Superfamily

I have not learned how to respond to peoples' comments when they hear our story.   I am made uncomfortable by 'wow, how awesome', like we are a super family among dullards.

But you know...what we are doing is not super for us.  For us it's the norm.  God planned this for us.  He removed fear, opened doors, provided money.   We don't feel special, or super, or heroic.  This feels like life.  Our life. 

There is nothing greater in what we are doing than in the man who works diligently to find homes for the homeless, or the woman who treats cancer patients with radiation, or the carpenter who sows beauty.  Or the mom who gets up each morning.  Each of these folks can be found in my family.  Are we all heroes then?

This post found over at Sarah Bessey's place rings with great truth:

We were so busy celebrating the Evangelical Hero that we forgot heroes come in all walks of life, callings and success ratios.

And, like so many in my generation, I became so tired of doing big things for God.

Tired of feeling like I didn't measure up.
Tired of gauging my obedience to someone else's calling.
Tired of feeling inconsequential.
Tired of defining success by what others see in terms of numbers or income or job title.
Tired of celebrating the preacher and ignoring the foster parents, the hospice workers, the carpenter, the faithful giver-in-secret, the teacher, the prophet-disguised-as-a-mother.
Tired of feeling like it - whatever it is - all depends on me.

Here is the funny thing I learned when I began to dis-entangle from my Evangelical Hero Complex: I'm pretty sure that there aren't actually any big things for God. There are only small things being done, over and over, with great love, as Mother Theresa said. With great faith. With great obedience. With great joy or suffering or wrestling or forgiving on a daily completely non-sexy basis. And grace covers all of it and God makes something beautiful out of our dust.

The Kingdom of God starts small, a grain of wheat, a mustard seed, a leaven in the loaf. And it spreads, oh, yes, it grows. But it starts small, even hidden in the secret places, a knitting together of wonder, perhaps. A candle on a lamp stand, a woman searching for a coin, a man in a field with a treasure worth selling everything to possess.

It won't surprise anyone to know that I am no hero. I don't really want to be anymore. (Okay, so sometimes I do. I'll be honest. It'd be nice.) But I do want to take the work of my hands right now, today, whether it's a book I'm writing or a floor I'm sweeping or a phone call I'm making or a meal I'm cooking and I want to hold it all in my hand, in my spirit with a breath of prayer and intention, like we are all a fragile universe needing love in this moment.

And I want to honour and respect and celebrate the work of us all, big, small, noticed, unnoticed, seen, unseen. 

He is The God Who Sees and I want to see with His eyes.

Even those people doing the big traditional Hero Things have told me this, they are just doing one thing at a time and the daily work of it doesn't look that sexy. There is a lot of blood, sweat and small wins coupled with small failures along the way and usually we are only seeing one small part in that moment of their life.

One soul is as valuable as thousands, millions. One soul is as important as 99, worth leaving everything behind to rescue. If there is one soul in your care, one face in your loving gaze, one hand you are holding, you are holding the world. If anything matters, everything matters and the work today, the love we give and receive and lavish on the seemingly small tasks and choices of our every day all tip the scales of justice and mercy in our world.

gifts

God is the ultimate gift giver.

Even when I fall so far short I can't stand myself; He showers gifts on me.

He delights in being the Giver of Good things.  Reminding me constantly that He has a good plan for my life.

When I hesitated to settle my heart on the Philippines, because for some reason I had upon this heart the desire to serve a people who would be considered black (I know, that's odd, but He is in the details); He pointed us to the Ati people.  A negrito tribal group among the least reached people of the world.  A black people, in the Philippines.  Putting my heart at rest, assurance of directional correctness. 

The worship music at our church is above measure.  I knew that I would miss it greatly. But then came the news that our church had recorded a worship album, it comes out December 6th.   A gift just for me.

We have wondered about training.  For our family of 7 to attend training in Colorado at Mission Training Institute, the cost would be $12,000.  Not realistic, highly valuable I'm sure, but not in our budget. 

So I asked our friends at Launch 150 in North Carolina how they serve their neighborhood.  T sent me hundreds of pages of materials they use.  T4T, the Bible as story; how to reach people without written language with the Gospel - using storytelling. 

Now I've been told that a T4T trainer will be at a conference Man and I are attending.  Thus we know with confidence that T4T is the training choice for us = reassurance. 

