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A new brother in Christ

Posted by Steve and Casey Cretsinger on Thursday, December 1st, 2011

Kinda in his fields

We’d like to share with you about a man named Kinda and his family. God has blown us away with how He turned a terrible situation in Kinda’s life into something really great. A few months ago we wrote about a little boy who was near death when we took him into the hospital. This little boy was Kinda’s son. It was honestly such a scary time trying to get him admitted and trying to get a doctor to notice this little boy who was unconscious by the time we got to the hospital. But, he made a slow recovery and is now back working in the fields and getting into trouble.

Since that time Kinda has visited many times. He brings gifts of vegetables to say thank you for saving his son. We have enjoyed getting to know him and his family through these visits. Then Kinda began to express that he was interested in hearing more about God’s Word. It was exciting to see how God used that medical outreach to start working in Kinda’s heart. So, Steve and another co-worker (who speaks a language Kinda understands much better than French) began visiting him, sharing with his family about the Bible, bringing them tapes with Bible lessons on it. There is a small group of believers meeting each week and Steve brought Kinda to join them. This group translates from their language into Kinda’s language so that he can follow the teaching. When a pastor came to speak to the group about a month ago, Kinda afterwards prayed with the pastor and said that he wanted to be a follower of Christ. What a privilege to be a part of this! Steve is continuing to meet with Kinda to be sure that he is listening to the Bible lessons and really comprehending what he is hearing. What an exciting time!

Last week, Kinda became very ill and Steve took him into the hospital. We have watched as his health has continued to decline and we’ve been frustrated by a lack of answers from the doctors. Steve was just there again this morning and we learned that Kinda in fact has AIDS. We are so saddened and discouraged to hear this. We live in a country where the religion does not anyone to know if a person has AIDS, so it is a very hidden disease. We only learned of it because we are the ones responsible for paying for the medical care. We pray that we can use whatever time is left in Kinda’s life to be sure he understands the Gospel. We ask you to be praying for Kinda and his family in the difficult days ahead.

Kinda's son, whose illness started the whole relationship

Kinda's homestead

Tags: Africa, friends, prayers, sickness
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Village happenings…

Posted by Steve and Casey Cretsinger on Thursday, November 17th, 2011

The twins with their mom

It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything…not for a lack of things to write about, but a lack of time to get it written. These are some seriously hot days we’re in the midst of and I am plain exhausted by the time I put the boys to bed. My brain has turned to a pile of mush after a day of homeschooling, visiting in the village, cooking, laundry and I’m find myself thinking “tomorrow I’ll get something posted”.

Just a little update on a few things…

The little twin babies that we are feeding in the village are doing so well. They are getting little double chins and I’m so happy see it! Their mom is so proud of how well they are doing and she is so excited to take them back to her home village to show her family. She has learned how to prepare their bottles and she has learned how to make the special food for herself as well. So, she is going to go back to her village for a week to see her other children and see if she can handle things all on her own. We’re going to weigh the babies before she goes and when she comes back to see if they did okay.

We actually have another baby that we are feeding now too. The mother had no milk as well and the baby was sick and starving. With medicine he is getting healthy and both he and his mom are eating much better. We have hired a women in the village to oversee the feeding and care for these women and babies during the days. She is thankful for the extra funds for her family and it is a great comfort for me to know that they are all being well fed these days.

The rainy season has come to an end and I’m hoping that the huge amount of malaria illnesses will decline too. So many people have been struggling with illnesses. We have a lot of operations this month – it seemed we had an outbreak of appendixes rupturing there for a week or so…very odd. But, these medical visits and hospital runs continue to give us opportunities to show love to the people of our community and gives a chance to gain their trust.

The people in the village are busy finishing up bringing in their crops. They are hoping to sell it for a good price and enjoy one month of actually having money to buy things…then they go back to struggling again. Everyone that borrowed rice or peanut seed from us at the beginning on the planting season is bringing us back double what they took. We are going to have someone show us the best way to store the seed for the coming year and then next year – those who participated won’t need to borrow any funds from anyone for their fields.

