John Shrader 16: Flying Away in That No-Engine Plane

[Gobsmacked]

My spidey senses are telling me that John is not doing well in Zambia, that Daddy Shrader does want to retire, that he can't find anyone suitable to take over, that John is the chosen one for Daddy's pulpit, that John doesn't want to leave Zambia and return home to face real life, responsibility and adulting, that if he doesn't do as Daddy wishes, Daddy is going to be very annoyed and stop funding Johns gallivanting. 

John is going home in the near future like it or not. 

 

[Milly-Molly-Mandy]

@Gobsmacked I hope you are right. I’m terrible at predicting things with John but I will predict he will be in Africa til his Dad dies or retires. 

[Ozlsn]

12 hours ago, formergothardite said:

From their website it doesn't look like there was any sort of a sending team. Basically he felt "called" and raised money to go. 

This kind of thing really annoys me. You can be called all you want but until you don't have dependents I don't think you should be acting on the calling past maybe making long term plans. Eight kids are now fatherless, and his widow is going to have a tough job providing for them. I have no idea how much (or little) research he did before he left but it is not the place I would be taking young children into, not least because of the malaria risk. 

If these guys are so called to bring Christianity to an already predominantly Christian nation maybe they could start by practising  at home until all their children are self-sufficient?

[subsaharanafrica]

For the record, I’m raising two young children in a malaria zone. And I checked the State Department’s website. Cameroon has the same level of travel advisory as the country where I live (which is yellow, exercise caution).

Living here has been fantastic for the kids. They get to run around and be kids with a level of autonomy that existed in the US thirty years ago but now would get CPS called on you. They have friends from all over the world, they are trilingual. On school holidays they get to do things like go check out Victoria Falls or the ruins at Kilwa or spend an hour watching elephants play at a watering hole. Also, importantly for little white American boys, they get to have an experience with what it is like to be in a small minority and different from everyone else.

Malaria isn’t that big of a deal—it’s preventable and if you do get it diagnosis and treatment here is really fast.  People die because they live far away from clinics or just don’t go for a blood test when they spike a fever.  The test comes back in twenty minutes and the treatment is six pills. As far as safety goes, I’ve been held up at gunpoint in the middle of a “safe” neighborhood in the US. I’ve never been the victim of a crime anywhere in Africa and we are living in our third country on the continent. 

[formergothardite]

1 hour ago, Milly-Molly-Mandy said:

I will predict he will be in Africa til his Dad dies or retires. 

I think he will too. It does sound like Daddy had a hard time drumming up support last year and that is probably why he lost church members. John is flying high now, but will inevitable crash and burn in the future and it will be harder and harder for his dad to keep getting church members to send money. There are only so many church members he can lose in his quest to keep John out of the country. 

[gustava]

The situation in Cameroon is extremely unstable.  No responsible person would take a family into the hinterlands, especially.

[Gobsmacked]

50 minutes ago, subsaharanafrica said:

For the record, I’m raising two young children in a malaria zone. And I checked the State Department’s website. Cameroon has the same level of travel advisory as the country where I live (which is yellow, exercise caution).

Living here has been fantastic for the kids. They get to run around and be kids with a level of autonomy that existed in the US thirty years ago but now would get CPS called on you. They have friends from all over the world, they are trilingual. On school holidays they get to do things like go check out Victoria Falls or the ruins at Kilwa or spend an hour watching elephants play at a watering hole. Also, importantly for little white American boys, they get to have an experience with what it is like to be in a small minority and different from everyone else.

Malaria isn’t that big of a deal—it’s preventable and if you do get it diagnosis and treatment here is really fast.  People die because they live far away from clinics or just don’t go for a blood test when they spike a fever.  The test comes back in twenty minutes and the treatment is six pills. As far as safety goes, I’ve been held up at gunpoint in the middle of a “safe” neighborhood in the US. I’ve never been the victim of a crime anywhere in Africa and we are living in our third country on the continent. 

You are so lucky to live there. I've visited a few African countries on holidays. If the chance arose ( it never will now!) we would move tomorrow. 

[picklepizzas]

Yeah, from this article it sounds like there is serious unrest and violence between english speaking separatists and the french speaking government: https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/us-missionary-killed-cameroon-family-targeted-attack/story?id=58860185. 

i'm sure there's more to the history than the language difference, but it always amazes me what new things we humans find to fight about. 

[formergothardite]

John finally posted about the family. 

Quote

Please sincerely pray for this precious family in this time of severe testing and trials as they walk through the "Valley of the Shadow of Death" from a horrific tragedy.

 

[squiddysquid]

I've been to Zambia and Tanzania before and yes, dealing with malaria as an adult is usually not such a big deal.

A friend from Med School is originally from Cameroon and she has yet to take her toddler son there because she is concerned about malaria and such.

I'll ask her next time I see her.

 

[DarkAnts]

3 hours ago, formergothardite said:

John finally posted about the family. 

 

He probably found out about it from Free Jinger. 

[formergothardite]

John has been posting away about the family where the father was shot. 

Quote

This is the missionary family where the father was just shot and killed in Africa. On top off the unimaginable heartache of losing their father and husband, the expenses will be immense. Please pay of the Lord would had you do something to help

He posted a link to the Go Fund me. They have raised $40,000 so far. It looks like it will take a lot of money to get them and the father's body back to America. And then what are they going to do to survive after that? Life  is going to be tough long term for this family. 

As of yesterday the mother hadn't been able to get back to seven of the children because of the violence and they did not know that their father was dead. Those poor children. They had only been there for two weeks. Moving to an entirely different country can be difficult for children and now they will have to handle losing their father. 