Propaganda, a guy who's videos you can find on my blog (via youtube), is going to be at the same conference.  I just learned that on Monday.  So God put this guy in my line of site, drew my heart out, stretched it with Propaganda's challenges.  He of course knew all along that Propaganda would be performing at the same conference noted above.  Assurance that my connecting with this guy's message is correct. 

God works this way in  my life.  There are so many examples where I stepped out without having the answers up front, and then He put answers in my path, then provided confirmation, so I would know my faith was being put in the right place. 

But first I had to step out. 

This week's update on the Ati land purchase on the Island of Panay is good news.  The land has been paid for!  Yeah.  Now teams for construction are being sought.  Of course man will be working there on the planned buildings, but lots of help is needed.  This is from Tori:

The Ati people are a minority tribe living in poverty and isolation on the island of Panay in the Philippines.  They have dark skin and curly hair, and they are similar to the Aborigines living in Australia. Rejected by the majority of the population, four Ati clans live on a mountain side with no school, poor nutrition and health care, and little knowledge of Jesus Christ.   We were shocked when we found these Ati, who lived so geographically close to us, but were completely isolated from the larger society. 

Along with our Filipino co-workers we began to visit three times a week; to feed the Ati mothers and children with nutritious food, establish a relationship with them by telling them about Christ and the hope of Salvation.  From these visits a strong desire grew in our hearts to communicate the message of Jesus Christ to the Ati people not only in words but in action, so the Ati would have hope and a better way of life.  Now, we have already purchased land where the Ati live.  We will soon start constructing the first school building for the Ati children, a powerful symbol of God’s love and hope for their future.

We ask you to pray for the work amidst these people.  We are also asking for anyone with willing hearts and hands to come and help with a short term mission team to help with the construction of the school and orphanage or come to help with outreach to the Ati children. If you can not come, could you help by purchasing construction materials? 

If you can help let us know.

5 and for sale - in Houston

Please read this, to the end.  They deserve for you to feel uncomfortable, they deserve your tears, your prayers and your action!

Slavery, trafficking.  No matter what you call it, it is evil.  And it's growing.

The numbers are haunting:

1.2 millionNumber of children trafficked each year for sex around the world. (UNICEF)

11Average age of sex workers around the world. Some are as young as 5 years old. (CIA)

100,000Number of children and young women who are trafficked in America today. They range in age from 9 to 19, with the average age being 11. (FBI/ABC News)

200,000Number of U.S. children at risk for commercial sexual exploitation. (US Department of Justice)

30Number of years that U.S. citizens can spend in prison if they’re convicted of traveling to another country and engage in child sexual tourism. (US State Department)

$9.5 billionAmount of money generated annually by human trafficking. (FBI)

3rdRanking of human trafficking among all income-generating syndicates (drugs and guns hold the top spots). (Stop the Traffic)

We can change these statistics.

For information on how you can help refer to the links on the right under Slavery.

Recently, as in the past month, undercover aid workers who routinely scour the city of Houston for trafficked children where offered a

5 year old girl, for the night, to share, for $90. 

They were able to make off with the girl and she is now in a safe place under the protection of the FBI.  She is from Germany. 

Does the fact that she is German make a difference in your processing?  For some reason it did to me, and that makes me sad.  As if another culture, country, or color would be less horrific. 

Teach a man to fish and all that

Aid is a hot topic.  Does it work?  Usually financial handouts alone do not lift people out of poverty. 

They need Hope - the message of the Good News.

They need education, a long term investment.

They need job training.

Ideally the attitude of a helper is to work him/herself out of a job.  For a missionary to no longer be needed in an area, thus able to move to another area, is the goal. 

There are some awesome people doing this, and doing it really well.

One of my favorites is Krochet Kids.  A company started by some college dudes (yes, dudes) who started crocheting beanie type hats and were making bucks doing it. They then wondered about the billions of dollars in aid being doled out around the world, and the fact that it did not seem to help.  That is the very short version. 

These guys started up Krochet Kids to help poor folks lift themselves out of poverty by keeping up a sustainable job. 

A gorgeous family from North Carolina just started up the Peru Krochet Kids:

I have been pondering what we can teach folks in the Philippines, those who want to learn.  Man can teach woodworking skills, trim work, carpentry - the works of his hands.

