Moving Forward
Hello everyone, Visiting the Penguins on Boulders Beach in South Africa! Sorry for the silence for...
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When Things Fall Apart
Sometimes, even in ministry, everything just falls apart. The foundation has crumbled, the walls have collapsed, the seed has rotted, and the sprouts are choked by weeds and burnt by the sun. Sometimes by the end, there’s nothing to show for our years of efforts.
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Our Double Lives
Where we are now is about as close as we can come to being on the exact opposite side of the world from where we were just a month ago. Sometimes that’s what it can feel like, going from one side of the planet to the other – like we’re standing upside down…
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Treasure
How could I take a 9-month-old, and a 2 ½-year-old and a 4-year-old to a place where they could get sick or hurt and be days away from medical care? A place with no schools, where my wife and I would have to struggle to educate them, where they would be exposed to demonic activity and where child trafficking happens? I was ashamed of myself that I was not strong enough to pay that price.
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Visiting the US Next Year!
That’s what our last few years have been like here on Nosy Mitsio: exciting! Challenging! Full of promise, hope, struggles, loss, and gain. In it all we see God at work. He’s maintained us, given us strength and perseverance when we’ve needed it most, and he’s opened our eyes to see…
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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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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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Back and Forth
We stepped off the taxi, three of us this time, back in our village in South Africa. We began...
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Transition to Madagascar Photos
Pictures from our move to Madagascar. They’re mostly from South Africa, in Pretoria, Dumphries, and Kruger, where we stopped for a few weeks along the way to visit friends and “family”. But the last 10-15 are from our arrival in Madagascar. 139 photos
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Latest News
We had another great day with the discipleship group in the village of Antanamazava today, and several testimonies to share!
One lady said that she had a dream/vision of God one night this week and it encouraged her to share the Bible stories she's been learning with other people! She seemed a bit shy to share about her dream/vision but clearly she was still amazed by it!
Another lady (a local schoolteacher who grew up in town and part of a local church there) said that being with the discipleship group the last couple months is the first time she's ever been able to pray! She said she's never been able to pray before because she didn't think she was "able" to (probably because her past church experience was in a different language, as all the churches here are). But being part of the discipleship group, she finds it "simple" now and like the words just come to her, and she's able to pray easily and she was rejoicing in it!
Another lady from town had been in the village visiting relatives from our group (during the recent national holiday). They've been sharing with her the Bible stories they've been learning and telling her about the discipleship group. So she joined us today, but even before the group started she asked us to come start a discipleship group with her in her neighborhood in town! Just based on what she'd heard so far from her relatives in the village! And after participating well in the group today, she followed up to be sure we'll start a group in her neighborhood soon, and we traded phone numbers to do that.
Also, we had a different tuk tuk driver than normal (a young man) take us out to the village from town. He was willing to wait until we were done to take us back to town, so I invited him to join our group while he waited. He didn't interact much but he listened attentively. At the end he said he'd share the story with one of his young friends, and he also said that based on what he learned from the story today he was going to try to "enter into the faith in his heart" (or something like that, kind of hard to translate). I didn't actually think much of it because he was so quiet the whole time. As soon as we left the village though, he immediately started telling us how what we shared was "so clear" (or you could translate it as "so understandable"). Then he shared some of his own story of how growing up in town he'd tried visiting a couple different churches but didn't understand anything they were saying, and how a teacher in his school (while he was a student) tried to convince him but he just couldn't understand it. But today he understood, because it was "clear". He said he'll take us to the village again next week so he can join the group again. But I also offered to meet with him and his friends at their place in town if he wanted, and he seemed to like that idea. It would be great to have some more men being discipled, because right now we have very few that are consistent. But praise God for the seeds of clarity that were sewn for this young man today!
God is good! When we lay our plans before him, he directs our paths and helps us bear fruit that lasts! Please keep praying for the disciples in Antanamazava, and for the greater works that God will do through them and that place!
We had a great time with the discipleship group in the village of Antanamazava this afternoon! About half the regulars had actually gone into town for various reasons. But the half who remained were super excited and participated more than ever. Even though most are usually very shy about the idea of praying to God or praying in front of other people, today basically everyone prayed at some point. We shared a few testimonies and they also shared some and people were really catching the vision for the way God loves them and has valuable work for them to do, even if, being from a village, they might not often consider their own value to be high.
Two ladies talked about how since they've been doing this group (just over a month now) and practicing what they've learned, that now they can really see how it's changing their lives. One lady (who comes by herself every week, but who shares with her family when they come back home from their work), she said it's even changed the life of her whole family in really noticeable ways.