I have another post that I want to write about the Bible teaching that Steve is involved in, but it will have to wait until the next post. There is a lot going on these days…your partnership is vital to what we’re doing here!

Starting to fuss, but look at that double chin...yeah, she's growing.

I know he's dressed in pink, but it really is a boy

This is Mamoussou - she is taking care of the moms and babies at her house

This is my namesake, she is growing SO big. I don't think Guineans are used to seeing babies get so chubby!

Tags: boys, relationships, village life
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Tiny but growing

Posted by Steve and Casey Cretsinger on Monday, November 7th, 2011

Little baby Alisan

They were each just three pounds when they came to us. Hard to believe that two little twins had made it that far and were still alive. Their mother was exhausted and unable to provide any milk for her babies. We decided to have the mother move from her village – which is very remote – and come live here in our village to seek care. A family offered to have the mother and the babies move in with them while we tried to get them on the road to recovery. We worked with our local medical clinic to make a plan.

The mom began a diet of corn, fish, rice, and peanut. She was so tired when she first came. They babies were starving and crying all the time. She was trying to feed them, but was unable to give them enough. So, she desperately needed sleep and to get her strength back.

The twins were six weeks old with sunken faces and just looked so sad. They were so hungry!

Using formula is a rare occurance here. Guinea does not want mothers to use it unless absolutely medically necessary. Even if they can get a doctor’s clearance, the formula is completely beyond their financial means. The formula costs would be the same as feeding an entire family. And, culturally, women don’t nurse other women’s babies. So, most often, these little ones who cannot get enough milk from their mother’s will eventually starve to death.

We did not want to see that happen with these two little precious ones! The mother started her special diet of food to gain more milk and we started giving the twins formula for every other feeding. It was a big deal to see two babies with bottles in the village. Many other ladies came and sat around to watch and I was so excited that I could be there to show them exactly how to prepare the bottles – and I showed them how to feed them. They drank it right down! I was so afraid it wouldn’t work, but they were really hungry. Their mom was so visibly relieved that she couldn’t stop smiling and thanking me.

It’s been a few weeks now and they are really growing. They’ve gained over 2 pounds each! Their mom is so much stronger and more rested. They were telling me that in their village, when the ladies saw how tiny these two were, that everyone told them they needed to poison the babies. People said that they were demons. But, the mom said that she knew she was supposed to go for help. She says that we missionaries were brought here to show everyone in her village that these babies aren’t demons. Some people came from her village this past week and she showed them the twins and said “see, you believed they should die, but look at how they’ve grown”.

I love that we can show Christ’s love in ways like this. I love that God continues to bring people into our lives and gives us the opportunity to be a blessing. Please keep praying for this family…keep praying that through all this their hearts may become open to hearing the Gospel!

So tiny

The twins with their mom

Growing more every day

Tags: Africa, relationships, sickness, village life
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Building with a purpose

Posted by Steve and Casey Cretsinger on Thursday, October 27th, 2011

Putting the trusses together

Steve loves when his construction skills can be a part of seeing Bible teaching move forward. He had a great opportunity to see that happen a few weeks ago.

A team of co-workers, living about 2 hours away, had just begun daily Bible teaching sessions when disaster struck. Everyone was meeting together in a building that the village uses for community events. Right before the teaching began, the roof fell in on everyone. Thankfully there were only minor injuries, but looking over the damage revealed that faulty trusses were to blame. That’s where Steve was able to help.

The missionary team there talked with the village and the leaders asked to be taught how to build them correctly. The missionary team then asked if Steve could make a trip out and see the job done. Steve headed out with his right hand man, Mohammed, and a couple other guys from here on center. Steve was glad to see excitement in the faces of the men as they started the project.

It was a lot of work to get everything built and set up in just over a day, but when you’ve got the huge team that Steve was working with – you can get a lot done in a short amount of time! Steve really enjoyed his time there. Getting to know people and teaching building skills is his favorite combination! He’s thankful that he can use his skills to help the village move forward with their Bible teaching…

Here’s a few photos of them hard at work…

The portable command center

It takes a lot of people to hoist those trusses

Working with the team

Tags: Africa, friends, relationships, village life, work project
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Answered Prayer

Posted by Steve and Casey Cretsinger on Wednesday, October 19th, 2011

Visiting with friends

Ever have one of those times where the thing you have been praying to happen suddenly does happen and then you want to tell God “wait, I’m not quite ready”? Yeah, that’s me this week.

