Preparing for our First Overseas Trip in
2016
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| children praying at the Bethany School |
Unlike most of
the world our first connections with Madagascar weren't though the
'Dreamworks' cartoon films featuring the adventures of the Alex the
lion and his band of lemurs and penguins but via the visit
of a couple of amazing men to the Village of Hope in 2013.
As we showed them
around the project and the community where we worked there was a
spark of connection, similar thoughts with similar hearts to serve
and make a tangible difference. After further discussions with them
we decided to make a short visit to see the work they were involved
with in the east of what is the worlds fourth biggest island.
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| some of the team we will be working with |
In May 2014 we
made the long flight from Cape Town to Madagascar and spent a couple
of weeks with them, visiting their extensive projects and taking time
to share the Sports Outreach project that we had implemented in
Grabouw with 20 local youth workers. This was
an incredible privilege and somewhat
humbling experience, highlighted by the fact that a couple
of the young men had ventured for up to five hours through the
jungle rivers in dugout canoes to attend the programme, which we
hosted in a large church in the middle of Toamasina.
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| teaching youth workers in toamasina |
During our short trip we not only sowed seeds of hope and life into
the lives of over 20 young men and women who were keen to share the
love of God with the local children via the medium of football (which
we had seen work to great effect in South Africa) but we were able to
see the amazing work that Love 'n Care Ministries are
doing in this very very poor and needy nation.
We were able to visit the schools, street children and prison work
that had been set up by Cho (a missionary from South Korea) and his
team, as well as having the opportunity to travel down the inland
waterways (called the Pangalanes) to see the conditions of
remote communities who are only accessible by river, it really
was like stepping back in time.
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| travel along the pangalanes |
Madagascar is one of the poorest countries in
the world and after coming out of a five year coup, coupled with its
location in the middle of the India Ocean, set over 250 miles off of
the coast of Mozambique, it really has been left behind as
the world moves forward.
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| medical center along the pangalanes |
Our plan is to
return to Toamasina for three months in 2016, setting out from
England in the middle of February, we will be living and working
with Cho and the current Love 'n Care network to share the Emerging Leaders material with
them. In essence the material created by Emerging Leaders looks to
provide practical help and thoughts around leading your own
life, leading your family, leading your
finances and leading your community. We have
seen the difference that this material can have and we
are excited to invest in the people of Madagascar to help
them experience the hope that this programme offers, one person, one
family and one community at a time.
How can you help?
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| maz sharing with children in a local church! |
Our immediate needs are as follows, 1, financial support for
our (modest) living expenses whole we are training and preparing in
the UK between now and mid-February (our support from
Thembalitsha stopped in July and we have run out of funds to live
on!) 2, to purchase the car that we have has the use of since
returning to England in May. 3, to fund the costs of
the unfortunately expensive flights to and
from Antananarivo and then internally to Toamasina,
which we are looking to pay for during the next couple of
days!, and 4, our monthly living costs in Madagascar for the
three months from mid-February onward.
We would be really grateful if you could commit to supporting us in
once off gift and we have set up an online giving page (click here to follow that link) or
if you are a UK taxpayer and resident in the UK please send us
an email reply and we can explain how you can give
that way so as the gift aid can be reclaimed.
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