Families and Traditions

            

Happy New Year from the Mahoneys!

         A few days ago, it was quite chilly outside (60 degrees or less, and yes that most certainly is chilly for this time of year here;)) because it had been raining so much…so I took the opportunity to make a wonderful, hot & creamy cup of hot chocolate—yum!  To most of you reading this, you might simply glance over the importance of what I just said.  Today is the 7th of January and we have already celebrated Christmas & New years without a bit of snow, “weather outside [being] frightful”, cold air or anything!!  I don’t even like the cold, but it doesn’t feel right to sing certain Christmas songs (especially “Frosty the Snowman” or “Walking in a Winter Wonderland”), hang stockings by the fireplace or wear a nice scarf or Christmas sweater (not the ugly ones that your grandma wears) when you are sweating much of the time.  Likewise, it doesn’t feel the same when your extended family is not with you to share this special time of year. 

            But nearly two years ago before we started this journey so far away from family, God showed me a promise that He had made long ago in Matthew 19:29—“And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name's sake, will receive a hundredfold…” in another gospel (Mark) Jesus adds at the end “in this life and the life to come”….

Everyone except Eli (our photographer) & Allie who was asleep

     And He has certainly answered that prayer time and time again as we reflect on all His blessings this season.  First, we were so blessed to spend a Christmas meal with our ‘Malagasy family’ who also happen to be our workers.  We shared the Christmas story, ate together and laughed together—we thank God for each of them!!  

We ate together

We laughed together!

            

 Then Christmas Eve, we were blessed again to share a meal with our close friends here in Tana.  We enjoyed sharing in their new tradition of eating cheese fondue on and just enjoying time spent together.  The night ended with gingerbread cake, coffee and excited kids who didn’t want to go to bed!  

All the kids at Christmas Eve (except for Allie)

 

My friend Karina & I

Christmas day and New Year’s day, we enjoyed time with just our own family making new memories and traditions.  

Christmas Day: getting ready to hear the Christmas story

 Perhaps we started a new tradition that when there is no snow for a snowball fight, on Christmas day, you improvise with a water gun fight (especially when it is over 80 degrees outside).  

She loved getting wet!

Confetti!

Happy New Year from the Mahoneys!

 We enjoyed a new meal for Christmas of meatloaf and scalloped potatoes (maybe another tradition started with inspiration from Andy’s family).  We finished with a yummy chocolate birthday cake for Jesus with store bought frosting from America (thanks to our Mill Family)!  For New Years Eve, we baked homemade chocolate chip cookies and started a new tradition of making confetti to throw to bring in the New Year (or at least close enough for Eli’s sake).  The girls brought in the New year as the most adorable sleeping beauties! :)

Sleeping Beauty #2

Sleeping Beauty #1

More fun with confetti on New year's day

She was a big fan!

            

But by far, our favorite tradition we had this holiday season came after the new year.  We had the opportunity, as a family, to visit a nearby orphanage to love on the children and share the gospel with them.   

We talked to about 55 children plus some adults

What a huge blessing it was to our family, to share the gospel with the kids through making salvation bracelets with them, and loving on them (especially the babies)!  It truly warmed my heart so much to see Eli playing soccer with the older kids and holding hands with the director of the orphanage as we walked back from the baby's/ girl's home.  As we were driving home, the kids were talking about how they couldn’t wait to go back and love on the babies again.

      Then Eli asked, “Can’t we just ask them if we can adopt ‘em?”  I wish sweet boy—I really do. 

 

 Unfortunately, this organization doesn’t yet have the ability to legally do this.  Especially during this season when families gather together, it really saddens me to think that none of these precious children will have families to call their own.  But then I am encouraged when I think of what God did and what He has promised in Galatians 4:4-7— “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.  And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’  So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.”

       
          Just look how many times it mentions son or father or adoption!  You see, God allowed His Son to leave His forever home to live with an ‘adopted family’ in a temporary place, so that these children (& each of us) could be adopted by God, into His forever family, being co-heirs with Christ and living in His forever home that Jesus has prepared for us.  They (& each of us) can cry out to Him at any point in time, in any hour of need as our one and only Abba Father who loves us more than any earthly father or mother and can fully meet our needs.  He is the only gift at Christmas time that truly lasts and satisfies our souls!

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!