Cyclone Alert

At the moment here it is raining heavily and it is clear that a lot of people are really enjoying it probably because it is a long time since there was rain here. Some are showering in the rain and kids swimming in the flooded roads. Interestingly it is not cold either! Recently a cyclone alert was given. It may hit any time but begins in the North and later moves here to the South. The speed is approximated to be around 80km/hr. So now is the time to make early food purchases and make sure you have an AC radio just to keep in touch with what is happenning because there is going to be a black out and all businesses will be closed.

So pray with us.

Blessings,

Victor.

Getting ready for ministry for 2009.

Christian greetings, I hope your year has began on a high note. I am very well here in Madagascar in this brand new year of 2009. I must confess that the Lord has been so gracious to our ministry here in Madagascar and we are not taking anything for granted. Since our arrival here neither Duncan nor I has had any serious sickness and that is not something to take lightly. So praise God with us for his faithfulness. This year seems to have a lot of things ahead both in the evangelism and youth departments in the entire southern part of our diocese which covers 1000km of coastline. Next week I will be involved in a youth leaders workshop for a day. We are focusing on training the emerging leaders. In actual sense they are the people who are taking over leadership. The St.Luke's Church here in Ankilifaly where we are based is predominantly youth and so most of our energies are directed towards them but on the other hand we are not forgetting the elderly as well and so there are special programmes that go on especially in the area of Bible study and discipleship. We have a task to make sure that the word of God is made simple and clear and that it is understood the way it should be and our pastor has been so helpful especially in the area of language. Our pastor here Rev.Stephan will be moving to another parish which is 1500km away by February. His wife has been sick for some time now so please pray for him and his family as they start a new work in their new ministry base. In the beginning of February as well I will be involved in teaching the new student evangelists at the Bible School in Ankilifaly. Continue praying that the Lord's hand may be upon us and all the work that we are doing here. Thank you so much for all your prayers and financial support. Have yourselves an exciting 2009! God Bless Victor

A New Year - A Time for Teaching and Trusting

Dear Friends,

I like to wish you all a very happy New Year. I crossed into the New Year at church and indeed gave my first sermon of 2009 right after entering the New Year at midnight. I spoke on “Your failures will become successes in 2009”. This was based on Luke Chapter One where Zechariah and Elizabeth were blessed with a son, John the Baptist, at a time when it was not physically possible for them to be gifted with a child. I pray therefore that whatever you have attempted but has not worked out in the past, will work out in 2009 and that you trust in God in all things.

The Saturday morning that followed I preached in the English service and the responses both times were great. I believe this year that there will be great success in my ministry here in Madagascar.

I hope to do evangelism campaigns in Ankilifaly, Anketraka, Andaromena, Sakaraha, Morondava and Fort Dolphin among other places and so please pray for me while I do this.
I am trusting God for resources to facilitate these evangelistic campaigns for example a public address system, generator, lighting system, digital projector, finances, etc. So I continue to be in need of prayer.

There is a small informal bible school that was instituted by the bishop because where I am serving there is a big shortage of clergy, yet the churches are many and more are being planted. He has already instructed me next week to teach on the gospels and this year I will be teaching a lot in the bible school so remember me in your prayers. Pray that I would teach the truth and that God would help me to understand His word when doing my preparation.

Therefore there is a great need for me to advance in my theological studies and so I am trusting God for the resources necessary for me to start doing a course through the internet as soon as possible.

I hope we will continue to walk together in this exciting journey of faith in Madagascar.

Be blessed in 2009.

Yours in Christ

Duncan

Quarterly Newsletters

Coming soon. . .

Stolen Property and Snatching Souls

The month of November started with me going to Morondava, over 1,200kms away for a strategic diocesan staff meeting and the dedication of two new permanent churches. I was away for about 10 days. Upon returning to Toliara where I am based, I continued working on the arrangements for evangelism at Angorobony for my local church scheduled for Dec.4th to 6th. The planning was affected from Nov 22nd when my local church received some visitors from the USA who came to minister and the Bishop told me to teach bible school students here for a week on the themes in Romans as well as 1st & 2nd Corinthians.

(Baobabs in Morondava - Photo courtesy Rita Willaert)

Today is now the 3rd day of the evangelism campaign and I preached yesterday the 5th Dec in the presence of the bishop and many prayed to accept Christ as their Lord. This was gratifying to me because it was a way of attacking the devil since last Friday in the morning my house was broken into and some of my property stolen but what a joy to snatch souls from satan to God!



Finally, as I get to 2009, I am appealing for monthly support for the work here whether 500shs,1,000shs etc. as the Lord may lead you. Please get in touch with me soonest if you wish to partner with me to facilitate what God is doing here in Madagascar in 2009.





Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! - Duncan Macharia

Six Months in Madagascar

It is now six months since I came to Madagascar! May 1st to November 1st! After living in Kenya all my life, now I am in a different setting!

Do I want to return to Kenya now and forget Madagascar totally? That is enticing and tantalising! My family and the people that I came to know and treasure over the years live there. The language, food, culture etc. there are familiar unlike the situation here in Madagascar. Indeed, like today being the All Saints Day it is a national holiday here and people are streaming into cemeteries and tombs today to perform rites and celebrate over the tombs of their relatives throughout the country. Probably it is only me and Victor who do not have graves to visit. By the way I wonder if all those relatives are saints!

Yet this is the place I have come to love and I want to continue staying and serving here! While here, I try to keep myself updated with what is happening in Kenya through the internet and that helps me to know how to pray for Kenya. I also keep in touch with people back in Kenya through e-mail and telephone.

