all kinds of useful renderings and diagrams such as these:

The second EMI team heads to Burundi tomorrow for 2 weeks. I am very excited to get to work with this remarkable group of engineers and architects. We look forward to working along side the Burundian hospital and medical school leadership to envision the future as we collaborate to develop an excellent and appropriate 15-year expansion plan.

47 Needles

noreply@blogger.com (Jason and Heather Fader) — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 16:52:00 +0000

Moving back to Africa within a few months means checking to ensure that all important vaccinations are up to date. Lo and behold, this Burundi-bound bunch needed more than a few immunizations and boosters... a combined total of 47 shots.

47 vaccinations averages about 3 shots per person, for the prevention of several undesirable diseases, all of which the McCropder doctors saw while working in Kenya, including Hepatitis, pertussis, rabies, and tetanus.

It seemed only fair that the injection duty be shared amongst the willing parties... including Sarah, Kathryn, and even Anna, who had no qualms whatsoever about learning how to poke a needle into Aunt Sarah.

Thinking about vaccinations and medical care just makes us all the more eager to arrive in Burundi in a few short months.

A Trip Back to Tenwek

noreply@blogger.com (The Drs. McLaughlin) — Sat, 13 Apr 2013 13:50:00 +0000

(from Eric)

There is nothing like banana trees to make you feel like you've been gone awhile. It's due to their capacity to grow so quickly. Behind the apartment building where we all lived for our two years in Kenya, we had a shamba where we grew lots of produce, and we had transplanted a few banana saplings there in the first six months or so. Towards the end of our term there, we took this picture. You can see a few banana trees in the background, spindly and a bit solitary.

Several months ago, someone sent us this picture of the same plot, now with a veritable forêt of trees. Wow, I guess has time has passed. And when I look at the picture of Maggie above, I must admit that small children have the same effect as banana trees.

The end of our time here in France is within 3 months. Some of our team members will have need to travel back to the states afterwards (weddings and such), and so we set a month hiatus before we are all due in Burundi at the beginning of August for the next phase of this journey.

What to do? After some deliberation, it was decided that my family and Jason will be spending the majority of that time at Tenwek Hospital.

We look forward to a time of getting back into medicine, seeing old friends, renewing contacts, showing off the interim growth of our family, hiking down to the waterfall, and of course, checking out the banana trees. We will even be staying in our same apartment, which happens to be vacant at the time.

Maybe it's the time that has passed, or maybe it's the end of an alpine winter, or the lack of medical practice for a while now, but it seems that the nostalgia of our lives at Tenwek is at an all-time high. When we think about visiting so many colleagues and friends, sharing a mug of chai, waking up at precisely 6:15 to a cacophony of birds, it's enough to send us into the third heaven.

Our time there was a time of great joy. And yet we know (and if you have been reading this blog, we hope you know as well) that, as life always is, it was so much more multi-dimensional than that. It was joy and sorrow. It was routine and frustration. It was smooth and so very very difficult.

So, what to do with all this nostalgia? Ride the wave until you crash on the rocks of reality, i.e. when you remember all the other dimensions? Stifle it down to avoid the disappointment?

Because living cross-culturally involves such cycles of emotions with regards to one's host culture, I think the question is an important one. And it strikes me that such nostalgia has at least a chance of being a time of great gain. A time of truly loving and enjoying the blessings of a place and its people, while letting the frustrations roll of one's back a little more lightly. Maybe something that can linger, or even last.

We'll let you know. But for now, we're excited to shake a million hands, greet people in Swahili, keep a warm chapati in one hand and a bottle of Stoney Tangawizi in the other, and enjoy our trip back to Kenya.

A Hero Fallen: Remembering Bishop Elie Buconyori

noreply@blogger.com (John and Jessica Cropsey) — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 21:09:00 +0000

By John Cropsey

When we received word that Bishop Elie had passed away from cancer on Easter Sunday 2013, our hearts were brought low. A truly great man was lost in Burundi that day, one who had been used of God to do so much for his country. He was the catalyst for many, including the McCropders, to dream great dreams for what God could do in Burundi and surrounding Central Africa if one was willing to join God on a bit of an adventure. I had the tremendous privilege to attend his funeral on behalf of our team this past Friday in Bujumbura along with fellow World Harvest missionary, Randy Bond.

When war erupted in Burundi in 1993, Elie Buconyori was already in Kenya as a pioneer missionary. The numbers of Burundian refugees rose in Kenya as the genocidal war raged on in his homeland of Burundi. God put a passion in his heart for the education of Central Africa's youth fleeing conflict in not only Burundi, but Rwanda and Congo as well. He began organizing make-shift schools in Kenyan churches starting with primary and eventually working his way up all the way to a university.

