News from Mandritsara 25 January 2017
Dear Friends
“God … has been my Shepherd all my life to this day.” Genesis 48:15
What a blessing and encouragement, as we look into 2017 with all its uncertainties, to be able to look back as Jacob
did, and see the Lord’s wonderful care of us in days past right up to today!
Accord de Siège
In order to work in Madagascar there are various legal requirements for the missionaries – work permits, visas etc.
The thing that lies behind these is the registration of Friends of Mandritsara Trust as a legal charity in Madagascar.
This has to be renewed every two years and is known, in French, as our “Accord de Siège”. Our current “Accord”
expired on 20 January.
For the last few months of 2016, Mat Linley and others had been working hard on preparing the application for
renewal. Once the application has been submitted we can normally breathe a huge sigh of relief as the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs issues a note to say that the application is in process and visas etc can be granted.
However, this year the rules have changed. Visas are not now issued until the Accord is actually granted – a lengthy
process as the application has to be approved by numerous different government ministries. This means that all the
long and short term missionaries are, as from last Friday, in a potentially difficult situation.
Would you please pray for Mat who went to Antananarivo last Saturday and is busy visiting the government
ministries together with Rija, (who runs the Good News Hospital office in Tana office). They are seeking to sort out
the situation quickly. We heard today that it has been a very profitable week so far, and the British Embassy has also
been helpful. But the matter is not yet resolved so we would very much appreciate your prayers.
Bako is the team language teacher in Mandritsara. She is also very involved in the children’s gospel work there.
Here is her latest news. She writes:
I would like to give you three prayer items:
1- Rain.
At present, Mandritsara, and in fact Madagascar as a whole, is in crisis due to lack of water. This drought brings fear
to the village people and uncertainty for their rice-growing this year. But it is also perturbing for daily life in town and
is worrying to us Christians. The last rain here was in late December. (January is normally the peak of the rainy
season).
Please pray for us Malagasy Christians because it is true that many Malagasy have not yet come to their Creator. The
verses which come to me are II Chronicles 7:12 -14 that God will heal our country if we Christians humble ourselves,
pray, if we turn away from evil and seek the grace of God.
2- Language teaching
I am grateful to God for his help and guidance. Even though I have been teaching Malagasy lessons for 8 years now
to help missionaries, I cannot say that I am experienced or proficient in my work. I have to call upon the help of God
every day whether I am strong or whether I am weak, whether the
students are gifted or not. There are times when I am very tired and
in the morning before leaving I pray a brief prayer "Lord help me to
do my work well today and may it be useful and a help to the
students." Please pray for my dependence on God for this mission
He entrusted to me.
Please pray for the missionaries for their learning of the Malagasy
language and their use of the language in their daily lives and daily
work.
This year I already have 5 fantastic new students (Drs Adrian
Delport, Xander Cary, and Tim Oliver and Peter and Dr Brigid
MacKenzie) and there are 2 more that are still coming (Drs Nathan
Adrian, Xander and Tim studying Malagasy Lawrence and Lesley Notghi).
Please pray that the Malagasy lessons will not be a burden, or just mental study, but that it will be a tool for their life
and ministry here.
3- Children’s ministry.
I would now like to share with you the blessings and the burdens of the ministry among the children in the church.
Saturday Bible Club teachers
(Bako 2nd from L, Vicky 2nd from R)
Little children’s class
Older children’s class
This year’s Saturday children's Bible club started this week and it will last 6 months as every year. We have about
130 children from 3 to 14 years old from different districts, schools and churches of Mandritsara. There are 11 of us
teachers. We are grateful to God who continues to uphold us. It is 14 years since God gave us the vision for this club
– to proclaim the Good News of Jesus and to build up Christian children in His Word (and ourselves too). In 2003 we
just had 15 children.
We thank God for the parents who send them and share the same conviction as we do according to II Tim 3:15.
“From infancy you have known the holy scriptures which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in
Christ Jesus.” The word of God is a very useful and effective way to train children. There are parents who travel to
bring and then collect their children every Saturday.
The Sunday school has two teams of teachers. Pastor Julien and his wife Claire and two other men organize the 20
classes for the children over 7 years. Two other ladies and I organize the 11 classes for the under 7’s. Claire and I meet
each Tuesday morning at the Sunday school office at the hospital to organize the pictures and photocopies of the
lessons. Looking after all these materials has been my responsibility since Jane left, but I am thankful now that Claire
can manage if I am away. Please pray for her though as she has many other responsibilities.
On Monday lunch times I am currently meeting up with two ladies to train them for teaching the younger children.
We are grateful for the many children and adults who come to Sunday school in Mandritsara or the surrounding
villages to hear the Word of God. We are still using the lessons that Jane prepared which she left for us. We are so
grateful for them. And I am glad to say that the photocopier is still working well. Teachers from Sunday schools in 5
villages around Mandritsara come in to meet with all of the Mandritsara teachers on Wednesday evenings to prepare
each week’s lesson together.
