(with thanks to Berthon, hospital evangelist, for all the details)
2 Corinthians 5:20 “We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors…”
Mananara – a hot and isolated place.
Mananara is a town slightly larger than Mandritsara lying on the east coast of the “Great Island,” some 70 miles from the Good News Hospital. It is hot and humid there and it rains almost the whole year around. It is a hard place to get to, and is separated from Mandritsara by an escarpment covered by dense rain forest and several rivers. There is no road from Mandritsara – if you wanted to drive, it would be almost a thousand miles, travelling through Antananarivo, and the last 70 miles is one of the worst roads in Madagascar (and that is saying something!) Other options are boat or plane – but there are no scheduled flights, only private planes like MAF.
Mananara - the coast
Mananara – an attractive place
The region is more prosperous than Mandritsara, due to cloves, vanilla, lychees and fish, and seasonal workers come from as far as Mandritsara to work on vanilla production etc. But the cost of living is very high due to the cost of transporting basic goods.
Vanilla drying in the sun
Mananara – a needy place
Most people follow traditional Malagasy religious practices, but there are also many Muslims and quite a few mosques. There are also Catholic, Protestant, Seventh Day Adventist and “Jesus Saves” (charismatic evangelical) churches, but there is a huge need for the clear preaching of the gospel and the establishing of churches founded securely on the Word of God. Mananara is good soil for the Good News!
Berthon preaching to patients
Many patients from Mananara come to the Good News Hospital in Mandritsara because it is their closest main hospital. The trip passes through beautiful rain forest, but for those who are sick or blind, the forest is not a “sight for sore eyes” but something to be endured – three or four days on foot for the strong, three or four days being carried on a stretcher by four people for the weak, or 18 hours of hazards on the back of a motor-bike for the brave.
Eye Team with MAF in Mananara 2017
Dr Hanitra operating in Mananara
Mananara – an opportunity for the eye team
Mananara has a basic hospital but no specialist eye surgeon. So, about 20 years ago, Dr Hanitra, the Good News Hospital eye surgeon, and Dr David Mann, made a day visit to Mananara by MAF plane (only 25 minutes by air!), to meet the Mananara hospital staff, and local government officials, in order to explore the possibility of Dr Hanitra visiting regularly to see eye patients and do eye surgery.
The door swung open wide and from then on Dr Hanitra started visiting the government hospital with a small team several times a year from Monday to Friday to do eye consultations, prescribe spectacles, and operate on patients with cataracts. Many hundreds of people have had their sight restored during that time.
Dr Hanitra and her patients
Mananara – a gospel opportunity
The vision of the Good News Hospital is not only to show God’s love by bringing medical care to the needy, but even more importantly, to proclaim the saving message of the gospel with the aim of planting gospel churches in the Mandritsara area, and in the “Regions Beyond.” The eye work in Mananara fits exactly into that vision. From the very beginning of the visits, one of the hospital evangelists has accompanied the medical team and focussed on speaking to patients and their families about the message of eternal salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ and His sacrificial death at Calvary.
Mananara Bible Baptist Church outside their rented building
The evangelists also started going door to door in Mananara town to share the gospel message, and very soon a small, rather fragile, cell group was formed. The evangelism team then started spending two or three weeks in Mananara, three times a year, and began to see people coming to trust in the Lord Jesus. In 2019, ten new believers were baptised and a formally constituted cell group with a leader, the director of a local primary school, was established. The group of believers grew rapidly at first and soon 40 to 60 believers and people interested in the gospel came to church each Sunday.
However, the period of Covid was difficult, the little flock was not well supported, and the number of the faithful diminished to 15 to 20 people, which is the current situation. Now the director of the primary school has announced that due to his professional obligations he is unable to commit to continuing to lead the group.
A much needed days teaching on Marriage from Genesis 2 and Ephesians 5.
Mananara – the current need
The big need, therefore, is for long-term, mature, Bible-based leadership. Now, God-willing, it seems that such a man may have been found. Zaki-Simon is a young man from Vatomandry, a small town on the coast some 300 miles south of Mananara. Like Mananara, it is also a centre of the Betsimisaraka people. Zaki-Simon finished his studies at the Baptist seminary in Antsirabe in 2022, and, with his wife and children, has expressed a willingness to serve in Mananara. The plan is for him to visit Mananara with the evangelism team in December in order to get to know the town and the church. There is another young man, Fré-Jean from Mandritsara, who is also keen to go there. He is the son of the late Alfred Ndrenasoa who was a hospital evangelist at the Good News Hospital, and made many visits to Mananara with the eye team. So, Fré-Jean might follow in his father’s footsteps. He is particularly gifted in teaching children and young people.
Please pray for Mananara!
Evening in Mananara
Prayer points
Praise the Lord for the open door in Mananara and for all that has been done in His Name over the past 20 years.
Pray for Dr Hanitra and the eye team that God will continue to bless their ministry there.
Pray for MAF and for safety for the flights to and from Mananara.
Pray for Zaki-Simon and his family, and for Fré-Jean, that God would confirm His call to them and open the way for them to move to Mananara and be supported there.
Pray that souls would be saved, Christians be strengthened in their faith, and that the Lord would build His church in Mananara.
Virtual Prayer Day
November 30th from 13:00-15:00 join us on Zoom as we continue to pray for the work our Lord is doing in Mandritsara and Madagascar. Sign up to our mailing list to receive the meeting invite in the upcoming week.