This is a real story of a Bara friend named Bonna Really. We had the privilege to record this small documentary with our local partners in Madagascar, funded by GNPI (Gospel News Productions International – Missouri) to show the world, how great, gracious and loving a savior we have.
Bona was a cattle thief, and, by grace, he was changed and today is a follower of Christ. Bonna is a friend since 2013, and his whole family has come to Christ.

We are overjoyed to witness our Malagasy pastors and evangelists, our faithful co-laborers, sharing the Gospel through the Jesus Film and discipling people afterward.
Villages have been reached, witch doctors converted, cattle thieves transformed, hundreds hearing about Jesus, and, by the power of Christ, churches scattered throughout Bara land. What a joy!
Furthermore, The Antandroy and Mahafaly people are also being reached by our partners.
What an incredible harvest we are seeing, all by the grace of Christ.
This month alone, 12 villages have been reached with the Gospel. Since 2017, that brings the total to 523 villages!
Please pray for abundant fruit from these efforts.

Today, we begin another school year. The Be Fitia School was established to proclaim Christ and teach children how to read and write. Approximately 230 children have been enrolled. Praise Jesus. That’s another 230 children who will leave the ignorance of illiteracy and the darkness of the lack of knowledge of Christ. Pray for them!

In Betroka, the Jesus Film project is ongoing! Our partners are currently taking a break for church conferences and meetings, but some of them continue to work. Pastor Tomoeira reported that in one village in the south, another witch doctor gave his life to Jesus—but was subsequently expelled from his village. Please pray for him. The Be Fitia School is on vacation but will resume soon. The Children’s Ministry continues with the help of our local partners.

Pray for our Coworkers in Bara land that work in all the projects. May God bless the projects and provide sponsors for the work of the Coworker Project.

While in Brazil for HA, we left the Evangelism Program for the Children and the BeFitia literacy program under the leadership of our local Malagasy partners ( Pr. Erik and Mana). Things are going great and they are doing amazingly. Pray for God’s hand to be upon them and the children.
Praise God another church has been planted among the Bara! It is a total of 15. Pray for the new believers to grow in faith and share with it others.

This marks the end of our 2023/2024 literacy program. Yesterday, we celebrated the conclusion of a year of study. Two hundred children were taught about Christ, learned to read and write in their own language, and were fed daily!

Pray with us that the knowledge of Christ will transform their hearts and that literacy will change their futures.
The next 200 children start studying in September 2024!

Pray for the children’s ministry. Our desire is that these children and the other 1.000 that are regular in the Be Fitia Evangelism Program, will know Christ, through the love shared with them.
We want to love them, interact with and teach them well, and wait for the fruits.
Some will see little children, we see future disciples of Christ, pastors, evangelists, professionals that will glorify Christ among their own people.

Pray for the 10 Pastor Partners who are working among the Bara: Pr. Erik, Pr. Tomoeira, Pr. Fabrice, Pr. Haza, Pr. Taboly Joro, Pr. Mamdinby, Pr. Moisesy, Pr. Rakoto, Pr. Menza, Pr. Bartholomeo, Ev. Rema, Ev. Tahina ( FJKM), Pr. Mampitohy Abigael, Pr. Martin , Ev. Jean Belazaina, Ev, Joromana. All them are hard workers and need prayer for health, wisdom, provision and boldness to share Christ and live Christ.

Pray for all the Bara Christians to be salt and light to their people. Pray for their faith and that they will live for the Glory of Jesus.
Pray for good relationships among the partners, pastors and local churches.
Pray for new believers to grow and for a revival among the Bara. May a wind of the Spirit break down all the walls of ancestor worship and syncretism, and spread salvation among the Bara!

Pray for the 474 villages visited with the Jesus Film since 2016. May God make the seeds planted flourish and produce a great harvest. At least 20 churches have been planted among the Bara. Pray that they grow in faith and don’t go back to the old cultural practices.
There are still many villages that haven’t been exposed to the Gospel. Pray that God will raise funds and partners to help our local partners to go.

Pray for the 100 Bara youth who were trained in Kairos mission Course this month. Pray that the Holy Spirit will light a fire in their hearts: the desire to share Christ with their own family. Pray for protection for them and for opportunities to share with boldness.

This weekend we are hosting a conference for Bara young people who are Christians. We are expecting 80-100 people to come. Teaching will be done by Bara pastors. The themes are “Missions in my life”, “Suffering for Jesus”, and “How the gospel changes my life”. Please pray for travel mercies- some are traveling from far away, pray the young people will more deeply understand the gospel and will experience a fire in their hearts to share the gospel with others.

