How far is too far to carry the gospel?

Vondrozo

Farafangana is a small city on the SE coast of Madagascar.  Traditionally it is the home of the Antefasy people; although other peoples live among the Antefasy here.  My trip to Farafangana this past week with my friend, Pastor Kris, was for the purpose of discovering some of the smaller people groups that live in the region around Farafangana.  In the past I have gone out with a small list of peoples to look for and most of the time I find at most one, or even none on my list.  For this trip I had 3 peoples I was looking for...and God lead us to find 3 people groups!  We were able to locate the Antevato-Be, Sahafatra & Sahavoay in our short 3 days in the region! 

 Overall we drove 1330km (~850 miles) on mostly poor roads, with ~155miles being truly off-road in our 4x4.  We were able to see parts of Madagascar that I have never seen before-and even my Malagasy friend, Pastor Kris, had never seen before. 

The "national" road to Vondrozo

On our first day in Farafangana we teamed up with some short-term Journey-women missionaries who work with the Antefasy to visit some villages along the road to Vondrozo.  We were able to find more Antefasy, as well as one our people groups called the Sahavoay in a large market village called Lohatranambo.  On the second day we were on the road before the sun was up and were able to make it all the way to Vondrozo, home of the Sahafatra.  Vondrozo is home to about 20,000 and is a large market town that sits on what used to be the major road before it fell into disrepair over the last 20+ years.  Now, the road beyond Vondrozo is impassable to all but a motocross style motorcycle. 

Vondrozo

We had the privilege of meeting with the Mayor of the town/region of Vondrozo as well as the President of the fokontany (tribal leadership), and other leaders of the area.  We sat & talked with these men for quite awhile and then they offered to walk us around their town, showing us the major things to see & do.  This is the method they use to show the community that we have been accepted, and are therefore given the Mayor's & fokontany president's protection while we are there.  We discovered that there is zero evangelical Christian presence in Vondrozo—but they seem to be open to the message of the Gospel. 

I have been to many villages here in Madagascar, and we always look for a “person of peace,” that person who becomes a figurative door-opener for ministry to be done.  Never before has the person of peace been the Mayor of the town/region!  

The last few months on the Mahoney front

I loved doing my 1st 5K with the bigs!

Helping Zoey finish strong in the 5K

So... here's what we have been doing from the end of March through May. I will save June for another time... 

March 31st-April 10th :

My green ninja (VBS performance)

We were in S. Africa for a company meeting.  It was a very busy time, but we loved getting to see and talk to many of our friends on this island and meeting new people from other nearby countries.  The kids had a blast participating in VBS while we were in class.  Also the bigs and I did our first 5K together.  We were so proud of them for finishing.

My blue avenger (VBS performance)

Zoey & Mommy pampering time in Jo-burg

April 17th-May 17th:
We moved back to the language city, Antsirabe.  We had very rocky beginnings, but God has brought us through.  About a week after we moved, Eli started back to school at his old French school.  Several children were very happy to have him back at the school (including his good friend) and Eli was very happy too!  Huge blessing and praise!  Added bonus...he gets to sleep in a little longer and has less homework at his new school. This makes his mommy happy too. :)

Eli and Madame Sandrine (his new teacher)

First day of school

May 18-25th:
The kids & I enjoyed some time with Jason and Adam on the beginning and end of their time here.  The kids had fun playing games with the guys and singing for them-- and the guys especially loved watching the Wiggles with the kids! ;)  Allie still tries to imitate a game that Jason taught the kids while he was here.

The girls enjoyed Adam

Adam was sad to say goodbye ;)

Adam paid the bigs to take a pic with him :)

Dragon game

Jason's response to Eli's stink

Fun times

Also while the team was gone, God blessed me with courage and boldness to get out and about through the town taking a pousse-pousse wherever I went and meeting many new people and becoming comfortable again with my surroundings.  This was the result of what God had been trying to teach me through a difficult time recently-- that I needed to not close myself in, but to get out and be with the Malagasy even when it was the opposite of what I wanted. 

May 31st:
Zoey and I enjoyed going to Rina's (our friend & guard) youngest sister's wedding.  It was our first Malagasy wedding and we even got to take the bride and groom to the church which was way out in the countryside (which meant that I did some off-roading!).  Zo (Rina's wife) informed me that it was Malagasy custom to honk the horn to announce the bride and groom, so of course I very gladly obliged (perhaps I enjoyed it a little too much). ;)  I was very happy to see Zoey enjoying some play time in a big pile of hay at the church and she even made a new friend.

Rina, Zo & Nambina with the bride & groom

Rina and Zoey

Zoey and her new friend

Zoey is really getting the hang of school and she is even teaching her mommy new things.  She enjoys learning French via Rosetta Stone, she is beginning to learn to read and she is getting better at her numbers and math.  And as always she can make a new friend anywhere.



Recent Alleluia stories:  One day last month when I put her down for a nap,

She is a "mess"!

she was not very happy to be in her bed.  So she proceeded to make a lot of noise.  First, she called , "DA-DDY" (in the loudest voice she could muster) multiple times for a few minutes.  But daddy didn't come.  So next, she called,

Sassy...

