Praise God that we will be opening the new and expanded maternity unit at the Good News Hospital mid October. Please pray for the work to be finished well, and that God would raise up Tsimihety midwives to care for the women and babies in need.

Please pray for those who heard the gospel preached in remote Tsimihety villages last week. Teams of medical and evangelical workers were dropped in various locations by a Helimission helicopter. These villages are often very poor. May the seed fall on good soil and the kingdom of heaven expand in this region!

Praise God that a project to teach vulnerable women to make raffia crafts as a means of income has begun and is going really well. The women are studying God’s word together daily. Please pray that they would put their trust in Jesus!

Some local believers have been reaching out to vulnerable women in our town. Today they began training these women in how to make raffia crafts as an alternative income to prostitution. Please pray for these women as they learn from and walk with believers, that they would become disciples who make disciples!

Please pray for safety and blessing for the children during the big vacation season. Pray that the holiday programs run by the church in the Tsimihety villages would go well, and that many children would accept Jesus as Lord.

This Wednesday the people of Madagascar celebrate Independence from France. Please pray that during this time of celebration as families return to their village or come into towns to celebrate, that Christians would carry the light of the gospel with them and have opportunities to share the hope and joy that they have in Christ who has truly set them free.

A monthly support group for families with autism has been initiated by some members of the local church here in Mandritsara. It was precious to be a part of that today, to witness God’s word being shared, to see people praying together, and receiving unconditional love and acceptance. Please pray that these families would know and experience God’s love through this time together, and share that with others in their community.

Praise God for the rain we have had in Mandritsara! May the Tsimihety thank the God of the rain for His abundant provision.
With the rain comes malaria, and there is a shortage of malaria treatment at the moment. Please pray that each patient who comes in with malaria would be able to receive treatment, and that the people’s heart would be open to the God who heals them of their deepest needs.

We are going to sing Christmas Carols on December 23rd to the patients at the Good News Hospital and share a simple gospel message and written story. Please pray that as the patients and their families hear this, that they would be overcome by God’s love, grace and mercy in sending His only Son to earth!

Praise God for the team of Tsimihety evangelists who preach the Good News at the hospital and in the villages near and far. Sometimes they are dropped in a village by helicopter for a week. Please pray for encouragement and refreshment in their calling and that they would continue to be built up in the word of God. Pray many would believe the message they bring.

There is a young Tsimihety man who fell from a tree a few years ago and has been paralysed ever since. He came to the Good News Hospital for care at that time and was able to get a wheel chair, but it was stolen from his home in the village the next day, and he has been bed bound since then. Praise God that he has had some contact with the missionary team, and was encouraged to get back into the hospital and get another wheelchair. Praise God with his new wheelchair he was able to attend his village church on Sunday! Please pray that his knowledge and faith in Jesus would flourish, and that he would point many others to Jesus!

At the hospital we are seeing many sad cases and increased deaths in the last month. The harvest was terrible this year and the Tsimihety people are suffering and often delaying seeking medical care as resources are scarce. Please pray for the people during this difficult time, that they would reach out to their Heavenly Father, who knows all their needs.

This week all the children return to school. Please pray for the École de Bonne Nouvelle where the Tsimihety children who attend will learn about Jesus Christ alongside reading and writing! May the teachers be full of the Holy Spirit and model Christ’s love to these children.

As I walk through nearby villages, I see trees set apart and sometimes even surrounded by strong walls, with cow skulls hanging from the branches. Sometimes food offerings are left there. This is all related to the ancestral worship. Let us pray that the Tsimihety people will see the light of Jesus Christ, and serve the living God rather than the dead.

Pray for the children and young people who attended the holiday club in July and August, that they ponder what they heard and respond to the Lord calling them to trust and follow Him.
Pray for those from Ambodimadiro who are studying the Bible through T.E.E. – that they might grow in their faith and love for the Lord.

Please pray for the church leadership in Mandritsara. There have been significant challenges dividing the church. Pray for forgiveness and reconciliation. May God’s will be done in this situation. Praise the Lord that a minister from the UK (Julian) and his wife (Debbie) a dentist, have joined our team at the Good News Hospital. Pray for them to learn the language well so they can encourage our local pastors and strengthen the evangelical team.

