Betikara February 2005

Helping needy Malagasy kids to become

Jesus’ kids!

February 2005 Volume 8, Number 2

"A generous man will himself be blessed, for he shares his food with the poor." Proverbs 22:9

A Month of This and That Most Important
If you are on the Betikara mailing list, you already know that we had a terrific scare this month when Arnaud came up missing one morning. He was escorted to school and left in the care of school officials. If Rivo hadn’t gone to the school to ask about a note sent home with Arnaud, we would never have known until evening that he was missing. As it was, we went to the police immediately and found Arnaud twenty four hours later. He had run away. We were relieved that he wasn’t kidnapped, but we were sad at his running. He is the first lamb to do such a thing. He said he missed his mom too much and he went back to her. However, we didn’t find him anywhere near his mother’s house.
He and Valerie are both with their mother now. She wants them to stay at Betikara realizing that she cannot take proper care of them. Arnaud is insistent that he will stay with her. Valerie likes Betikara but refuses to return without her brother.
We are ceaseless in prayers for these two children as their lives take a big turn and change, and as their mother makes some very difficult decisions. We wait and hope for their return to Betikara.
This running away stunt has caused a breach in relations between Betikara and the local school. They were responsible for Arnaud’s safety when he slipped away from them and when we reported it to the police because we wanted desperately to find Arnaud, the school saw it as a complaint against them. And, in the course of filing police reports, the government has accused Betikara of being improperly registered with certain government offices. This is perhaps a ploy for a bribe since Betikara has followed every government rule since its opening. It has, however, created a multitude of new paperwork, as we strive to please the government and the local schools.

Christmas Gifts still coming in
Betikara must be the most blessed. Our Christmas begins end of November when a few very organized supporters have sent and we have already received some Christmas fun. The blessing stretches over December, into the new year, and in February the cheer continues coming in strong. We’ve received thirteen more Christmas gifts for the lambs throughout January and into the first week of February. AND! I still know of a few more that are on the way. Thank you all so much for blessing the lambs so richly.

Local Support
It has been our hope over the years that we could get local businesses involved in the support of the Betikara lambs, but to date we have never been able to pull it off. Betikara is totally supported from the outside, as far away as the US, Europe, and Australia. We do have two hopeful avenues of local interest. Last week, we were approached by the small, new, struggling to gain readers English newspaper with a request for an interview. We will gladly comply doing as we always do, telling folks what we are doing at Betikara and praying that they will catch the spirit. The American School of Antananarivo has also recently gotten involved. They’ve donated a month’s worth of rice for the lambs, a year’s worth of cooking oil, and a mound of dried beans as they try to teach the privileged children who attend that very expensive school that there are those out there who are less blessed and who need help. We thank them for caring and for teaching children how to serve others.

Lightening Strikes in the very real sense of the word. We had a torrential rainstorm the other night. Our home as well as the Betikara home was without electricity for more than four hours. When the lights came back on, the lambs found themselves without water. Lightening struck and blew apart a breaker. We thank God that the pump didn’t also bite the dust. It was a fairly easy fix. Barry found an even better, more protective breaker, and had them up and running by noon the next day.

A Promise But Still No Rice
Betikara has a friend who has direct contact with USAID and their food relief program in this country. You may remember that we wrote a long proposal and qualified for free rice from USAID and WFP (World Food Program) back before Christmas. Our friend is persistent. He has wrangled with those relief agencies and the Malagasy government for many months. The promise is always that we will receive rice tomorrow. It’s been three months of tomorrows and still they promise. Our friend is getting embarrassed to come and tell us there is still no rice. He promises us one more sack (a weeks worth of grace) on Monday morning and a steady supply soon. We are so grateful to that friend and he need not be embarrassed. He has struggled mightily for Malagasy homeless children in the face of a very difficult situation. We pray God’s blessings on his continued efforts, and we know that in the end, God will provide exactly what we need whether the relief agencies or the government cooperates or not.

Please pray for us for a very special need.
You have heard us complain about this one many times. The public school system in Madagascar is sorely lacking. We want to provide the orphans with more than they can possibly get in the public schools here. Betikara is searching for a teacher trained in the Malagasy system to work full time for the orphanage providing an afternoon study program for the children who now only attend school for half a day. Properly trained teachers and teachers who really care are a rare commodity in this country. We are sure we will find the proper person because we are praying. We ask you to add your prayers to ours so the children will have the blessing of a full day program soon. Thank you.

EXPENDITURES
Rent	$ 0.00
Food	291.11
Education	34.43
Clothing	0.00
Misc.	34.11
Health Care	251.98
Care Giver_____	298.89

Total expenses	$ 910.52

If you would like to help with a monetary donation, write your check out to BETIKARA and send it to:

Indiana Church of Christ
225 East Pike Rd.
Indiana, PA 15701

“He who is kind to the poor lends to the LORD, and he will reward him for what he has done.”
Proverbs 19:17

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