"MO-MMY" (also as loud as she could) for a few minutes.  But mommy didn't come.  Finally, in hopes of getting a better response, she called out, "JE-SUS! JE-SUS!"
On another occasion, I asked her, "What is your name?"  She responds very matter-of-factly, "Jesus." 

But always fun!

Ok, last story I promise...a few weeks ago, we met up with some missionary

Love her smile!

friends from another part of the island.  It was so great to catch up with them
and to have their kids play with our kids.  But for me, the highlight of our time was when Alleluia ordered our friend, Tim, to pray with her.  First they bowed their heads to pray, but that was not enough for Miss Allie, next we see her showing, no more like coercing, Tim how to prostrate himself flat on the ground to the "accurate" prayer position.  I wish I had been quick enough with the camera to catch that in a picture (oh, and just for the record she does not practice the same form that she was showing Tim that day--LOL).
Praise
Shortly after we moved, God answered a prayer that I didn't think I had even voiced, but probably some of you were praying it.  A few days after we got here, we heard a ring at our doorbell and there were several neighbor kids who wanted to play with Eli and Zoey.  This was/is a big deal for Zoey since I am homeschooling her and she loves being with other kids, but also our new yard is very small so the kids have nowhere to play, but now they can play in the neighbor's yard.  Praise God for His goodness and kindness!

Flying kites with our neighbors

How do we get there from here...?

The last couple months have been an extra busy time for us here in Madagascar! We appreciate all of your prayers as we seek to reach the micro people groups living in difficult to reach places. Sometimes we need to use creative means in order to merely have access to some of our peoples.

The region around Andilamena is very difficult to travel through...

For instance; in March I (Andy) had to use a helicopter to be able to visit Andilamena, home to the Tanosimbohangy people. I got together with some friends from the Tana area to use a Helimission helicopter (what a great organization!). When I tried to drive to Andilamena in January it took me the better part of 2 days, and I still never made it! With the assistance of Helimission I was there in 90 minutes! Our landing caused quite a stir in such a small town, on market day nonetheless! Market day is the time when people living in all of the smaller outlying villages come to town in order to buy certain foods & sundries that they cannot make or grow on their own. We knew no one in Andilamena before we left Tana, so we prayed that God would introduce us to the people we needed to meet once we landed there. Enter Jermaine; from the moment we landed he became our helper and guide as we went around Andilamena! He even steered us through an hour long meeting with the Town leadership (10-12 people) consisting of mayor, town president, elders, police & military. While walking around town, I was able to talk of spiritual things with Jermaine and discovered that he is a believer, and he volunteered to help take part in any church work we would do there in Andilamena! What an answer to prayer! We do have a church lined up to partner with the Tanosimbohangy, and hope to have our first team going there later this year!

The Pangalana Canal in Mananjary

Last week, I had the privilege of taking a small team from Anderson Mill Road Baptist Church (The Mill) out to Mananjary, along the eastern coast of Madagascar. Mananjary is home for the Antambahoaka people; although many other peoples call it home as well. Our fist time to Mananjary with the Mill we used a Mission Aviation Fellowship flight to travel there, taking about 1.5 hours. This trip we drove 1.5 days often on pot-hole filled, narrow 2-lane roads to get to Mananjary. During this trip we were able to meet with Pastor Gaetan, a Malagasy Pastor who is a pioneer evangelist and leads 19 churches in the area! He works mainly in the rural setting around Mananjary, extending northward along the coast to Nosy Varika. He is someone that we look forward to partnering with in the future. Since his work focuses on the village setting, we are hoping to work in the larger market towns to start churches and then train people who can work with Pastor Gaetan in starting more churches out in the smaller bush villages. 

Pastor Gaetan & his family

During this trip we got to meet with Pastor Gaetan who shared with us how he was healed from a sickness that he had suffered from for more than 10 years! We worked alongside Pastor Gaetan each of the 3 full days we were in Mananjary. We visited the sick, prayed for people who had lost loved ones, taught some kids how to play tic-tac-toe in the sand, and then shared the Good News of Jesus Christ with them. Additionally, we played basketball with some of the local young men at a public court and shared with them as well. They had many questions about the Christian life, and we pray that some will take the message to heart and choose to follow Jesus. We visited the village of Amboanato, our main location on our November, 2013 trip. The village king was very happy to see us-he even smiled & made jokes! We gave him a gift of a Bible, in Malagasy, for him and his family to share, as well as some soccer balls for the kids to enjoy. 

We also made some good preparations for a medical team to come and serve the people in Mananjary, and Amboanato in September of this year. Please pray for the planning and preparations for this upcoming trip. We will be doing some medical education at the regional hospital, as well as seeing some patients. Then we will go up to Amboanato for some time to see patients there as well! 

 

God has certainly gone before us, and has opened some great opportunities for us that we did not see our first couple times to the region. We are so thankful for your prayer support and your giving to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering and the Cooperative Program. Because of your giving, we are able to go to these difficult to reach places and share the life-giving Message of Jesus Christ! Thanks to The Mill for sending Adam & Jason, and thanks to Adam's & Jason's families for sacrificing so that they could come and work along side of us!!

Adam & Jason, from The Mill.