Please pray for the discipleship of the Tsimihety happening in the local prisons. There have been recent baptisms amongst both the men and women! Pray these would become men and women of deep faith and for the transformative love of Christ to work in their lives. Pray for pastors and Christian workers who visit the prisoners to have great courage and love for the people.

Pray for the small village churches, pray for more men to come to faith and lead their families to the Lord. Currently many women lead and children are participating but the men are missing.

The church leader died suddenly two years ago, and a young man called John, had to take over. He is keen to learn and to lead the church. He regularly gets sermons and Bible studies provided by our own local radio station, which he uses to minister to the church. He also follows a regional theological training.

The church has recently got two new young couples, who are still in the stage of finding their way in Christian faith. Praise the Lord for them.
Please pray for John and a few faithful believers.

There’s a little church at Ambodimadiro. They are maybe 10 people, not more.
The church has existed maybe 25 years.
There has been a better time, with more people. The trouble is they don’t have proper leadership.

Please pray for Catherine and Christine, the two pillars of the church. That they keep on standing firm.
Pray for their husbands , Edmond and Jean. That they may grow in their faith and may become leaders.

Give thanks for another church here in Mandritsara who will begin this month to go one Sunday per month to Ambodimadiro to preach and support the little flock.
Pray that they may grow, both in faith and numbers.

Léonce is a keen Christian in his fifties. He’s leading the church in Ambodilengo, 9 km from Mandritsara. At the same time he follows up a few churches/cell groups around Mandritsara. Often, he preaches in one of the villages and then goes back to his own church to preach there. He needs help!
The man he has in mind is Bertrand, a single man. He will be sent to the seminary in Antsirabe. For him it will be difficult to adapt to studying all day.
But, with the Lord’s help he will do well.

Pray for Bertrand for:

– adaptation to studying
– adaptation to the climate
– enough financial support

François and his wife have been sent for theological training by the Christians of 7 cell groups in one region because they are longing for a leader. François is now in Antsirabe following a 3 year course of theology.
Pray that they adapt well to living in a large town with different climate.
They both have a bachelor degree in nursing. So we think they’ll be ok with the challenges of studying all day and doing research. But still, the course is quite hard, with Greek, Hebrew, and English in the first year.
Please pray for enough financial support. The project Hopitaly Vaovao Mahafaly is helping them, but it’s not enough to cover all the costs. Pray that his wife will find a job.

TEE (Theological Education by Extension) is a practical training for village church leaders. When they finish after 3 years, they start a cell group in a new area. As a fruit of this, 7 cell groups have started in the Loharano community area. Pray for these leaders and cell members to grow strong and bear much fruit.

François and his wife, and Bertrand have just been sent to a seminary where they will study for 3 years, to be a pastor. Pray for them to mature and grow and be well prepared for ministry.

The translation team has drafted the Gospels of Luke, Matthew and Mark, Acts of the Apostles and Colossians.
Although all these portions of Scripture have been drafted, they still need to be tested in the community and in villages surrounding Mandritsara. Since it is the aim of the translators that their Tsimihety Bible translation speaks to the unchurched as well as to the churched members of the community, more testing among the unchurched is necessary.
Please pray for the team:
• that there would be good communication both within the team and with the translation consultants working with them.
• that they would get good constructive criticism as they check their drafts in the community.
• that by the end of the year the team would have the Gospel of Luke ready to publish and distribute.
• as they read the portions of the Bible in their own language, that many Tsimihety will come to God and know Jesus as their Saviour.

I would like to ask for prayer for the regional women’s conference, followed by a conference for everybody, coming up this month. Pray that these conferences might strengthen the women and men in their faith and give them tools for living Christian lives in an animistic environment.

Pray that the believers may be a witness of God’s love in their community. Social and family pressure are very strong in the rural communities. When people become Christians, they have to stop with certain rituals related to ancestor worship. That brings strife, especially in the villages. Pray believers would be strong and winsome.

The leaders from remote church cell groups were together for 1 week to learn about ‘How to teach the way to salvation’. And also about how to lead a Sunday service.
Some walked 2 days by foot to get here.
Pray for these rather isolated village church leaders, who have to stand firm in an environment full of idolatry and ancestor worship.