[Carol]

On 10/30/2018 at 1:53 PM, formergothardite said:

That is terrible. I hope the children especially are able to get the help they need to recover from that sort of trauma.  David Rea hasn't seemed to have mentioned it either. 

John wrote about giving out marriage advice as soon as he was married. 

I bet John didn't have too many other options. 

This was a super stupid decision by his father but  I wonder if marriage counseling was the spot he thought John would cause the least amount of problems. John tends to exaggerate his past so I bet he wasn't seeing too many couples. 

Yes, one always wants their counselor to admit they aren't really qualified for the job. 

Is it any surprise that John's advice didn't save marriages?

I bet he was mocked for being an insufferable twit. 

Translation, Daddy Shrader had a hard time drumming up support for John's missionary adventures last year. 

Back to some grand plans that will almost certainly not last long term. 

From their website it doesn't look like there was any sort of a sending team. Basically he felt "called" and raised money to go. 

You deserve beatification for your translations of John's Word.

[Evangeline]

@subsaharanafrica That sounds amazing! I'm not asking for identifying details, but would you mind sharing what brought you to Africa, what moved you around, and any other general information you feel comfortable sharing? 

[DarkAnts]

The US government is working to help the family get home. I don’t think that assistance includes taking the husbands body home. That can cost a lot of money. The sending church and the agency that controls the finances of this mission are also raising funds. I just hope the kids are safe.

[gustava]

11 hours ago, DarkAnts said:

The US government is working to help the family get home. I don’t think that assistance includes taking the husbands body home. That can cost a lot of money. The sending church and the agency that controls the finances of this mission are also raising funds. I just hope the kids are safe.

I think the family will get a bill for the return to the US.

[Gobsmacked]

It's a horrible situation. If the family decided to settle in Cameroon on a whim with no sending church or insurance then I imagine they will  be billed for bringing their father home. 

 

[Milly-Molly-Mandy]

13 hours ago, gustava said:

I think the family will get a bill for the return to the US.

A widow and her eleventy young children? That’s sad. 

[squiddysquid]

Cameroon is 40% Catholic/30% Protestant, so 70% Christian --> the US - 73% Christian.

Sorry, they shouldn't have gone there in the first place - for that and many other reasons.

[gustava]

9 hours ago, Milly-Molly-Mandy said:

A widow and her eleventy young children? That’s sad. 

Well, why should the US taxpayer pay? 

[Pammy]

A family in my circle of friends experienced the death of an adult son in Africa. They arranged for the body to be cremated in that country rather than shipping the body.

(The man who died was a Christian missionary, but not a stupid one. He had been there for years. He was married, with no kids. His death was a vehicle accident.)

[formergothardite]

On 11/2/2018 at 9:18 AM, gustava said:

I think the family will get a bill for the return to the US.

From what I read it looks like they will. The US government will help get you out of a country if you don't have the money but you will have to pay them back. It is only fair. 

From their mission letters they didn't seem that much different than John when it came to missions. They had written about the violence but decided it was actual spiritual warfare because Satan didn't want missionaries like them coming to the country. 

They were apparently huge fans of Otto Koning and his famous IBLP story about being a missionary. This story is basically about a guy who goes to be a missionary, does not attempt to even slightly understand the culture and is willing to let children die over pineapples that the " corrupt natives" ate because they didn't have his concept of what he planted was only his and he wasn't going to share. 

[Aine]

10 hours ago, gustava said:

Well, why should the US taxpayer pay? 

I think most taxpayers would be okay with paying for it and then having the family pay back that money to the government. It's my understanding that that is how it works for certain emergency evacuations, returning remains, being "stuck" abroad for other reasons (e.g. being robbed of all your money/belongings and needing to get home and you don't have family to help) etc.

I'm a US taxpayer but not a citizen or green card holder so "tax without representation". Obviously I made this choice so its not something I ruminate about much. However, I truly have no issue with the government helping bring back the body and then putting the family on a payment plan to pay it back. To me, bringing back the body is really more for the kids. The husband made the decision. Maybe the wife is complicit but who knows with the whole patriarchal arrangement. Those children are innocent and they presumably loved their Dad and will have a long road of grieving and processing this trauma and having a grave they can visit and knowing where his body lies will likely be a small step in allowing them to heal. A small step but I can imagine it would only add distress to know their father was murdered and now his body is in Cameroon somewhere.

[Howl]

cremation in Africa sounds like a sane option.   

[formergothardite]

1 hour ago, Aine said:

I think most taxpayers would be okay with paying for it and then having the family pay back that money to the government.

I"m assuming that is what she meant by them getting a bill. The government will pay to get them out initially, but they will be required to pay this back. 

John wrote a long spectacularly awful poem about the missionary who died. 

Quote

 

When we go to tell the nations,
Of the Righteousness of God
Then demon hoards resist us,
Even behind a "righteous" facade

How the Princes of Darkness resist us,
Fighting against the Angels of Light
And without serious warfare,
We at times may lose the fight

 

 

Quote

Last week a faithful soldier fell,
In battle in Cameroon
His wife and their eight children
Now a widow and fatherless too

Still God is always Ruling,
He's not abdicated His Throne
And we stand on His great promise,
That He'll not forsake His Own

Bro. Wesco leaves a witness,
As he fell and gave his life
And no sacrifice is wasted,
God will turn this darkness into Light

It just goes on and on like this. His main complaint seems to be that people give money but aren't giving the right kind of prayers.