Among the Malagasy People of Madagascar
Go ... and make disciples of all nations
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Among the Malagasy People of Madagascar Go ... and make disciples of all nations |
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| Volume 15, Number 7 | July 2001 |
| The Barry Rosie family have worked on the mission field in Africa for more than 15 years under the oversight of the: |
Church of Christ c/o Phillip Young 140 C.R. 170 Corinth, MS 38834 |
Don Farris - 601-287-2548 Eugene Holland - 601-287-1721 Leroy Reed - 601-287-2556 |
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Why are the Malagasy people so concerned about the bones of their ancestors? Like the people in Kenya, many of the Malagasy people are afraid of the spirits of the dead. There are always stories being told about ghosts, phantoms or spirits of the dead returning to this life and haunting the living. (One of those stories is written in the Miniature Missionaries section of the newsletter this month.) During the exhumation the workers were very careful to be sure that no bones of their ancestor were left behind. The dirt of the grave was sifted thoroughly and much of the dirt was even placed in the burial cloth that was provided. Several teeth, a couple of the leg bones and part of the skull were found, along with several tattered pieces of clothing and a toy plastic baby bottle that was about 4 inches in length. All of these items were placed in the burial cloth, bound tightly with pieces of the burial cloth and then placed down into the wooden coffin that had been made just a few minutes before by some of the workers.   |
| Did You Know. . .
. . . that I was finally able to check out the price of solar eclipse glasses here in Madagascar? As I said before the reported price was 250,000 Malagasy Francs or about $38 per pair. Well, it pays to check things out. The pharmacies were selling the glasses for only 2,500 Malagasy Francs. Or, about $.38 per pair. Quite a difference. I guess the first price was for the Vahiny (White people) and the second price was for the Malagasy people. It is a good thing the glasses were not sold on the street. The prices would have been highly inflated. All things said and done, I bought four pair ($1.52, big spender) of glasses for our family. The afternoon of June 21st arrived, and we were all ready with books to read and glasses to wear for watching the eclipse. God blessed us with a fairly cloud free day in the Antananarivo area. Which is more that I can say for the people that traveled south in Madagascar to be able to view the total eclipse. Here in the Antananarivo area we did not see the total eclipse, but about 90% with the sun setting to quickly and showing in a crescent shape at the bottom of the moon. It was the first time in my life that I actually sat down and viewed an eclipse from beginning to end. It is amazing to be able to see God in action and know that his timing is so precise that we can know exactly when an eclipse is going to take place. God’s power and care is truly shown in His creation of the universe. |
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In just a couple of days the first 3-month extension for the Rosie family visas will expire. This is not an alarming situation. We have been through this scenario before. I will have to go the government offices and request another 3-month extension. The government workers will look in their book to see if the visa paperwork has reached their office. Upon finding that they have no record of our paperwork they will make out a new extension paper for Stacy and I. This process will only take about ten minutes. In the meantime, we are still waiting on one of the other government offices to finish their work and pass the papers on to the next office. Maybe by the end of this year we will finally receive new visas for two years. These new visas will be post dated back to March 31, 2001, which is the date of expiration of our last visas. What does this mean? It means that I will only have about one year before I need to start the whole renewal process over once again. Once the new visas are stamped into our passports, I will start another process. This other process is to make application for a government identity card that all people (Malagasy and Foreigners) in Madagascar are required to carry with them when they travel about the country. The cost to the Malagasy people is nominal, but for the foreigners it is exorbitant. These identity cards are what cost us over $700.00 per adult back in 1999. Change of Plans for Lorrie Myers
Telephone number
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| What
can you do?
You can pray!
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| Miniature Missionaries
(A few of you have seen this miniature missionary discussion in e-mail letters that Stacy has written. I thought it was good, so I have copied the text into the Miniature Missionaries section of the newsletter for this month so that those that did not receive Stacy’s e-mail letter can enjoy the discussion of the miniature missionaries.) Several funny and strange things have happened. It started on Monday evening. There was a truck accident not far from our home that killed three people and took out three electric poles and the electricity in our whole quarter of the city. It was several hours before they got things up and running again. I'm surprised that they managed it so quickly in the dark and with three fatalities and one critical injury. The next morning you would have never known there was an accident in that spot; they had things cleaned up sooo well. The strange thing is that everyone around here swears that the accident happened in the first place because there was a ghost in the rice field adjacent to the road. Who made the report on seeing the ghost when three of the people died immediately and the fourth was unconscious, I have no idea, but rumors are flying. That brings me to the second funny thing this week. It involved the two miniature missionaries and some sword play. Not sword play in terms of weapons but sword play in terms of the Word of God. It was Wednesday afternoon. We were on our way home from Wednesday Afternoon Children's Bible Activities that we hold at the center every Wednesday. Kit and Havilah were with me and so was a friend of theirs, 15 years old, and a student of ours at the center. He's been very troubled by what he has heard us teaching lately because it is so opposite of what he's been taught all his life. He's had lots of questions and Kit and Havilah have fielded most of them coming to me when they can't answer a question. Of course, the subject of the afternoon was ghosts. I have to give those two miniature missionaries credit. When Claude first brought the subject up, Kit and Havilah began with the story of Lazarus and the rich man, pointing out that God did not allow the rich man or Abraham to cross back into the land of the living. In very good Malagasy terms they pointed out that the Bible states that God fixed a gap between the dead and the living. Claude didn't buy that one. He immediately tried to use Jesus as an example saying that when he appeared to the disciples after his death that he was a ghost (actually, Claude was using the term phantom). Kit's voice got a little louder and his words a bit faster but he continued to use scripture to point out that even Jesus accused the disciples of that false belief himself inviting them to touch his real living body. Havilah was also quick on the draw. She pointed out that he asked for a fish and ate it in front of them. She was so cute. If he was a phantom and he ate that fish then it would have fallen right out of his belly she stated unequivocally. And then she pointed out that he ate the fish to prove to the disciples that he was not a ghost. Claude didn't buy that one either. Let's see, where did the conversation go next. . . I can't think just now, but after more than 40 minutes of the miniature missionaries using their swords to refute Claude's belief it came right back to Lazarus and the rich man with Claude still not believing. Kit was speaking fast and furiously now and both Claude and I were trying to slow him down. He was determined to make his point. Finally in exasperation, he threw up his hands, closed his eyes, heaved a huge sigh and said, "Ok. Ok. That's enough. If you are not going to believe God's word then you are not going to believe the most important thing in your life but I'll tell you one thing, Claude, tonight you will go to bed and toss and turn and maybe not sleep because you are afraid of ghosts. Your whole life will be lived in fear because you believe in ghosts, but me, I will go to bed tonight and sleep well because I put my faith in God's words." With that he got quiet and the discussion stopped. I was so proud of Kit I almost shouted, "Bravo!" His arguments were just so good and to the point and that child can use his bible. |
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B.P. 7554 Antananarivo 101 Madagascar Tel. 011-261-32-02-081-14 http:\\www.madagascar-mission.org |
We welcome you to join us in this work for Him . . .