Our Grief and His Glory

Lamentations 3:32-33

​​​​​​​​“but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; for he does not willingly afflict or grieve the children of men.”

When God created us, He created us for one purpose: to worship Him, to bring glory to His wonderful name.  John Piper says it this way, “Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn't.”

I agree with that statement, but what I didn’t know before becoming a missionary was that true worship is not easier when you become a missionary.  Sure there are days that we can truly and easily worship our Savior because of His glory and goodness revealed, but then I must confess there are many other days that we personally become distracted by our own griefs or grievances of this other life.  We grieve over our distance from family and friends, we grieve over all the many transitions that we & our kids must endure, not to mention the grievances we have from lack of many modern conveniences that we were accustomed to.  All of these things become greatly magnified when we struggle often with sickness, experience loss, and encounter the enemy’s attacks.  We become weary, tired and homesick.

I say all that to say that we have had real struggles with these things, but our desire remains the same, we want to glorify God and some day we want to see our people groups gathered around His throne worshiping our Savior. 

·         Please pray that we would truly worship our Savior in spirit and in truth no matter what path He has for us.

·         Please pray that our grief would be used for His glory.

·         Please pray that our knees would become sore because of the time spent together in prayer.

We don’t pretend to understand Job’s suffering, but please use this verse to pray for us at this time:

Job 3:10b “‘Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?’ In all this, Job did not sin in what he said.”

Please know that we are very much aware that all of you have your own struggles and sorrows and we would be honored to help carry the burden with you.  Even though we can’t walk with you in person, we would love to uplift you in prayer.  Please tell us how we can pray for you!

Silence in the Storm…is God sleeping? But then there is Peace…He is Peace.

Have you ever prayed so much about something that you just knew God would surely make His will clear, but He seemed to remain silent no matter how often, how loud and how hard you cried out to Him during the storm?  Recently I felt like the disciples in the boat watching the storm wage around me, calling out for God to rescue us (simply to reveal His perfect will) only to wonder if He would continue to sleep while we poured out our hearts to Him.  Surely He knew our hearts desire and heard the constant knocking that beckoned Him to meet with us so that we might hear from Him.  Was that not what He meant when He asked us to be perseverant in prayer?

            We were eager to start our ministry here in Tana when we moved here over a year ago in the beginning of January 2013.  It took us a while to adjust, but after our second move here, we began to adjust, at least the kids and I did.  We had hoped that Andy’s allergies would get better after our move to this new house.  We loved the openness of our new house that let in a lot more sunshine and a nice breeze from our two big windows.  But Andy continued to struggle with little sleep, headaches, constant congestion & itchiness, puffy eyes and exhaustion.  I really didn’t realize the extent of his misery until he called our medical contact in the states (in the beginning of February) to be able to get to Johannesburg, South Africa to see an allergist (for the 2^nd time) there.  It was also apparent that all of the medicines he had been taking were not cutting it.

            It was our hope that when Andy got to Joburg, he would have some relief because we had begun to realize that the pollution in Tana was making his allergies quite a bit worse.  Unfortunately things did not get better there right away, and the allergist told Andy that he needed to have allergy shots or he needed to avoid the things that he was allergic to (which include dust, fresh cut grass, dogs/cats).  He was also told by the allergist that the pollution was lowering his threshold to combat his allergies (because he had been exposed to the same allergens in Antsirabe minus the pollution and he did not have these same problems).  The problem with allergy shots is that we can’t get them here in Tana and it is impossible for them to administer them to him as often as he would need with us being so far away and the cost being so great—we soon realized that this was not an option if we wanted to stay on the mission field.  So we were left with one other option, we must move again!

            So after much prayer, we have decided to move back to Antsirabe (the city we were in for language school).  This decision was very difficult for both of us, and personally, I wanted to kick and scream and say no, but I just couldn’t.  I am finally beginning to realize that I was in denial at first, not wanting to think about another possible move or transition for our family, but then God began to open my eyes to see how miserable Andy has been and how difficult it was for him to function, let alone do his job he was called here to do.  And I guess this is how God was showing us His answer, by me letting go of control of the situation and having all the signs point to yet another move.  Of course, there were many concerns for our family in this move, but we were also concerned with how this would affect all our workers (our Malagasy family).  Would they be able to get jobs?  How would they respond?  But our peace about this came only after we had already made the decision to move and began to tell them and others.  The most telling response was when Rinah (our day guard & close friend) told us that God had already revealed to him that we would have to move!  We had planned to take him & his wife, Zo, with us to Antsirabe because they are from Antsirabe to begin with.  They are very excited to be going back to be close to Rinah’s family again (side note: they had also been looking for another house here in Tana for a while, but they had not found anything).  It amazes me how good God is-- I couldn’t even see all these pieces of the puzzle until this very moment I wrote them down!

Thanks to our logistics coordinator, Taisir Emeish, we already have a house in Antsirabe.  We don’t have a set date for our move however, but we are hoping to move in mid to late April during Eli's school break.  We would ask that you pray for us to finish our time here in Tana well.  We would also ask you to pray for our family as we transition to a new city, new house and new school (for Eli) as this has already created a good bit of stress for all of us.  Pray for all of us as we say goodbye to good friends and finish discipleship relationships earlier than expected.  Please also pray specifically that we would have a lot of people that would help us as I (Ruth) will be doing a lot of the sorting, tossing and packing up (because of Andy’s allergy to dust).  Thank you so much for your partnership with us through prayer! 