Hope Africa University was born in 2000 with a first class of just 4 students. In 2003 as the war began to wane, HAU was transplanted to Burundi. God blessed it abundantly. Today it has well over 5,000 students with a vast array of undergraduate and graduate programs. We will be joining the school of medicine to aid in the development of their primary teaching hospital at Kibuye. In a country ravaged by over a decade of war, it cannot be understated what it means to Burundi to have a Christ-centered university producing young professionals who our champions of reconciliation and peace, just as their Rector, Bishop Elie was.

The largest newspaper in Burundi recently ranked Bishop Elie as one of the five most important people in Burundi and he was given the nation's Medal of Honor last year. Why? Here are a few amazing facts about the Bishop.

Government:

He was a key advisor behind the scenes at the Nelson Mandela-led Arusha peace accord that officially brought the war to an end.

He was asked to be president of the transitional government but he declined as he felt God had called him to continue his ministry of rebuilding the country through the church and education.

He was an important leader of the nation's reconciliation initiatives post-war.

At his funeral on Friday, a major boulevard in the capital was honored with his name and he was decreed a national hero by the state.

Many current national leaders are graduates of HAU.

He was a close friend and advisor to the current President and his wife.

Church:

Bishop of Burundi's Free Methodist Church

President of the World Congress of Bishops of the Free Methodist Church

President of the Christian Church Forum of Burundi representing 80% of the population

Education:

Founder and Rector of HAU, the largest private university in Burundi with a mission of "Facing African Realities" through Christ-centered education.

Elected Chairman of the Inter-University Council of East Africa in 2011.

Received his PhD from Trinity Evangelical outside of Chicago.

Education was clearly this man's great passion. Knowing that angels are not omniscient, it was joked at the funeral that the first words to come out of the Bishop's mouth when he met God on Easter Sunday were likely, "God, can we open a school up here for the angels?"

Everyone was at the funeral to pay their respects to this great man who helped bring peace between tribes, dialogue across religious divides and much, much more.

He leaves behind his widow Joy and four adult children. As you can imagine, all are very well educated and capable, but losing a husband and father, especially in Africa, is a big deal. He also leaves behind a church, university and the McCropders not knowing what the future holds. As worry or fears try to take hold, we remember that we trust in a God who knows how to bring life from death. Our future is not founded on a great man who is now gone (even though that is very tempting to think and feel) but it is anchored in Jesus Christ.

Please pray for the the Buconyori family, the Free Methodist Church, Hope Africa University and the McCropders as we find our way without Elie Buconyori, a man who provided us vision and endless optimism for what God could do. Many important decisions regarding future leadership will be taking place in the coming weeks. Please pray for wisdom, discernment, humility, peace and divine guidance for all those involved.

Tobias Timothée McLaughlin

noreply@blogger.com (The Drs. McLaughlin) — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 07:49:00 +0000

Over four months ago, Rachel told me that the ideal date for our baby to be born would be April 1. She didn't want another March birthday (she and Ben are in March), but she didn't want to wait any longer than necessary, and that way, true to McCropder tradition, the baby could share a birthday with Sarah.

Never mind that it was 8 days prior to her due date, and thus 15 days prior to her French due date (they use 41 weeks for some reason).

Yet, lo and behold, months later, more or less during Sarah's birthday celebration, the contractions kicked up in earnest. Several hours later, Tobias Timothée McLaughlin was born at the Albertville hospital. All has been well. Rachel will provide her take on being a patient in the French system later on.

It may be remembered that Ben has two middle names: "Kenneth Kipruto", the first being Rachel's dad's name, and the second being his Kenyan name, meaning "boy born while traveling". Timothée (pronounced Teem-o-tay) is in fact the French spelling of my father's name, thus keeping the same pattern, but combining both elements into one.

Questions from the peanut gallery:

Was he a chunker like the others? 8lbs 9oz, in between the others
Does Tobias has a really cool-looking French birth certificate? No, it is in fact the most underwhelming legal document I have ever seen.
Is he eligible for French citizenship? No, you must have a French parent to be eligible for citizenship.
Could he be president of the United States? This was actually the first question he asked me after being born. It's funny how the answer to this doesn't seem to be straightforward, but the most reliable answer I've been given is that, since he acquires citizenship at birth (by virtue of being born to American citizens), that he could be president.

Thanks to all of you who have been praying for us. Please continue.

Psalm 126:3 - "The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy."

Forgetting How To Speak English

noreply@blogger.com (The Drs. McLaughlin) — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 08:42:00 +0000

(from Eric)

Two days ago, in class, we were discussing a certain verb construction. I was wrestling with it in my mind, trying to find an approximate English equivalent that I might be able to hang my hat on.

Epiphany! "Could" in the sense of "it could be, but it's probably not..." So I changed my multi-color pen and scrawled above it the English word "COULD".

Then I leaned back and stared hard.

