Prayer News

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The last extended prayer letter follows:

Prayer Letter July 2008

Dear Friends

"Many people had gathered and were praying." Acts 12:12

When Peter knocked at John Mark's mother's door in the dead of night, his arrival signalled a wonderful answer to the prayers of the Christians gathered there. We are so grateful to the many who alone, or in gatherings, bring the needs here in Mandritsara before the Lord in prayer. The Lord does hear and continues to answer, as we hope to show in this letter.

"What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear! What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer!" J. Scriven

HOLIDAY BIBLE CLUB

This year's children's Holiday Bible Club started on Saturday in the small village of Andovodava. Theophile had visited this, and six neighbouring villages, the previous week and also put out publicity on our Voice of the Good News radio station. We were amazed that around 500 children came! Theophile, Jaclin, Colette, Pierrette and a good number of new folk helped to run it - they said the children were extremely well behaved and listened attentively. All this, and the good weather, were a real answer to prayer. Please pray for the remaining 4 weeks - they are looking at the "I am's" of Jesus. 14 adults also attended and Mr Radesana taught them. He thinks there will be more in coming weeks.

VESICO-VAGINAL FISTULA.

This is an extremely miserable condition which occurs after very difficult childbirth, usually in young women of short stature having their first baby. The baby's head gets stuck in the mother's pelvis and causes necrosis of the wall of the bladder, so that the woman leaks urine night and day. The smell is most unpleasant and the woman often becomes a social outcast. You may remember that a few years ago Dr Adrien spent a month at the Fistula Hospital in Addis Ababa, learning the (difficult) technique to repair this leak. His skill in this has now become known to the local representative of the United Nations Population Fund, who recently arranged to send 3 women from the very South of Madagascar (Tulear) to Adrien for repair. The operations were completely successful and when Adrien went to Tana last week, he took two of them with him on the plane. The national TV news got to know about them, filmed them, and interviewed Adrien on the main evening news broadcast. He spoke clearly of the Lord's compassion for those in need, and of the Christian stand of the hospital. This was seen all over the country - and when Sarindra and Robert were in Mahajanga last week to see the container from Belgium through the customs, they found the folk from the transit company and the customs officer talking about it. They had made the connection with the Good News Hospital and this certainly helped them to look more favourably on the container!

LANGUAGE LEARNING

With 4 new short-term missionaries arriving in September, and others due early next year, we have been concerned about the best way to go about Malagasy language learning for them. Bako Rajaona is a lady from Tana who has been working with us for 5 years - first as a teacher in the Primary School, then as a Laboratory Technician. Her contract had come to an end at the end of June and she was thinking of leaving Mandritsara, whilst still feeling the needs here and particularly the burden the Lord has given her for children's outreach. She had already done some part-time teaching of Malagasy to short-termers, so we put before her the need for someone to consecrate themselves to full time language teaching. She has accepted our offer and we are absolutely delighted at this possibility for language training on the spot now. Bako is in Tana, preparing material now, and should be back here by early September.

VISAS

A week ago we put out an urgent plea for prayer about Jimmy's visa for Switzerland. When he applied he was told it would take 2 months. Last week it was over 5 months, and the Swiss Embassy in Antananarivo told him the application was blocked in Switzerland and they could do nothing to help it along. On Friday he visited the embassy and found the visa had just arrived - 3 days before they were booked to leave for Switzerland! Please pray for Jimmy and Marlis and their 2 children as they adapt to life in Switzerland and Jimmy starts his studies at Emmaus Bible School.

We would ask you now to pray for Dr Adrien and Gisele's visas for France, Belgium, Switzerland and the UK. It is a complicated, costly and time-consuming process. For example, for the UK visa they have to download forms from the internet, send them together with their passports and supporting documents to the "local" British Embassy (in Mauritius). Then they have to wait for the monthly visit of personnel from the office to come to Madagascar to register their fingerprints. For the Swiss visa, they have to have travel and health insurance for 50,000 Swiss Francs each, already in place before the embassy will accept their visa application!

Adrien and Gisele are currently in Tana working on all this - please pray that everything will be in place in time. Their programme is:

Sept 10 arrive Paris;
Sept 11-13 Tours;
Sept 14 Paris;
Sept 15 Lausanne;
Sept 16 Sion,
Sept 17-18 Thun;
Sept 19 Zurich
Sept 20-22 Mulhouse and Alsace;
Sept 23-26 Lille and Belgium;
Sept 27 London;
Sept 28 Chessington Evangelical Church;
Sept 29 Worthing and Lewes;
Oct 1 Morden and Summerstown;
Oct 2 Trinity Road Chapel, Tooting;
Oct 3-4 Sutton Bonington;
Oct 5 Saltisford (morning), Beeston Nottingham (evening)
Oct 7-10 Northern Ireland;
Oct 11 return to Madagascar

