Monday, September 26, 2011

10 Adventures

It's the home stretch. I've officially been outside of good ol' America for 2 months now! 5 weeks left to go! I recently returned from an outreach to the city of Manakara, and I can say I experienced some of the craziest events of my life!

10 things that have happened since the last time I wrote:
1. I have ridden in a roach infested bus - woke up to a roach crawling on me!
2. Showered in a roach infested shower - practically put my clothes on soaking wet...
3. Eaten rice and fish for breakfast
4. Preached 3 times
5. Shared the gospel on countless grass hut floors
6. Rode a super old bike through the sand and mud in the pouring down rain, in the JUNGLE for 10+ km to get to an unreached village
7. Fell off said bike and injured myself
8. Passed out clothes and preached the gospel in the unreached village
9. Had my bike cursed by a witch...she was too late, I was already injured ;)
10. Avoided a bandit attack in the middle of the night in Who-Knows-Where, Madagascar

Needless to say I'm learning a lot! Especially about giving your all for the cause of Christ...and increasing the size of my comfort zone. Praise Jesus that He is always with me :] Thank you for your prayers, know that God is doing incredible things in this nation.

I'll try and post some more pictures soon!

Friday, September 16, 2011

Manakara or Bust

Today is the day - outreach numero dos! Manakara here we come!

Well this week has been good here in Tana, restful and productive. This week I: made s'mores over candlelight, washed my clothes in the bathtub, started reading the book of Daniel, finished reading Redeeming Love for the 4th time (SO GOOD), finished the FIRST OM Madagascar newsletter (yaaa!), made a short video presentation about Sainte Marie, showed the presentation on Tuesday when I went and spoke to a group of Christian university students and mobilized them for missions. I also spent a lot of time wishing the internet connection was faster so I could call home to my parents! Love you mom and dad :] I spent two hours looking at my sisters wedding pictures (remember, slow internet) - she was SUCH a beautiful bride.






Monday, September 12, 2011

Back from Sainte Marie!

Wow, so it's been a long time since I last posted! Sorry for the inconsistency, but I've been really busy! On August 31 I left for an island called Sainte Marie off the east coast of Madagascar along with about 30 other people, 9 internationals and the rest nationals from here in Madagascar. We took a 24 hour bus drive and a 2 hour boat drive...yes, very long. But when I first saw the island it looked like something out of King Kong, or like I'd just landed on the island from LOST. (4 8 15 16 23 42) It was SO beautiful! We had an amazing time on the island, and the Holy Spirit was definitely with us, transforming lives. We knew before we arrived that witchcraft is practiced very strongly in that place, so we were very diligent in prayer. Waking up at 5 everyday to pray together...not sure how effective MY prayers were that early ;) just kidding. I didn't keep a count, but I'm guessing around 100 people accepted Christ as their savior while we were there, praise Jesus! I felt really privileged to be a part of such an incredible ministry. I talked to one woman in a small village; while we were sitting in her tiny hut and she was gutting the fish she had just caught, she heard the name of Jesus for the first time ever. Ten minutes later she said she believed and wanted to live for Him, it was unreal! And this was a common story among our team members. The harvest was truly ripe.

So now back in Tana, I have lots to do! Lots of stories to write and newsletters. And tomorrow I'm going to speak to a group of Christian university students and mobilize them for missions! Please be praying that God would give me the right words to speak. I know His words will never return void. Then this coming Friday I'm going on another outreach to a city in the east called Manakara. I'm still recovering from the last outreach...traveling in Madagascar is definitely not easy. So that should be interesting. But if it's anything like the last outreach, no amount of discomfort could be too much to save some souls for the Kingdom. Of course, that's easy to say but I'm still not looking forward to the journey ;)

Anyway here's some pictures from the last outreach!

my mission trip pose, standing in the Indian Ocean, perfect!


the whole team on our last day!

perfect beaches and palm trees

the first morning I woke up and saw this from my porch, God's promises remain!

sharing the gospel in a small rural village