As for my ministry here, this Sunday I will be preaching in the Sunday service of the St. Luke's parish where am based. I will preach in English but there will be a translator. Also, I am working on an evangelism campaign near the parish that will run from December 4th to 6th. I continue to minister in the English service on Saturdays and on 16th November I will launch a weekly bible study of 7 people who we have been teaching English. I continue to learn the Malagasy language but I request for prayer that God may guide me on how to establish my ministry here. This Sunday I travel over 1,000kms away for one week of diocesan staff training. Thank you for your prayers and support! - Duncan

Growing and Planting Churches

I have now been in Madagascar for four months and am increasingly convinced that God brought me here with a great purpose. Some months ago, I was invited by a priest from the Diocese I am serving here to go minister in his church and I went there on 26th August up to 16th September. This was significant because the Anglican Church in South Madagascar is desperate for evangelism to bolster church- growth and facilitate church planting. I ministered in crusades to promote growth in the local church. The profile of the church was raised in the area and scores came to Christ. Follow-up needs to be done to sustain the work, but we also did crusades in another area where we planted a new church. By the grace of God I preached in all the crusades and since the concept is new here many were attending and God was convicting them. I am now praying that God guides me on how to best do evangelism work here. Keep on praying for us.

I continue to learn Malagasy which is the language of the people here, but it has not been easy since I also now have friends who speak English. In the crusades I was preaching in English assisted by a very able Malagasy interpreter. I have also been teaching English in the church though my compatriot, Victor, is now taking a larger role of teaching. Our passports which we sent to the Ministry of interior to be stamped with the two-year visas have yet to be returned to us though we were given identity cards which are acting as our passports for the time being. Pray for us as we continue to adapt and learn about the culture here. When I went for a church-planting mission recently there were no houses, including where I stayed, that had a toilet or bathroom. For the toilet people relieved themselves either in the bush or openly, and for bathing they all went to a swamp with dirty water and I had no choice!

Victor told me when I was away that he attended a turning of bones ceremony. This is where people gather in the gravesite of a relative who has been dead for about ten years and unearth the skeleton of the dead person then they straighten the skeleton of the deceased and wrap it in a new cloth and then put it in a new coffin and rebury it. Then celebration follows right there at the gravesite. Imagine some Christians also do this claiming it is their culture! Pray that God may strengthen us to correct such practises especially by Christians. Otherwise we continue to minister in the English service on Saturdays in Toliara but pray that God may give us able interpreters so that we can also preach in Sunday services in all the churches. Remember that one priest here normally has seven to ten congregations and so they rely on evangelists to run the churches while we claim that since we cannot speak Malagasy fluently we cannot preach in the Malagasy services. Actually when I went to preach in Morondava recently the Nigerian priest there has a Malagasy interpreter that interprets for him whenever necessary. A similar arrangement will make us contribute a lot in the Malagasy services. I am informed that the long rains begin in November and so remember us in your prayers since the rains are accompanied by cyclones!

-Duncan

Children's Outreach during School Holidays

We are now settling slowly in our houses with a few repairs here and there. The compound is fine with very lovely neighbours around us. Everyone wants to come and see who these "black vazahas" (the term for foreigners)are, that can dare to come and live with them here! But they discover that we are just human beings like them doing everything normally.

Along the streets and the market a few guys try to gossip only to get the shock of their lives when they discover that I understood a bit of what they said and I respond in Malagasy! That breaks my ribs. Its just so funny.

Right now there is a long school holiday and most children have gone to visit their relatives and friends. So, I’m using the opportunity from now until September to spend one hour everyday to bring together all the kids around, both the visitors and the residents. Normally they are just playing around and I have begun teaching them slowly the names of things in English, because I also know a number of them in Gasy by now. I am amazed by the speed they catch things. Interestingly, because I have memorised some of my favorite scriptures in Gasy and Gasy favorite songs, we have a time of singing and in the middle of our lesson they must learn the verse as well. Truly, I see they are enjoying themselves and I believe that the Lord will minister in their hearts in a special way. That also made me begin a special lesson working alongside some of the Sunday school teachers whereby we have a short-bible passage, One Gasy song, learning a new Swahili or English song designed to reach the children as well in our church that runs for 2days a week for 2hrs.

-Victor

Prayers for Health and Security

It is now three months since I came to Madagascar and I am very much focused on my mission here.
This past month I have been sickly. I thought I had symptons of malaria or typhoid but that was not confirmed by blood tests in the hospital. So, I was treated for the symptoms that I described and now am okay. Pray for our health as we serve here.

I was happy recently, when I read a biblical text in Malagasy in a Sunday service for the first time since I came here and the locals thought I really tried. I am slowly getting to know the language.

Pray for our security since as foreigners it is assumed we are rich and are likely to be targets of thugs. Actually, my mobile was stolen recently by someone who entered the house when I had gone to church.

Otherwise we continue to learn Malagasy (Gasy), teach English and handle the Saturday English service. Indeed we are fully using the English students, who are not church members, in the English service thereby transforming the face of the church. Now other Anglican churches want a similar program in their churches.

-Duncan

New Visas and Learning Malagasy

Greetings, I am focused on my ministry here. Victor and I have been busy teaching English classes as an evangelistic tool. There are about 30 students and most of them are not from the Anglican church. English is taught 4 days a week. Victor and I are still ministering in the English service on Saturday evenings. Our priority is learning Malagasy and at the moment Victor is doing far better than me. We have been granted a 2-year visa each and that is an answer to prayer. We also have moved to new houses in the same compound after a long search and we give glory to God. In August we will hold evangelistic meetings for one of our churches and it will take two days to travel there - a journey of 1500kms! We have adjusted well to eating rice for lunch, supper and at times for breakfast as well as drinking rice water! Continue praying for us.
- Duncan