Did I spell that right? It looks so weird. I said it over and over in my mind. Wow, now it sounds weird. Is that even the right word? I try writing it in lowercase. Hmm, that looks better, but still a bit off. Am I having a stroke?

***

This is our world right about now.

I was told beforehand, that silent E's and double letters will be the first to go, because they are often the only change between an English word and a French word. We had a classic moment in class a while ago, where our teacher was exhorting us to note well that the French word appartement is spelled differently than in English. "How many P's are there in English?" One student confidently pronounced "Two!" Then, the teacher wrote the correct English spelling on the board, and the student's eyes got wide. "No, there's only one!" And this student works as an English teacher.

But so it is with all of us. Adresse. Utilise. I'm having to type these words into Google Translate as I type this to ensure that I'm putting the right spelling on this post. I've never been so reliant on spell-checkers in my life. It's not going to get any better with medical vocabulary.

I remember a friend in medical school talking about a particularly brain-frying session of Gross Anatomy where she turned to her friend and said: "I know we have two kidneys, but do we have one liver or two? One? No, two! No, just one....yeah, definitely one."

This phenomenon (phénomène) is about 80% a funny thing to laugh at along the road of language learning. The other 20% is something that takes a stab at my identity and substantially changes some important things. As an American, part of my identity as an educated professional is being able to articulate with the right words and spell correctly. The deeper we go in French, even more so as we learn Kirundi and live in the great linguistic mixture of French-Kirundi-English-Swahili that is Burundi, we are going to get more things wrong. There is certainly an overall net gain in knowledge, but there may be something about my ability to function in English that will have to suffer a bit.

Interestingly, Kenyans never had quite the same qualms. Certainly, "proper" English functioning improves with education, but even very educated Kenyans never had many as many qualms with making spelling errors, even in a professional presentation. It was a constant suggestion of mine that they could improve the overall professional appearance of their work by watching their spelling more closely. They each spoke at least 3 languages, of course. Often more.

I think often about those guys, and how I have so much more empathy for their situation. Ethnocentrism strikes again!

So, prie for us as we learn to adress these issues et continuer a utilise our French.

10 Milestones

noreply@blogger.com (Jason and Heather Fader) — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 21:55:00 +0000

We have just finished a round of exams here. Somehow these trimester exams show us just how much French we have learned, while they simultaneously show us how MUCH we have yet to learn. The exams are comprised of 8 separate tests for each student: exams which test listening comprehension, speaking ability, written work, pronunciation, vocabulary, reading comprehension, and grammar. There was a little bit of rejoicing when the whole series of exams was finished. And there was a bit more rejoicing this morning when we received our scores. We all passed - hooray! That's 9 passing scores. 9 milestones of French progress.

The best milestone this week actually was celebrated as we welcomed Sarah back after she had been away for a week... at the World Harvest Mission offices in Philadelphia... for her official acceptance interviews and orientation. (The rest of the team had those meetings in the fall of 2011, before even meeting Sarah, so now last week was Sarah's turn.) Of course, the mission affirmed that her gifts and mission are a great match with the rest of the team, which we already knew. So World Harvest welcomed her in with open arms, and then she flew back to France... where her exams were awaiting her... and where her team was eager to welcome her back home with a celebration. Hooray!

Surprise Party did surprise Sarah

"We love you Sarah" chocolate pie

An attempted group picture to commemorate the event

Tenwek Tragedy

noreply@blogger.com (The Drs. McLaughlin) — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 16:23:00 +0000

(from Eric - you can read a bit more at Jennifer's blog here)

What to say? A story that cuts, but for us, it guts us and knocks us flat. It's unbelievable. Because I can almost imagine being in their shoes, I can't possibly imagine being in their shoes.

The Kelley family arrived five weeks ago to serve at Tenwek Hospital, Kenya, for two years with the Post-Residency program with Samaritan's Purse, just as we did in late 2009. Aaron is an ER doctor and Stephanie stays at home with their three little boys and their 14-month old girl. We met them a few times in the past year, and last July, Rachel and I had a good time answering their questions about shopping in Nairobi and Kenyan vacation spots. Their blog told us that they are living in the Cropsey's apartment, next to ours, and that they are benefiting from the bananas and basil that we planted in the backyard garden. They were hoping to see baboons on the way to Tenwek, but alas no.

We can picture every aspect of it.

Then, the unthinkable. Hannah, their 14-month old daughter has persistent vomiting. They are taking care of her, talking with our friends at the hospital about possible causes. Then a couple nights ago, she stops breathing. Her heart stops. Aaron has to perform CPR in their apartment. They make the trek up the hill to the ER, the same walk we took when Rachel was in labor. Hours of resuscitation in the ER. There was a picture of all of our former colleagues surrounding her bed. The CT scanner that they inaugurated the day we left in 2011 showed a malignant brain tumor.

