Dane and Cynthia Cramer were invited by the Rev. Terry Collins, Discipleship Ministries, Farmington, to join him and two others on a mission trip to Eldoret and Homa
Bay in Kenya, Africa. Collins went on a similar mission last year. His wife,
Susan Collins, and Randy Byers, Masontown, are also going.
“After a lot of prayer and consideration, we decided it is God calling us to do that,” Cynthia said. “We will be preaching and teaching.”
Dane Cramer is an insurance investigator. He has
stepped down as pastor of the Harnedsville United Methodist Charge after 11
years of service. He still ministers at the State Correctional Institution
at Laurel Highlands. Cynthia Cramer is a pediatric occupational therapist
for early intervention at Bedford-Somerset Mental Health/Mental Retardation.
When Collins was in Africa last year, he set up what the Cramers call a
“nontraditional” orphanage. He asked a widow with two children to take in
four more. Discipleship Ministries is helping with financial support. While
they are in Africa, they hope to set up similar arrangements.
They will fly into Nairobi, then take a prop plane
to their destination. Because they are limited in the weight of luggage they
may take, they will have to buy corn maize from a distributor there instead
of carrying food with them.
“There are three classes of people in that part of Africa: poor, poorer and
the poorest,” she said. “It costs $1.10 a day to feed one person in Kenya.”
They will distribute the food themselves. Last year, Collins purchased corn
maize in bags that were sewn shut. When that food arrived in the villages,
someone had opened them, removed some of the corn maize and tied them shut.
Donations may be sent to: Discipleship Ministries, P.O. Box 841, Somerset,
PA. It is a nonprofit organization. People will receive receipts for tax
purposes.
“We’re both very excited about it,” Dane Cramer said. “We’re looking forward
to it. We don’t know how to prepare for it — it will be more than we
anticipate. Everybody’s been very support of it. That’s been awesome.”
The Cramers’ children, Hannah, 16, Emily, 15, Sarah, 14, and Andrew, 12,
won’t be going with them. They ask people to pray for their safety and that
of their children while they are in Africa for two weeks. Their tentative
date of departure is Sept. 8 and they will be gone for two weeks.
(Vicki Rock can be reached at
vickir@dailyamerican.com. Comment on the
online story at
dailyamerican.com.)