When missionaries Tommy and Ginger Crocker and their five children were home this summer on stateside assignment, they experienced a joyous event. The Crockers’ 7-year-old, Adam, accepted Christ at Shocco Springs Baptist Conference Center in Talladega, a special place for Tommy and Ginger.
As high school students, Tommy and Ginger met at Shocco Springs, and it was the place where both had felt called — at different times in their lives — to serve the Lord on the missions field.
“It’s amazing how He took us back to the same place for our son to receive Christ,” Tommy said.
Since December 1999, the Crockers have lived and worked in missions in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, the only third-world country remaining in South America. They live in a simple concrete block home.
Witnessing together
Their children attend a local Christian school with other missionary children and Bolivian children, and they all work to teach the people of the country about Christ.
While there is little anti-Christian sentiment in the country, the Crockers said sometimes aspects of Christianity are mixed with pieces of different religions.
“Most people have accepted what relatives have told them, and they will accept Christ,” Ginger said. “But you have to be very careful in explaining salvation.”
At carnival time, Bolivians — sometimes even those who claim to have received Christ — may participate in pagan rituals of dance and sacrifice to “Pachamama” or Mother Earth.
But the Crockers and other Christian missionaries in the country are reaching the people in sometimes unexpected ways.
With a degree in church recreation, Homewood native Tommy is working with youth in sports — especially baseball — where they can have fun and learn about the Lord. Since cable television came to the country in 1994, baseball has exploded in popularity, he said.
Ginger, who has a degree in nursing from Samford University, began a women’s Bible study on the front porch of a home in a poverty-stricken neighborhood. Nearly a year later, members still meet outside, but there are sometimes as many as 50 to 100 people in attendance.
“A two-person Bible study grew into a church,” said Ginger, a graduate of Benjamin Russell High School in Alexander City. “God makes successes and breaks barriers.”
The Crockers are now fulfilling plans they believe God had for them many years ago.
“We knew that we would eventually be in the missions field, but we needed maturity,” Tommy said. “God knew the right timing.”
In 1995, several years before going to Bolivia, the couple’s home burned, destroying all their possessions. At the time, it was devastating, but Ginger believes it was part of God’s plan — to prepare the family to leave behind material items.
“It was a real eye-opener, to show us that material things are nothing,” she said, adding that like most families, hers had a collection of stuff they considered important. “Anything that had sentimental value was lost in the fire. It really changed our lives for the good. Afterward, it was easier to pick up and go.”
Marrying while still in college, the Crockers eventually served churches in Ashland and in Fort Payne, where Tommy was the activities and youth director at First Baptist Church.
Living in Santa Cruz
Also, while still in college, Ginger gave birth to the couple’s first child, Austin, now 13. Following were Molly, now 10, and 7-year-old Adam. Daughter Madison, now 3, was born on Oct. 8, 1998 — the same day the Crockers were approved to be missionaries in Bolivia and the day their home in Fort Payne sold. Twenty-month-old Morgan was born in Bolivia.
The Crockers are happy to be raising their children in Santa Cruz, where the lifestyle is much simpler.
“I would say the country is about 30 or 40 or maybe even 50 years behind the United States, and our kids are not exposed to so many bad things,” said Tommy, adding that the kids also aren’t interested in all the latest fads. “There’s just not the peer pressure you see here.”
There is a McDonald’s restaurant in their area, as well as a Subway and a Domino’s Pizza, but many of the local residents cannot afford to eat there. The people of the country, who sometimes live in extreme poverty, may even steal because they are hungry, Ginger said, but guns and violent crime are rare.
The poverty in the country does, however, make it difficult for some families to raise children. Sometimes, babies are abandoned shortly after birth.
In fact, the Crockers found an 8-month-old, starving baby in their neighborhood one day. The child, who has Down syndrome, has since been adopted by a Bolivian friend.
“Now, he is fat and healthy,” Ginger said with a smile.
While the Crockers enjoyed coming to Birmingham to visit friends and relatives, they were ready to return to Santa Cruz. After stocking up on packets of Chili-O, canned vegetables and peanut butter, the family was ready to go.
Treasured time
“This is a vacation, where the kids get to do special things, and the grandparents spoil them,” said Ginger, adding that the family will return with new shoes and a trampoline. “But, we are ready to go back. Bolivia is home.”
There have been struggles along the way, like when two of the children contracted typhoid fever, which was a direct result of being in South America.
It was also scary when Ginger developed complications with her fifth pregnancy, and the Bolivian hospital did not have all the advanced medical equipment available in the United States. But through it all, the Crockers said, God has been with them, showing them the way.
“We love the life that God has given us. What we do is so much fun,” said Ginger. “To be an instrument of God is so interesting and exciting. We can’t wait to see what He does next.”
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