WEEKLY PRAYER UPDATES

Sunday 17th August 2008

Dear Friends

Hark, my soul! It is the Lord;
'Tis thy Saviour, hear His word;
Jesus speaks and speaks to thee,
"Say, poor sinner, lov'st thou Me?"

"I delivered thee when bound,
And, when bleeding, healed thy wound;
Sought thee wandering, set thee right,
Turned thy darkness into light."

"Thou shalt see My glory soon,
When the work of grace is done
Partner of My throne shalt be;
Say, poor sinner, lov'st thou Me?"

Lord! It is my chief complaint
That my love is weak and faint;
Yet I love Thee, and adore;
O for grace to love Thee more! (W Cooper)

We are grateful for these lines that express our longing, often feeble, to serve the Lord in a way truly worthy of Him.

We were both able to get to the Holiday Bible Club meeting at Andovodava yesterday afternoon. It would not be accessible by car in the rainy season as the "road" passes through several rice fields, among other obstacles. The village is delightfully set at the foot of a small hill overlooking a wide valley surrounded by more hills. In fact the village is not very big, but as we arrived groups of excited children were streaming in from the surrounding villages making a big group again. There had been a death in one of the villages so there were not so many adults. The little children met in the school classroom, and the older ones under a huge mango tree next to some large clumps of bamboo. What a joy it was to see the team playing with the children and then teaching the Bible lesson and missionary story. What a privilege to have folk like Theophile and Jaclin with the older children and Mme Radesana and Mme Lalao with the littles ones - the Lord has given them a real gift for this ministry. Next week will be the final meeting. Jane has a lot of work this week preparing 400 booklets to give to the children to remind them of the Bible truths they have learnt.
Lots of folk have been away at Kalandy this weekend for the gathering of the churches in this area. 26 new believers were baptised there today. We were very happy to hear that Maman'i Brizia from Befandriana did manage to get to the meetings. In fact there were folk from 36 different villages present. We hear that there were some very encouraging testimonies of the Lord at work. One of those baptised was a man in his 30's who had been a sorcerer. He had already gained 9 cows from his work as a sorcerer. But he had no peace in his heart - and then someone came to his village and preached the gospel - and he believed and left all his witchcraft behind. Another was a lady in her 70's who is almost deaf. She had been possessed for many years by "Tromba" - a kind of evil spirit. Then she had met Christians who had explained the gospel to her and she had been delivered from the Tromba and was now following Jesus.
Today was also the fortnightly Befandriana trip. Dr Adrien, Dr Hanitra and Sarindra went. Although Brizia and her mother were not there, there were 29 children and 13 adults. Please pray that more men would start to attend.
Adrien was then picked up by a bush taxi going to Tana. He will be away now until mid October. On Tuesday he and Gisele have an appointment in Tana with a representative from the British High Commission in Mauritius to take their "biometrics". No, they are not competing in the Olympics, only visiting the UK! We are waiting to hear whether "biometrics" is just finger prints, or what it is! After that they will continue the procedures for getting visas for Switzerland and France/Belgium.
Vital, our driver, has been away on leave for the past couple of weeks or so. He will be back at work tomorrow, but will then be off to drive the Land Rover to Tana on Tuesday. He will take Pastor Julien and some others from here, then pick up Adrien and others in Tana to go to the annual meetings of the Association of Baptist Churches which start on Thursday at Ambositra, between Antsirabe and Fianarantsoa. He will return from Tana next week bringing various new workers. Please pray for safety in all this driving.
Robert is still away in Tana having dental treatment - due back mid week. Elke has just arrived back after being away on holiday with her parents. Seheno also arrived back from Tana - her father is improved in health. The 3 Northern Irish medical students left yesterday for a few days on Nosy Be.

With love from us both here and sincere thanks for your prayers

David and Jane

Sunday 10th August 2008

Dear Friends

"Who is my neighbour?" Luke 10:29
"A man was...half dead" v.30
"A priest ...passed by on the other side" v.31
"So too, a Levite...passed by on the other side" v.32
"But a Samaritan, when he saw him...took pity on him" v.33

On Thursday morning, just after 6, David was doing the daily ward round before a long operating list. A young white lady burst into the ward, out of breath. She is an American Peace Corps volunteer that works out in one of the villages. She had been passing nearby on her morning jog. "Excuse me, but there is a man lying unconscious in the road, dribbling from his mouth. I think he might be sick." David quickly jumped in the Land Rover and set off down the road with the young lady to the place, only a short distance from the hospital, where the man was lying. A group of 30 or 40 local folk were standing round "on the other side" peering at him. One was someone who comes to our church. The hospital nightwatchman had also just passed by on his way home. No-one had thought of coming to get help to bring him to the hospital, apart from the foreigner. How accurate the parable was! The man was very cold, breathing shallowly and deeply unconscious - he had evidently fallen there in a drunken stupor during the night. David took him back to the hospital and tested his blood sugar. It was 1,1 mmol/L - extremely low. But for the action of the Good Samaritan, perhaps he would shortly have passed into a lost eternity. As it was, after a large glucose injection he woke up and by lunchtime, after Mr Radesana had explained the gospel to him, he was able to go home.

The parable was in our minds that day - it was easy to criticise those who "passed by". But sometimes, when faced with many demands, it is easy for us to find excuses to do the same thing and ignore those in need. Thank you for praying that we might be "Good Samaritans" to the many needy folk, medically and spiritually, whose paths we cross day by day.

The third meeting of the holiday Bible club took place yesterday. It was a warm and sunny day with no wind. Again there were around 500 children present, and this time 33 adults. Please pray for Mr Radesana who has been teaching these adults. Jane is working on a little booklet to give to the children on the last Saturday that will have all the memory verses (5 "I am's" of Jesus) and little versions of the pictures they have had. Quite a lot of photocopying/cutting/stapling!
Next weekend there is a "Fivoriam-be" (big gathering) at Kalandy, 25 km along the main road. Folk from all the churches and cell groups associated with the Baptist church and the hospital will be coming for 3 days of meetings. A number of folk from various villages are due to be baptised there. Please pray for the organisation of this and for the Bible teaching that Pastor Julien and others will be giving. Please pray too that some of those who attend the small group in Befandriana that we visit each fortnight, may be able to come - it is quite far for them (90km) but would be a great encouragement for them.
Dr Adrien returned from Tana last night. There are a number of patients awaiting him - children with club feet and women with vesico-vaginal fistulae who have come from far to be operated on. He will probably only be here for a week before needing to return to Tana to work on his visas for the Europe trip.
Dr Solondraibe also returned from leave this week. His wife Anja and their new baby (they are doing well) will follow on the next MAF flight.
Robert has gone to Tana today - he is in urgent need of dental treatment. Seheno (Francis wife) went to Tana last week with her 4 small children to look after her father. There are other family members nearby, but her father insisted that she came. Please pray for her and for Francis, here with the TEAR Fund Transform team.
We have been a little tired this week, but the Lord gives encouragements. On Thursday evening about 6pm, David was just doing the 9th operation of the day - a man of 84 with a hernia. The man was under spinal anaesthesia so was wide awake. Pierrette Marthe was the Nursing Assistant at the "top end" of the table while David operated. What a blessing to hear her talking to this man as if he were her grandfather, explaining the gospel to him and urging him to seek the Lord while there was still time.

With love from us both here and sincere thanks for your prayers

David and Jane

Monday 4th August 2008

Dear Friends

"When the Lord saw her, He had compassion on her..." Luke 7:13

Some sights are profoundly touching. This morning as we were about to leave the hospital to go to church, an oxcart was being pulled into the hospital forecourt. The oxen had been unhitched at the gate, and a couple of men were manoeuvring the cart towards the hospital waiting area. On it, lying literally "on a bed of straw", was a young woman (Angeline, aged 17 we later found out) and a small baby, born 12 hours previously in a village. The placenta had failed to come out and was still stuck inside the mother's womb. She was very pale and weak and had obviously bled a lot. They had left their village at 2 in the morning. There is no moon at present and the nights are very dark. To watch the young husband and parents of the girl helping lift her on to the hospital trolley - we were moved with compassion. How different from ours are the lives of these village folk. What difficulties they have to cope with in their every day lives. Of course we see scenes like this almost every day, but we appreciate your prayers that we may never become "used" to it, or fail to feel compassion. And more than that, that we may feel compassion for the many spiritually lost folk that we see around us every day, bound in sin and without hope. May we be able to communicate to all such, the compassion and love of the One who said "Come unto me, all you who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Matt 11:28