Pray for the believers in Beangezoka. After the pastor died suddenly in December 2019, the young man he was discipling was unexpectedly thrust into the pastorate. Pray for him, John, and the pastor’s wife, Theresa, and the other believers to stand firm against opposition in the village from ancestor worshippers. Ask the Lord to help John as he pastors the church.

Pray for pastor Julien of the Baptist church in Mandritsara.
He is about to nominate new elders. For wisdom from above for him, that he will discern God’s will, and that the members will also know God’s will and approve.

Ambohitsara is a very small village with maybe about 300 habitants.
There is a small church there with faithful Christians.
Please pray for Zaely and Norizy. These are two women (sisters-in-law actually) who are the pillars of the church. Zaely’s husband became a Christian about 2 years ago.

He was following the regional training for village church leaders in the hope that he would become the future leader of the church but he has had a lot of opposition from his family and is not in church every Sunday. Please pray for this couple.

Please pray for Zaely, Norizy and the other faithful Christians, that they stand firm in their faith.

During the rainy season, it’s difficult for the workers of the Community Health Department to visit the small groups of Christians in the remote villages.
Please pray the believers would stand firm in their belief during the time that they’re isolated.
Thank God for technology like SD cards on which sermons, Bible studies, and songs can be registered and can be listened to in times of no visitors.

Pray for the believers to fix their eyes on Jesus and walk in faith, pleasing the Lord and sharing with others the good things He has done.

Thank the Lord of the Harvest: the Gospel is being spread widely amongst the Tsimihety by faithful Malagasy medical workers, educators and expat missionaries. Through the hospital in Mandritsara, local believers are being trained in providing much needed health services to the outlying villages of the Tsimihety people. They have become the hands and feet of Jesus and are passionate about sharing his love and saving message of hope as they serve. They go out by whatever means they are able: on foot, bicycle, motorbike, 4×4 and even sometimes by helicopter. Pray that many more Tsimihety will see the love of Christ, see that God will go to great lengths to bring them into his fold, and that they’d accept him as their Good Shepherd.

It seems the gospel is spreading well in many parts of the area. Church leader trainings continue. Ask for open hearts and transformed families and communities as the gospel is heard and believed. Pray for the church leaders and others who are sharing, that they would be build up in their faith and rooted in Love.

From 27-29 November, the Sakalava music group from Nosy Be are visiting Mandritsara to have a three day workshop with Tsimihety worship musicians, looking at ways of sharing the story of the Bible through songs in local dialect. Please pray that this would be a real encouragement to both groups as they share testimonies and ideas. Please pray that this would lead to the growth of God’s church amongst the Sakalava and Tsimihety people.

The two weeks of training for village church leaders went very well with 113 leaders attending the first week! We were particularly encouraged to see many of those who have been involved in the training for the last 7 years, bringing other potential leaders from their churches. 45 of the 113 attending have signed up for the next 6-year round of residential training due to start in October this year. Pray for these leaders as they return home and serve their churches.

39 Tsimihety women suffering from obstetric fistulae have recently been operated on during a special camp at the Good News Hospital in Mandritsara. Please pray for these women – for their physical healing and that their full honour would be restored in knowing Jesus.

There is residential training taking place over the next two weeks (16 July to 27 July) for Tsimihety village church leaders. Leaders of 80 village church groups have been invited. Please pray for lasting fruit as a result of this training.

Please pray for the work of the Good News Hospital in Mandritsara, at the centre of the Tsimihety region. The project has a vision for a church to be established in every town and village in the Mandritsara district, and in the capitals of the other districts in the Tsimihety region. 70-80 village church groups have started through contact made through the project over the last 20 years. Please pray that this vision would become more of a reality in the coming years, and that the project would maintain a clear gospel and church-planting focus.

Please pray for the vision to establish new churches within the southern part of the Tsimihety region, which until now remains largely unreached. This will be the focus of the Good News Hospital, Mandritsara, community health outreach during 2018.

Please pray for the weekly Tsimihety Bible translation workshop which takes place each Saturday morning in Mandritsara, the central town of the Tsimihety region. This group of men and women is led by Madame Marline and is the only multidenominational gathering amongst Tsimihety believers that we are aware of.