VIDEO: On Distant Shores
This video is about our ongoing mission to reach the Antakarana people of Madagascar. It showcases the lifestyle of the Antakarana on Nosy Mitsio, their religious beliefs and rituals, and our team’s efforts at church-planting among them.
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PHOTOS: Our Team Arrives on Nosy Mitsio! Nov 2014 – June 2015
In November 2014, our team finally arrived to join us on Nosy Mitsio, Madagascar! Here are photos of their first 8 months in Madagascar, activities and learning as a team, a Malagasy “rodeo”, a local funeral, a couple med-evac’s, and more. 110 photos
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As a Child
Can you imagine being born again? Everything you see is for the first time. The world is bright and the sights are strange. Everyone’s talking at you and they’re clearly excited to see you, but none of it makes sense: it all just sounds like gibberish…
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Return to Madagascar and Moving to Nosy Mitsio 2013 Photos
These photos are from our return to Madagascar and our move to Nosy Mitsio in 2013! We got back to Madagascar in late June, scouted out Nosy Mitsio, moved there in August, began settling in, building our home, and learning a new way of life among the Antakarana people there. The last of these photos is from mid-Oct 2013. 98 photos
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The Faithful Foreigner
The past year and a half has been a life of transience for us. During this time we’ve traveled over 40,000 miles! We’ve stayed for over a week in 11 different places including 5 different countries, traveled in 15 planes, 4 boats, hiked probably a hundred kilometers, and have…
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A little further, then a long ways!
In just a few short weeks, we’ll be about 10,000 miles away, on the other side of the world –...
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Moving to Madagascar!
It’s finally time! After more than a decade of waiting and preparing, it’s now time for us as a...
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Latest News
We had a very fun experience yesterday! A man we met at a local church last weekend is in charge of hosting a weekly English teaching kids' show for the Madagascar national television station. He asked Matimu to come be a guest on the show and to help teach some lessons. So yesterday we went downtown to the school where he teaches and records the videos. It was mostly improv and Matimu did a great job! They recorded about 6 short episodes during that time, and Lora, David, and I even made a quick appearance on the last episode. The production quality seemed a bit low, but it'll still be a lot of fun to watch Matimu on national TV here. The episodes with Matimu will begin airing next week (Wed at 4:30pm with a rerun every Sat at 4:30pm) on the Malagasy National TV station (TVM), and should run for about 5-6 weeks. Matimu was very excited to be on TV and it was a fun experience for all of us. (While Matimu was filming and I was watching, Lora was having a Q&A with the older students from one of the classes... we can see that the quality of English teaching at this school is really good!) Now we just need to find some friends here with a TV, so we can watch the show when it first airs!
(And if you're friends of ours in Madagascar, even a different part of the country, and you have a TV, you should really try to watch this sometime when it airs! Matimu would love to hear that you saw him on TV!)
We've made it safely to Madagascar! About 19-20 hrs total, definitely our quickest flight ever. We arrived yesterday afternoon (local time) and it was a safe and smooth trip, so thank you to all of you for your prayers. Most of us have some jetlag to get over, but we hope it'll be a quick transition. We plan to stay here in the capital until we receive our visas, which we hope will only take 2-3 weeks (the process lately has been much faster than in the past). So please pray that it's finished quickly, with no unfortunate surprises, so that we can return to the north and get resettled there.
We had a great time in DC (and a short visit to NYC) this week. And we also loved the time we spent this week with our friend's family and we were blessed by their very generous hospitality. Now we're waiting at the airport and ready to leave for Madagascar again! Please pray for us for safe and smooth travel and for a breakthrough in reaching the Antakarana people.
Safe travels, you guys - it was so super-great to see you while you were here!
🙏 for your travels and for getting settled back into your Madagascar home! We’re so thankful that we crossed paths with you this summer!
Safe travels and blessings to you and your family.
Safe travels!! 🙏🏼
Tongava soa indray !
Soava dia!
We're headed to DC this morning! Looking forward to seeing an old friend and his family and to visiting and sharing with Parkway Bible Church. Of course, it'll also be a fun opportunity for us and our boys to do some sight-seeing around the nation's capital. We'll have about a week there before finally returning to Madagascar (flying direct from DC). We're excited about the good times ahead!
God bless you guys. We will keep you in our prayers. Safe travels
This is one of my all-time favorite photos I've ever taken in Madagascar, near the village where we worked on the east coast, about a year after we first moved to Madagascar. Looking forward to being back in Madagascar in just a few weeks!Leaving the village of Antenina at 6:30am yesterday. This is the river where we'd go to collect our water and bathe every day and wash our clothes. A beautiful place! (The village is off to the right.)