Folks here have been generous in sharing ideas.  One that I'm most excited about is cobra bracelets.  My boys can make these.  They are made from para chord and have about 8 feet of chord, heavy duty stuff.  The chord is braided in a cobra weave, then worn as a bracelet to be used for a variety of purposes.  Once unwoven (a simple thing to do) you have:
a tourniquet
dog leash
emergency climbing rope
tie up a dead critter for gutting
make a critter trap if you are super hungry

These look cool and will appeal to many of the young tourists on the island. 

I'm learning to fish paint, or paint with fish.  An ancient Japanese art.  You paint a dead fish, then press paper to it, peel the paper off, and you get a beautiful print.  Great for those tourists who catch fish that they can't bring home, but they can bring home a cool, unique art print!

Teach a man to paint with a fish, give him a lake.

Any other ideas would be greatly appreciated.

just one more

This, the 3rd post of the day.  What in the world are your kids doing - I can hear that question....well they are watching tv.   ahhh, that's funny!  no really.  They ate lunch, shot at each other for awhile, fed apple bits to our fire ants, and now they are watching Man, Woman, Wild on Netflix. 

I'll go read to them in a few minutes.  We are starting The Fighting Ground by Avi. 

How's the mission thingy coming along?  thanks for asking. 

Well, I've been sorting books and videos and cd's.  I plan to trade in most of our fiction (man's fiction, spy, murder stuff) and get credit at Half Price Books to buy kid books to ship ahead to the island.  I'm giving lots of our good books (my intelligent, interesting books) away to friends at our coop. 

Here is a video that is a few years old, but gives good info on the ministry we are joining.  On The Rock now feeds about 2000 kids and adults on two islands.

I think the Kropp family needs its own t-shirt.  So I've designed one and when I have some extra cashola, we'll have cool t-shirts.  Maybe we'll sell some.

Going Kropps

What do you mean going?!

Well to put it bluntly we are selling all of our stuff and moving to a tiny island in the Philippines to help finish a school building, then teach there.

This all started last winter.  We pondered the idea of being goers; our church is big on sending missionaries and evangelists to all Nations.  I didn't really think anyone would be interested in a family of 7....so I sent out a few emails.  Right away we got yes's from two families, one in the Philippines, the other in Costa Rica. 

But then we got freaked out about the whole thing.  And money we thought would be flowing in seemed to get stuck.  So we put the idea aside and moved on.  We decided to adopt again; maybe that was what God wanted.  I think Man and I both felt that we were supposed to be doing something..but what?

It was clear to me when I went to sign up for foster/adoption classes that that was not the right thing. 

We came back to going, something that was on my mind almost constantly.  Brian felt like we should be overseas.  Now it's all coming together.

I humbly wrote back to the family in the Philippines to see if they would still take us; their needs fit our skills - construction and teaching.  They do want us.  So we applied to First Love International
First Love International

We were approved to join the On The Rock team
On The Rock Ministries

The next step was to tell our families.  While not everyone understands why we are going, we seem to have everyone's support! 

I have a list of to do's.  Already God is blessing us unexpectedly.

We've wanted a new camera; I wanted one for my birthday in June but there were always other expenses.  Last Friday  I went to buy my camera, finally.  My card was declined!  At home I checked with Man, there was money in the bank.  I then went online to check the prices there, and 'my' camera was $60 cheaper online and I could choose store pickup and go get it in the morning.  Yeah God!  $60 cheaper, that's awesome!

Harley on our bed.

Butterscotch, anyone want a kitty?

Climbing action.

Yo and baby K

Number One catching the ball!  #1, Yo and EQ are on the same football team.

Our pets need new homes.  We don't know when we'll be back, so they need permanent homes.  I chose to start with our puppy Harley.  He has hip dysplasia, not a good selling point.  I remembered that the people we got him from told us they would take him back if we ever could not keep him.  But I had purged my computer of old emails; even deleting email addresses I did not need.  God prompted me to look for what I knew was not there....He's funny that way.  And there in my contacts was an email without a name.  I tried it, asking "did we get our puppy from you?".  It was them!

They want him back.  The man is so excited to be getting Harley back, he regretted giving him away.  One of my boys said "It's like we borrowed him", right, we borrowed him, got him vaccinated and neutered now we're giving him back, hmmmm. 

We are sad to say goodbye to pets, but glad that Harley is going back to his first family.

We loved ya for a season Hbomb!