Our prayer for so long has been that God would not just give us surface friendships with the people around us, but would give us the real friendships where we truly learn what is going on in peoples lives. In the months since we’ve been back, God has been answering that prayer, but it feels like things exploded in the last couple of weeks.

We have spent more time at the hospital in the last two weeks doing “ambulance runs”, visiting the sick, getting to know doctors than we did in the two months before. It’s given us an incredible amount of time to sit with families, show compassion, and show God’s love. It’s a been time of everything from infected teeth to circumcisions to malaria and typhoid. Pray that these moments would continue to draw us closer to our community.

Our son, Mohammed, has a very sick, elderly mother who lives about 10 hours away from here. She has been getting more ill in recent weeks, so Mohammed has brought her here to our town to look after her. He believes that she is possessed by demons because she talks to people who aren’t there. We think that she had a stroke some time ago and may be suffering the effects of that. It’s hard to know because the medical care is inadequate when it comes to serious problems. It could be Alzheimer’s, it could be any number of things, we just don’t know. Mohammed has been having chickens sacrificed and concoctions being made by people doing traditional African medicine. While we don’t agree with it, we are thankful that he’s being honest enough to tell us about it and not hiding it. It’s giving us opportunities to share what we believe with him. We are encouraging him to seek the counsel of a Guinean pastor who understands this culture much better than us. It’s an overwhelming situation for him and we pray that we can be an encouragement to him.

Our family in the village decided to circumcise their girls this past week. It was really hard for us and we had shared with them that we didn’t agree at all with what they wanted to do. But, while it makes me angry that they chose to do it – I am thankful that they didn’t hide it from me. That they are willing to talk about it. Because you can’t begin to change things if you don’t even know they are happening, right?

A while ago we wrote about a little boy that was near death when he came to us. Since then we’ve been getting to know the family and developing a friendship with them. They live not far from us and the father has had Steve come to visit his fields a couple of times. He told Steve this past week that because we saved his son, he wants his entire extended family to hear the Bible teaching! How awesome is that??? So, Steve is beginning this new endeavor this week.

These are just a few of cultural insights that have come up this week. There are many more, but this is already getting pretty long! We are so excited to see God throwing open doors for deeper relationships…our heads are spinning with it all, but we’re thanking Him for answered prayer!

Tags: friends, relationships, religion, village life
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There’s a new Casey in town

Posted by Steve and Casey Cretsinger on Sunday, October 16th, 2011

Just hours after baby Casey was born

Our “son” Mohammed and his wife just had a baby girl! We praise God that everything went smoothly and that she and Mawa are healthy. This is not something to be taken lightly in this culture by any means.

We were so honored when he came to tell us that they decided to name her Casey after me. It’s a very big deal in this culture to have a baby named after you. The family is in essence saying that I get to parent her along with them. She is just as much my child as she is theirs.

The name is supposed to be a secret until the religious leader says it aloud during the naming ceremony, but Mohammed needed to practice saying Casey with us a few times beforehand! She had her naming ceremony on the 8th day, her head was shaved and prayers were said according to their religion. Then everyone practiced saying Casey over and over again

Right after her naming ceremony we headed into town to have her first vaccination done. We went to what is considered the pediatric clinic and waited in a room with a bunch of other parents for the nurses to give the shot. They just go down the row and prick them all one by one. Not quite the bedside manner that Americans are used to! They were pretty surprised to see the white lady in the crowd. Mohammed and Mawa explained that baby Casey is my namesake and everyone agreed that it was a good thing. I love getting community approval on things . As soon as the vaccination was finished, the nurse said the price and everyone looked at me to pay up. Having a namesake also means you get to pay for lots and lots of things, but I think it will be worth all the cost!

How exciting to be able to play such a role in the life of a child here. We pray that this is the opportunity God uses to see her entire family come to know Him. Thanks for standing behind us in prayer and support!