The second holiday Bible club meeting took place yesterday at Andovodava and again there were around 500 children present, and 21 adults. Colette, who has been teaching the story, had to suddenly go to Tana for a family reason this weekend, but we are so thankful that Ruhamah, one of the newer assistant nurses, who was recently baptised, stood in and did very well. There will be meetings for the next 3 Saturdays.
Today David should have gone to Befandriana with the team, but could not leave Mandritsara with Adrien away. So Sarindra preached, Farlin led the service and Dr Hanitra taught the children. There were 13 adults and 17 children today. We were encouraged recently when Naina, who alternates with Hanitra in going to teach the children, said how well the children remembered the previous lesson when she went 2 weeks ago.
A team of 8 young people from Tear Fund UK arrived by road with Dr Francis and the Community Health team this weekend. They have about 3 weeks here working with the Community Health team - please pray for them as they adapt and that the experience might be a blessing and a challenge for them.
The new autoclave (steam steriliser) which came in the container from Belgium, was taken to the Autoclave room on Monday. It was a couple of millimetres too wide to go through the door! But Robert and his men were able to remove a steel facing, so that it just went in with a millimetre or two to spare! Now comes the installation - plumbing and wiring it in. - and starting it up - please pray for that.
Adrien and Gisele are still in Tana working on their visas and a number of other matters. Please pray that they will be able to obtain the visas they need - and get back to Mandritsara before too long. We have had quite a busy spell in the operating theatre this weekend including 5 Caesareans so far this month (starting at 2 am on the 1st!). Sadly only two produced living babies - the rest had been neglected out in their villages and came only after the babies had died and infection set in. We are glad to report that Angeline is doing well this evening, having had the placenta removed, and a bag of blood from one of our ward orderlies (her Hb was 4g%).
Thank you for praying for Jane. Her stomach problems have settled down and she is almost back to a normal diet. She is busy working on Sunday school lessons and materials as usual!

With love from us both here

David and Jane

July 2008 Prayer Letter

Sunday 20th July 2008

Dear Friends

We have been in Antananarivo for the weekend where it was COLD. Tana is much higher than Mandritsara, and is always several degrees colder. Fortunately we have woolly hats and a hot water bottle! The reason for our visit was to attend Fianarana's wedding yesterday (to Hana - we spelt her name wrongly last week). It was a happy occasion and a time for singing praise to the Lord for His goodness. We flew back to Mandritsara today and Dr Adrien has gone straight off to Tana, so David is back to being sole surgeon/anaesthetist again. As Dr Hanitra and Dr Francis are also away, David is sharing the night call with just Dr Marius for the next 10 days or so.

URGENT prayer item. At the wedding we met Jimmy and Marlis. They left Mandritsara a week ago to prepare for their move to Switzerland next week. They are going so that Jimmy can study at Emmaus Bible School in preparation for the project at Maintirano. They applied 5 months ago for a visa for Switzerland for Jimmy for "regroupement familial". They were told there would be no problem and the visa normally takes 2 months. With only a week before they are due to leave (tickets booked and paid for) the visas have not come and the embassy here have told them there is nothing they can do to help - the blockage is in Switzerland. Please pray for a rapid resolution of the problem.
Next Saturday will be the first day of the Children's Holiday Bible Club at Andovodava ( we also spelt it wrongly last week!). Theophile and a team of helpers visited 6 Andovodava and 6 neighbouring villages this Saturday to give out invitation leaflets and put up notices announcing the club. Many children said they would come! A good number of helpers met last Wednesday for the first preparation meeting - including several who have just been baptised and others who have not been invloved before. Please pray for the Lord's blessing, that there might be a real interest in the gospel message. Please pray too for the weather - sometimes it is very windy and drizzly at this time of year.
The container from Belgium is still in the port at Mahajanga. As usual the paperwork has taken longer than expected. We are hoping to get it out this week. Please pray that they will not demand to open everything up - the man who packed it in Belgium is a carpenter and he fixed everything so that it would not shake about suring the journey. He used wood, plywood and a thousand screws we understand! So we sincerely hope we do not have to undo them all at the port!
On 16 March we reported that Mr Martin of SALFA in Tana had been unable to fix our Xray machine. This weekend he came again, to put in a new part that had been sent from the USA. Sadly he discovered another part that needed replacing - and this morning we trawled electronics shops in Tana to find the part, but we could not get the right one, so Mr Martin has gone back to Tana again. We still have the original old US Army field Xray unit which Theophile is using, but it cannot do some of the Xrays that we need to be able to do. Please pray that we may be able to solve this technical problem.
Dr Adrien and Olivier are in Tana for meetings this week with leaders of the Association of Bible Baptist Churches to look at a new organisational structure for the hospital and other projects - that is to say restructuring the hospital board and management committee. It will be good to examine the way we do things and to see if there are ways we can improve. Please pray for these discussions. As well as that, Adrien and Gisele will be applying for their visas to visit France, Belgium, Switzerland and UK in September. The forms and documents they need are quite daunting. Please pray that the Lord may open the doors for them.
We are glad to say that we now have internet up and running in Mandritsara. It is very SLOW, but much better than nothing.

On Sunday we were in Ankadivato church in Tana. As we said to the folk after ther service, there are 2 things we always appreciate there: a. In the open prayer time before the service, there are always folk who pray for Mandritsara, and b, We always sing some hymns that do not seem to be known in Mandritsara!

Thank you for your prayers for us and the Lord's work here this week.

With our love

David & Jane

Sunday 6th July 2008

Dear Friends

We are happy to be back in Mandritsara after our visit to the UK. It was a great joy to be with all our children and grandchildren and to attend the dedication service in Cambridge for our grandson David.The Mandritsara prayer day on 31 May was very well attended - over 100 present for 3 hours of prayer and this was an enormous encouragement to us, particularly with so many younger folk there. It was a terrific encouragement too to visit Jersey and find folk that we have never met, but who have faithfully prayed for us for 28 years, and do so every day.

Now we are happy to be involved once more in the work of the gospel and the medical work the Lord has called us to here in Mandritsara.

Today was a baptismal service when 13 women and 5 men were baptised in the church in Mandritsara. Several of these gave testimony of how they had previously been given to worshipping idols and fetishes, but were now following the Lord Jesus Christ. Please pray that they will grow in their faith and stand firm in their witness.
Today David, Dr Hanitra and Bako went to Befandriana for the 5th visit there. Two months ago for the first visit there were 9 adults and 13 children. Today this had grown to 15 adults and 22 children. The adults were all most attentive to the message, and the children keen to hear the Sunday school lesson.
This is the last week in Mandritsara for Jimmy and Marlis and family. They will be leaving on Friday and going to Switzerland for Jimmy to attend Emmaus Bible School in preparation for our proposed project in Maintirano. Please pray for them and little Mario and Tanya as they take this big step of faith.
Matt and Sarah Sherratt, with baby Hannah, are currently on a brief visit here from England. Matt was here 4 years ago as a medical student and is now a trainee anaesthetist in the Midlands. Please pray for them as they seek the Lord's will for their future.
Katie McDermott, Hayley Doherty, Naomi Shanks, medical students from Northern Ireland, arrived today for 2 months elective. Actually David found them in Befandriana together with Debbie who had gone to Tana to collect them. They were quite tired from travelling like sardines in a minibus taxi, so transferred to the Land Rover to come from Befandriana to Mandritsara. Please pray as they settle in.
Dr Anja, our dentist, left on MAF for Tana on Thursday to await their baby, due in August. However things happened rather faster than expected due to an undiagnosed placenta praevia, and she gave birth to a little girl, Valisoa, on Friday night by Caesarean section. Dr Solondraibe, Anja's husband, was floating on clouds of delight yesterday and has gone straight to join her in Tana. We are delighted for them as last year their first baby had congenital abnormalities and did not survive. However this leaves our team of doctors a bit depleted again, though we are thankful for a new doctor, Dr Marius, who joined us temporarily from Mahajanga last month. Dr Francis is also away this month and Dr Hanitra will leave for a training course in Antsirabe on Friday.
Jane, who was not well for a lot of the time in England due to shingles, is much better and we praise the Lord for that. Sunday school has closed for the holidays, but on Wednesday Jane will meet with those interested in planning this year's village Holiday Bible Club for later this month and in August.

Thank you so much for your prayers.