Throughout these years, the Lord has provided us with various strategies to reach the Bara people and, more recently, the Mahafaly people.

However, we realize the need to INNOVATE our approach, as Technology has finally reached Betroka. Yes, Facebook and all media have reached us.

Last week, in partnership with GNPI (Good News Productions International), the NOMAD Academy (National Outreach using Media And Discipleship) offered us valuable training on producing biblical stories, short films, testimonies, as well as media editing and assembly.

Our primary goal is to create material for projectors that weekly proclaim the message of Jesus in various places in southern Madagascar. Additionally, we aim to develop contextualized content for discipleship and missionary mobilization among local churches, using videos, interviews, and other resources.

By all possible means, we want the Name of Jesus to be known, as we truly are co-workers with Him.

This last week brought a remarkable event in the children’s ministry, it was truly amazing. On Wednesday, over 600 children came. During the gathering, one of our coworkers, a Malagasy partner, asked who among them wanted to accepted Christ and, to our surprise, many raised their hands. Subsequently, they were guided to a separate room for a detailed explanation of the Gospel, ensuring their understanding, and there they invited Christ into their hearts.

It was a glorious day, witnessing the power of the Gospel. May God continue to add daily to His kingdom among the Bara People.

Pray for the Bible translation that is going on. It is taking longer than we planned. The desire is to record the Bible orally in the Bara language since 80% of the Bara can’t read their own language.

Pray for the Bara to have open hearts for true spiritual things. That they may see the deceptiveness of witchcraft and false hope of ancestor worship.
Pray for the 25 local partners that work alongside the Coworker Project in evangelism and discipleship. That God will give them a deep love for the lost and help them to keep up the hard work.

Pray for the Bara children who are learning to read and write in the Be Fitia Project. More than 800 children come to listen to the Bible stories. We estimate that at least 25% are Bara.
Pray that God will save them from the bondages of witchcraft and use them to reach their own families.
Parents from the far way mountains have heard about the project and are bringing their children. (Bara Zafindravala – one of the most difficult sub-Ethiopia Bara to reach with the Gospel.) The Gospel is preached everyday to the children through stories and songs while they learn to read and write their own language and the government official language.

Pray for our goal of reaching 200 new villages with the Jesus Film in 2024. The whole program is run by Malagasy partners and the head of it is a Bara Pastor. Pray that God will send funds and help us go alongside them. Pray for many in these villages to respond to the Gospel and be saved.

In a town where opportunities are scarce for young people, Jana dedicates Sundays to instilling wisdom through Bible teachings and practical skills like frying ‘mofo-sakay.’ It’s more than a snack; it’s a strategy to draw them closer to the transformative message of Jesus. Please pray for these teenagers. “Empower the youth of Betroka with grace and knowledge in the face of adversity.”

Since 2017 we have been broadcasting the Jesus Film among the Bara. By the grace of God, we only have 4 more villages to go to reach 400 Bara villages with the Jesus Film.
At least 15 churches have been planted. Please pray that God will raise up faithful Bara followers of Jesus and they desire Christ with all their hearts.
Pray that all these places that have watched the Film will be awakened by God and that a revival occurs among the Bara.

Please pray for the work among the Bara children. The children’s ministry has more than 700 children and 1/3 of them are Bara.
Pray that God would save them and build His Christ- centered indigenous church.

Last week a church in Baraland was burned. This is the second church this year that has been burned by witchdoctors. The Gospel is spreading and the devil is not happy.
The other church had 48 people that accepted Christ after watching the Jesus Film; they built the church in the region of Ianakafy, and it was burned a while ago.
Pray for God’s encouragement and protection of believers, help to rebuild, and mercy for the witchdoctors to repent.

One night we went to this village called “Apitoara”,  to broadcast the Jesus Film. When we arrived, we saw that the whole village was doing the “BILO” ceremony. The Bilo is a ritual that happens when someone is possessed by demons. They call the witch doctors and sacrifice cows to the ancestors and demons, asking for deliverance. The ritual involves alcohol and dancing. The blood of the cows is sprinkled over the people, as a “covering” to pacify the demons. The music was loud and people going up and down the road crazily.
I thought with myself: No Film today. But, we set up anyway.  We started projecting some songs (videoclips) until the time we had set for the film. Unexpectedly, people started appearing, and the place started to fill up. By the time we started the film, the place was completely full! The ceremony of the BILO had finished, and almost the whole village came to watch the movie. I was amazed! The BILO is an important thing to the BARA and usually lasts the whole night. However, people left the ceremony to come and watch the film. What an amazing GOD. One of the pastors preached 10 minutes about our hope in Christ. I gave my testimony and we let the JESUS FILM  do its work.
In my spirit, the Spirit of God said: Do you understand this? People are thirsty for something new! YES! For the GOOD News!