Thank you also for your prayers for Andy’s day trip to Andilamena today!  He hopes to update soon.

Mud butter

I (Andy) want to thank everyone who prayed for me on my recent trip out to the bush as I went to visit the cities Ambatondrazaka & Andilamena!  We had a successful trip to Ambatondrazaka, and were able to meet with a small Baptist church there.  They even gave me some information about two people groups that I was searching for in the area.  One such people group, the Tanosimbohangy, live in a city about 150km from Ambatondrazaka—so I decided to take a ‘quick’ trip up there on Monday, January 20^th.  The story below is from my notes on the trip, with some explanations to make it more readable.

I woke early in Ambatondrazaka so that I could make the 4-5 hour trip to Andilamena, where the Tanosimbohangy people live.  I went downstairs at 5:30am to discover that my rear tire was flat!  After about 30 minutes I got the tire changed out with the spare.  I did not feel safe trying to drive on rough roads with out a spare tire so I set about finding a place to get my spare fixed.  I had to wait about 45 minutes to an hour for the mpanamboatra pneus [aka: “tire fixer guy”] to open, and then he had the tire fixed and back in the spare tire spot in no time so I was on my way shortly after 8am.  I started feeling sick to my stomach about 45 minutes into my drive.  [I should mention at this point that we had eaten at a small Malagasy restaurant the night before my trip, and the food was not kind to my stomach] About an hour later, I was able to stop at the last gas station in a town called Tanambe-for which my stomach was thankful.  Then I made my way on the bad road from the north end of the loop road around Lake Alaotra towards Andilamena.  I should have known when I passed through the intersection and there were a lot of trucks parked there, that attempting the journey any further was a mistake.  There was definitely more water (about a foot deep) than when I went tried to go through the first part of the road 2 days prior, but it was passable so I kept on. [Again, I need to mention that there was a steady rain for most of the day Sunday, and it had started again as a constant drizzle at about 9 am, making everything even more wet]   After the early water, there was a few kilometers of better road.  During this stretch, my stomach started to protest again what I had eaten the night before, so I had to find a semi-secluded place to uhm…answer the call of nature.  After that job was done, I got back on the road to Andilamena. 

Then I hit the patch of mud butter, that's the best way I can describe the 1 foot thick mud that I was driving through.  I got stuck, briefly, a couple times and then almost slid slowly off the road due to the 'mud butter;' I even considered turning around at this point but I made it through that tough stretch, and decided to keep going.  I passed another SUV coming from the other direction and asked about the road condition.  He said it was rough but passable if I stayed in the middle of the road, mainly in the ruts left by the trucks that had gone before.  I decided to continue on.  Big.  Mistake. 

I was only able to go another 200-300 meters up the road before seeing nothing but 'mud butter' up ahead, and no real path through it.  I stopped and prayed, and felt that God was telling me that I was not going to get to Andilamena that day.  I was in a spot where I was able to turn around in the middle of this muddy road and started back towards Ambatondrazaka.  The problems got worse when I returned to the bad section of 'mud butter.'  The first time through I had gotten stuck trying to go outside of the ruts left by other vehicles so this time I resolved to follow the ruts and stay out of trouble.  Things were going well early on, then my stomach started to protest again.  I was following the ruts, and went into a large puddle (average size for my driving that day).  I knew as soon as I went in I was in trouble.  This puddle was not just muddy water, it was more like the consistency of a Frosty, and it was easily three feet deep.  So here I am, stuck in the mud, unable to get out of my car because it would have then been flooded with 'frosty mud' and the pain in my stomach has been slowly building telling me that I needed to be anywhere but where I was.  I prayed, and I tried to rock the car back and forth in the puddle in order to get the momentum and maybe even the traction necessary to get free, and the prayed some more.  It felt like forever being stuck in that mud, I truly started getting scared that I would be stuck and have to abandon the truck in the middle of nowhere.  The longer the truck sat the more it would sink into the bed of mud under the Frosty puddle.  I did not even dare climbing out in order to answer nature’s very insistent call because of this fear.  At this point, the nearest village is at least 3 km away and anyone with a truck capable of pulling me out is 10km back at the large intersection.  I prayed more.  I prayed harder.  After a long time (it felt like an hour but was probably like 10 minutes) and a lot of prayer, I was able to escape the 'Frosty mud' pit.  I still had to navigate the rest of the 'mud butter' at this point-but I was praising God.  After I finally made it to a point I could stop (with hopes of being able to move again) I was able to answer nature’s insistent call sheltered by my car.  

I am truly blessed!  God delivered me from being stuck and stranded in a mud pit; there is no other explanation for my escape.  There is no other way I could have gotten out- I had no tow rope, no boards to shim under the tires and I was alone.  As I drove, safely, back to Ambatondrazaka I thought of Psalm 40 and how God had gotten me out of this mess!  "I waited patiently for The Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry.  He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand." (Psalm 40:1-2, NIV)  Total dependence on God is scary, but it is so rewarding.  My reward is not being free of that slimy pit (although that is nice, too) but a closer walk/connection with Him. 

As I returned to Ambatondrazaka people were staring at me, in my mud covered car.  Usually people stare at us here because we are foreigners in their country, but they were genuinely impressed by what they thought my mud covered car signified--that I had conquered some tough road...and with God's help, I guess I had. 

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!