With every blessing

David & Jane

Sunday 18th May 2008

Dear Friends

This weekend has been a heavy one in the hospital. The operating theatre team on call (myself plus three Aide-soignantes) and lab technician on call (Bako) were up the whole night Friday night with three Caesarean section patients. The first had a ruptured uterus and needed a hysterectomy. The second had a bleeding placenta praevia. The operation was not a problem, but she evidently had a blood clotting abnormality which meant that she continued to bleed after the operation. When I returned from taking the team home after the operation at 2 in the morning, she had bled considerably into the bed and I had to collect the team again and do a hysterectomy on her as well. We had just finished that when a third lady needing a (straightforward!) Caesarean section arrived. Near the end of that two of us actually fell asleep momentarily while stood up at the operating table! Dr Adrien worked for me for the rest of the morning, and had another Caesarean section to do later in the morning. Two of the aide-soignantes were still on call and had to come back again! This patient also bled a lot towards the end of the operation and so Bako was back to crossmatch blood for her as well as for a woman with a bleeding stomach ulcer in the afternoon and until late in the evening. No family donors were suitable for this lady and so I had another trip into town to collect our Xray technician, (Theophile) and his son (Rija who is a medical student in Mahajanga). They are part of our emergency blood donor team (I had already given blood in the middle of Friday night, and Bako a couple of days earlier!). Bako has crossmatched 15 bags of blood in the past 3 days.
At 3am this (Sunday) morning I was called to see the wife of Ndrolahy, one of the hospital gardeners, who had just been brought in from their village near the hospital. In the candle-lit ward I did not notice the baby lying between her legs in the bed and asked in Malagasy "What is the problem?" A relative replied "She has just had a baby, but some luggage was left behind!" She had a retained placenta, to which the baby was still attached! So I made my 12th and 13th trips into town to collect the theatre team and then take them back after removing it. Please pray for Dr Adrien who will be the only surgeon here for the next 5 weeks or so, and Dr Jeannine who will be the only anaesthetist. So far we still have not found any doctor free to come to cover my absence, even for outpatients.

Next Sunday, 25th May, there will be 11 new Christians being baptised in Antanjano, a village 10km away where Zoky Solo has been visiting for the past couple of years. Robert and Christine Blondeel, and Sarindra, will be going to Befandriana for the second visit there. Pastor Julien said today that there are now 38 villages in the district with groups of Christians meeting. The fields are white unto harvest but the labourers are few - please pray for all involved in this village outreach.

Our new generator from Unimatco in the UK arrived on a truck yesterday. Electricity from the town company continues to be a very variable feast so we are very glad indeed to have this second generator. Please pray for Robert as he installs it.next to the other generator.

In June Mirjam Roost, our Swiss nurse who has been here for a year, will be leaving. This leaves us without any trained nurse to be in charge of the inpatient ward during the next couple of months or so. Please pray that we might be able to cope for those 2 or 3 months. It would be great if there was a nurse able to come and cover that period. In September we have Anna Jones and Miriam Scothern, who have already spent a year here, coming back and we praise the Lord for that.

We are just making plans for Dr Adrien and Gisele's visit to Europe in September and hope to be in touch shortly with a provisional plan.

I am due to leave here on Thursday May 22 with a MAF charter flight - and arrive in London on Saturday 24th God willing. The Mandritsara Prayer Day is set for 2.15pm - 5.15pm at Trinity Road Chapel London SW17 7HW on Saturday 31 May. There will be a buffet lunch beforehand at 12.30. We look forward to seeing many there. Jane and I also hope to be at a meeting to speak about Mandritsara at Quennevais Evangelical Church, Jersey on the evening of Wednesday 18 June.

With every blessing

David

Be with me, Lord, where'er I go;
Teach me what Thou wouldst have me do;
Suggest whate'er I think or say;
Direct me in the narrow way.

Work in me lest I harbour pride,
Lest I in my own strength confide;
Show me my weakness, let me see
I have my power, my all, from Thee.

Assist and teach me how to pray;
Incline my nature to obey;
What Thou abhorrest let me flee,
And only love what pleases Thee.

John Cennick 1718-55

Sunday 11th May 2008

Dear Friends

We are so thankful for your prayers this past week. The Lord has wonderfully answered.

Befandriana trip. At 5.30 this morning, Dr Hanitra, Mr Farlin, Mirjam Roost, Andrew Beckham (elective medical student) and David set out for Befandriana. It takes just over 3 hours and we were delighted when we arrived to find a group waiting for us. Some had said we would not come because it is a holiday weekend - but we had 5 ladies, 3 teenage girls, a young man and 13 children - all very enthusiastic - in the house of Maman'i Brizia. So we were much encouraged. Farlin led the meeting, David preached and Hanitra took the children for Sunday school during the sermon. The children started with the first lesson on creation and David preached on Matt.11:28 "Come to me all you who labour and are heavy laden - put my yoke on you...and you will find rest for your souls".
They asked us to bring Bibles and hymn books for them to buy next time. When we arrived back in Mandritsara, Farlin wanted to speak to us and said how it was the first time he had been part of a team taking the gospel outside Mandritsara. He had been quite anxious about it, he said, but was full of praise to the Lord for how He had helped us.

Thank you for praying for the 10th anniversary celebrations for the Good News School. At the very beginning there were just 5 pupils in different classes - two sons of Dr Adrien, the oldest son of Theophile, and the children of Soary and Bina who ran the school then. The first actual intake of new pupils - 10 years ago - was of 10 children at the beginning of primary - and Claudia was the teacher. Now there are 252 children in primary school and 30 in secondary. So there was much to praise God for this weekend. Soary and Bina came back to praise the Lord with us, as did a number of former pupils. The school library was inaugurated, stocked with books sent by Estelle Ropp's church and contacts in France.

Part of the 10th anniversary week was the teaching sessions by Roger and Hanta from Tamatave. They spoke on 3 evenings, for parents of children at EBN on the subject of bringing up children. Many parents came and some requested a personal talk with Roger and Hanta to address their particular needs.

During the weekend celebrations, several of our personnel received service medals from the government - Dr Adrien, Dr Jeannine, Dr Hanitra, Mr Olivier, Mme Vololoniony (Head nurse), Mme Marline (lab assistant) and Mme Berthine (Aide Soignante)

We were happy to welcome Debbie Simpson back from furlough on Friday night. She has moved into her new flat in the Oasis guest house at the hospital. Please pray for her as she adapts back into the work here. Stephen Alcorn, a Northern Irish medical student at Oxford arrived at the same time.

The patient of the week has been a lady of 25 called Rasoa from Ambodiadabo Maintsokely. Back in 1995 or 1996 when we were still running the clinic by the airstrip and before the hospital was opened, we had a young man named Ernest from that village. He had fetishes around his neck, his arms and his legs. From him we learnt not only that Ambodiadabo Maintsokely is very far away, but that it is very dark spiritually. We have always had a burden that the gospel should reach that village. So we are always particularly interested in patients from there. Rasoa had a large abdominal mass, anaemia and fever when she arrived on Friday. When we operated we found she actually had 3 conditions, any one of which would have been sufficient for us to operate on her. She had a slowly leaking ectopic pregnancy on the left side. Over a litre of blood clots had accumulated in her pelvis. She also had an ovarian cyst the size of an orange on the other side. Neither of these however accounted for her fever. We then found that her right Fallopian tube was full of smelly pus! She had come to the hospital with her husband. There are no roads or vehicles going to Ambodiadabo Maintsokely, so we asked her husband how they had come. The answer was that he had carried her on his shoulders - for two long and painful days he had walked - all the way here. It is difficult to imagine who suffered the most on the journey! The husband has certainly given an example of human love. Please pray that while they are with us they might both come to understand the love of God and the way of salvation from sin.

A big and urgent need for prayer is for a doctor to cover for the time that David will be away (he leaves just 10 days from now). If he or she could stay to cover absences of other doctors that would be great.

Thank you for praying for us.

With every blessing

David

Sunday 4th May 2008

Dear Friends

I have just come back from taking the evening service in the ward. I have some pictures of the story of the Prodigal Son, with the text in the local Tsimihety dialect. The message is so appropriate for the folk here. One of the patients who was admitted today for example is a man of about 50 sent to us by the government hospital. He has severe jaundice and was developing signs of intestinal obstruction. Fortunately we have not yet had to operate on him as he would be a poor operative risk. He is a man who has wasted his life on drink and so on - very like the prodigal son. He was there with 5 or 6 visitors including his brother - formerly the member of parliament for Mandritsara. This afternoon a man of 43 was carried in to the bed just next to him. He had been at an all night party in another village - and was riding home, drunk, on a motor bike without helmet, when he rode off the road and crashed. He was dead on arrival. Thank you for praying for us as we seek to witness to the love of Jesus Christ and the salvation He brings to us sinners.

Saturday 10 May will be the 10th anniversary celebrations of the Ecole Bonne Nouvelle. The programme of activities already began yesterday with a march through the town and opening words from the mayor. On Wednesday to Friday evenings, Roger and Hanta, who run a Christian orphanage and school in Tamatave, will be here for meetings for teachers and parents - on bringing up children. On Saturday there will be a special service in the church. Please pray for the witness especially to those parents who are not Christians.
Some of the HVM board members (David Ratovo, Alfred Ranaivoarisoa) will be coming this week for an "Extraordinary" meeting of the board to prepare for the annual meeting, probably in July. There are always important matters to be discussed affecting the strategy, staffing, financing etc of the project.
Today Mr Christin, head of security at HVM, was operated on in Antsirabe for peritonitis. He is currently in Antsirabe attending the annual Bible school training. Please pray for him and his wife who is here in Mandritsara.
MAF will be here this week and are bringing some visitors from AIM to see the work in Mandritsara.
Estelle Ropp is due to leave on the MAF flight - returning to France until October. Please pray for Dr Jeannine too who will carry all the responsibility for the rest of the term at the nursing school.
An unwanted night-time visitor tried to break into Estelle's bedroom through the window on Friday night. He ran off when Estelle cried out and now we have placed a watchman there for the night. Thank you for praying for the security situation.
Mirjam Roost's (Swiss nurse) parents are currently visiting - they will leave with MAF. Mirjam has another couple of months left here.
Debbie Simpson (N Ireland Lab Tech) is due back this week - she is in Antsirabe for a couple of weeks brushing up her Malagasy. She is coming by road with a visiting medical student.
Willow Rachel Martin was safely born on 1st May in St George's Hospital Tooting. Granny Jane, now recovered from her shingles, was delighted to be present. Grandad David is looking forward to seeing her in 3 weeks! All is well and we are full of praise to the Lord for His goodness.
Next Sunday, May 11, is due to be our first trip to Befandriana to hold a service (see last week's news). Thank you for praying for that.