MORE ANSWERS TO PRAYER

• Our visit to UK in May/June was a great blessing to us, not only in seeing the family and old friends, but also in meeting folk we had not previously met who pray much for the work here.
• Our new 45kva generator arrived safely from Unimatco and is doing sterling service. (Town electricity is still a very variable feast - yesterday David did one of his sprints from the operating table to put on the generator when there was a sudden power cut).
• The hospital auditors were happy that the accounts were all in order, but have suggested helpful improvements we could make to certain procedures.
• Wood is now available again and good progress is being made on the new visitors' accommodation block (Oasis). Debbie Simpson, back from furlough in N Ireland, has moved into her flat and Robert & Christine hope to move into theirs in September.
• Elke, our Belgian midwife, and Doreth, our Malagasy midwife, have started outpatient midwifery services. We would ask you to pray for a third full time midwife to enable us to open the maternity block fully.
• The container sent from supporters in Belgium arrived in Mandritsara two days ago and has been unpacked today. There are many items for "Oasis" as well as a new autoclave (steam steriliser) for the operating theatre instruments and supplies. Another container is on the high seas from the USA - bringing medical equipment and supplies from Samaritan's Purse. We are so grateful for the generous help of those who have made these containers possible.
• Dr Marius, a young Christian Malagasy doctor, arrived last month to help cover these few months when many of our doctors are away.

NEW WORKERS EXPECTED

On 5 September, we are looking forward to the arrival of reinforcements to our team. Ted and Rachel Watts (trainee surgeon and doctor) and Anna Jones (nurse), all from Nottingham, are coming for one year; and Lucia Chaplin (school leaver) is coming to help for a few months before going to Nottingham to study medicine. In October we are expecting Miriam Scothern (nurse), and then early in 2009 we are looking forward to Mat and Katy Linley coming back as long-term missionaries supported by AIM.

In the next few months we also have 8 young people from TEAR Fund UK (Transform Team) coming for a month, a building team from Belgium and another team from Northern Ireland.

CHILDREN'S WEEK

Each day we are grateful for gifts from so many folk that help to keep the hospital and other ministries running. Looking back on the last seven days, for example, it almost seems that children have dominated the scene.

• A sixth month old girl had an ugly cleft lip repaired
• A girl of 8 had a malignant tumour removed from her abdomen that weighed more than 10% of her body weight (2kg)
• A 15 year-old girl suffered eclamptic fits in labour and arrived unconscious. She is due to go home tomorrow in good health with a bouncing baby, having had a Caesarean section.
• A boy of 12 arrived deeply unconscious after part of a tree fell and crushed his skull. He is slowly recovering.
• A boy of 13 had a severe degloving leg wound when he was run over by an ox-cart. He was able to walk with help today as he was discharged for follow-up as an outpatient.
• Adrien, a boy of 14, was gored by a bull's horn in his abdomen and needed an exploratory operation. Thankfully, though some of his "insides" had come out, there was no major internal damage.

FAMILY

We are most grateful for your prayers for us personally and for our family. Jane has had a number of medical challenges including a bout of Shingles in England in May. This past week she has had severe stomach pains and difficulty in eating. We think it is the result of a new drug against osteoporosis that she had been put on.

Rebecca, Chris and David in Cambridge are off to La Panne in Belgium this Saturday for 2 weeks of beach mission with Mission Vacances.

Ruth, Neil and Ginny, in Wimbledon, had the happy and safe arrival of Willow on May 1st. We are delighted that Neil's book "Keep Going" - for Christians struggling with doubts - has been published by P & R (Presbyterian and Reformed). We would appreciate your prayer for Neil who has had something of a recurrence of his Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and for him and for Ruth as they seek the Lord's way for future ministry.

Rachel is back in the UK after her two and a half years with a Christian team on a nearby Indian Ocean island to us. She is also seeking the Lord's way for her future and currently living in our flat in Tooting. In the short term she is seeking to get back into nursing and also hopes to do a course on Tropical Nursing.

Reuben and Hannah are spending two months in Dublin, standing in for a pastor who is away. Reuben would appreciate prayer for the preaching opportunities that are his there. He has one more year of theological studies to do at Oak Hill College in north London. They are seeking to know what the Lord would have them do after that.

FINALLY

We are thinking of proposing a new sport for the Olympic Games. This morning at 3am a girl of 16 with an abdominal infection arrived from a village 75km away. She had been "carried by four" like the paralysed man brought to Jesus. A team of 20 men left home with her at 11am yesterday and took turns, over hill and dale, to carry her here. What about a new sport called "carried by four"? 75km would be a good distance for a relay version, and perhaps 20km for a single team. We think that Madagascar would have a very strong chance of the gold medal!

Thank you for your continuing prayers and interest,

With our love,

David and Jane

Gifts for the project should be sent to Bryan Lumb, "The Potters House", 7 Hythe Road, WORTHING, West Sussex BN11 5DA. email: lumb@thepottershouse.co.uk

Please make out cheques to "Friends of Mandritsara Trust" (F.O.M.T.) Gift Aid forms are available.

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