She was rushed to Kijabe Hospital several hours away where she had surgery. She died the next day.

No.

No. This didn't happen.

Our world, so full of beauty, is plunged into darkness. How did this happen? I recommend to you Aaron's blog posts and the testimony that they bear. That which stood out the most to me was a single sentence. He was recounting the cardiac arrest of his daughter, her brain cancer, and their trip through the Rift Valley to Kijabe. After noting how remarkable it is that a world renowned pediatric neurosurgeon was at Kijabe just a couple hours away (which is quite correct), he says "Tell me God is not good!" Those words nearly broke me. It's an almost unthinkable thing to say in his situation. A cynic would call it denial. But it's more of an anchor for the soul. But it's mostly a defiant shout into the darkness.

And he's right.

I can't even bear the weight of it, but he's right.

What's lost is nothing to what's found. And all the death that ever was, set next to life, would scarcely fill a cup.

And I feel it in my reaction to this story. I pick Maggie and Ben up from school and hold them so tightly. They smile at me, and the deep durable goodness of the moment is unmasked, and it is full of glory. It is full of glory. And though the darkness and brokenness of our world are achingly real, the greater reality of the goodness of a single cup of water would stand up to any tragedy. This is no survivor's guilt. This is darkness showing in relief just how precious is the life we have been given. It's been there all the time.

Please pray for the Kelleys. Pray for the Tenwek community.

Burundi Happenings

noreply@blogger.com (The Drs. McLaughlin) — Sun, 10 Mar 2013 05:30:00 +0000

As we have passed the halfway mark in France, we are excited to think more about about our future in Burundi. There have been a few exciting things happening there (that make our lives seem more real), and our team is starting to kick into "Burundi prep" mode. At least, as much as we can with French exams coming up this week!

First of all, Heather mentioned an EMI team in Burundi. A group of engineers headed to Kibuye for a week in February to assess the current infrastructure and help come up with a plan for what else we need--other buildings, where to put them, running water, electricity, etc. This was basically an information gathering trip, and more engineers will return in May to finish the comprehensive plan (Jason plans to accompany them). We are grateful for all the help they are providing. We don't have much information from their trip yet, but we will post "official" findings as we receive them, hopefully in the next week or two. Early information seems very positive about a well recently dug on the property as well as the structural stability of existing buildings.

The EMI team of engineers, above

The next big piece of information that we received is that one of our containers has arrived (perhaps you didn't know there was more than one!). The McCropder team has a personal container, aka The Big Red Box, waiting on a farm outside of Ann Arbor. It will be shipped to Burundi this summer, hopefully, and spend two months in transit to meet us in Burundi early fall. But there was also a goodly amount of donated medical equipment and supplies we had, as well as a few personal items we couldn't squeeze into the BRB, so Jason and John trucked it down to Indiana and loaded it onto a different container bound for Hope Africa University. THAT container arrived at HAU this week. Apparently the truck that brought it was the oldest truck still in existence. But whatever works. The container has had to be unloaded per the customs official, and many crates have been set up outside the student center. While we are glad the container has arrived safely, there are still several concerns: safe storage of both medical and personal possessions until we can arrive, and also the question of taxes/customs. In the past, HAU has enjoyed a tax free status, but customs officials are cracking down and now requesting 30-40% value of the items for tax. Pray this inspection process goes smoothly and fairly!

medical equipment sitting on the HAU student center porch

Finally, a small piece of information that gets all of us very excited (in a way you might not understand)...Nakumatt is coming to Burundi! Nakumatt is a large grocery store chain where we all shopped in Nairobi, and they are planning expansion stores into Burundi and South Sudan. The "expected opening date" is March 2015, which we are not holding our breath for, but knowing that a Nakumatt is on its way, sometime in the not too distant future, is quite elating. This means a better availability of a variety of food, produce, and WalMart-type goods, and a much easier/smoother shopping process for us all.

Nakumatt!

Please pray for the following requests as we accelerate towards Burundi:

1. LOGISTICS! There is so much to think about now, and timing is becoming crucial. When to book our flights, which days to arrive (early August), immunizations, and visas are some of the more time sensitive issues.

2. Language Study. We are in the process of finding a place and method to study the local language, Kirundi, for three months (Aug-Oct 2013). We have found some promising possibilities, but nothing is even close to set in stone yet.

3. Vehicles. We know we need at least one or maybe two to start with, and will probably import at least one new vehicle. Pray this process goes smoothly, efficiently, and the right vehicles are provided at the right cost for our team.

Living in a Post-War World

noreply@blogger.com (The Drs. McLaughlin) — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 12:30:00 +0000

Most of the people in Burundi grew up in a war. Civil war ravaged the country for years and years, shutting down development, education, everything. Peace came about 8 years ago, and we are thankful for it's stability up to the present.