Thank you so much for your prayers

With warmest greetings

David

"How can it be, Thou heavenly King,
That Thou shouldst us to glory bring;
Make slaves the partners of Thy throne,
Decked with a never-fading crown?

Ah, Lord, enlarge our scanty thought,
To know the wonders Thou hast wrought;
Unloose our stammering tongues, to tell
Thy love immense, unsearchable."

Translated by John Wesley

Sunday 27th April 2008

Dear Friends

Last week we mentioned going to Befandriana to look for a place to start meetings in the hope of one day having a church there. Thank you for praying - the Lord went before us and on Wednesday I went with Pastor Julien and one other man to visit Befandriana. The road is open now, but the sections which were problems in the rainy season were evident and the road needs a lot of work to prevent it becoming much worse next rainy season. We visited Maman'i Brizia (Brizia's mother). Brizia is the 5 year old girl who suffered fractures to both her femurs and multiple jaw fractures and face wounds, when knocked over by a motorbike a year ago. She lives 4km from the centre of Befandriana, on the main road, in an area which is rapidly developing, but has no church of any kind at present. Six other women came to the house and a number of children, all eager that we should start to visit to hold services. We decided that to start with we would meet in Maman'i Brizia's house and the children outside uder a tree. So as not to lose the momentum, it seemed best to us to start the meetings this Sunday, and so we organised the team - Dr Hanitra to teach the children, Mr Farlin to lead, and me to preach (I prepared a message on Matt. 11:28-29 "Come unto me, all you who are weary and burdened"). Yesterday, however, we got news that the Pont Sofia bridge would be closed for 5 days starting today - for repairs! So now we have rearranged our first visit for 11 May. We were sorry to find that Brizia had fallen over during the rainy season and was limping again - so we brought her and her mother back to Mandritsara for Xray - which showed that she had refractured one leg. It has now reunited, but an inch shorter than the other one. Instead of coming back to Befandriana with us today, as originally planned, mother and child came to church here - which was a blessing for all to see them.
We are glad that Dr Hanitra (eye doctor) came back from some management training she had been doing in Tana this week, and Sarindra (maintenance man) came back from some training in medical equipment maintenance. On Friday Dr Francis's wife Seheno gave birth to their fourth girl, with no problems. We rejoice in God's blessing to them.
We appreciate your prayers for continued financial support for the project. This weekend I have been doing some financial figures and notice that the value of a pound sterling has fallen by 20% in the past 3 years - so we need �125 for what �100 would have bought 3 years ago. More than that, inflation here makes the situation much worse still. The cost of a bottle of gas for the kitchen or hospital, if converted to pounds sterling, is two and a half times what it was 3 years ago. Cement, wood, electricity, diesel and many other items, as well as salaries, have all risen considerably. In fact most of the price increases have been in the past year. Even though we have scarcely increased our charges to patients, and certainly not in line with the cost increases, more and more of our patients are unable to pay. We are grateful for Matt.6:33 and ask you to pray that we might trust the Lord to supply according to the need.
Yesterday was an HVM wedding - Armel, one of the nursing school students who previously worked in the operating theatre, married Fara, one of the assistant nurses. There were 3 parts - the official wedding in the town hall, then the church wedding, and finally the reception at a hotel in town.
Last weekend there was a campaign by the government health authorities to destroy stray dogs in the town. We have counted 24 dogs sleeping in the road when driving around town at night to collect the theatre team. Rabies is a continuous threat - we have had two patients with rabies this year (it is always fatal). Apparently 200 dogs were killed - and certainly the nights seem a bit quieter since then!
Thank you for praying for Jane in London with shingles. She is very tired and still has the rash and difficulty sleeping, so we appreciate your continued prayers. The birth of Ruth and Neil's baby is now a week overdue, but all is well apart from Ruth's backache.

Thank you so much for your prayers

With warmest greetings

David

"Jesus, Thou sovereign Lord of all,
The same through one eternal day,
Attend Thy feeblest followers' call,
And O instruct us how to pray!
Pour out the supplicating grace,
And stir us up to seek Thy face." ( Charles Wesley)

Sunday 20th April 2008

Dear Friends

I was very encouraged this week reading a Spurgeon sermon on Simon of Cyrene. Spurgeon speaks of God's amazing timing for Simon - a man who had come so far - perhaps specifically to attend the Jewish passover. Perhaps his trip has been planned for many months - and he is just crossing the road in Jerusalem, so very far from home, at the exact moment when the Roman soldiers are looking for someone to carry Jesus's cross. Divine Providence! What an encouragement it is when unexpected, unplanned, unscheduled events occur, to know that God has planned our lives to the second. We need not be discouraged, whatever may happen. It may be in the most unsought-after incident that we will find we are brought closest to the Lord Jesus and pressed into His service. In all things, and at every moment, He is in perfect control.

It is very encouraging to see the way the gospel is spreading from village to village in the district. This weekend we have seen evidence of this:
- The small village groups (around 8 of them) in the Kalandy area (25km NW of Mandritsara) have organised a weekend of meetings together in Kalandy. Pastor Julien was there yesterday evening and said there were 200 folk attending. Some of the groups are very small - but by having this kind of local fellowship of churches it really helps support them - and the great thing is that these meetings (and other similar ones take place in other parts of the district) are entirely locally inspired and organised and not dependent on any organisation from Mandritsara.
- 3 couples and another man from a village in the district of Befandriana (100km NW of here) came to Mandritsara this weekend specially to visit the church. One of the men is the leader of the cell group in his village - he was here for the two weeks of Bible training last October - and he wanted to bring some of his new fellow Christians to see the Mandritsara church.
We have been praying for some time about the possibility of starting a witness in Befandriana itself (116km). This is the next town and administrative district to Mandritsara. Today we asked who in the church would be willing to form a team (hopefully two teams) to go there once a month (with two teams we can go once a fortnight). The following have expressed an interest: Farlin, Diamondra, Flavien and his wife and Naina. The plan is for Robert to go with one team and I would go with the other team. Please pray for a few others to join us - particularly one or two who can teach the children. Julien and I hope to go to Befandriana in the next week or so to contact the folk we know there, and to find a place to hold the meetings.

The new generator from England is now out of customs and ready to be trucked to Mandritsara. So far the Sofia bridge is not able to take laden trucks - they have still been carrying items across the bridge by hand to trucks waiting on this side. Since the generator weighs almost a ton, we will have to wait until the trucks can actually drive across. Please pray that this might be soon.
Jane has been mentioning a pain in her hip and leg since leaving Mandritsara - it was troublesome on the plane, and then kept her awake all Thursday night. Friday morning she developed a patch of blisters on the skin - and realised she was suffering from shingles. Since the timing of her arrival in England was to be on hand to help with the arrival of Ruth and Neil's new baby (due date today!), and since that means helping look after little Ginny - this was definitely not a sought after event! Please pray for Jane's recovery, and that Ruth and Neil will be able to find that the Lord has another plan in mind to cope with baby 2's arrival.

Thank you for your prayers

With warmest greetings

David

Sunday 13th April 2008

Dear Friends,

It is a slightly weary David writing this Sunday afternoon. Weary, though very conscious of the Lord's help and strength.

With Dr Hanitra, our eye doctor, away this week, there are always some challenging eye patients. We already had a boy sent from Antsohihy at the beginning of the week with a dreadful eye injury - I removed the eye on Tuesday. On Friday it was a man from Befandriana with a similar injury, so I took the eye out the same morning.

Then we had a girl of 14, Charline, who had fallen from a Rotra fruit tree (the black/dark purple fruit - a big tree but the branches are not strong and every year children fall out of them) and injured her abdomen. She had a ruptured spleen and we spent the latter part of the afternoon doing a splenectomy. When we had finished I explained to the father what we had done. He asked if he could see the spleen. When we showed it to him he almost cried and could not stop thanking God for saving his child. I am not sure if they are believers or not, but here is an opportunity for all the family to hear the gospel.

