Arrival update

Time has flown and a month has passed. We are very grateful to have Wifi up and running after a long wait. Although we have lived here (Toliara, Madagascar) before, you forget the hard, little details that can be so frustrating. Since arriving we have struggled with the feeling of being in a familiar setting but still needing to adapt again to our surroundings. A perfect example of this would be when we went out the Monday after Passover to outfit our house. Everything place we went was closed. As we should have remembered, the day after Passover is a big celebration day here and no one goes to work. It’s little things like that reminding us that we may know this place but we’re still going to have to adjust again.

Everything is familiar and everything is different. We are here as a family this time. We’ve already had the opportunity to go out to the bush together. It was tough. Having a child out there is much harder than we realized and it definitely keeps us from doing as much as we would like. Of course where it shuts some doors, going as a family is a blessing that opens other doors. We’re looking forward to going out again for a longer stay in July.

But speaking of the bush and how everything is the same but different—we are, no doubt, in a different stage of ministry than we anticipated. We’ll speak more about it in another post, but God, in his awesome faithfulness, is doing incredible things among the Mahafaly and the island of Madagascar as a whole. When Tessa and I left in 2013 there were 3 churches. Now there are close to 200 churches! Those first churches faithfully shared with their friends and neighbors and planted other churches, who also continued to share the gospel and plant other churches. And the gospel has just continued to spread and the churches to multiply. It is so exciting to see God at work! And in his goodness God has allowed us to come in and be a part of that at this time.

So please pray that . . .

• We would adjust well as a family living here (and hand over our expectations).
• The gospel would continue to spread and the churches to multiply.
• That God would tread down the enemies to this incredible change and strengthen the leaders of this movement.