Pray that the pastors of the more traditional churches wlll have the courage to work together with the ‘competing’ churches.
As we are reaching deeper in the area than ever before, the darkness in those areas is severe. Pray that the Lord will keep the witchdoctors and spiritual world away. Both are constantly interfering with evangelising attempts.
Pray that the logistical issues of spreading the translation, and with it the Gospel, will not be too difficult.
Praise God that boxes of the Gospel of Luke, the Book of Acts, and the story collection will be sent to Vohipeno, Ikongo and Irondro. Pray many will read these booklets and believe the message.
They are working on translation the Book of Genesis. It is a lot of work because the language used in Genesis is very different from that used in the New Testament books. He has done chapters 1 to 6, only 44 chapters to go! Please pray for strength and wisdom for him and the team.
We give thanks that:
Ask God to continue blessing this work and building His Church.
Our translator has finished 16 chapters of Genesis, which I will check and digitalize. Pray for wisdom in translating well. May this book be a great blessing to the Tanala people!
We have received the first group of Malagasy Bible students in our village. They have visited several remote villages to preach the Gospel. This first group came from a place called Vohipeno, which is 4hours drive south of our village. They asked whether we can send them the translated work (Luke, Acts and Bible stories), which they want to use in their area as well. We praise God for that. Pray the gospel seeds that have been sown will sprout and grow.
Later this month we will, Lord willing, receive another group of students in our village. This group comes from the far south of Madagascar and has no experience in the remote areas whatsoever. Pray that they will be able to adapt smoothly concerning culture and language and have opportunities to share the gospel.
We have a group of Malagasy Bible students coming to our village on the 19th of May. They are being trained to become evangelists/missionaries among their own people.
They will stay in our house. The local Christian leaders are willing to help them to get around. They will go two by two to the surrounding villages to preach the Gospel. A local Christian will guide them and introduce them.
A second group is planned around the end of June.
Pray the Lord will open a door for fruitful ministry and many will be saved!
Maroamboka village, where we used to live, is the place of witch doctors. Seven of them live and work in and around Maroamboka! Some of them are so powerful that people come all the way from the capital to consult them. In short, Maroamboka was more or less the stronghold of Satan.
And it is precisely in Maroamboka that the church is growing! And it is Maroamboka where people come to hear more about the Gospel. Why? My friend Issa noted that the Lord has a sense of humour. Issa said, “The evil one must have been happy when we left Maroamboka. But it is as if God woke the evil one out of his evil dream by using Maroamboka for His mighty and glorious work.” I like Issa’s conclusion. Pray for the church to continue to grow in size and influence.
The village of Tsiombivohitra where I went almost weekly (for years) to teach and preach the Bible stories, now has a large group of Christians. When I used to go there were only two young people who believed in Jesus.
Sometime last year, the sown seed seems to have taken root. First, the young couple started coming to Maroamboka on Sunday mornings to seek the Lord with the brothers and sisters in the FLM church. But not much later, they started bringing about 20 people from Tsiombivohitra. The tide in Tsiombivohitra village seems to have turned. It is just a small village which means that the believers are slowly becoming the majority. They have now agreed with the FLM leadership to build a sister congregation in Tsiombivohitra.
But this village is not the only one where people are coming to a living faith in Christ. There are plans to build a church in at least two more villages. Praise the Lord He is building His church! Pray for these new believers to walk in the ways of the Lord.
The translation of Genesis is still ongoing. Pray for God’s blessings on the process.
The new pastor in our area is very interested in using the translated work. Pray the scriptures would speak to many people.
Some mission schools are interested in sending students to our area to gain some field experience. Pray for some to be called to reach the Tanala!
The translated booklets (Luke, Acts and the stories) have arrived on Madagascar. I still need to collect them and have an inspector look at them. Pray that goes well.
We’re planning a trip to our village this month, together with Neto and Jonoro. Pray for a good visit and that the booklets will be out of customs so we can distribute them.
The translated books (Luke, Acts and stories) are being shipped as we speak. Pray for safe arrival and distribution of these precious books.
Several pastors and evangelists have already shown interest in using these materials. Pray many would hear the Word in their heart language and believe the message.
I am in the middle of arranging the shipping of 6000 booklets of translated scripture to Madagascar.
Already some key persons in the Antanala area voiced their eagerness to receive them. Pray for these booklets to reach them! And as people read them, may the Lord grant them faith to believe.