Later that evening a lady of 22, Rasoanety, arrived from a distant village with an abdominal problem that had been going on for some days. She was not in good shape and I thought had a ruptured ectopic pregnancy. We resuscitated her then took her to theatre and did a laparotomy. In fact she had an extensive pelvic abscess with 800ml of pus in the abdomen. When we reversed her at the end of the operation she was very sluggish to breathe and deeply unconscious although we had used very small doses of drugs. After half an hour she was still unable to maintain the oxygenation of her blood and with her breathing pattern I expected her to die there on the operating table. I informed the relatives that her situation was very bad and that probably she would die soon. I decided to reintubate her and ventilated her for another two hours. By 2am she was able to breathe on her own but still deeply unconscious. We decided to put her back in the ward on oxygen, but leave the endotracheal tube in place. I expected to be called within the hour to say she had died. In fact by 7am she was beginning to move and at 8am we took the tube out. By this afternoon she is sitting up in bed and talking! Please pray for her and her family as they hear the gospel message. They all know how close to death she came.

Last night was time to catch up on sleep - but a girl of 18 arrived in labour - previous Caesarean section - so needing a Caesarean section this time too. She was followed by a girl of 17 in labour - referred by a midwife and needing a Caesarean section. So after getting to bed only at 3am two nights in succession - that is why I say "a bit weary!"

Dr Francis arrived back safely from Tana this morning - Seheno has not yet given birth.
The Radenis bus came through from Tana yesterday - so the truck should start to get through now.
World Medical Mission - part of Samaritan's Purse - have just contacted to say they are sending a container full of medical equipment and supplies to us - due to leave USA on 26 May. We have given them a "wish list" including things like oxygen concentrators, operating instrument sets, theatre drapes and many other things that we urgently need. We are very graeful to the Lord for this provision.
The audit by ACOR was completed this week and the team has returned to Tana to prepare their report. I think they will have some very helpful advice for us.
Jane arrived safely in London yesterday afternoon after a good journey. Thank you for praying for her. She is fine but also a little weary and will appreciate your prayers for the next few weeks.

Thank you for your prayers

With warmest greetings

David

Sunday April 6th 2008

Dear Friends,

Thank you for your faithful prayers.

Helimission visit. This went very well with no problems. The teams worked well in the different villages, and the gospel was preached to many folk whose lives are dominated by the darkness of superstition.
The new generator is still in customs in Tana. Small cars can now drive all the way from Tana thanks to repairs on 2 bridges. We hope it will not belong before trucks can get through so that the generator can come. Robert is also waiting for timber from Tana for the "Oasis" house construction as soon as trucks can get through.
The prison visiting team went to our local prison after the morning service today and distributed 135 Gideon's New Testaments. Please pray for this "Good Seed".
There are a lot of comings and goings this week with MAF which arrives Tuesday and returns to Tana Thursday. Arrivals: Elke d'Hulst (Belgian Midwife) from language study in Antsirabe - she will be living in the "Boulangerie" - our small house in town. Andrew Beckham - a medical student (actually just qualified) from Nottingham - here for a month - will be living next door to us in Hilde's former house, together with David & Abigail Randall, medical students (same scenario) from London who have been here 3 weeks. Departures: Dr Lalie - who has been giving a course at the ESFI nursing school will return to Tamatave. Philip Peter - a Swiss volunteer who has been helping with maintenance for the past few days. Aline Peter is his niece - a student nurse who has just arrived here. She is here for a couple of months. Dorith (Liniger) Randriamparany (Swiss midwife) has been here from Antsirabe for a few days to sort out her things and visit us all. Her husband, Justin was here just a couple of days but has already gone back by road. Because of Dorith's health, their Swiss missionary society has decided that they will not now be coming to work in Mandritsara. Jane Mann will leave for UK - arriving on Saturday 12th. The BBC says it is "bitterly cold and damp" today in London. Here it has been 33-35 deg C each day this week, though today it only reached 30 deg C. Jane is delighted to have finished preparing all the Sunday school lessons for her time away.
Others travelling. Dr Francis and some of the Community Health team will be leaving for Tana by Land Rover tomorrow to attend a 2 day conference on Health and Water held by the Madagascar Action Plan project. His wife Seheno is due to deliver their 4th child in the next few weeks - please pray that Francis will get back in time! Sarindra has gone to Tana for two weeks working alongside Mr Martin of Salfa - servicing and repairing medical equipment. Dr Hanitra has gone to Tana/Antsirabe to attend some meetings on ophthalmology
Containers.Our friends in Belgium are preparing a container to be sent later this month. It contains, among other things, a (second hand) replacement for our autoclave and fitted units for the Oasis house. We will probably not have a container from England this year, so if you had thought of sending anything please contact us!

With our love in the Lord

David & Jane

Monday March 31st 2008

Dear Friends,

Cyclone Lola never came this way, though on Wednesday we had heavy downpours and 48mm of rain. The temperature each day has been around 33 or 34 deg C.

Later today (it is Monday 6am - I am just back from the operating theatre having been up half the night - we could not get the emails to go through last night), Helimission will be coming for the week. The Community Health team will be out by helicopter in 13 different villages for vaccination, and Zoky Solo will be in one village all week for evangelism. Please pray for safety for the flights, and that the Gospel might be clearly made known in each village.
Dr Adrien is due to come back from Tana on the Helimission flight. David is rather weary after 3 weeks as the only surgeon and is looking forward to Adrien's return! The management committee has a lot of things to deal with once he is back and we will appreciate your prayers for the Lord's help.
Dr Lalie, former director of the government Nursing Training School in Tamatave is also coming on the Helimission flight - she will be here for a couple of weeks to give some teaching to the student nurses in our training school.
This weekend has been another busy weekend in the operating theatre. We have had 4 Caesarean sections and one craniotomy (destructive operation to extract a dead baby). Sadly, three out of the five babies were dead. One of these had major congenital abnormalities, but for 2 others it was simply that they came too late. This is quite depressing for staff as well as for the parents of course. Please pray that we may be able to show and explain the love of God to the families concerned. The final case of the weekend - 2am this morning - was a girl of 19 from Mananara who had developed a recto-vaginal fistula after her first very difficult delivery a few years ago. Dr Adrien did major surgery on her - fistula repair which involved also a temporary colostomy - about 3 years ago. It is difficult to imagine why, but having gone into labour yesterday midday here in Mandritsara, she waited until 2am before coming to the hospital, by which time the baby was well on its way to being born (and destroying all of Adrien's good work). Thankfully, mother and baby are OK.
Jane is pressing on with the Sunday school preparation - she has now just over 2 lessons to do before she leaves here on 10 April. Thank you for praying for her! Hopefully, our regular (and overdue!) prayer letter will come out this week. Some of the items you will already be aware of from this weekly update.

With our love in the Lord

David & Jane

Sunday 23rd March 2008

Dear Friends

This brings you our warm greetings for Easter. Today's message was:

By His resurrection Jesus gives us the following:

Peace "Peace be with you" John 20:19
Joy "Then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord" John 20:20
Hope "he has given us . a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead," 1 Pe 1:3
Gospel Work to do "As the Father has sent Me, I also send you." John 20:21

What a message for this poor world seeking peace, joy and hope in possessions and pleasures and not in the place where they can be found - in Jesus alone.

What a blessing to have Gospel Work to do - to be able to speak of the risen Lord Jesus Christ who has conquered death and sin and hell and Satan.

It is 33 degrees again here today, but the storms we have expected all week have not come, though there is talk of another cyclone approaching.

Caesareans continue to come however, including 4 yesterday - so David was thankful to have to preach today - it meant he did not fall asleep during the sermon!

Here are some prayer matters:

The new (replacement) generator is due to arrive in Antanananarivo from Unimatco this week. Please pray for the work of getting it through customs and then transporting it up here. It weighs about a ton. Olivier come back from Tana by road yesterday - there are two bridges where vehicles cannot yet pass following this year's cyclones.
The annual Pastors' retreat for the Association of Bible Baptist Churches is due to be held in Tana from Tuesday until next weekend. Pastor Julien, Dr Adrien and a number of others will attend from here. Following that, the Bible training course at Antsirabe will be held for two months or so. Mr Radesana, our hospital evangelist, will be there for his sixth time (this completes the course for him). Christin (head of hospital security), Isidore (Community Health team), Leonce (leader of the small church at Ambodilengo) and one or two others will also take part. This training programme is being phased out in favour of regional training programmes in the future - please pray for the plans for this - it will be very important in the development of rural churches in this country. We hope that Mandritsara will; become a centre for future training.
ACOR, a Christian consultancy firm in Tana, will start on the first ever complete hospital audit this week. This is not a statutory requirement, but we hope it will help in future project planning and budgeting.
Tomorrow, Easter Monday, is a public holiday - a big day for picnics in Madagascar! The young people's group in the church will be going for a picnic. No doubt this will include some Bible teaching/exhortation. Please pray for Dr Francis and others who lead this group - a good many are already Christians and there are a lot of others who are interested.