This is probably the best part: just as we were finishing the time and leaving, many of those who had gone to town (together with some of their friends) returned to the village. They were hoping we'd continue the group with them but we told them we had to go and that their friends could share the new Bible story with them. Immediately they re-convened the group (without us): those who had been with us now leading the group for those who had just returned, telling them the new Bible story and engaging them in discussion about it. It's so exciting to see how God is working in their lives, to see them step up and take these leadership roles, and to take ownership of the work of discipleship that God wants to do in them, and through them to benefit many more people!
Please pray that these disciples in Antanamazava would continue to be strengthened and empowered by the Holy Spirit, to share boldly what they've been learning, and to become disciple-makers of many others, both near and far!
Comment on Facebook 983680748474252_1724543091054677
That is amazing that they wanted to retell the story. Praise the Lord!!
🙏🙏🙌🙌
Here's a photo of David sitting on the bench under the tree at the local prison, where we usually meet to have our discipleship groups. The prisoners don't want to appear in photos, so I only got a picture of David here.
Because of the coronavirus restrictions here, there was an extended period of time where I wasn't able to go visit the prison. During that time, it seems that several of those who were previously more motivated have lost a lot of interest. Since then it also seems like there are frequent and unexpected schedule changes at the prison that often interfere with the time they've requested me to come lead the discipleship group.
Please pray for us that we would know if we should change our efforts at all related to the people there at the prison. Please pray also for the prisoners, that they would feel a sense of God's presence every day, that the things they've already learned in our discipleship groups would be cemented into their hearts and minds and that they would live it out, and that God would truly set them free in spite of the bounds of their current time in prison... that they would in turn be a blessing to others.
Our whole family and our ministry partner, Nuckiline, were able to go to the village of Antanamazava this afternoon to continue with the discipleship group there. It went very well! There was a pretty big group, mostly women, but also a couple men participated off and on. They were all eagerly waiting for our arrival and were excited to hear the new Bible story and to have plenty of time to discuss what it means in their lives. One lady spent a long time talking about how inspired she was that we've continued to come share with them in their village and how that helps her to understand that they also need to share what they receive with others, even if they're feeling shy or demotivated about it. The rest of the group also voiced their agreement with her about that. So we hope that this week will be a time where they really start to share more with others what they've been learning from God during these discipleship groups.
We didn't have time to have a second discipleship group meeting with the others in the village who also wanted it, so we're hoping that they'll be able to join all together next week. And then we hope that very soon they'll be able to start leading their own groups for the others in their village, since we can't possibly meet with all of them ourselves, at least not in the sizes of groups most effective for reproducible disciple-making.
Please pray that the Holy Spirit really seals his truths and his stories in the hearts of those who participated this afternoon. Pray that the Holy Spirit will embolden and empower them to share with others in their village and even beyond their village.
This photo is from the path on the way out of the village of Antanamazava. It was early evening when we left and was a very pleasant and beautiful walk. But finding transport back to town was much more difficult than previously. We wound up having to walk for an hour and a half or more (until after it got dark) before we were able to find a vehicle that could take us the rest of the way back to town!
Comment on Facebook Our whole family and...
Oh yes my goodness Holy Spirit thank you for drawing all this together and meeting everyone’s needs and making a way for all these hungry people to be fed with your life giving truth that Jesus loves saves helps and promises eternal life in Jesus name!!!!!!!!
And thank you for for protecting and meeting the Willards needs!!
Praying for you. May God bless you, and keep you safe at all times. My husband and I have sailed to Madagascar a few times. Would love to visit Madag again, one day. Loved every minute of being there. Lots of love to you.
This is a beautiful short video that I encourage all of you to watch. I feel like it's especially poignant with the season the world is in right now, and it's also a beautiful celebration of God's miracles on the day of Pentecost. It's a project that I was very privileged to help with and participate in over the last couple of weeks.
To me, this is a very small, but very beautiful, glimpse of God's vision for his Church and for the world. When so many things would try to divide us and isolate us one from another, to turn us against each other in distrust or open hatred... in the midst of these circumstances God sends his Holy Spirit to bring us together in one place, to unify us not through uniformity, but through speaking to each and every one of us where we are and in the language of our hearts. God's works are so wondrous and beyond the comprehension of any one of us, but together we begin to see and understand his beauty and his great love for us.
I have so many good friends, both new and old, from all over the world who came together to make this happen, and it's so great to see so many of them all together here. Though only a few of them have ever had the privilege to meet with any of the others in this video, but here in one place and around one theme we are united. God has, through Jesus, sent his good news out to every corner of the world, by the empowering of his Holy Spirit!
Please feel free to share this video far and wide as we celebrate God's works and his vision for his Church and the world!