I ask you to pray for me with my various responsibilities. I am conscious that many things the Lord asks me to do in
the church are heavy. I have no choice at present, but I am trying to pass things on to others gradually. Please pray
that the Lord may uphold me, strengthen me and guide me and that I will serve Him with love and joy.
Thank you for your prayers. They are our encouragement and strength.
Matt Sherratt wrote this week: A word of thanks for your prayers for Eliette and Marcelline (the two ladies who
spent significant periods admitted with enterocolic fistulae and complex wounds). Eliette is one of our nurses;
Marcelline is the daughter of one of the ladies from the maintenance dept. Whilst they are not back to full health by
any stretch of the imagination, they have both made significant progress and are certainly out of immediate danger.
So we are very thankful to the Lord for helping us with these difficult cases. Please pray for continued improvement.
There have been a number of such challenging cases these past few months. They force us to our knees - with our
limited knowledge, limited investigative abilities, limited treatment options. And so as well as working in the lives of
these individuals and their families, these emotionally-draining patients prove to be a means of grace in our lives too.
Adrian, Xander and Tim have a blog (“Three men in Mandritsara”) at www.mandritsara.wordpress.com
They write: It’s great to see the beating heart of the hospital’s values in action: to share the good news of Jesus and
care for those in need as Jesus did. The work here is rewarding but also rather full-on. Many patients come to the
hospital having tracked on-foot through jungle and scrubland for days to find treatment. One elderly blind man had
walked for five days (hand-in-hand with his son) to reach the hospital. The level of care here is fantastic despite
running a very tight budget, though patients often arrive at the hospital too late and very sick. Overnight we each
take our turns on the general doctor rota – so we take the all-in-one role of junior doctor, senior doctor,
paediatrician, GP and A&E consultant! It has been fantastic to see some very sick adults and children make incredible
recoveries, but we have also seen some heart-wrenching times when all our best efforts were not enough.
Last weekend we followed the hospital evangelists as they embarked on a mini adventure to a remote village. We
bounced along dirt tracks and dried river beds to finally arrive at Antsirabe Centre. After a fried banana and a quick
lychee, we played a game of Simon Says with the local kids while the team fired up a film projector. The evangelist
delivered an enthusiastic proclamation of the Christian message before showing a film explaining Jesus’ life,
projected onto the whitewashed wall of a local house. The local people certainly seemed interested and over two
hundred people gathered to watch.
We really appreciate when people hold us in their thoughts and prayers.
We are very thankful for arriving here safely and receiving such generosity and a very warm welcome.
We need strength through long shifts, especially for days when there are a lot of deaths on the ward.
The three of us try to put God first in everything we do. Unfortunately, as selfish, proud men we often become too
focused on ourselves instead. We would like God to be the priority in our lives.
Peter and Brigid MacKenzie (accountant/doctor) closed their recent prayer letter with: Please pray for the Project
here, that whether people come here as patients, staff, volunteers or visitors, that they will leave with a better
knowledge of and a closer walk with Jesus Christ, who alone has the power to save much more than just their earthly
bodies. This is the goal of our lives whether we’re out in the Indian Ocean or back in the Highlands, and so we will
pray the same for you and hope you will for us.
Thank you for your prayers for these new workers and for all the team in Mandritsara.
With our love.
David & Jane
The next Mandritsara London Prayer Day at Trinity Road Chapel is booked for 22 April 2017.
Please see also the website where other prayer letters are displayed: www.mandritsara.org.uk
Though troubles assail us and dangers affright,
Though friends should all fail us and foes all unite,
Yet one thing secures us, whatever betide,
The promise assures us, The Lord will provide.
When Satan assails us to stop up our path,
And courage all fails us, we triumph by faith.
He cannot take from us, though oft he has tried,
This heart cheering promise, The Lord will provide.
The birds, without garner or storehouse, are fed;
From them let us learn to trust God for our bread.
His saints what is fitting shall ne’er be denied
So long as ’tis written, The Lord will provide.
He tells us we’re weak, our hope is in vain,
The good that we seek we never shall obtain,
But when such suggestions, our graces have tried,
This answers all questions, The Lord will provide.
We all may, like ships, by tempest be tossed
On perilous deeps, but cannot be lost;
Though Satan enrages the wind and the tide,
Yet Scripture engages, The Lord will provide.
No strength of our own and no goodness we claim;
Yet, since we have known of the Saviour’s great name,
In this our strong tower for safety we hide:
The Lord is our power, The Lord will provide.
His call we obey, like Abraham of old:
We know not the way, but faith makes bold;
For though we are strangers, we have a sure guide,
And trust in all dangers, The Lord will provide.
When life sinks apace, and death is in view,
The word of His grace shall comfort us through,
Not fearing or doubting, with Christ on our side,
We hope to die shouting, The Lord will provide.
John Newton