With our thanks and every blessing from Mandritsara

David & Jane

Sunday 16th March 2008

Dear Friends

The cyclone season seems to have gone and the weather has warmed up. 34 degrees again today! Perhaps it will build up to a storm one of these evenings.

However the Caesarean season seems to have come - and having had a Caesarean at 2am today and another at 2pm, we are a little sleepy this evening!

Thank you for your prayers this week.

Robert and Christine Blondeel arrived back safely from leave in Belgium. Christine is getting used to managing her newly diagnosed diabetes. She has been helping our new medical student elective students, David & Abigail Randall, settle in. Actually they came here straight from final medical exams and learnt yesterday that they had both passed! David is now a doctor, though Abigail still has some study attachements to do when they get back.
Jane has been working hard on the Sunday school lessons, but is not progressing as fast as she needs to in order to complete the lessons for this term before leaving for UK on April 10. She would appreciate your prayers.
Dr Adrien and Olivier are in Tana until the end of the month. David has 17 days on permanent surgical call and would appreciate prayers especially for the nights.
The eye team trip to Matsandakana was very busy. There is no doctor or nurse in the village, so the team did the full range of consultations, not just eye work. They had to work late into the evening to finish. The gospel preaching was also encouraging and they sold all the Bibles and hymn books they took with them. We are reminded of the huge need there is for the gospel in the whole district - very many villages have no-one to bring the gospel to them.
Mr Martin of Salfa (Lutheran medical project) worked hard on our Xray machine this week, but was unable to fix it. Please pray that we might find some solution.
Next Sunday, Easter day, David is due to preach in the morning service. Please pray that there will be no surgical emergencies at that time!
Mamy, the girl with a necrotic uterus after a criminal abortion, continues to improve. Her abdominal wound is necrotic and messy, but otherwise she is up and about and eating well. Almost every time we pass her bed she is reading one of the Gideon's New Testament that we have for the inpatients.

David & Jane

Sunday 9th March 2008

Dear Friends,

The weather forecast informed us of another cyclone - Jokwe - that should have hit us on Thursday. In the event it passed well to the west and had little impact here. Amazingly some fuel arrived for Jirama, the electric company, and we have been having town electricity from 2pm till 11pm, so we have started running our generator from 5am to 2pm. This helps everyone to make full use of the day!

The week in the hospital has been busier with a number of emergency cases arriving on what the local people call a helicopter - it is a deckchair tied to two long poles carried on the shoulders of 4 strong men. We have operated on 5 patients who arrived like that in the last 2 days. One was an old man with intestinal obstruction that had been going on for over a week. 3 were women in labour needing Caesarean sections. One of those was a girl of 17 with obstructed labour. The baby was dead and I am sure that because of the long delay in getting here she will also now have a urinary fistula that will need repairing later. Yesterday lunchtime it was a girl of 18 unconscious and convulsing with eclampsia. Her baby was also dead, but she is now recovering.

This morning as I was driving the Land Rover in to church, we passed a helicopter coming towards the hospital. It was bringing a lady who had delivered her first twin in her village during the night, but the second twin was still inside. So rather than go to church I had to pick up the 3 theatre nurses and head back to the operating theatre. The mother now has two bouncing baby girls to add to the other 5 or 6 children she has at home! We had just finished that operation when another helicopter arrived - a lady of 27 with a ruptured ectopic pregnancy, bleeding severely into the abdomen. Please pray that the Lord will give us both compassion and skill to treat these patients. Pray for them too as each morning and evening the patients and their relatives can hear a gospel message at the little service in the ward.

If our hospital were not here, having arrived in Mandritsara the patients would have to seek transport to travel the 200 km to the next surgical centre - a journey which, even if possible at this time of year may take 2 or 3 days, and several changes of vehicle, crossing broken bridges and flooded roads. Most of these patients would not survive that - and that is the present situation for hundreds of thousands of people in some other parts of Madagascar, including Maintirano on the West coast, where we are praying about setting up another hospital, if the Lord would send us the staff and the means to do so.

Here are some prayer items:

MAF is due here on Tuesday, bringing Robert & Christine, and a couple of medical students from London, David & Abigail Randall (in fact David has just qualified as a doctor) who are here for almost 2 months. Please pray especially for Christine, adapting to her newly diagnosed diabetes. She had a hypo in church this morning in Tana which was not easy.
MAF will take the eye team to Matsandakana, the large remote village north of here, for consultations and evangelism.
MAF will also bring us Mr Martin of Salfa (Lutheran medical project) in Tana. He is coming for 2 days to look at our Xray machine to see if he can repair it. Amazingly, Theophile and Sarindra have managed to set up the old original military field Xray unit that we used to use - and we are getting quite acceptable pictures!
MAF returns to Tana on Thursday with Dr Adrien and Olivier who have a number of meetings planned with the Ministry of Health among others. We would ask your prayers for these important administrative things. There are also one or two potential future workers to be interviewed there. Ghislaine (French nurse) and the two who came from Tana to help in the nursing school, will also be on the return flight. David will appreciate prayer for the next 3 weeks when he will be the only surgeon.
Mamy, the 15 year old girl we asked you to pray for last week is amazingly still with us, though not yet out of the wood. Please keep praying for her and her relatives, especially her mother.
Jane has 10 more Sunday school lessons to prepare in Malagasy in the next 3 weeks before she goes to England. It normally takes a week to do one lesson, so this is a tall order - though they are not completely new lessons - she is revising lessons written about 7 years ago or so.

David & Jane

Sunday 2nd March 2008

Dear Friends,

The week has been basically dry, and things have rapidly returned to "normal", except that there has been no electricity - though for the past 2 evenings town electricity ran from 6pm to 10pm. Today it started at 6.40 and cut out twice before stopping completely after 40 minutes! During the first few days of the week it became very warm and with all the water everywhere it was extremely humid and unpleasant. It is a bit better now.

On Monday MAF brought a delegation of people researching the effects of the cyclone. They were from the World Health Organisation, World Food Programme and so on plus a reporter from Radio France International. Dr Adrien and David went to the airstrip to speak to them. It is true that there are folk in particular need after the cyclone, but David tried to emphasize two things:

A. The most important things to fix in this area are the roads. The main road into the area needs to be repaired and maintained so that it is open all year round, and the local public works departments needs money and machinery so that it can work on improving road access into the surrounding district.

B. It is all very well having lots of activity for a month after a cyclone/disaster, but normally nothing happens for the other 11 months of the year. Is anyone out there interested in REALLY helping development of the area? Then they need to make long term plans and not just react to passing cyclones.

Here are some prayer items:

We praise the Lord for good weather for the Helimission visit which went well and without incident. The vaccination teams went to 12 villages, and the evangelism team visited Antsahandampy. They only arrived back on Friday so we have not heard much of what happened - hopefully we can give a report next week.
We heard from Robert and Christine Blondeel, on leave in Belgium, that Christine has been diagnosed as having type I diabetes (insulin dependent). Please pray for the Lord's special help for them - they were due to return to Madagascar today.
Please pray for Mamy, a 15 year old girl who arrived in the middle of Thursday night. David operated on her first thing Friday morning. She had had a criminal abortion performed by a "health worker" (not one of ours!) in a village a few days previously. What David found was terrible - the uterus was black and necrotic, with necrosis spreading higher up the abdomen behind the peritoneum. Although we see many cases of criminal abortion, we only remember one that was worse than this - a lady with gas gangrene who died a couple of days later. This also looked like the beginning of gas gangrene. 48 hours later she is very sick despite intensive antibiotics etc and will almost certainly die. Please pray for her and her family, we have sought to speak of Jesus and His salvation to her. Please pray too that the man who did this might be stopped from doing such things in the future.
Two ladies came with MAF yesterday to teach courses at the nursing school for a couple of weeks. One is Vololona from Ankadivato church in Tana who works with Child Evangelism Fellowship. She will teach some Bible courses. The other is Mme Berthine, the sister of Dr Jeannine, who will teach nutrition and public health.

With our love

David & Jane

Sunday 24th February 2008

Cyclone Ivan has passed. Mandritsara looks a mess. Quite a few buildings have been damaged. Quite a number of our staff suffered damage - roofs blown off, houses flooded and stocks of rice destroyed etc. The road has been blocked in 6 places including a landslip on the hill with z-bends 11km from here. The other side of the bridge over the Sofia (the approach) has been washed away - basically all the "repairs" after last years damage. There is also a long area of flooding near Mampikony and people going to Antsohihy from Tana or Mahajaga are flying to Diego and going by road from there! The electric company has run out of diesel so there is no electricity at all in town until further notice. We have bought 10 of the remaining barrels of diesel in town - enough to last us for a month if we run for 12 hours a day. We had a meeting with heads of department to negotiate the best hours to suit everyone's needs and are now running 5am-6.30am (early start for FVM radio station but also for the fridges), 8.30am - 11.30am (basic morning work), 3pm - 4.30pm (basic afternoon work), and 6pm - 11.30pm (for evening work in the hospital etc). So David and Dr Solondraibe (who put the generator on/off at night/early morning) are having extra disturbances to the night's sleep.

