What did you observe today?

Doing laundry at the bay

Mananjary airport

Mananjary

Asheton using balloon animals to share the gospel

This is the question we started our nightly debriefing with during our recent trip to Mananjary (a city on the eastern coast of Madagascar) with members of the Mill.  So often, as Americans, we feel like we have all of the answers—when often we don’t even know the right question to ask!  One of our key goals during our time with the people in & around Mananjary was to see how they live life, day-to-day, and learn how they see life.  The trip was an amazing time!  The people from our home church, the Mill, got to truly see how the Antambahoaka & Antemoro people live.  We were privileged to be allowed entrance in to their homes & school; and most importantly we shared the life-giving message of the Gospel with them several times! 

Amboanato

We visited 3 villages along the Canal Pangallanes (a 600km man-made canal linking Mananjary with the major seaport town of Tamatave) that runs along the eastern coast of Madagascar.  The village where we spent most of our time was called “Amboanato” (Ahm-boo-ah-nah-too).  

 Travel in this part of Madagascar is via boats or dug-out canoes that travel up and down the canal.  We, too, used the canal on our final day in Mananjary to travel to 3 different villages and get additional information on how people live and interact with each other, and with foreigners. 

Traveling the canal and passing through the bridges

Lunch with the king of Amboanato

We were blessed to be invited into the king's home where his granddaughters made us a meal to share with the king!  Over the 3 days we visited Amboanato, the king became more & more open to our presence. In the end, he was sad to see us go and already looking forward to the next visit the Mill will make to the village. 

People from Amboanato coming out to say goodbye

Overall, the trip was a huge success!  We interacted with 3 different villages whose populations total well over 2000 people.  We shared the Gospel on 7 different occasions in those 3 villages.  We shared the Gospel using salvation bracelets in a school in Amboanato to 150+ kids and their teachers, and also taught them “Jesus Loves Me” in English & Malagasy.  We preached the Gospel to each village over the course of 4 days in the region.  We ate with, sang with, and even danced with the people in Amboanato-and in the end, I think the people of the Mill fell in love with them as well.           

Teaching salvation thru bracelets

Teaching "Jesus Loves Me" in Malagasy

Preaching the gospel

Why yes we are Southern Baptist--that is why that Preacher can't dance! ;)

Andy examining a blind woman

Scott examining a man's shoulder

"Let the little children come to me..."

Sandra sharing her testimony

Loving on some kids on the beach

Thank you, thank you, thank you to the Mill for sending the first team to work with us here in Madagascar.  Thank you to the family & friends that helped send the team to Madagascar through your prayers, your baby-sitting, making meals, and your donations.  We are so thankful to be members of a church that loves Jesus, and wants to see others love Jesus as well!! 

 

A Month of Thanksgiving!

What can we say about the month of November?  We were blessed with so much love that it is hard to express all the joy that we felt!  On the 3^rd, my mom and aunt arrived here in Mada to be our very first visitors from the states.  We enjoyed getting to show them our lives here in the big city, to show them Eli’s school, the marketplace and to see Madagascar again through their eyes.   

We had a blast visiting Andasibe (Lemur Island) where we played with and fed the lemurs.  The lemurs liked jumping all over Eli and he adored every minute of it!  We had to somewhat keep Alleluia at bay from the lemurs (at least in the beginning) because she was so excited to see them that she was growling at them.  It seems that the first lemur that we met took it as a challenge and seemed a little on edge.  (To those who have seen The Croods, we sometimes call Allie, ‘Sandy’ the baby…yeah, she is cray cray).  I also enjoyed catching up with my mom & aunt and playing ‘Sequence’ after the kids went to bed.  A few days before we said goodbye, we celebrated Christmas early (before Thanksgiving) by setting up our tree,opening gifts, and making cookies together!

 It was even harder to say goodbye this time, but we are so grateful for the time we had and the memories that we made together!

             A day & a half after my mom & aunt left, we welcomed our first (and quite possibly most amazing) team from the Mill, our home church!  They came for a vision trip to meet the Antambahoaka, a small Malagasy PG along the eastern coast of the island, to strategize ways to reach these people with the gospel (more details on this trip in the next blog post).  They also showered us with so much love & many gifts!

This is our amazing team!  So we had a serious shot too, but this is way better. :)

            While the team left for the bush right away, my close friend, Tracey and I, stayed behind with the kids.  My friend Tracey felt strongly that God was calling her to go on this trip and specifically to stay with me—I am so thankful that she was obedient.  She was such a huge encouragement and help to me!  Again, I was able to show a bit of our lives here in Mada and she was a tremendous help with home-school
and the kids.  

