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.