A PRAYER FOR MADAGASCAR

Victor 3rd March, 2010 Update

Greetings,
The year 2010 is picking up well and we are grateful for what God is doing. At the moment,we are enjoying cool weather of around 25 degrees Celsius contrary to the normal 32 degrees Celsius. During the stay there were several cyclone alerts. Gracefully, the hit was not as strong as last year's. Thanks for holding us in prayers.

Prayer points:

• Pray for the Malagasy elections that are due later this month
• Pray that the Lord may be glorified in the process of making Toliara a diocese.
• Pray that the Lord may continue to sustain and strengthen us in our ministry here.
• Pray that the Lord will raise more partners to pray and support the work in Madagascar financially.
• Pray for journey mercies during our home visit and support raising next month- April 2010
• Thank God for the success of the youth leaders' training and the men's conference that were held in previous months.
• Thanks for standing in the gap.

Serving Christ together,

Victor.

DUNCAN'S JOURNAL

March 1, 2010 Update-Duncan

It's now a year and ten months since I moved to Madagascar to serve as an evangelist.

At the beginning learning Malagasy was a major challenge. Not being a linguist, I have been quite slow to pick up Malagasy, the main language here. My experience in communication has been a total comedy and disaster too. I am however, progressing on my improvement scale.Last month, I started a new service in Betania West where I have been preaching in Malagasy. It gets interestingly miraculous, when someone who has been speaking English, Swahili and Kikuyu all his life, is suddenly speaking hesitantly and haltingly in a foreign language. It is here in Madagascar, that I have come to realize how useless English is!

In February, I was trying to establish a new fellowship in Betania West and it was not butter and bread. I preached in all the services there and since I did not know the people there I focused on evangelistic messages followed by alter-calls for salvation. The responce was always good.

The fellowship is a roller-coaster I must say. One sunday the locals are ten then the next five and so on and so forth. Many are adults. We however, attract a good number of teenagers and children too.

When not too busy, the youth normally accompany me to minister. The congregation there enjoys gospel music and Bible questions. From March I intend to make the preaching open to all. Shortage of seats is a major handicap there. Yesterday I was excited when a mother there committed herslf to attend our main service in our church on Sundays. Every Friday or Saturday I, with a team, do person-to-person evangelism in the area.

In February I had been looking for a place to plant a fellowship. The task was a tough one. In this past week I have however, identified an area known as Betania Tanambao where starting 2nd of March, I will begin evangelizing in the area with a view of starting a church there. I hence ask for your prayers.

In February we also started a Sunday Service in Motombe, a fellowship I started last November.
It is a relatively stable fellowship that mainly costitutes mothers, vis-a-vis the one in Betania West.

Personally, my desire this year is that when the Christians I work with see me, they may see a church planter.

WORKING HARD IN MADAGASCAR

It has been a year and nine months since I left Kenya to serve as a missionary in Madagascar.

On the 14th of January, 2010 my friend and I started a house-to-house campaign, from Tuesday to Friday at an area known as Jirama. This was done wit a view to starting anew fellowship in the place since we do not ave a church there. On the 14th we scrutinized the area. We found three major streets there and we decided to prioritize the houses in one of the streets. We were especially looking for people who hardly go to church on Sundays.

Being a foreigner, I was well received. I had the chance of presenting the gospel to many people and some received Christ. At te same time I was trusting God to guide me on where I could start afellowship. Whenever we visited a house we revisited them in subsequent days to continue sharing God's word and developing ties with people from that region. One day, an elderly woman who had been an alcohol addict for five years received Christ in tears; I was deeply moved and overjoyed.

Sunday, the 31st January, after two weeks of evangelism I started a fellowship in that region tha will be held every sunday from 3 to 4pm. I will continue to evangelize in the area to strenghthen the fellowship. On the other hand thre is a Friday fellowship we started in Motombe last November. In regards to the Bishop's instructions, I will start a sunday afternoon service next sunday.

In February I will start evangelizing in an area known as Magro with a view of starting a Sunday service. I hereby request prayers and your support as I seek to start churches and fellowships in Madagascar in this present year 2010. In Madagascar, after a long summer the rains have now come and in this season cyclones are commonly expected, so pray for God's divine protection as we serve as missionaries in Madagascar.