Stories
Berton is one of the hospital evangelists. He has been leading a team who is involved in church planting in a town called Mananara on the East coast of Madagascar. It is a materially wealthy town compared to Mandritsara due to the booming vanilla trade. However, the spiritual need of the area has been keenly felt by the project leadership for some years now.
We were not prepared for leaving Mandritsara and Madagascar to be so difficult. I think it is fair to say that much thought and preparation goes into cross-cultural service; much less goes into home-country re-entry. And so well over a year after having left Madagascar, we feel we are still in the transition state.
Bako has been the Malagasy language teacher for the missionaries in Mandritsara for many years. She’s suffered two retinal detachments and after much prayer and seeking a way, she was able to travel to Kenya on 7 January to see a retina surgeon in Nairobi.
There has been some rain in Mandritsara and the Mangarahara River is flowing again, though a lot more is still needed for a good rice harvest. There is also good news of a trickle of new workers coming to Mandritsara again after a long period of lockdown and almost no international traffic into the country. Most of this letter will tell you about new workers, but first we want to ask you to pray for Bako.
Time will tell whether the pandemic is really over in Madagascar. The team have been very conscious of God’s protection thus far. They are now of course in the hot, summer season – very different from the northern hemisphere. Please pray for the Lord’s continued wisdom especially for Nathan and for the project committee.
Thank you so much to everyone who’s been joining us in prayer for the hospital’s coronavirus response and the work of the red zone team over the last few months. Please continue to pray for us.
In October 1993, the Good News Hospital signed a contract with a building company from Antananarivo for the construction of the first phase of the hospital. At that point only a third of the funds needed for the construction were in hand. “What will you do if the funds don’t come in?” people asked. “Pray.” Was the reply. “We have no other source of funds. God is our only resource.”
Despite the numbers of reported cases and deaths being relatively low compared with many places, the impact of this pandemic has certainly been felt across the nation, in the hospital here and in our lives. We pray that God would continue to show mercy to this nation and its people, for protection from COVID-19 and for the light of the gospel to shine through during this time.
We are sad, but not without hope, in sharing the news that a dear friend and brother, hospital evangelist Alfred Ndrenasoa, died last week.
