The first sentence of this scripture doesn’t fit this husband of mine.  No one calls him Lord.  The second sentence doesn’t fit much either.  He has never tried to rebuke the wind and the waves.  Sometimes he can’t get his own children to listen to him when he rebukes them.  Most times, the Malagasy won’t listen to him either.  He gives an order at the Betikara building site for a door to be hung a certain way and comes back to find they did it their own way anyway.  He asks them to coat rafters with used motor oil while the rafters lay on the ground to keep the oil from dripping onto those freshly raised beautiful hewn stone walls, and finds that they insisted on raising them first, painting them with motor oil afterwards, and then spend hours chipping little oil stains and drips out of the stones.  He begs off being the guest of honor at a Sunday afternoon soccer game because he already teaches three different Bible studies on Sunday, only to find out that the mayor expects and insists that he co-attend the ball games.  He tries every day with everything that is within him to convince these men of their need for Christ, but most of the time his words fall on deaf ears. 
          The third sentence of this scripture, however, has come to fit my husband indeed this last month.  “The men were amazed and asked, ’What kind of man is this?’”  It happened on a normal weekday morning just after morning break and Bible study with the workers.  The men were working away, Barry right beside them, when they heard a scream from the lake that borders the bottom of the Betikara land.  A man had fallen out of a lakana (Malagasy style flat-bottomed boat), hit his head on the side of the boat, and then sank beneath the surface.  It was his wife who had screamed.  More than one hundred people came running from different directions.  When the wife realized that she could not even see her husband, let alone get him back into the boat, she rowed off for help.  It was a good thirty minutes before the man was found and brought to shore.  Barry knew the futility of the effort.  Nevertheless, he went right to work without a second thought, laying the man on his stomach and attempting to push water out of his lungs.  He turned him over, began mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and CPR while the entire neighborhood, the man’s wife and children included, looked on.  I was not there, but the story has been repeated to me several times in the last month by several different people.  Each time I listened to the story, I heard the teller saying that all those Malagasy people just stood and watched while Barry did his thing.
          It didn’t work.  The man died.  Barry cannot breathe life into a dead man.  He cannot command the wind and the waves.  But!  He did try.  For several days after the incident I worried.  There are so many taboos in this culture.  I wondered what those Malagasy people must have been thinking as Barry attempted to save the man with mouth-to-mouth and CPR.  I wondered how many taboos Barry had broken.  I worried about the effect Barry’s efforts might have on the work for Christ he had been doing in that area.  I worried that breaking one of their numerous taboos might endanger our future in this country.
          I didn’t have to worry long.  The story has been repeated to me many times over.  The community still buzzes with it several weeks later and they are all amazed and they are all asking, “What kind of man is this?”  They are not asking, “What kind of man is this that the wind and waves obey him?”  They are not asking, “What kind of man is this that he can breathe life into a dead man?”  Oh no, it’s not as grand and glorious as the miracles that Jesus did, but it is a miracle of God to use my husband to move a people to listen to the words His Son also preached.  They Malagasy people are amazed and they are asking, “What kind of vazaha (white man) is this that he would do this for us?  What kind of a man is this that he would get down on his knees and try to breathe life into a Malagasy mouth while we stand and look on?  What kind of a man is this that wants to do so much to serve us?” 
          These people were looking for a miracle worker and what they found instead was a servant.  Isn’t that exactly what Jesus was trying to get across as he walked on this earth?  Barry didn’t change in those few minutes when he decided to try to revive the man.  I am witness.  Barry has been a servant for more years than I have known him.  He lives his life only wanting to serve others and shuns any sort of fanfare.  He doesn’t want to be singled out.  He doesn’t even enjoy standing up in front of a crowd.  He didn’t want to do a miracle.  He only wanted to serve.  He doesn’t want the people to glorify him.  He only wants them to listen to God’s words and he uses servant hood to get their attention.  Guess what!  They are listening. 
          Suddenly they are noticing that the big boss of this Betikara project works right beside them, getting dirty just like they do, moving dirt, hauling heavy rocks, climbing rickety ladders, listening to their problems, praying with them, and teaching about a serving Savior in a hundred little practical lessons.   Suddenly they recall how this vazaha (white man) insisted on x-rays, antibiotics, and a tetanus shot for one of his workers whose windpipe was pierced by a flying chip of stone even when the Malagasy doctors had given up on him and made not a single effort to treat him.  They remember how this vazaha (white man, and not one of their own) insisted on prayers for the man instead of sacrificing a cow to appease dead ancestors even when they themselves were doubtful, and they remember how quickly the injured worker recovered and was back to work. 
          The men were amazed and asked, “What kind of man is this that he wants to do so much to serve us?”  And, they are listening. . .

Satria Velona Izy (Because He Lives)
          It’s the name of the teaching paper we put out each month in the Malagasy language.  We mail out over 500 copies to World Bible School correspondence students here in the city of Antananarivo.  Several others are mailed out to students in cities scattered throughout Madagascar.  Another packet of 50 of these teaching papers is mailed to the port city of Majunga and are distributed by a local radio station there.  More than 100 copies of the teaching paper are distributed by hand in the three different congregations and to people who visit the Centre d’Etude Biblique in the course of the month.  Rivo writes the articles.  John Ratovohery proofreads the copy.  Barry formats and prints.  Rivo makes 600 copies of the teaching paper.  Barry prints addresses on each copy for mail out, and whoever we can rope in to fold, staple, and stamp gets stuck with that job.  Cost of paper, toner and ink is $38.68, and cost of postage is $47.30, making a total cost of $85.98 per month to continue mailing out these teaching papers.  We’ve been mailing out these papers since 1997.  Often times we have asked ourselves if it is worth the money or the time put into them.  Just this last month, we have seriously considered discontinuing the program.  God evidently doesn’t want us to stop, for just about as soon as we began discussing discontinuation, five recipients of the monthly teaching paper came to the Centre d’Etude Biblique two weeks ago from more than twenty miles out of town requesting further teaching and baptism.  These folks had been reading the papers and searching their Scriptures for the past six years.  So, we welcome five new souls into the Kingdom with much joy, and we now have a contact for a new congregation in the future.  We’ve decided not to discontinue Satria Velona Izy.

• Pray that the Malagasy people can have their eyes opened to the ways of God and accept His love and care instead of the traditions that they are continually chained to here in Madagascar.
• Pray that we can be good examples of servants that are willing to share in the everyday lives of the Malagasy people.
• Pray for the family of the man who died this past month, that they will give there lives in service to Him.
• Pray for Brandy Walker as she prepares for her arrival in Madagascar in mid August.  Pray that she may be ready both physically and spiritually for the work that awaits her.  Pray also that she can find new ways of serving the Master.