Friday, September 21 -- Time for a shower??

We surveyed Antanimary this morning. There is no school, hospital or doctor here. They commonly see fevers, stomach aches and coughs (especially in the children). The spiritual beliefs are the same as the other villages. It is interesting to note that the younger 20-somethings I have interviewed really don't know what they believe (concerning eternity) or why they do things like they do. Again, it is so sad to see so many great, friendly and welcoming people living without hope, the hope of eternity with Christ. I have gotten to briefly share a very remedial version of Christ's gift of salvation, but as overwhelming and incomprehensible as it seems, these people are far from the harvest stage. We definitely are breaking the ground and not much more can be accomplished at this time because these people aren't "there" yet. Just like a freshly plowed field is not ready to be harvested. It is heartbreaking as I think back on all the people who looked me in the eye and told me that when they die, their spirit will go up (or to heaven) and they know this because they have been good. Yet, because they do not know Christ they will perish. I pray fervently that God will send more workers into the field of this spiritually barren land to continue with sowing, planting, watering and reaping. And I know that He will; God called us to spend 10 months preparing, to leave our children, travel over thousands of miles and caused us to fall in love with a people group... He did this not so this people group would perish, but so they could have eternal life with Him! I look at all these people... children and adults and I want them to be with us in heaven! They are all so precious! But they don't KNOW Christ and they don't KNOW salvation. I don't think that I will be able to live with myself if I don't play a part in bringing the gospel message to them.

"How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? How will they preach unless they are sent?" Romans 10:14-15. Can you see the spiritual battle being fought here? The battle for souls? Does the importance of their eternal souls cause me to question the relevance of my life here in the states? Does it make everyday stresses, problems, worries, fears, activities and our westernized life style seem trivial? Does it bring a new perspective to the heavenly purpose of our lives? You bet it does. I don't know exactly what will be asked of our family by the Father in the future. But I know that He will continue to reveal His will for us. I pray that we will be obedient to His will and that our spiritual family will also help us to determine our place in this war. I pray that if we are called to give, then we will give; if we are called to share, then we will share; if we are called to pray, then we will pray; and if we are called to go, then we will go.

We finished up before 10a.m. and we had about 1 1/2 hours before helimission was picking us up so we hiked on to Sakaharo. It was 3 miles away. The original plan was to go to a different village, but according to the locals, our village on the map had been abandoned and moved. We surveyed at Sakaharo where there were 32 + children living. Most of the people were gone getting the bones to celebrate the Famadihana. It is a 3 day celebration and they sacrifice zebu to the ancestors. There was no exposure here to the gospel.

But we did find out why all of the termite mounds we had seen hiking had their tops knocked off: the villagers feed the termites to the chickens. This village definitely seemed to be struggling more than previous ones. Their cattle had recently gotten some sort of illness and a bunch had died and their food sources didn't look real plentiful. Observing all of this and the general appearance of the village is what led Byron to ask about what they fed the chickens.

Helimission picked us up and I got to sit in the co-pilot's seat! This time our pilot was Beat from Switzerland. He and his wife (and 3 little kids) have been in Madagascar for 4 months now and hope to stay for about 10 years. He, too, was an amazing christian man and did a great job getting us back to the Ihosy airport safely.

This is a picture of Byron helping Beat and Marcus transfer some fuel at the "airport". We drove back to Antsirabe (8 hours) and finally got a hot shower! Here is an example of some of the scenery along the national road on the way back from Ihosy. Madagascar is such an amazing place and the scenery is indescribable; the pictures certainly don't even come close to portraying the landscape.