Pray for Tsandy. She converted in 2010, from a very bad life; Christ changed her heart and till today she has been a faithful servant of Jesus and also my wife’s best friend. Jana has discipled her and now she is telling Bible stories to Bara children. A generation telling another generation about the Glory of Christ.
Please, take one minute to praise Christ for this amazing work of salvation.

Dear brothers, I want to report something really significant. Pastor Tomoeira is one of the 5 local pastors sponsored by the Coworker Project. This year he has visited 43 Bara Villages with the Jesus Film doing the work of an evangelist.
In one of these villages, Tanambao-avaratra, he went twice with the Jesus Film and a group of Bara decided to follow Jesus! The veracity of their decision is that they burned their witchcraft paraphernalia.
This reminded us of Acts 19:19, when the people burned their magic books.
God is at work! Pray for them.

Pray for the churches born this year in the Villages of Ambohitsy with 40 converted and in Sakamahily with 120 converts.
Pray for strength to withstand persecution and deeper understanding of the gospel.

Pray for the 87 Bara villages visited just this year with the Jesus Film.
Pray for the seeds to grow and for a great revival to break out among the Bara.

Pray for resources for our team of local pastors to keep going to show the film, specially for gasoline for the motorcycles and for our sponsored 5 pastors working among the Bara.

In the past year we have seen 4 churches birthed amongst the Bara and 10 more through the ministry of our partners! We rejoice that the Bara are being reached with the gospel. Pray for faithfulness and deep understanding of the Gospel for the new believers.

Pray for the Bara children. What they know is only what the Witchdoctors and Kings of the tribe teach them through the Ancestor’s stories.
The Bara children are suffering. No hope! No future! Just a dread of what is to come. Or they will become malasos (cattle thieves) or will live in the shadow of fatalism.
However, this can be changed by the Gospel. Pray for our children’s ministry, for many to believe the gospel and be saved.

Another school year has come to an end and it is with hearts full of joy and gratitude to the Lord that we celebrate the graduation of 50 kids. Now they know how to read in their own language. The Literacy program, using the scriptures, aims not only to teach them to read and write, but also to love Jesus, to know his word and follow him!

Each graduate received a copy of the scriptures.
We had many presentations, meditation on the word and a delicious snack with the families.
Pray for these children to read God’s word, share it with their families, and for faith to believe it and be saved!

Our children ministry is growing! Last week about 1,200 children came. Thanks Jesus. Pray for the Holy Spirit to work in their lives.

The past 3 weeks our local team has shown the Jesus Film in 26 new villages and 40 people accepted Christ in Salaza (the village we went to last month with Pastor Emanoela) and 32 people in Ananbomary, with the work of Pastor Tomoeira.

God is at work!

This is still a very dark land. The Gospel has not yet been proclaimed there though we have a few churches in the area.
Please pray for a revival in the local churches and believers so that they can accomplish their task of reaching their own people.

In the last week, at least 100 Bara have given their life to Christ. 60 in the region of Isoanala and 40 in Ihorombe.
Please pray that they will grow in the knowledge of Christ and faith.
They will have a very difficult path to walk once they reject all the ancestors worship.

Please pray for the church among the Bara. We have syncretism and lack of discipleship. Pray for opportunities for our team of coworkers (local Malagasy pastors) to disciple the believers and train others.
Pray for a growing interest of learning more about missions in the church as well.

This week in Betroka a training is being held for 30 Bible teachers under the subject: Reaching the UPG Children. The Training is in partnership with CEF (Children Evangelism Fellowship). Please pray that the attendees will be passionate to reach children in their villages and also that the Holy Spirit will remind them about all what they have learned and will put it into practice when they get home.

Pastor Emanoel has trained more than 80 believers this month in 3 different villages and visited 8 new villages with the Jesus Film. Pray for him and the Bara believers.

Pray that the Holy Spirit reminds the people in Bara villages who have already watched the Jesus film about the Son of God and his unique sacrifice on the cross.
Pray that the Bara continue to open the doors of their villages so the gospel can enter and change their lives.

Pray for the cattle thieves that they will fear God and stop stealing. Pray that the fear of God falls on them and on all the Bara people, so like the Ninevites humbled themselves to the Lord, the Bara will also humble themselves to the King of Kings.

We are so glad that some of the teenagers that go to our youth program decided to be baptized. They went themselves to the local church and asked if they could be baptized. This is awesome! Pray they will grow and mature in the Lord and share with others the good things God has done for them.