For the end of the team’s time here, they spent time loving on us and our family.  Eli loved playing light sabers with everyone on the team (each separately of course); Zoey loved playing princess, getting tickled and read to often and Alleluia loved having a big audience all the time and getting extra hugs. :)  We made some great memories that we won’t soon forget!  A big thank you goes out to the team for coming, another huge thank you to everyone who gave things that were brought with the team, and thank you to everyone who prayed, gave financially or helped the team members in some way to be able to come!  We are so thankful.
          

Friends!

  Finally, we enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving with the Emeish family (who are part of our missionary family here on the island).  They were gracious enough to invite us to their house for a wonderful meal, a family game of guesstures and all around fun!

           

BUT God...!

“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.”

John 5:24

There were four among the dead and now they are all among the living!  Here are their stories:

“Jesus answered him, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again  he cannot see the kingdom of God.’” John 3:3

            “That made me very happy, I have never heard that you must be born again”….  “I thought that when I was baptized that my sins were washed away.” said Diamondra last Tuesday as we studied the Bible together.

            I reminded myself that this is why we are here, to share the truth of God’s Word with those who have never heard or in Diamondra’s case had been led to believe that baptism is what saves you or through good works that we do.  That was exactly the kind of encouragement that I needed that day.

This past Monday, I met with Diamondra, her husband and her youngest brother and we studied about Jesus being the only way to heaven and that salvation was not from baptism, good works, taking communion, being a member of a church, but that is a gift from God only.  At the end of our lesson, we had already discussed what a person must do to receive God’s gift of eternal life and then we talked about the way to do that.  I asked them to remember what we had learned before about being born again and how there are many people that say they believe in Jesus with their mouth, but they have not had their heart changed by Him.  Then I asked them each individually if they were ready to make that decision to follow him, letting them know that there was no pressure if they were not ready.  After they each told me they were ready, I listened to the sweetest prayers in Malagasy coming from glad & sincere hearts, surrendering their lives over to the Lord and Savior!!!  Truly, I saw that day what many of the apostles saw back in Bible times where she & her household were saved!  All praise be to our beloved & almighty Savior!!!

Please pray for Jonathan, Diamondra, & Erik (Diamondra's husband) as they begin this new faith journey; pray that they will share what they have learned with others

“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9

The statement from our Bible study read, “Jesus said that those people who have done enough good will get eternal life according to John 6:47, true or false?”  Almost instinctively, my friend and house helper, Zo replied that this statement was true.  So I had her return to the verse and read it again, but when it still wasn’t clear.  We reread all the verses from that lesson and I politely asked her after she read each one, where does it say that we must have good works to receive eternal life?  After searching a long time, she continued to come up empty and seemed quite baffled.  At this point, it was hard to understand that she truly understood what God requires of us for salvation, (according to Ephesians 2:8-9) but I knew that I must let the Holy Spirit show her. 

Today, we were studying the wide and the narrow roads.  After looking at a depiction of those two roads and the people that go on those roads, she identified herself as a person who trusts in her church (for her salvation).  Then I pointed out that there is only one kind of person that goes by the narrow road according to John 3:6-7 and that is the person that has been born again (which we had already studied what that meant from John 3 in a previous lesson).  At the end, I reminded her that she identified with the person on the wide road leading to eternal separation from God and I asked her if she was ready to be born again and she said that she was.  I was so amazed because I had been praying that if she was not a true believer that God would show her and now it was clear that she understood where she was and where she wanted to be!! 

Please pray for Zo to mature in her walk with Him and for her to have courage to teach others; also pray for her family for those that don't follow Jesus

It is imperative that we understand our true condition before we can accept what comes after but God (in the Bible).  Ephesians 2:1-9 reads:

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins

2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience-

3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

4 BUT GOD, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,

5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ-by grace you have been saved-

6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,

7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,

9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

You see, we were the walking dead and enemies of the cross, but God lavished us with His mercy and loved us in spite of our hideous zombie-like state.  He gave us new life, with a new name, He said, “You shall no longer be called a child of wrath (Satan), but you shall become a child of God.”  He exchanged our filthy ragged, sin-stained clothes with clothes of righteousness.  He gave us a new home, we are no longer condemned to hell but we are redeemed to live eternally with Him in the land of the forever living (the beginning of real life).

There is no better encouragement then knowing that God allowed you to usher someone (or some people) into the presence of Jesus to receive his salvation that only He can give.  We know that it is through your faithful prayers that we are able to do the things we do and for that we thank you so much—you really do play a VITAL role in our ministry!!

Many blessings...yet we wrestle

Many blessings...

Our move to our new house went very well.  The house is beautiful, open, and has a great big backyard.  And best of all there is absolutely no mold!!  

Eli has continued to do great at the French school!  Each day he works hard to do his homework and has even managed to teach his parents some French too. :)  We are encouraged each week by great reports from his teacher!  Praise God.