The drinking water situation in our area has been restored. This is a huge relief for the people who struggled for years to get proper drinking water. PTL. Pray people would seek Living Water and have their spiritual thirst quenched as well.
Pray also for details to be worked out for shipping the translated scripture material to Madagascar. Pray many will read about the Bread of Life and have their hunger satisfied.
I am in contact with a printer who offered to print the translated Gospel of Luke, Acts, and the Bible stories, free of charge. They also want to ship it to Madagascar for us. Praise God for this provision! However, it is a challenge to figure out how to ship them without having to pay bribes at customs. Pray for wisdom and favor.
Pray for the Tanala translator who has been sick for a while. Pray for healing, and strength to continue the translation work.
Sambivelo, who was trained as a healthcare worker, is a trusted worker in the community now. People are very happy with him. But it is difficult for him to help everybody. On top of that, Malaria is raging, and it is hard to get enough medicine. Pray for him.
The first 10 chapters of Genesis are ready to be checked and digitalized. Continue to pray for the translation work.
The FJK church (Church Jesus Madagascar) in the area of our village just received a new pastor. Olive is his name, and he seems to have a very open attitude towards working with us. He gladly received our translated work. Let’s pray that he and his wife will be used by God in powerful ways to bless the church and the Tanala. Please pray for their wellbeing (spiritual and physically) as they settle.
Last week I finished the first round of correcting the first five chapters of Genesis in Antanala. Pray for the continuing translation work of Genesis. It is harvest time and the translator is very busy.
Praise God the king is going to church with his family and growing in his faith. He is no longer king because of his faith, but he is happy he has eternal life!
Praise God Sambivelo has finished his medic training and is back and has helped many sick people already. He struggles with jealous people, including one doctor. This doctor isn’t fair in his practice. He asks a high price for his service. But he is the only one in the whole area so people are afraid to say anything about it. Sambivelo helps people for a symbolic price. Pray God would change the doctor’s heart and would bless Sambivelo.
I visited a village where I told all the Bible stories. In that village was a young couple who already believed in Jesus. They were frowned upon. This young couple decided to start worshipping in a church in our village (7 km walk). Soon after, more and more people from that village joined. Now, there are more than 20 Christians in that village, and they decided to build their own church. Praise the Lord that He is using this young couple for building His kingdom.
The translations of the book of Acts and the Gospel of Luke are being spread among the Antanala. Many already expressed their longing to have more books in their language. We are working on Genesis now and already finished the first 5 chapters. Pray for wisdom to make a good translation.
Iaban’i Velotia and his wife have decided to become followers of Jesus! This man is one of the most respected kings in our area. I have visited him very often and shared the Gospel (through storying). One story narrates about demon possession and how we, as Christians, can pray for deliverance. The king never wanted to fully trust Jesus because that would mean that he has to step down as king (the king needs to teach the people about the ancestor worship). His son got possessed and whatever they tried (with the help of a witchdoctor), the demon didn’t leave. He must have remembered the bible story and went to get help from local Christians. They entered the house and saw all of his charms and magic stuff. They told him that they had to clean his house first. He agreed and they threw everything out. After that, they prayed for the boy and he was instantly delivered. After this event, he and his wife finally decided to follow the Lord! Praise the Lord that the local Christians were so bold to tell him to get rid of the witchdoctor stuff!! And praise the Lord that they are a huge testimony for their neighbours.
The translation of the book of Genesis in the Antanala language has started. Pray for this project.
Both the Gospel of Luke and Acts, and the Bible stories in the Antanala language are being broadly distributed. We have found Malagasy friends who work for Compassion and YWAM, who want to print the booklets. They themselves work among the people in the south-east (many Antanala) and are eager to spread the Gospel with these booklets.
Today Sambivelo will return to his village. We brought him to the capital city to be trained as a healthcare worker and he has completed his training. We gave a lot of medical care whilst living in the village. Sambivelo is ready to do the same. Pray he would be a blessing to his people.
We have finished translating the book of Acts into the Antanala language. Both the Gospel of Luke and Acts are with the printer now.
Pray for the distribution and that many would read the Word and believe it!
Menja and I are finishing translating the book of Acts in Antanala.
There is a lot of interest in the translated work. It turns out that many along the east-coast prefer the translated work over the official language.
Menja would like to continue translation of Genesis. That is a huge book to translate, but many have already asked for it.
Many Antanala live in very remote areas. They hardly ever come down to the bigger cities and thus have no access to the Gospel. More and more missionaries (nationals and foreigners) are starting to focus on the Antanala and have asked me to help orient them. It is wonderful to see that God is preparing others to go. Pray many will go and find people ready to hear the good news.