We should not complain. As we were walking back from church this morning, we passed a man pulling a hand cart with a lady lying in it groaning in pain. It was a kind of rickshaw taxi - a very rough ride on the terribly uneven road - bringing her to the hospital. We could see blood dripping from the cart. She was pulseless on arrival at the hospital, but is now OK after a D&C (currettage of the uterus) and some intravenous fluids. Living so close to the hospital, she is one of the "lucky ones". If she had been out in the bush where 80% of the folk live she would have died.

We do not yet know how much damage the cyclone has caused in the villages to buildings or crops. One of the nearby villages had the school roof blown off. Tomorrow Helimission are coming and the Community Health team is visiting 12 villages for vaccination. Part of the trip will also be to collect information on the damage caused. When you listen to the world news on radio or TV you expect to hear instant information on the damage from natural disasters. Living here shows you this is impossible. One of our workers had a message this week to say that his mother, who lives in another part of Madagascar, died in December!

Please pray for safety for the Helimission flights, for help for the community health visits and for Mr Radesana and a couple of others who will go to a very remote village for 3 days of evangelism and Bible teaching (Antsahandampy, actually in the Maroantsetra area).
We have ordered the new 45kva generator - with air freight it will cost about �10,000 to get it to Madagascar. We will then have the logistical challenge to get it to Mandritsara.
Jane has completed the Sunday school lessons on Daniel, and the revision of all the lessons for the younger groups. She now has to revise 12 lessons on Acts (that she wrote about 7 years ago) before she leaves for UK on 10 April. Please pray that she will have the health and energy to do that.
Dr Adrien visited the prison this morning for the monthly service with the inmates. Quite a few seem interested in the gospel. Please pray for the Lord to save some of these men and women.

With our thanks and love in the Lord

David & Jane

Sunday 17th February 2008

Dear Friends

Well another week when the main item of news seems to be the weather! Ivan (the Terrible?) is the name of a big and powerful cyclone (hurricane in USA, typhoon in Asia) that hit the east coast of Madagascar this morning (Sunday). Last night we had some heavy rain and then strong winds. Today we have had very strong winds almost all day - and horizontal rain which has poured through all the (closed!) windows on the west side of the house. Today's church services were all cancelled and everyone advised to stay at home. We spent much of the day on our knees - mopping up buckets and buckets full of water from the sitting room and bedroom floors. At one stage David was helping one of our workmen fix a loose piece of corrugated iron sheeting on the roof above Robert's office (Robert is in Belgium). As they were doing it a whole sheet of corrugated iron went flying past the hospital entrance. It was part of the roof of Gervais, one of the maintenance workers. He, Colette (pharmacy), and Vavimaro (laundry) all had damage to their roofs and have taken shelter in the houses we keep for patients relatives (Betela). Dr Francis noticed the roof coming off Maison Tsiranana in town (where some of our mission team live). There was no-one there at the time so it is good he noticed it. Sarindra and a couple of other men set to in the gale to nail it back in place. By late afternoon the river had risen and the night workers could not come to work - so some of the day workers have stayed on. Estelle (French nurse) and Ghislaine (French nurse here for a month to help in the nursing school) braved the elements and came into the hospital early this morning and are staying here tonight to help out. It is 9pm as I write and still blowing and raining! It has been the Lord's Day today, but I think we have been too much occupied with that which is passing and not enough with that which is eternal. I do not know if anyone from town will be able to get to work tomorrow.

One of the wooden pylons bringing the town high tension electric cables to the hospital has all but collapsed, so the electric company have not connected us today. We are grateful for our one generator. I say one because the older smaller one burnt out early in the week. We have asked Unimatco in England to quote for a new one and for air freight to get it here as soon as possible. I guess it will take a couple of months so please pray that the existing generator will run well in that time. Even at best, the town supply is at present only 11 hours a day.

Please pray for the Lord's protection during the rest of the cyclone - and for help for all who have sustained serious damage to their homes and crops.
The Xray machine has gone wrong again and we have asked World Medical Mission in the USA to obtain a replacement switch for us.
We praise the Lord for the good team spirit in difficult times like these. Please pray that love for the Lord, love for His people and love for the lost will be the driving motivation for us all.
The Good News school has 251 primary pupils and 30 secondary pupils this year. One of the teachers, Seheno, will be on maternity leave after Easter. Please pray that we may find a replacement. Pray too for all the children who have opportunity to hear the great news of Jesus and salvation in Him.

With our thanks and every blessing from Mandritsara

David & Jane

Sunday 10th February 2008

On the 10th of February 2007, Jean de Dieu, one of our nightwatchmen, brought his wife who was in in labour across the flooded Maroamboka river which lies between the hospital and the town on a makeshift raft, to have Caesarean section for the birth of their baby. This morning, on the child's first birthday, Jean de Dieu finished his tour of nightduty and would have gone home to celebrate - but there has been over 200mm of rain in the past 72 hours and the river is once more flooded, so he can't get home!

Neither can the hospital staff come in to work. So there was no-one at 7am to take over from the night staff who had looked after the patients in the ward. Fortunately Colette, who works in the pharmacy, used to be an assistant nurse here, and has recently moved from the town to live next to the hospital. So she has put on her old "hat" and is in charge of the ward today. In fact because of the season there are not too many patients, so the work is not heavy.

We could not get into town to church this morning and so had a service and Sunday school in the hospital classroom for those from Ambohimandroso (the local village). In fact we had about 70 or 80 including all the children and a number of patients and relatives who also came. The Sunday school lesson was very appropriate for the folk here - Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego refusing to bow down to the golden image. The family and community pressure on folk to conform to praying to the ancestors and spirits is very strong, but those who would follow Christ must stand against this as did the 3 in Babylon. The Lord Jesus will come along side and be with them even in their suffering, as He did in the burning fiery furnace.

Please pray for MAF who are due to come on Tuesday, with Marlis and her two children and Ghislaine, a nurse from France coming to teach for a month in the nursing school. There have been times in the past when the weather conditions, or water on the airstrip, have prevented flights.
One of the passengers due to go to Tana from here on the MAF flight is a retired midwife. She and her husband retired to Mandritsara and she has been helping with teaching in our nursing school. Last weekend she had a stroke and is partially paralysed on her right side and has trouble with her speech. Please pray that in the midst of this sudden and unexpected illness she and her husband may come to know the Lord personally.
A number of our team are finding the hot and humid weather very draining. Jane is not well either, though she is pressing on with all the Sunday school lesson preparation she needs to do before coming to the UK in April. Please pray for the Lord's strength for each one.
We had been going to mention the Xray machine which has been a bit temperamental for a few weeks, and then stopped working completely midweek. We had considered trying to get a specialist engineer up from Antananarivo, however it was a question of "Before you call, I will answer." Sarindra (our maintenance engineer) and Theophile were led to one switch on the control panel and discovered corrosion in its electrical contacts. After a little rubbing with sandpaper the machine is back to 100% again. Theophile was delighted, and David has told him that he will not accept any excuses any more for poor quality Xrays!

Thank you for your prayers.

With love from Mandritsara

David & Jane

Stop press: 5.30pm we are just back from looking at the flooded river. After rising further in the day it is now slowly falling. Noro, tonight's duty nurse, braved the waters up to her thighs and has arrived for night duty. Bravo!

Sunday 3rd February 2008

Dear Friends

The sun is shining and the garden full of bright red "Fody" birds and Weaver birds with colourful yellow heads. This afternoon we had a pair of hoopoes in the garden pecking around for insects. Our bird book says they are the same as hoopoes in Europe and elsewhere but sing a different song! However most of the week has been grey as a cyclone passed through Madagascar. Severe damage occurred in the region of Maintirano that we visited last October, and where we would like to start a new work. Besalampy particularly was very badly hit and many buildings destroyed.

Our roads are in a sorry state after the rain. Theophile (Xray technician) and his wife Vololoniony (head nurse) went to Antananarivo for the baptism of their eldest son Rija last Sunday. In his testimony he said that it was the school here (Ecole Bonne Nouvelle) that played the major part in the Lord's hands in opening his eyes to the truth of the gospel - and particularly Dr Adrien's wife Gisele (EBN head teacher) who carefully explained the way of salvation to him. This has been a great encouragement to all as you may imagine. Theophile and Vololoniony set off back on Monday and arrived Thursday - after 6 different cars and a canoe (crossing a river which had flooded the road) Vololoniony in particular was completely exhausted when they arrived back and needed 2 days in bed to recover. Jimmy (head of Maintenance) and Marlis (Swiss nurse) plus their two little children and Jimmy's mother took 3 days doing the journey in the other direction this week. In one place where there is normally a road they travelled 300 metres in a boat!