Now we live in a little town of about 18,000 in an alpine valley of France. It is well developed and education is readily available. However, if you keep your eyes open, there are little reminders. All three of these pictures were taken within a 8-minute walk of our school.

In honor of 3 citizens of Albertville, victims of the Nazi repression

In honor of a man tortured by the Nazis who died at the Dachau concentration camp

Monument for the victims of WWI and WWII, not from just our small town of Albertville, but just the single parish of St. Sigismond, where we live. (Sorry for being unable to rotate this picture.)

There is a distinct difference here between Europe and the US, where we grew up. Both our countries fought in the world wars, but France was far more in the thick of it. Their country was occupied by Nazi forces. Their sons died far more frequently. There is not a village, however small (and they get quite small around here), where there is not a monument for the men of that village who died in the world wars.

And so the post-war reminders in Albertville remind me of Burundi. The two countries couldn't be less alike in a lot of ways, but the common thread is that it's hard to remember that you're in a post-war country. Here, it's hard to imagine. Our tranquil little town being occupied by foreign forces, being the site of a resistance whose members were sometimes killed for their dissent.

In Burundi, it is also hard to imagine. There are few memorials and a shocking lack of rubble and bullet-marked buildings.

A recent picture around Kibuye Hospital, Burundi

That is about where the commonality ends. In France, there are memorials, but the current generation has grown up in peace and relative prosperity. In Burundi, the wounds are much fresher. Every med student that we work with, and nearly every patient (unless they grew up outside the country), grew up in a war. And yet, interestingly, the impoverished people of Burundi may be overall more optimistic about life than the French.

The fact that we will be working with individuals and a society that is so impacted by recent war is a fact for which we do not yet know the implications. How will this affect us? Will it be just under the surface all the time and pop out at unexpected moments? Will it be talked about openly? Will it be talked about at all? We don't know yet. However, for all their differences, I'm glad for the small reminders here in France of what will undoubtedly be an important issue later on in Burundi.

McCropder Retreat

noreply@blogger.com (John and Jessica Cropsey) — Sat, 02 Mar 2013 21:46:00 +0000

by Jessica Cropsey

After a stressful last few months, everyone on the McCropder team was looking forward to the late February winter break. Alyssa had the wonderful idea to take a mini-retreat together. About 3 hours away from us, there is a terrific little place in Entrepierres called the Association Pierres Vivantes (Living Stones). It's basically an old village that now serves as a retreat center for those in the ministry (pastors, missionaries, etc.). Fortunately for us, La Grange (the barn) was available and had just enough space for our entire crew.

Entrepierres means "between stones"

The idea of the retreat was simply to rest and enjoy being together. No agenda. No plans. No talks. Simply lots of fun, games, and relaxation.

The plan was to depart Saturday morning after we picked up our rental cars. After a nearly two-hour delay in picking up some of the vehicles, we were finally off, all packed into our 4 economy-sized cars. Trust me, it is no small feat to pack three car seats into the back of a Volkswagen Polo, but John's mad packing skills were eventually victorious.

Unfortunately for us, it seemed that everyone else in France also decided to leave for vacation on Saturday morning and we spent a good portion of the late morning in very slow traffic. The families decided to make a pit stop at the IKEA in Grenoble in order to break up the drive with our wee ones. We enjoyed a tasty lunch, a little shopping, and some play time. Much to our chagrin, we later learned that the horse meat fiasco which has spread like wildfire across Europe has also visited IKEA. Ignorance is bliss. (Note: John holding the suspicious "meat"ball with his fork.)

During the second half of our trip, we encountered a snow storm which again significantly reduced our speed. We crawled our way to our destination and finally arrived around 5:00pm. The man who greeted us was quite astonished that none of us had snow chains on our vehicles. Oops. Our 3-hour trip turned into a day-long event, but we were thankful that everyone arrived safely.

The "barn" was absolutely gorgeous. It had a large living room area and two large tables, one in the kitchen and one in the dining room. All the adults had a bed with the kids on mattresses on the floor. It was absolutely perfect for our group. After choosing our rooms and getting settled in,

we had dinner followed by an early celebration of Rachel's birthday.

Over the next few days, we enjoyed lots of activities together....

an informal worship service on Sunday morning (including Father Abraham), ....

reading at the little library just next to our building, ...

fascinating stories about Narnia from Miss Kathryn, re-enacted with some animal game pieces...

playing Hangman on the I-Pad with Aunt Sarah, ....

(or playing the I-Pad by yourself can be just as fun), ....

male bonding, ...

discovering new French curiosities (the bidet - AKA "the sink for kids"), ...

sledding, ...

and of course no vacation is complete without a good puzzle!

We had a wonderful 3 days together. On our way out of town, we stopped at a nearby fort in Sisteron. The inside was closed for the winter, but we still had fun exploring the perimeter.