The proud parents

Steve and I at the baby naming ceremony

baby Casey getting her head shaved during the ceremony

Malachi and baby Casey

Tags: Family, friends, relationships
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Guinea is back in school

Posted by Steve and Casey Cretsinger on Wednesday, October 12th, 2011

Proudly showing off their purchases

School officially started this week here in Guinea and I’m not sure who’s more ready – the kids or Steve and I. The last month has been a constant whirlwind of activity as students have tried to earn the money needed to go back to school.

Although to actually go to school is free – you have to pay for a uniform, shoes, notebooks, chalk, a little chalkboard, and you have to pay for every exam that you take. So, for most families in our village, these costs add up to just too much. When you are just trying to keep everyone fed, there isn’t the extra to send eight kids to school. To get even four kids outfitted with everything that’s required it would be two months salary or more. There are no bank loans, layaway or credit cards. So, most families just choose the one or two that will get to go.

All that to say that the summer break can get crazy for us as everyone wants to earn enough to go to school. Kids even as young as eight were here asking for whatever work we could come up with. Steve got creative with some different projects and we had quite the summer work crew. It’s great to see the teenagers and young adults working hard to earn their school money. They kept envelopes here with us and we added to their savings. They were all very excited to come and show us their supplies and let us know that they were set to go.

We have a couple of students who need to village this year to go on with their education. They have had to find a room to rent with someone and are trying to adjust to living more on their own. We told them that we would help them with an “allowance” each week so that they could concentrate on their studies and not have to worry about how to pay for that room or what to eat. The stipulation is that they have to bring home a note from their teacher on Saturdays that tell us that they are working hard and doing well in school. I feel a bit parental about it, but they all said it was a good idea and would make them work harder. If you’d like to “sponsor” any of these boys, just let us know.

Of course, not everyone can work for their school fees. We have quite a few single moms that are just unable to come up with the money to send their kids to school. Actually, it’s not just the single moms. Any mother – married or not – is responsible for what her kids need for school. We sent them to town to make a list of what they would need and how much everything would cost. We are so thankful for the generosity from people back in the States that made it possible for us to sponsor so many kids to go to school.

We were more than ready for the work projects to come to an end, the lists come to an end, and the kids to head to school. But, again, we thank God for these opportunities to show Christ to our neighbors and be a part of our community.

Tags: Africa, relationships, school, village life, work project
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My afternoons…

Posted by Steve and Casey Cretsinger on Sunday, October 2nd, 2011

Just a little smile

Being a missionary isn’t usually a whirlwind of excitement. Sure there are exciting days and those are the moments we all love to write home about. But, for the most part, it’s just those quiet moments of sharing life together. I love my afternoons in the village. I love being in their houses, around their cooking fires and hearing all about their days.

It’s those times when I find out how everyone is doing, who is sick and needs medicine, and the latest news of what’s happening in the village. I love being just one of the ladies as toddlers crawl all over my lap and kids dig for candy in my bag. I love talking about the important things in their life. It’s in those moments when I remember why it’s so important to be here.

We’re here to share in the day to day. We’re here to know their joys and heartaches. We’re here to have the friendships that allow us to share our faith. For me, it all begins in my afternoons…

Mothers and daughters preparing the meal together

Girls go around selling just a woman needs for that evenings meal...one onion, a little smoked fish, one square of seasoning, a few peppers...only buying for one meal at a time.

Girls go around selling just what a woman needs for that evenings meal...one onion, a little smoked fish, one square of seasoning, a few peppers...only buying for one meal at a time.

Sweet little Daouda - I love cuddling this little cutie!