Crops were destroyed by the cyclone in February and many people are still struggling with famine and poor immunity from disease. Friends have died. We’re told some people are so desperate they are selling their children for food. Please pray for God’s mercy and provision for suffering people and for opportunities to share the Bread of Life.
The book of Acts is almost finished being translated into Antanala. Chapters 1-20 have been checked. Chapters 21 to 25 are now with Menja to be checked, and we hope to bring the last three chapters to him next time we visit. Praise God for Menja’s hard work checking and pray the Lord will guide him.
I have spoken with several Antanala brothers from deep within the district. At the moment, people are going through a very difficult time. The aftermath of the two cyclones are becoming evident now in the form of food shortage. The crops are small and late, there’s very little fruit from the trees, etc. Our brothers told me that mothers are malnourished and cannot feed their children. On top of that, many of the villages can’t be reached by cars, trucks, or even motorbikes because of the condition of the road. The brothers walked more than 100 km to get out of the area. Please ask for God’s mercy.
The Gospel of Luke in the Antanala dialect continues to receive a lot of attention. Not only in our village but in the whole region people are eager to get a copy. Several Malagasy missionaries are looking into the possibility of using the booklets in their areas. Praise the Lord! Pray that many will believe the gospel message and be saved.
The people of our district still suffer greatly from the two cyclones that hit in February this year. There is still no clean drinking water in many places, and food prices have gone up. Pray for God’s mercy.
We have started with the project to train a local young man to do the healthcare job we did when we still lived in the village. Sambivele has arrived in the capital, where he is being trained in a hospital. Pray for him to adjust to city life and to do well in his training.
Different Malagasy missionaries are planning to use our translations of the Gospel of Luke and the story set to evangelize the people groups in the south-east. Several other people groups (besides the Antanala) prefer the Antanala language above the official Malagasy. Pray for many to believe the message!
We are looking to train young Malagasy Christians to become evangelists and/or missionaries. We want to use our house in Maroamboka as place to do the practical teaching. Ask the Lord to call people to be trained.
We are going to get a young man (Sambivelo 19yrs old) from our village to Tana to be trained as a healthworker. When his training is over he will return to Maroamboka to help the people in the same way we did (Malaria, worms, infections, wound treatment). Pray for Sambivelo.
Telling Bible stories in the local language has been successful. Many have heard the Gospel in their heart language and understand the implications for their lives. Several kings in our area said that they want to follow the Lord Jesus. There is also a greater awareness of local Christians that they too can witness to their neighbours.
We have translated 41 Bible stories and recorded them. They are ready to be put on sd cards, cd’s or any other medium. Please pray for that process and for wide distribution, and for many to believe!
Working together with a young pastor and his wife (Dories & Alphossin) we have
taught some young believers to go out and evangelise. Currently, they are travelling
alongside Dories and Alphossin and are learning as they go. Pray for many open hearts to hear and receive the gospel.
It is humbling to witness the daily struggles of villagers here, who mainly worry about what/how they will eat the next day. Theirs is a life where small accidents can quickly become life-threatening. Pray for the Hofmanns, who are grateful that they can be here for their fellow villagers when things go wrong. Cases of malaria, worm infections, and many severely malnourished babies have been worse in the past 10 months than in the previous 10 years. Jurgen has started visiting a new village, Tsara Rano (“Good Water”)—praise God that the Bible stories are being well-received there, to the point where the King’s wife has been asking when Jurgen would visit them too! Pray that God’s love, peace and joy would bloom among the Tanala.
I have started to visit a new small village. For this I have made some changes in the creation story I share: I emphasize how beautiful God created us, our initial role in creation and the fact that we are made in God’s image. We have noticed that people don’t value life as a gift of God (they are very fatalistic). By emphasising this part, I hope they will understand that being restored and saved by Christ means that they can take their place as God’s ambassadors on earth. That is totally beyond their world-view now. Pray God will open their eyes to this beautiful truth.
Many people come to us for advise and help concerning their health. We are not doctors, but we can help them pretty often. We have been able to help young mothers with breast infections, young children with severe worm infection and Malaria. This was not the first thing we were thinking about when we came to Madagascar, but apparently the Lord decided differently. A good thing too! Because the people usually have difficulty trusting foreigners, but they trust us. This makes it so much easier for us to share the Gospel. Praise God and pray that many will put their trust in the Lord Jesus.