We are now entering our second week of vacation, but with exams on the horizon the week we get back to class, the remainder of our vacation will involve quite a bit of studying. Please keep us in your prayers as we prepare.

L'école McCropder

noreply@blogger.com (sarah.genevieve.crockett) — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 15:00:00 +0000

By Kathryn Wong and Sarah

Note to the Reader: We opted for too many pictures because the kids are SO cute!

On Tuesday, February 12, 2013, the teachers at the French preschool and kindergarden (the maternelle) went on strike leaving four McCropder children unoccupied for the entire day – a day, it must be noted, when their parents did have school. And so that afternoon, the co-collaborators Aunt Sarah and Miss Kathryn held the first day of l'école McCropder!

Our schoolhouse consisted of the kitchen and living room area in the single's quarters. It was very sweet to see the four of them coming in through the doors, armed with backpacks, ready to go to school. We congregated with the four kiddos – Elise, Micah, Abi, and Maggie – downstairs and discussed the anomaly of Rules and what they mean and why we have them and what it looks like to follow them. It was, perhaps, a little difficult to determine what actually sunk in, for the energy levels were rather high and the attention spans a bit low as should be fully anticipated from healthy, growing children.

We were more or less able to follow the lesson plan – practicing letters and spelling names, singing songs, counting objects inside and outside, learning about opposites, practicing shapes, and reading (an exceedingly odd) French story about fish... (we later found out that the parents had been listening in on this part of school...hopefully after hearing all about fish wearing hats and going shopping and taking care of their pet shrimps and other such nonsensical things they still believe that their children received a good education that afternoon!)

Spelling names and jumping on the alphabet mat


Kathryn reading a book about opposites (French and English!		)

Sarah reading the exceedingly odd French book about fish

The children then did an excellent job of creating a story about two fairies living in a magical forest named Grace and Emily who were captured in a bag by the villain Mimi and there they suffered until they finally sent out a magical note to their friends, and although the note was led astray by a storm of epic proportions, it at long last was discovered by the intended recipients and Grace and Emily were saved! For a suspenseful conclusion, Mimi went through several stages of becoming good and going back to being bad again, and eventually we concluded with a good Mimi who also turned into a fairy. It was a joy to watch their vibrant imaginations, captivated in a second by the mere concept of a magical forest, tearing through this story, words tumbling out of their little mouths almost faster than they could speak. Towards the end, they were, perhaps, ready to be done with the whole school thing, and so we ended our afternoon of school with a rousing game of run/hop/crab walk/walk backwards/walk sideways/crawl down the hall and back again. All in all, it was deemed a successful day, and fun was had by tout le monde!

Proudly displaying the poster board story they wrote.

The following day, all seven of the McCropder children came over to the single's for a Valentine's Day party while the parents enjoyed some Valentine's Day time of their own. The Fader girls contributed some festive, valentine's day décor, and several families brought heart cookie cutters and thematic sprinkles for the occasion. The event got off to a somewhat rough start with little Ben McLaughlin who was quite distraught for reasons still unbeknownst to us. After a good deal of wailing, he perked up at the prospect of making cookies, and the rest of the day went just swimmingly!

Prepping the table with flour for cookie dough and cookie cutters

Uncle Carlan's storytelling

The making and decorating of the heart sugar cookies was deemed a success (no small undertaking with seven children ages seven and under) and while they baked, the kids listened (for the most part with rapt attention) to Uncle Carlan tell the story of twins searching for their lost parents. The cookies were decorated perhaps not in an entirely conventional style as there were only so many adults to stop the children from digging into the frosting and gulping it down in spoonfuls and shaking sprinkles on the table (not the cookie), licking up said sprinkles, and then repeating the process. Once the cookies were finally all frosted and sprinkled, everyone was given permission to eat two cookies each. Somehow at the end of the feeding frenzy, there weren't many cookies that made it out alive, and the math didn't quite add up with each kid eating two cookies. But such is life. The pizza lunch (sans plates or silverware. We're all about dish conservation and all that.) was greeted with enthusiasm and delight, and creativity let lose with the plethora of Valentine's Day cardstock and stickers and foamy shapes supplied by Aunt Sarah. Fun abounded in great quantities.

Valentine Crafts

The race is on for Valentines candy!

With still a good ninety-minutes left before the return of the parents, Miss Kathryn ran outside and created a scavenger hunt of Valentine's Day candy. It was a day of sunshine and warm breezes, and it was a joy to watch the kiddos tearing back and forth across the school property searching for their sugar hearts. Ben and Sammy, having not quite gained the same kind of mobility as their siblings ran excitedly behind the rest of the pack, needing to turn around quite frequently as the rest of the group tore past them, around them, and through them. Anna and Elise in particular were fans of the game, and long after the other children had lost interest, they continued to ask Uncle Carlan to hide and hide and re-hide their heart lollipops. We stayed outside until it was time for them to go home. Soon they began to show signs of fatigue – Sam slouched over his swing, almost asleep, and so full of sugar (sorry, parents!) and hopefully some good memories to boot, thus ended Valentine's Day with the McCropder kids.

