“And what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.”
One of the signs of gospel life is when God raises up faithful servants with a burden to share the gospel and teach the Bible to others.
Mr Radesana was one of the first members of the Mandritsara Bible Baptist Church. In 1991 he was living in Mandritsara and attended the Roman Catholic church. But he was not at peace in his heart. One Sunday after mass, as he came out of church, he said to the priest: “I’m seeking God, but I haven’t found Him.” The priest told him to take mass, and when he told the priest that he had just done so, the priest urged him to go to the next service and take mass again. But Radesana was not satisfied.
A few days later, as he was walking through the town, he saw a new notice on the side of a small building which read “Bible Baptist Church.” He was struck by the word “Bible” because in his heart he felt that the answer to his quest for God was in the Bible. So the next Sunday he was in the little congregation, and it was not long before he and his wife were both wonderfully converted.
When the first missionaries arrived to start the Good News Hospital a year or so later, he began to work in the project as a labourer and nightwatchman. When the hospital opened he was appointed as the first hospital evangelist. He also had a vision for bringing the gospel to the villages around Mandritsara and spent many weekends visiting villages to preach and teach the Bible. One of the villages was his own native village of Ambodilengo, 5 miles from Mandritsara. One Saturday he took a visiting building team from Belgium to play an international football match there. Belgium v Ambodilengo! During half-time, Radesana preached the gospel to players and supporters. This was the start of the Ambodilengo Bible Baptist church.
One of the young people of the village was a boy called Berton. Through the faithful witness of Radesana and his wife, and through contact with the Good News Hospital, Berton came to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ in the year 2000. Berton calls the Radesanas his spiritual parents. Berton moved to Mandritsara to complete his schooling, and then worked as part of the hospital Community Health team. He was very active in the church and became a gifted and enthusiastic Sunday school teacher.
Berton then went to Antsirabe, south of Antananarivo, to study at the Bible Baptist Seminary. When he returned to Mandritsara he was appointed to the team of hospital evangelists, of whom there are now three. Berton has replaced his spiritual father, Radesana, who has gone to glory.
In addition to their evangelism in the hospital, the evangelists go out to the villages with the Community Health team. This brings them into contact with the cell groups and small churches in the villages, and has given Berton a burden to help the leaders of these groups by sharing some of what he learnt in seminary.
Many of the leaders have benefited from the CITAF (Council of Theological Institutions of Francophone Africa) Bible training course run by the church in Mandritsara for two months a year over several years. But there are some who have not been able to attend this yet, and others who are new. So, recently, Berton, together with Diamondra (head of the Voice of the Good News radio station), and Issidore (another of the hospital evangelists) organised 5 days of Bible teaching at the hospital for new leaders of village churches and various others in order to prepare them for the next CITAF training.
23 leaders took part, 12 from the Maroantsetra district, north of Mandritsara, and the others from villages to the east, west, and south. 3 were ladies who are Sunday school teachers.
The participants brought their own rice, maize and peanuts and the hospital provided soup.
Here is a short video of Berton asking one of the students, Emmanuel, something about the course.
Praise God for His work in bringing the Good News of Jesus to folk in these remote villages.
Pray for these leaders that the Lord would help them in their isolated situations to teach the Word of God faithfully and lead the cell groups in the Lord’s ways, though they are surrounded by idolatry and ancestor worship.
Pray for Berton that God may keep him close to Himself and continue to use him both in the hospital and the community.