I am a bit late doing this tonight as we have just had a Caesarean section - a lady carried by "helicopter" (the local term for a deckchair tied to 2 long bamboo-like poles) for 12 hours from a village normally a couple of hours away by car in the dry season. The other effect of the road transport problems is that the electricity company has run out of diesel. So we were down to just electricity from 6pm to 1am (the hours of the African Cup of Nations football matches on the TV - such is the priority of the electric company!). However this weekend there is no electricty at all. Fortunately we still have diesel to run our generators instead.

Please pray for the areas damaged by the cyclone and for those involved in relief and help. MAF usually have an important part to play in bringing in relief supplies in such circumstances.
Please pray for Rija who will be starting as a medical student in Mahajanga later this month.
Please pray for the "logistics" side of running the hospital in the rainy season - keeping things going when supplies run low.
We are hoping to visit UK in the Spring/early summer. Please pray that we might find a doctor to cover for David's absence.

With our thanks and every blessing from Mandritsara

David & Jane

Sunday 27th January 2008

Dear Friends

As I write this Sunday evening it is raining steadily as if there is a distant cyclone passing, or coming this way - we shall see! The small river on the way into town was already quite full when we came home from church this afternoon and a night of rain would probably see it over its banks!

Please pray for Pastor Julien, Dr Adrien and Jimmy Rabeantoandro the two elders who form the church leadership team. With folk from the capital and major towns in Madagascar who have come to work here in the hospital, plus local folk and those from surrounding villages, not to mention a few foreigners, we are not a homogenous cultural group which makes for challenges in the pastoral work.
The hospital is somewhat quieter at this time of the year - people are too busy working on their rice fields to worry about non urgent illnesses. Old folk do not have anyone to bring them to hospital - everyone is busy on the rice fields. It is also the end of the economic year and funds are low. All these reasons, plus the inaccessibility of many areas due to the rains and swollen rivers, make the hospital less busy. This is the time to be catching up with administrative tasks - but being hot and humid we all feel less like doing those things. Please pray that the Lord will make us productive!
Normally we should hold the annual hospital board meeting in February. Please pray that we may be able to organise this - it entails some of the Baptist leadership coming from the capital and elsewhere.
Please pray for the day to day evangelism in the hospital, through services, the playing of tapes, tract distribution and personal witness.

With our love in the Lord

David & Jane

Sunday 20th January 2008

Dear Friends

It is a typical January Sunday afternoon in Mandritsara. Hot, humid, chameleons everywhere, the hospital bushes brilliant with flowers and mango trees laden with fruit! The garden of Eden is only spoiled by us selfish humans, but we praise God for the gospel of forgiveness and reconciliation with Him through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

David had the opportunity to preach in church this morning and what a joy to focus on Hebrews 4:14-16 "Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathise with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are-yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." (NIV)

Please pray for the many adults, young people and children who come to church and who listened intently this morning, that they would put their trust in our Great High Priest who gave His life to save sinners such as us.
Robert & Christine Blondeel (electrician/guest house hostess) left on Thursday for a month or so home leave in Belgium. Please pray that they will both be refreshed physically and spiritually, and be encouraged by those at home committed to praying and supporting their work here.
Paquerette is the wife of a Gendarme who arrived at the hospital at 2 o'clock this morning. She had had two previous Caesarean sections and was about 6 months pregnant again. In the middle of the night she had suddenly collapsed, had a fit and was brought here pale, pulseless and unconscious. Her uterine scar had given way and she had bled severely internally. Her husband and 5 friends had come with her, so we thought it should not be difficult to find blood to give her - but only one of them was compatible. David wanted at least 2 bags of blood ready before embarking on surgery. At 2am it can be difficult to find suitable blood donors! Fortunately we do have night watchmen. One is called Sambatra. Translation into English would be "Mr Happy"! We asked him if he was willing to be tested. He said "No problem" - he had had a blood test before. However he was rather surprised when it was not just a finger prick! It was a learning experience for him - but he helped to save Paquerette's life. By morning light Paquerette's uterus had been removed and she was literally back in the land of the living. Please pray for her and those with her that they may understand God's love for them in Jesus and come to trust and follow Him.
Sunday school will embark on 6 lessons from Daniel next Sunday. Please pray for Jane as she writes these lessons, for the teachers and all the "scholars". Jane is very grateful for Stuart Olyott's commentary "Dare to Stand Alone".

Thank you for your prayers.

We send our love

David & Jane

Sunday 13th January 2008

Dear Friends

Thank you for your prayers this week. The thermometer hovers around 35deg at midday and it seems to take longer to do basic tasks!

Betavilona is a village about 20km out of Mandritsara along the main road. Mr Radesana, Zoky Solo, Dr Adrien and others have been visiting regularly on a weekday for evangelism. There is one family of Christians and others who are interested. Today Mr Radesana (hospital evangelist) and a team went to hold the first Sunday service there. There is no other church in the village.
Yesterday the Good News school (Ecole Bonne Nouvelle) held their third "Mum's club". It happens every 2 months and includes a Bible talk among other things. 80 mothers attended yesterday!
There will be a MAF flight this week bringing Dr Hanitra back from leave, so the eye department will be back up and running again. Dr Jeannine (Nursing School) will also be back as will Sarindra (mechanic). Sarindra will be servicing and commissioning the 2 new Land Rovers in the next few days. Robert and Christine will be leaving on a well earned overseas leave.
Olivier (Administrator) will go to Tana on the flight to interview candidates for the 3rd post in our Tana office. The support work there has grown to the extent that we need 3 full time workers.
A lady of 35 arrived by bush taxi yesterday (Saturday) mid morning. She had gone into labour in her far away village with her 7th child, but things were not progressing. Friday evening she set out by oxcart and travelled the whole night. By the morning they reached the Mangarahara river and crossed by boat to reach the main road where they waited for a passing taxi. By the time they reached here the baby was dead, the uterus ruptured and she was in a state of shock from blood loss. By early afternoon we had operated on her, removed the uterus, given her blood and she was out of danger. This morning on the ward round when asked how she had slept she replied "Very well, doctor. The previous night in pain in the ox cart I didn't sleep at all!" She is, like many folk here who have to endure such events, very courageous. It puts all our minor complaints into perspective. Her life has been saved - pray for her and her husband as they hear the gospel explained morning and evening in the ward that their souls might also be saved.

With our love

David & Jane

Sunday 6th January 2008

Dear Friends

Happy New Year 2008!

We praise the Lord for all His help in 2007, the many who received help in different ways, and those who have come to know and follow Him. Thank you for your prayers and please pray that the Lord's work will progress in 2008 and bring Him much glory and praise.
The Good News school and the Nursing school all start back for the new term tomorrow. Please pray for everyone getting back into routine, the teachers and pupils/ students.
The weather is hot and wet and we are feeling the effects! Please pray for strength and perseverance for everyone. The people all round us are busy ploughing their fields and planting out rice. Please pray for a good harvest this year like last year.
Dr Hanja, the dentist, came back from a trip to Tana and has been opening all the equipment from Dentaid that arrived in the containers. The dental department is now very well equipped! What would be most helpful now would be a dentist who could come short term (a few weeks) and help her to learn how to use some of the items that are new to her, or different from what she is used to.

David & Jane

Sunday 23rd December 2007

Dear All

We hope to send brief frequent regular news for certain prayer groups and churches to supplement our normal prayer letters. This is the first attempt. We arrived safely back in Mandritsara with Rachel yesterday - Rachel is with us for 2 weeks.

Here are some urgent prayer & praise items:

The 2 new Land Rovers arrived in Mandritsara yesterday having had a difficult time getting through the customs at the port. The 2 containers from Unimatco with maintenance items, medical and dental equipment etc arrived also yesterday - tomorrow we will be unloading them.
Our annual supply of drugs and medical supplies from IDA Holland arrived in the port a couple of weeks ago but the customs procedure has been much worse than ever before. Hopes to bring them with the truck carrying the 2 containers were finally abandoned on Friday and it is clear that we will not be able to get them out of customs until after Christmas now. Some of the drugs are very urgently needed. Olivier, our administrator will return to Mahajanga (600km from here) on 26 Dec to try to sort it out. However it has started to rain - 5 inches on Friday night, 3 inches in the past 3 hours this evening and still raining. This will cause problems for road transport and travel. Please pray for a speedy conclusion to the customs procedure and that the truck bringing them to Mandritsara will be able to get through.
The Christmas morning service will be an opportunity for Gospel witness to outsiders, as will the afternoon children's programme when 300 or so children will take part in singing and reciting Bible texts. Please pray for souls to be saved.
3 of our 6 doctors will be away for the next month. Please pray for help for the 3 left and all the patients!

David & 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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