We have been incredibly blessed with 5 years with our Princess Zoey!  She had a great time with her friends at her masquerade ball and she didn’t even turn into a pumpkin. :)

Alleluia is growing and learning new things all the time and is so much fun to watch.  She gets into trouble faster than the other two did and she is definitely our loudest, but she always makes us laugh and smile!  Despite her mama's unhappiness about it, she has become quite the daddy's girl!

Yet we wrestle.

I would love to tell you that we have been completely happy, content and satisfied, but alas, we are still wrestling with some things.  Perhaps it is yet another transition that has caused old feelings to return or to become stronger, but we don't want to pretend with you.   In short, our lives here in Tana are busy, crazy and hectic much of the time.  Since our move in mid-Sept, Andy took a trip to the bush for 3-4 days, we had new personnel come through Tana, I prepared for & threw Zoey’s 5^th birthday party and Andy has been spending countless hours (for the last 4 weeks) in preparation for his board recertification exam scheduled for November 5th.   We have also had some trials with our new home, with electrical & plumbing issues, but they seem to be resolved (for now).  Our work & research among our PGs is still moving ahead very slowly because of these things and maybe also by nature of researching (especially something that has very little written about it, but must be explored firsthand).  

First, we want to say that God IS answering your prayers, so please don't stop!!  Secondly, we plead with you not to get tired of hearing us share our joys as well as our struggles because this is our real life and sometimes it is not always rosy, there are thorns that we encounter.  Lastly, we are overwhelmed by your love, prayer, support and faithfulness to partner with us-- we absolutely could not do it without you!!

We love you all and we thank God for you!!

Three huge blessings!

Their mama loves them though they make her crazy at times!

Allie doesn't mind when the power goes out!

Making contact...

On September 24th, I (Andy) was able to make contact with a small Malagasy people group located on the Southeast coast of the island, called the Antambahoaka.

Mananjary

Leaving the central plateau of Madagascar and entering the rainforest along the East Coast was a beautiful sight to see! We were not able to see all of the rain forest, merely drive through, but Jeremy, my boss, said, “it is a typical rainforest with the high canopy and animals” (including the many species of lemurs, frogs, snakes, birds and also fossa).  The first leg of our trip took about 12 hours, which brought us to the hotel where we stayed.  The next morning we made our way to the town of Mananjary, about a 2.5 hour drive from our hotel and explored the town and the surrounding area for 2 days.  I was surprised that the town was probably less than 20% of the size of Antsirabe (the city we lived in for language), but there was still a good bit of tourism there.  Also in comparison to the plateau there was very little to no rice fields and a lot fewer cattle (zebu).

The people listening to the gospel

After that we found a large village just north of town called Amboanato (about 850 people lived there).  The women wore more traditional dress (a lamba; a piece of cloth used to wrap around the woman’s lower half of her body like a skirt) and the people looked similar to the people on the plateau in their facial features, but with darker skin tone (approaching the look of what people see as traditional African people).  The people were welcoming and friendly and tried to help us find our way around as well as answer some of our other questions. 

As we entered the village, a large meeting of the local chiefs, and government leaders, was finishing-so we were able to meet with 10 (or so) of the local leaders (with many other onlookers through windows and doors).   Mostly we spent time listening to them talk about their people and culture.  At the end of our time, they invited us to come back the next day.  God truly went ahead of us to pave the way for us to be able to meet with so many influential people in this area!!

One thing the Antambahoaka shared with us was about one of their customs,  

a ceremony called the Sambatra that they perform every 7 years to circumcise any

previously uncircumcised males. There are many aspects to the ceremony, including

setting the male child on the head of a bull after the bull has been decapitated and then

pouring holy water in a circle on the ground around him.

Jeremy talking about the wide & the narrow path

On our second day in the village, I was a little surprised that the people answered question after question about who God is, who Jesus is, and what He has done. The person who knew the most, and spoke the most, was drunk. 2 Timothy 3:5 says that many people “hav[ing] a form of godliness but deny[ing] its power.”  In much the same way, the people of Amboanato knew a lot of the ‘right answers,’ about God—but they did not appear to really know God.  Many seemed to mix a little of one religion (such as Catholicism) with ancestor worship, feeling like they have not offended anyone while still satisfying their ancestors!   But Praise God, it is not up to us to save them, but we were faithful to share with them the truth of the gospel and we are praying that it will take root in their hearts!

"lakana"

Other Facts from the trip:

Common mode of transportation: a few taxi “brousses” (buses), but mostly many “lakana” (boats) are used to travel up & down the rivers & canals

Man making a fishing net

Common livelihood: Fishermen (mostly in the ocean, but some in the rivers & canals); Charcoal makers

Making charcoal

Children playing a game

Homemade drumset