Day 1

We made it to England!  Pretty smooth sailing the entire 7 + hour flight.  However, had a little tough time going through customs.  I think all the prayers are what allowed us to finally get through.  The guy was very suspicious of us coming, especially for 6 weeks, and had many questions regarding our jobs, how much money we made, what Jacob was studying, and more.  We actually began to panic for a minute thinking he wouldn't let us through.  But, thank the Lord, he finally did.
So, now we're here in Birmingham starting our internship and ready for whatever lies ahead.  We'll keep you posted on how it's coming along!

Blessings!
Em

Tomorrow is the day!

Tomorrow Emily and I will be setting off for England.  To think about how this opportunity came up, how once it did doors have flown open, and how the details and support have come together in such a relatively short span of time floors both of us.

Scripture says, "But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty" (1 Corinthians 1:27).  This journey has reminded us of how foolish we are (we fret, but He is always in control), and just how weak we are as well.  But it is at this point we need to find ourselves, so that we can be used by God the way He wants, and in a way that none of the glory can be given to us.

You have given your prayers and finances to help us get to England, and for that we are extremely grateful, encouraged, excited, and humbled.  We fly out from Chicago O'Hare at 4:18pm, and arrive in London the following morning.  Then we'll be there for 6-weeks in the Queen's country.  Please pray that we will make it there and through customs without incident.  We look forward to writing you from England.  God bless you all!

It's Almost Here!

We are now at $5700!  There honestly are not words to describe how grateful we are at the overwhelming generosity of those who've supported us.  Thank you so much for your prayers and donations.
The fact that God has allowed us to raise $5700 dollars in only 2 months is such a humbling and awesome experience.  He has surrounded us with caring and giving people, and our hearts are so full from it.  Just the monetary support raising alone has changed us.  We continue to see more and more God's provision.

Another praise is that we found amazing ticket prices.  We were seeing quotes for up to $1200 and $1300 for plane tickets, which would have raised our amount to almost $6700!  But, God is good, and we ended up finding tickets for $940.  Which brings our amount to about $6300 total.  The blessings have been innumerable.

So, only about $600 to go and 18 days left before we leave.  We are almost there!

Blessings!
-Em

New update!

We're currently at $5,200 for support raised, and trusting God for the rest!  We are very thankful for everybody who has given of their prayers and finances.

We have been reading a great book about short-term missions called, Serving With Eyes Wide Open, which is about cultural awareness on the mission field.  We wanted to share some stuff from it with you.

A main focus of the book is to get us to step outside of our Western mindset, and to be learners in a new culture instead of wanting to take the helm and do it all ourselves.

Here's some really encouraging statistics the book gives:

> On average 178,000 people are converted to Christianity each day.
> When China became closed to missionaries in 1950, there were reportedly 1 million Christians. Today's estimates are nearing 100,000,000.
> In Indonesia, the largest Islamic country in the world, at least 1 million people convert to Christianity each year.
> More people have come to know the Lord in Iran in the past 10 years than in the previous 1,000 years combined.
> 40% of Africa is said to be "Christian" today.
> None of the 50 largest churches in the world are found in North America.  Among the largest are in South Korea, Ivory Coast, Chile, and Nigeria.

Some of these statistics could be questionable and not 100% accurate, but it shows that God is at work throughout the world.

Statistics show that Christianity is the fastest growing religion in the world!  Another statistic says that for every 1 convert to Islam, there are 4 converts to Christianity.  This is awesome!  It is easy to become discouraged as we see the hardness of peoples' hearts around us, but God is expanding His kingdom.  I hope you find this as encouraging as we have.

Updated Amount Raised!

 We received a new update on the amount raised so far.  We're now up to $3,820!  Thank you so much to those of you who have given.  We appreciate your generosity so much!  We have 6 1/2 weeks to go til we leave and about $2,200 left to raise.
Thanks again for your prayers and support!  God is good!

Steps to donate online...

Hi everyone,

We are so grateful and humbled that people have been willing to give both monetarily and of their time in remembering us in their prayers.

If you would like to donate online so as not to have to use a stamp, here are the steps:

Go to http://www.gbim.org  and click on Give, then click on Give to a Missionary.  Click the button that says "Or enter their name below" and type Jacob & Emily Cropper.  Enter the donation amount and click on the Donate button.  Then click on the Checkout button in the upper-right hand corner and follow the steps provided.  Once the payment has been completed you will receive an email that you can retain for your records.

Also, you will be asked if you'd like to set up an account with the GBIM website to make future donations easier, but you can continue without creating one.

Thank you!

Trusting Him,

Jacob & Emily Cropper

Those Crazy Things British People Say!

Well, since we're going to a country where they speak English we figured, sweet, we won't be needing to learn a new language.  However, as you will see below, apparently there are some terms that we lost when we gained our independence.  
Here are just a few nutty words and phrases we are sure to hear over in the Queen's country:

Any road - Up north, instead of saying anyway, they say "any road"!

Bees Knees - This is the polite version of the dog's bollocks. So if you are in polite company and want to say that something was fabulous, this phrase might come in handy.

Belt up - It's the British for shut up.

Bob's your uncle - This is a well used phrase. It is added to the end of sentences a bit like and that's it! For example if you are telling someone how to make that fabulous banoffee pie you just served them, you would tell them to boil the condensed milk for three hours, spread it onto a basic cheesecake base, slice bananas on top, add some whipped double cream, another layer of banana and Bob's your uncle!

Chuffed - You would be chuffed to bits if you were really pleased about something.

Dog and Bone - Telephone.

Dog's bollocks - You would say that something really fantastic was the dog's bollocks.

Gormless - A gormless person is someone who has absolutely no clue. You would say clueless. It is also shortened so you could say someone is a total gorm or completely gormy.

Horses for courses - This is a common saying that means each to his own. What suits one person might be horrible for someone else.

Lurgy - If you have the lurgy it means you are ill, you have the Flu. Don't go near people with the lurgy in case you get it!

Luvvly-jubbly - Clearly another way of saying lovely. Made famous by the TV show Only Fools and Horses.

Owt - This is Yorkshire for anything. Similarly nowt is Yorkshire for nothing. Hence the expression "you don't get owt for nowt". Roughly translated as "you never get anything for nothing" or "there's no such thing as a free lunch".

Scrummy - This is a word that would be used to describe either some food that was particularly good (and probably sweet and fattening).

Sixes and sevens - If something is all at sixes and sevens then it is in a mess, topsy turvy or somewhat haywire!

Spend a penny - To spend a penny is to go to the bathroom. It is a very old fashioned expression that still exists today. It comes from the fact that in ladies loos you used to operate the door by inserting an old penny.

Tickety-boo - If something is going well with no problems we would say it is tickety-boo.

Yonks - "Blimey, I haven't heard from you for yonks". If you heard someone say that it would mean that they had not seen you for ages!

Zed - The last letter of the alphabet. The English hate saying zee and only relent with names such as ZZ Top (Zed Zed Top does sound a bit stupid!).