Among the Malagasy People of Madagascar
Go ... and make disciples of all nations
|
Among the Malagasy People of Madagascar Go ... and make disciples of all nations |
|
| Volume 18, Number 9 | September 2003 |
| The Barry Rosie family have worked on the mission field in Africa for more than 17 years under the oversight of the: |
Church of Christ c/o Phillip Young 140 C.R. 170 Corinth, MS 38834 |
Don Farris - 662-287-2548 Eugene Holland - 662-287-1721 Leroy Reed - 662-287-2556 |
|
I parked at the edge of the village and we walked a very short distance to their house, which sits in the center of the village, a stone’s throw from the community water pump. Their house is a two room stacked brick (no mortar) home with a grass roof, no window glass, no electricity and no running water. I had to duck my head to get through the front door and into the main room. I felt like I had just stepped into the home in Kenya where Havilah was born. It was fairly dark inside. It was a cool day and they had the wooden window shutters closed. A little row of homemade kerosene lanterns made out of old tin cans stood on a window ledge. The inside walls of the house were coated with mud. A rickety table and a few equally rickety stools stood in the center of the room. Germaine and the baby lay on top of a straw-filled sack on a raw wooden bed frame in one corner of the room. The very blankets that covered them were identical to the blankets we often saw in Kenya. In front of me was a small doorway leading into a five foot by eight-foot bare bedroom where presumably the children slept on the floor. Behind me, out the front door, was a little cubbyhole of a porch with a charcoal burner and a cook pot sitting leaned in one corner and where the walls were soot covered from daily cooking. Above my head not more than a foot was the straw roof with years of accumulation of spider webs. All sixteen of us surrounded Germaine’s bed. Germaine was smiling broadly. We exchanged pleasantries, admired the baby, presented Germaine with several little gifts, and then prayed for her. She assured us that she would be back to church as soon as she got her strength back. Germaine is older than me. Her hair sports quite a bit more gray than mine does. She already had seven children before the arrival of this new little bundle, but she would be back to church (almost ten kilometers away) just as soon as she got her strength back. We filed out of the house and Anton escorted us back to the car, thanking us and affirming that Germaine would be back to her family in Christ soon. He began to tell of the circumstances of the birth as we strolled along. The more he told, the more I began to wonder how he knew so many of the details of the birth and could describe them so vividly. We reached the vehicle and were standing listening to Anton as he continued to talk about the birth. I watched Anton as he spoke. He’s a small man, extremely skinny, has gray hair, a few of his front teeth are missing, he was wearing the tattered pants and dusty shirt that I usually see him in, his feet were bare, and propped on his head was a hat that defies description and which I have never seen him without. I was dying to ask how he could possibly know so much about the delivery but was saved from embarrassment by Vololona, who stood next to me and asked the question instead, “How do you know so much about the delivery?” “Because I delivered the baby. I’ve delivered all eight of my children, and I deliver all the children in this village,” he replied with nonchalance. It was then he caught sight of my face and burst into a loud guffaw. “I’ve surprised Stacy,” he laughed. And you can bet he did! Anton makes a living by breaking rocks for the new Betikara home and he delivers babies on the side. It’s been more than eighteen years that we have been on the mission field, and sometimes I still feel like I’m on another planet and I wonder how in the world I ever got here.
|
| Did You Know. . .
that it is extremely expensive to live in Madagascar? Last week while in a grocery store, I picked a single bath towel off a rack. The towel cost $42.00. I put it back on the rack. Bed sheets are more than $150.00 a set. Sandy, our volunteer, found a pair of shoes this month that cost $1500.00. Needless to say, she didn’t buy them. We pay $5.00 for a small jar of peanut butter, $4.00 + for a gallon of milk, and $4.00 for a pound of pork chops. It’s an extremely expensive country to live in. This month, Madagascar’s new president, Marc Ravalomanana, declared a cessation of value added tax for certain office items, vehicles, school supplies, and building materials beginning in the month of September. He did it as a gesture of thanks to the many countries giving donations to help Madagascar out of its extreme poverty and as a jumpstart method to get his country rolling economically after years of socialism. We’ve heard about these kinds of promises before and have never seen the result of them. The president drops a value added tax and the businessmen keep the prices up in order to make greater profit. The average buyer gets no relief at all. We have been shopping for a new copy machine. Ours is more than 14 years old and has run under poor electric conditions as well as on a generator over the years. When shown prices for a new machine, we inquired about the president’s decision. The saleswoman was unsure if we would qualify for the reduction. We are Americans, working in this country but getting 100% of our support from the outside. We run an orphanage, supporting 19 Malagasy children on funds received totally from without. We work with four different congregations, as well as teaching in numerous preaching points, all of whom receive much more support from the outside than the local people can generate themselves. We print and hand out more than 600 Bible teaching papers each month. We teach both Bible and English free to anyone willing to listen. The saleswoman doesn’t know if we will qualify for the value added tax reduction. She advises us to wait until September. We’ll wait and see, but our hopes aren’t very high that the price of the new machine will come down. |
|
We don’t say it often enough and we don’t say it hard enough. It hardly seems enough to say to each of you back home who make our stay in Madagascar and His work possible. We do not forget you in our daily thoughts or in our daily prayers. You dwell close in our hearts and are just as much a part of this work as the Rosie family is. We may be the ones who tackle the rough roads, difficult language, strange customs, and folks who are slow to listen to His Word, but without you none of it would be possible. Thank you, thank you, thank you, dear friends and family in Christ. We are winding up our eighteenth year on the mission field, and we hope and pray that you will go with us into the future as the Good News about Christ continues to take hold on this island country. It occurred to me
Kanty’s Baptism
|
|
||||||||||||||||||
| Can you help me with some research?
I did this once when we first came to Madagascar. I want to do it again because it seems that with each passing day, it becomes harder and harder to make ends meet. Of course, having a teenage boy with hollow legs in the house doesn’t help either. Below is a list of prices we pay in Madagascar for common items. If you have time, do a little research for me, and email me with your results. What prices do you pay for the following items? Thanks for your help:
|
| What
can you do?
You can pray!
|
| Miniature Missionaries
This miniature missionary is 15 years old. He’s traveled the world, stopping in numerous countries and states. He has been exposed to numerous languages and speaks two fluently. He’s seen places that most people have only dreamed about, and has eaten things that some of you would never dream of eating. This child has had more opportunity to share Christ than most of us see in a lifetime. BUT. In our recollection, this miniature missionary has only spent three nights in his whole life separated from his parents. One night was during our last furlough when he spent an afternoon and an overnight with a new found friend. The other two nights he spent with Grandma and Grandpa Rosie many years ago, while mom and dad traveled to Nairobi to have a medical problem checked out. In August 2003, Kit spent his first weekend away from home. He attended a youth retreat with 30 other Christian youth about 100 kilometers from the city of our home here in Madagascar, and he carried a new brother in Christ and fellow teenager along with him to introduce to the other Christian youth of Antananarivo. Needless to say, Mom was more nervous than this miniature missionary who has grown up to constant change, foreign languages, surrounded by strangers, and with a special message to tell to anyone who is willing to listen. We are so proud of this boy of ours. He had a great weekend, was hailed as a great friend of all who attended the retreat, and did his special work with Kanty, a new Christian who needed someone to help ease him into the group. Kit and Kanty came home grinning from ear to ear, and now Mom can smile again too. |
|
B.P. 7554 Antananarivo 101 Madagascar Tel. 011-261-32-02-081-14
|
We welcome you to join us in this work for Him . . .
