News from the bush

Hey Hey,
so we are back from our first stint in the bush, In Tamatave for
the next three days and wanted to send out an update / praise report
before next year. Our time in the bush has been incredible, we
absolutely felt the effects of your prayers as we were able to witness
in two different villages, encourage believers, teach the word, pray
for the sick and start a new church in the village of Ambodiambolo, at
least the villages name sounds like that.
An interesting observation I made during this weeks travels is that
the bridge situation in Madagascar is very similar to that of
Landenberg, for those of you not from Landenberg that means half the
bridges are closed and dont work, and the other half arent there all
of the time. Every few kilometers of driving into the bush we would
literally have to get out of our bush taxi, a pick up truck with
benches in the back, rebuild a broken down old bridge, then cross
over, watching the bridge we made fall apart again behind us. We had
one popped tire in our travels, but other than that everything went
really well.
Some interesting, and unexpected, highlights: 1. Cooking the
Christmas goose, lacking any meat for a Christmas meal, I sent Jason
and Cedric out to forrage, they returned with a rather tasty looking
goose, and I had to um... kill it, clean it and cook it over a coal
fire. Add some homemade bbq sauce made from wild honey harvested from
our neighbors bee hives, fresh fruit and vegitables and the ever
present side of rice, and it was quite the feast. 2. Being part of an
all night Christmas eve service in the village church. Each of us
shared pretty much everything we could think of remotely related to
Christmas and Jesus birth once we realized it was going to be a 10
hour meeting from sunset to sunrise, but we still had plenty of time
to learn some Madagassi praise and worship songs. 3. Planting a
church in the next village a few Km. down the road. Through the week
we visited a second village, encouraging the few christians to start a
church in their own village, they had been walking to our village for
church before. We did some evangelism there as well and friday we had
a worship and planning meeting with around 20 people who wanted to see
a church started in their village: 4. Fording a swolen jungle river
to do the first church service at Ambodiambolo. Friday when we went
to the planning meeting, the water in the little creek was barely up
to our knees. After heavy rain saturday, it looked like a completely
different river Sunday morning, and the muddy current came up to our
chests as we went across, holding dry clothes to preach in over our
heads. Im really glad to say this river is known to have crocodiles,
but unfortunately I have to admit the part of the river we were in
evidently doesnt really appeal to them... I guess thats a good thing.
Anyway, there were 35 people at the first church service in that
village, and they were all pretty amawed that a couple of Vazas, white
people, crossed the flooded river to do the service 5. Seeing the lame
walk. Friday at our church planning meeting we had a prayer time for
the sick. A little boy was carried up to the front, he had what
appeared to be a deformed hip, and couldnt walk at all or even stand
on that leg. Sunday morning he came to our church service walking on
his own. I still dont have an exclamation button, shane sent me one
to copy but I forgot; but I would have put one there if I could. Have
a wonderful new year everyone; God bless; and everyone at my parents
house tonight, I hopê they read this and say hello to you all. Miss
you all very much and looking forward to seeing you after my time
here,
In Christ,
Andrew