This year sees the 90th anniversary of the Association of Bible Baptist Churches of Madagascar. This of course is the association of churches who oversee the ministry of the Good News Project in Mandritsara.
Many of you will know some of the history of how this association of churches came to be, by God’s grace. However some will not...
The Bible Mission of Madagascar (as it was formerly known) began when a missionary couple from Aberdare, South Wales heard the call of God to take the gospel to this far off island. Brinley Evans and his wife arrived in Madagascar in 1932; and the first Baptist church was built in the Ankadivato district of the capital Antananarivo three years later.
This one church ninety years ago had become an association of Bible Baptist Churches numbering fifty five churches by 2006, growing to three hundred and twenty churches and almost nine thousand members by 2016. No doubt those numbers have further grown in these last six years through the favour and kindness of our God!
Pastor David Ratovo who has been such a blessing to both the association and the project in Mandritsara has kindly sent an update. He writes that this year’s celebrations, whilst year long, will centre on a convention that will run from 30th August until 4th September in Antananarivo. Psalm 90 will be the Scriptural heartbeat of their time together; and this will be an opportunity chiefly to praise and glorify the Lord, but also to reconfirm and commit to their association’s confession of faith, to publish a revised history of the association (the last one presented at the 50th anniversary), and publish some ‘tools of edification’ following on from this convention – to be used by local churches.
“LORD, You have been for us our dwelling place throughout all generations”
David asks us to pray for this time to be one of worship to the eternal God, an opportunity to remember the transitory nature of life and what lies ahead, and that it will be a time of spiritual refreshment ahead of the work He has for the believers there and the churches they represent, to do in the years ahead.
For those of you reading on the website, below you will find a recording of a song composed by our dear friend and colleague Andry from the Community Health team. For those of you reading via email, you can listed to it by following this link to the convention song and scrolling down to the audio player.
For those whose Malagasy is a bit rusty, it is a meditation on this opening verse from Psalm 90. May it be a blessing to you as you listen.
So on behalf of all of us who will be reading this and praying for our brothers and sisters in Madagascar, let me say, ‘Tratra ny Taona!’ and let’s join with them in giving all the praise and thanksgiving to Him who is our Chief Shepherd – from whom and through whom and to whom be always the glory!
Perhaps we could commit to praying for the association especially during these days of the convention 30th August to 4th September (put it in your prayer diaries!)
May our God of all nations continue to take this association of churches from grace-given strength to strength, and further extend His kingdom on that island through their lives and ministry – to the eternal good of increasingly more Malagasy people, and to the glory of His Name.