Anna is an awesome cookie maker and cookie decorator

Elise perfected the heart shaped cookie.

Ben (much happier)

Work is more productive with the tongue out


Abi enjoyed many, many, many sprinkles.

Pizza and friends - Life is Good!

Yummy!

Before any of the 4 adults noticed, Ben enjoyed multiple spoonfuls of frosting.

Micah spelled his name with cookie dough - creative genius!

Sammy joined us in time for pizza.

Standing on Shoulders

noreply@blogger.com (The Drs. McLaughlin) — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 14:00:00 +0000

by Rachel

Dan Fountain died last week at the age of 82. Many of you have never heard that name before. Dr. Fountain was a missionary surgeon who served for over 35 years in DR Congo with his family. But perhaps just as significantly, after he returned to the US he spent his entire retirement teaching and training the next generation of missionaries and missionary doctors about community health, whole person care, and other important lessons he had gleaned from many years of service in Africa. Eric and I heard him speak at a Louisville medical missions conference in 2003 and were struck by his insight and creative ways of thinking and teaching nationals. Most of us McCropders listened to his DVD course on Whole Person Care as well, thanks to MedSend, an organization that pays our medical school educational debt (and an organization that he helped co-found). And we have since heard him speak at a number of conferences, including a CMDA "deployment" conference in 2009 for young medical missionaries. Dr. Fountain's life is certainly one that touched many people around the globe, and his legacy will live on through the thousands of people he helped to train.

Hearing about Dr. Fountain's death made me start thinking about what lies ahead for me. At the age of 33, I have almost my entire career in front of me, and potentially a retirement as well. I have been called to go to Burundi...a country I had barely heard of three years ago. And yet already in the country there is a missions hospital and a medical school. Someone started these places. Someone planted seeds many many years ago. Missionaries from all over the world have been working in Africa for hundreds of years, bringing the Gospel, bringing education, bringing health and hope and healing. I can go to Burundi because of some of them. Other missionaries have invested in young lives--teaching and encouraging youth, medical students, residents. I can go to Burundi better equipped and better prepared because of some of them. Our whole team stands on the shoulders of people who have sacrificed much to go before us. Some of these people are unknown, and others (like John and Jason's parents) are quite close.

I remember at times like these that we are a body of believers; we are a community in Christ. We do what God has called us to do not by ourselves, but because of and with those others who have also been faithful to the call--people who go, people who give, people who pray. People who went before, people who are coming after. Dan Fountain was one of those people who spent a lifetime investing not only in the NOW but in the future, and I pray that through my life, my career, and yes, my retirement, I can be one of those people too.

The McCropders at the 2009 CMDA conference...Dan Fountain is pictured at the left of the group

Looking Ahead and Looking Around

noreply@blogger.com (Jason and Heather Fader) — Sat, 16 Feb 2013 20:01:00 +0000

(from Heather)

This coming week, a team of nine engineers, architects and surveyors through EMI (Engineering Ministries International) is traveling to Kibuye Hospital in Burundi to carefully evaluate the current facilities (buildings, water, electricity, land). In a few months, when this information is processed, another similar team can use this information on another trip to Kibuye to develop a comprehensive long-term (10-20 year) plan for how the hospital can develop into a 300-bed teaching institution. This is a big step of planning for the future of the hospital.

Evidently our children have caught the excitement for drawing up plans for Burundi. Anna, Elise, and Abi recently took on the task of designing the schoolhouse for Aunt Sarah’s McCropder kid school. Here is the schoolhouse design committee meeting:

Elise (wearing an “I ♥ USA” t-shirt while sitting here in France drawing plans for Burundi) created plans for a dream playground.

Anna mapped out a multi-room schoolhouse, the highlights of which include a reading corners for everyone, a rest time area, a time out corner, a large number of bookshelves, and a snack shelf.

A few days after this looking ahead to Burundi, the kids found themselves looking around here in the Alps. On Thursday our school took a field trip to the nearby mountains to experience an important aspect of local culture: skiing.

Others went sledding (Cropseys in the foreground, Maggie and Rachel in the middle of the picture)

or snowshoeing.

All enjoyed the opportunity to look around at the beauty of creation.

He who forms the mountains, creates the wind, and reveals his thoughts to man, he who turns dawn to darkness, and treads the high places of the earth--the Lord God Almighty is his name. Amos 4:13

For the Lord is the great God, the great King above all gods. In his hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him. Psalm 95:3-4

Beyond France

noreply@blogger.com (Kathryn) — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 18:22:00 +0000

(from Eric: Today's post comes from our special guest blogger Kathryn Wong. She is a friend of ours from Michigan, and a blessing to our families, as she visits and studies with us for a few months. She is also a great writer, and so we thought you might enjoy hearing from her as a different perspective on our lives here. Read her own blog here.)

