We are doing well. We are currently [as of 28 October] in the far SE of the country at Taolagnaro (Fort Dauphin) where we came for the celebration of Synod President Pastor Soja Arthur’s 20-year jubilee as a pastor and 10 years as synod president in the southernmost synod of the Church of Jesus Christ in Madagascar (FJKM). The far south is the dryest and most impoverished part of the country.
Madagascar appears to be getting more and more stable as the days go by since the looting and burning of 25 September. Now an interim government is in charge following former president Andry Rajoelina’s leaving the country on 12 October. The members of the new government just got announced today (28 October). Many challenges remain, however, including national meetings to start soon organized by the Christian Council of Churches (FFKM) which is composed of Malagasy Lutheran, Roman Catholic, FJKM, and Anglican representatives. These national meetings should result in a proposal for a new constitution for Madagascar and a set of priorities for the interim government leading up to elections sometime hopefully within the next 2 years.
Elizabeth and I are able to keep moving forward with our ministries. The only real ways that we have been affected by the upheaval since late September have been that
- There were days when Elizabeth decided to not go into the center of Antananarivo from our house out near the international airport because of demonstrations and
- We are more rigorous in our efforts to not drive at night because of the potential for more lawlessness in both the countryside and the cities.
Since the upheaval, electricity and water have been much more reliable in the capital city than before. Hopefully that will keep up.
In terms of our work, Dan and his colleagues have been laying the groundwork for starting a new FJKM school near the Mango Palace (4.5 hours drive NW of Antananarivo). Today a team started digging a well at site of the school. Next step will be to construct a 2-room school building. On November 5, we will do a short training at the annual meeting for all FJKM school principals which will be in Moramanga about 4 hours E of Antananarivo. In November we have 2 major trips planned. One is to the N where we will teach at the FJKM seminary at Mandritsara and be present for the retirement celebration of the seminary’s longtime director. Next, we will go to just S of Ihosy in southern Madagascar to do a training on growing and propagating fruit trees and help the FJKM establish an orchard of mangos and other fruit trees. We have a training for a project we are helping to implement on the conservation of endangered palms of SE Madagascar that will happen in Ranomafana early December. While on that trip we will also do preparations for community development work involving the planting of mangosteen trees in an area between Kianjavato and Irondro in the SE. While some of us will be on the Ranomafana trip, other colleagues will go to the Alaotra area to teach at the seminary at Ambatondrazaka and put up a fence around a new vegetable garden at the new FJKM teachers’ training school at Imerimandroso.
Meanwhile, Elizabeth has been busy with the FJKM’s HIV and Epidemics Committee. The committee members are teaching at the FJKM seminaries about HIV and AIDS prevention as well as holding free health screenings that include HIV testing. They are also assisting those living with HIV. They are also preparing to host an international conference sponsored by the African Christian Health Association Platform (ACHAP) scheduled to happen in Madagascar in February. She and her colleagues have also been preparing a new project to help deal with the HIV situation in Madagascar.
The FJKM held its General Assembly this past August and has in the past couple of weeks elected a new slate of church leaders including a new head of the FJKM schools (the FJKM has over 700 schools).
Please pray for:
- Upcoming national meetings to address changes that need to be made to improve governance and the church leaders helping to organize them;
- For the country that it might get on a good track to help its people get out of poverty while preserving Madagascar’s unique plants and animals;
- For the new FJKM leaders.
Thank you very much for Grace PC’s willingness to help out with ministries in Madagascar.
Grace and Peace,
Dan & Elizabeth