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.

A local deacon from a Lutheran church took some of the newly translated Luke booklets with him when he went to a big meeting about 4 hours drive south from us. There were many Malagasy from other tribes (mostly from southern regions) at the meeting. They recognised the language as Antanala right away. Still, they could understand this translation better than the official Malagasy language. They said that they will save money to buy the Luke booklets and use them in their churches, Bible study groups, and when they go to unreached areas!

The Gospel of Luke is ready in the Antanala language! We have 100 booklets available at the moment. We do not give them for free but ask a small price (0,50 euro cents) so people value them more. Pray that many will read and believe the Word of God.

Praise the Lord that the first printing of the Gospel of Luke in Antanala has been completed, and that work on the book of Acts has begun. Pray that as the Antanala read and hear God’s word in their own language, it would take root in their hearts. Pray that they would find eternal freedom from their deep-rooted fears by putting their trust in Christ as their Savior.

Pray for strength and comfort as illness, disease, and death come in many forms such as malaria, diabetes, Covid-19 and even infant death. Ask Jesus to reveal himself as the Way, the Truth, and the Life; ask him for protection from the enemy who comes only to kill, steal and destroy these people who tend to live in fear. Pray for their hearts which lack peace, that the Prince of Peace would become known to them. Praise God that the gospel of Luke in Antanala has been printed and is ready for distribution! The work on the book of Acts continues to progress.

The 41 translated bible stories are being used to educated new Christians in a small church not far from us. Pray for their discipleship. This church has grown from 15 people last year to 60 plus now!
One village has gathered to hear all the stories and after that I would like to show the Jesus film. Pray for many to believe.

In Ambodimanga village, the king & elders welcomed Malagasy missionaries who were allowed to preach the gospel. Pray that those who heard would be transformed and follow Christ. Pray for the elder who, like Nicodemus, came to the missionaries at night to give his life to Jesus and vowed to stop doing ritual sacrifices/ancestral traditions. Pray that the books of Luke and Acts in Antanala would be finished soon, and the church of 60 new believers could grow strong in the Lord as they study His word.

Many people in our area are suffering from Malaria (the nasty type). We provide medicine and along with the medicine comes a talk about the Lord Jesus. Pray many would be healed spiritually as well as physically.
The Gospel of Luke translation has been digitalized and is ready to be sent off to the printer! Pray for God’s blessing on His word, that many would read it and believe.

Jean Baptiste reported that he was very surprised last Sunday to see the witch doctor in the village coming to church with his family. People said one of the reasons is that the witch doctor sees the transformation in Jean Baptiste. He saw how Jean Baptiste stayed calm in the midst of trouble, not turning back when he had the opportunity to do so. Praise the Lord for this testimony and pray that the witch doctor will come to saving faith in Jesus Christ. Jean Baptiste is not well and under treatment for tiredness. Please pray for the return of his strength and health.

Pray for the awareness among pastors of the importance of preaching in the local dialect. We have finished 41 stories in the Antanala dialect, but pastors still think they should preach from the official Bible.

Pray that the translation of Luke & Acts may progress. We wanted to finish the Gospel of Luke this year but Covid interrupted the work. Our friend has started on Acts.