Here they are. Three families, three singles, and seven – soon to be eight – kids living in the Alps of Southeast France. Living in this land of baguettes, cheese, and wine, of majestic mountains and rich history. Living in a land that displays culture and cultivation at its finest.

But it doesn't take long to figure out that this year of living in France is really not at all about France. You walk down Le Chemin des Galibouds, what seems to be a very normal, peaceful, residential little French street until you arrive at the blue and green sign that reads: Centre Chrétien d'Enseignement du Français. Turn into this driveway, and you'll find a collection of connected, faded white, somewhat weathered buildings with dark brown roofs surrounding a small parking lot. And here in this place, people live with a purpose, for the most part with a purpose decidedly beyond France. People going to Mali, to Togo, to Chad, to Burundi.

Living with the focus beyond France manifests itself in a multitude of different ways. Hardly a day goes by when I don't observe something – different actions, words, gatherings – directed towards what is yet to come.

Aunt Sarah practices the alphabet with Abi each week. I watch them hard at work – jumping from letter to letter, Abi receiving stickers as a reward for her endeavors. A preparation for and a mere foreshadowing of what's to come. She is now learning who each of these little people are, and her role in the lives will be enormous.

Pastor Bob flies across the ocean to visit the McCropders. Why? To discuss Christianity in the context of French culture? No. To look forward. Ahead and into the future of life in Burundi. To wrestle with issues of how to present the gospel in a transformative way to the Burundians. Not a word of France is mentioned. Eleven adults, crammed into the Cropsey's apartment, focused on what is yet to come.

Not all McCropders are natural language learners. Some enjoy it, but not all. For many it's a struggle synonymous to scaling Mount Blanc (and indeed some may prefer that more physical challenge!) Yet they persist in le discours indirect, in mastering les pronoms compléments, in the mind-bending game of communicating correctly with the subjonctif, conditionnel, imparfait, passé composé... Why do they willingly subject themselves to the seemingly insurmountable difficulties of learning an entirely new language with all that it entails? To studying extensive, imaginary dialogues in their textbooks between rather petty, shallow French women celebrating their thirtieth birthdays. To essentially putting themselves back in the shoes of a child, just learning how to speak. Why? Because of what's to come.

On Sunday nights they gather as a team. This time crammed in the Fader's apartment, they enjoy the Galette des Rois – a French epiphany cake – whilst they listen to sermons and work on the aspects of their team covenant, articulating in words their mission statement for beyond France. They pray for and with each other. They're preparing themselves for life in Burundi by learning the language, but underneath the constant verb conjugations and new vocabulary, they're preparing themselves in many more ways than by simply learning the language.

A common refrain is, “It's on the container.” Yes, there is a piano that the McLaughlins packed...I don't have that book with me here, but I do think we put it on the container...Yes, yes that's on the container...No, we don't have that with us here, but it's on the container... They are even materially focused ahead. They will never use this furniture again. They will never use many of these bulky winter clothes again. They will not use these dishes, or these French coffee presses, or this silverware once the year is up. The future of their material lifestyles is packed up, sitting somewhere in Ann Arbor in a big metal container. Eyes are focused on what is yet to come.

The marketplace in Burundi burns to the ground. Attentions are riveted on this event. Something has happened hundreds of miles away, and according to google maps 6,000+ miles, that has powerfully impacted their future. There is a detachment from the place that they now live, from the current events of the locals; there is a deep connection with a place some of them have never been to before.

Lest you get the wrong impression, however, let me assure you it is by no means all detachment from France. Each Saturday many a McCropder hits the ski slopes, fully aware that this may very well be the last opportunity for winter sports that will present itself in decades. On Friday, the célibataire McCropders enjoyed a delicious, French raclette dinner at the McLaughlins. Crêpes and cheese and French bread abound in great quantities. McCropders help out with French Sunday school, they attend Friday night Old Testament Bible Studies with the French church, they're involved in the French youth group. As time and children allow, they travel, exploring the vast amounts of history and culture and legacy that surround them. And so they do embrace France and the great opportunity that a year in Europe presents.

And yet something brews within these walls that is much more than just learning a new language and living in a spectacular country.

Toujours, the McCropders look ahead.

A Few Words from our Children

noreply@blogger.com (Jason and Heather Fader) — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 21:11:00 +0000

With actual video footage to prove it, we affirm that the McCropder kids are learning to speak French. Elise's vocabulary is expanding…

Let’s see if Abi and Maggie can try that…

Anna "loves French" and speaks in sentences which, despite grammatical errors, actually do make sense....

Micah even sings in French….

Voilà.