All in an afternoon - dinner, babies, kids running everywhere, just the usual craziness

Tags: friends, relationships, village life
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Grilling out

Posted by Steve and Casey Cretsinger on Tuesday, September 27th, 2011

New experiences

Yeah, I’m not sure why we feel the need to create a fire and roast hot dogs when it’s SO unbelievably hot. Maybe because we’re from Michigan and this is just what you do in the Fall. Maybe because I’m really sick of cooking and this was a super easy meal for a group of boys. Whatever the reason, we created a little sensation with this “meat on a stick” thing. As is usually the case, our family really can’t do anything just as a family. This is good in the sense that we have lots of opportunities for building friendships and bad in the sense that it drives us a little crazy – but that’s a whole other post

Anyways, we made our little fire and soon we had very curious boys wondering what we were going to do with this fire. Yes, they are used to their moms cooking over a fire, but it’s rice and sauce in pots – and there were no pots to be found. They wondered why Monsieur Steve would be collecting small sticks and sharpening the ends – are we going hunting??? But, then I pulled out the packs of hotdogs and showed them how to put them on the stick. This whole process of roasting the hot dogs was honestly quite hilarious. They didn’t like the idea of patiently waiting for the whole hot dog to be ready, so they would heat it up a minute – take a bite and put it back in the fire for another minute. I have never seen packs of hot dogs be eaten so fast.

For the most part, I love sharing our lives with the people around us. Yes, there are the moments where I just want to hide when they are calling at the door. But, we have such an opportunity to get to know people, to show them we care, and live life with them. That’s what we’re here for! The next day, people were telling me all about this new food everyone wants to try…but, I’m not sure I’m up for village wide hot dog roasts quite yet!

He's just too funny

Tags: Africa, boys, friends
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Not big fans of bees

Posted by Steve and Casey Cretsinger on Sunday, September 18th, 2011

Still swollen more than a day later

We’re not big fans of bees around here. I have shared MANY times my extreme fear of them after Malachi nearly died from an allergic reaction during our first term. It was honestly the scariest moment of my life when I truly thought I was going to lose my child. Thankfully one of our co-workers had an epi-pen and we were able to get him breathing again. We never suspected that he had any type of allergy to bees.

Even Ephraim, who is not allergic to bees, had a major run in with one a few weeks ago that had his eye swollen shut for three days. Even the bees are tougher here in Africa! I jokingly said that to someone the other day, but I really think it’s true.

A few days ago, Malachi was climbing high up in a tree when he suddenly jumped out of the tree screaming. We didn’t have a moment to think of it then, but later realized that he could have easily broken his arms or legs. He was grasping at his mouth and screaming his lungs out. By the time we got to him we could already see where he’d been stung. He started to go into shock and crying that he was going to die. His vividly remembers the other time that he was stung, the intense hives and his inability to breathe. We carried him into the shower trying to clean him off and calm him down. His face was already swelling and the hives were popping out. We gave him a major dose of Benadryl and didn’t leave his side. We had his epi-pen ready, but we think that the Benadryl in that large of a dose so close to the time he was stung, probably kept his breathing under control.

He’s had a few days of a very swollen neck and face. The next day he couldn’t really open his eyes and was pretty out of it. He loved seeing the reaction on people’s face when they looked at him. Micah and Ephraim just stared at him.

It’s one of those really hard situations. I’m sure that many people back in the States would say that they would never bring their child to a country with no medical care in these type of situations. We’ve had some really scary moments with malaria as well, and I remember people telling me that they could never take their kids away from doctors and hospitals – and instead take them to a country filled with disease. I understand all those thoughts, believe me, I’ve had the same ones. Am I crazy to bring my boys here?

But, at the end of the day, I have to ask myself if God is truly in control. Is He the One who numbers the days of my life – and my child’s life? Because if He is, then no bee can take Malachi until God says it’s time. We can keep ourselves only in our “safe places” out of fear of what might happen – and still lose our children. Or we can put them into God’s hands and follow where He leads – knowing that His plan will happen no matter where we live.

But, we’re still not big fans of bees.

Ending the post on a happy note, swollen but smiling

Tags: Africa, boys, Family, sickness
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NTM - New Tribes Mission | Planting Tribal Churches

Steve and Casey Cretsinger

Experiencing Tribal Missions in Guinea, W. Africa

Archive for the ‘News Article’ Category

A new brother in Christ

Village happenings…

Tiny but growing

Building with a purpose

Answered Prayer

There’s a new Casey in town

Guinea is back in school

My afternoons…

Grilling out

Not big fans of bees

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