The missionaries in Mandritsara do not all come from overseas. Some are Malagasy Christians, sent by their local churches elsewhere in Madagascar to serve the Lord in Mandritsara. Bako Rajaona is one such missionary who has just completed 20 years of service. She has fulfilled many different roles and continues to play a vital part in the overall missionary effort there.
We asked her to tell us about her life and about her ministry in Mandritsara. This is what she said:
I was born and grew up in Amparafaravola, near Lake Alaotra, 230km north-east of Antananarivo. My grandfather had worked there and so my father and mother stayed on as farmers, growing rice and raising livestock like most of the people there. It was a small village, quite a way from a sizeable town. Life was very simple. We used candles for lighting and collected water from a pond. Most of our food came from what we grew and the animals we kept. Every Thursday we went to market. There was a primary school in a village a little way away, but if we were sick or needed a doctor, or when it came to going to secondary school then we had to go to a town, further away.
I had a happy childhood, helping my parents, and playing. But there was always the threat of cattle thieves. It was, and still is, a place where cattle thieves roam. One time they came in the late afternoon, just when the children were all playing outside. They fired their guns and told everyone to go inside. Then they looked at all our cattle – and went off with the best ones, firing their guns as they went.
When I was still small, I used to go with my mother to the Protestant Church. I had an aunt who really encouraged us to go to pray. She used to speak a lot to us about Jesus, and before we went to sleep she would pray with us. So, even as a child I was used to going to church and Sunday school. But when I was 14, I heard someone ask this question at church: “If Jesus came back today, are you one of those who will be accepted by Him?” That made me realise that I wasn’t sure if Jesus would accept me, even though I was going to church and so on. And so on that day I confessed that I was a sinner, and that I needed the salvation that Jesus had purchased when He died for me on the cross. On that day I received Jesus as the Saviour and Lord of my life.
I continued my studies in Antananarivo, but for various reasons I did not complete the studies. I worked in a laboratory, and at the same time I worked doing sewing. I also did various voluntary things, such as teaching children at home – children from the church whose parents were unable to help them. I also taught reading and writing to adults who had never been to school. And there were times too when I taught in a Holiday Bible Club run by Scripture Union.
I had already heard lots about Mandritsara and the hospital because we always received news about the hospital in our church in Tana and we prayed for it. But I never thought that I would be called by God to come to Mandritsara. Whilst I was studying, I had prayed “Lord please give me a job to do where I can serve You. And in a place where there is a church.” I attempted to find an opening, but the jobs I was offered did not answer the prayer I had made. Then in 2003 there was an announcement that the Good News School in Mandritsara needed teachers. Now I wasn’t really a teacher, but I spoke to my pastor and I prayed and then I wrote and sent an application. I heard back from Mandritsara that they agreed to take me. I had received the answer to my prayer! Here was a job, one in which I could serve God and in a place where there was a church. So I came here, sent by my church, in 2003.
I taught at the Good News School (EBN) for two years. I still see some of the pupils from those days – 20 years ago – and they still greet me “Bonjour maîtresse!” Some are still studying here in Madagascar, and some overseas. There are those who are now doctors, or teachers, or in the legal profession or in business. Lots of them are married and have children. And the good thing is that many of them are still clinging on to the gospel which they received at EBN.
After I had been at EBN for two years, there was a need for a lab technician in the hospital laboratory. I hadn’t done any training to be a teacher, my training was in laboratory work, so it seemed logical for me to apply to be transferred from EBN to the lab when this need arose.
I had done studies in biotechnology and microbiology as well as placements in various hospitals in Antananarivo. So, when I came here to the laboratory, I just did 6 months in-service training before I could work. The laboratory here at the Good News Hospital does many different kinds of tests – haematology, microbiology, parasitology, biochemistry, blood transfusion and so on, so there was still lots to learn.
I really loved the work in the laboratory, working together with the local people who came from the surrounding countryside. I loved learning more of the Tsimihety language. And I loved sharing the gospel with the people.
I remember, early on, when there were two very sick little girls. Both had lumbar punctures performed by the doctor, and I was very anxious lest the two tubes of cerebrospinal fluid got mixed up. Both the children had meningitis, causing convulsions. I was so pleased to be able to identify the organisms causing the meningitis. After a few days treatment they both got better and were able to go home and I was really happy. But I also remember sad days – like when we couldn’t find a suitable blood donor for a man who was very sick. There was no other treatment for him except blood transfusions every week or two – and so the family took him home to die.
When I was still working in the lab I started teaching Malagasy to some of the new missionaries on a Friday afternoon. There wasn’t really a teaching programme – but there was a book that I used. Then the missionary team leader asked me “Would you be willing to become a full-time language teacher?” I replied that I’m not a teacher. It’s true that I am Malagasy, but I’m not a Malagasy teacher.
Now at that time there was a Holiday Bible Club, but I was unable to help in it because of my lab duties. So the missionary team leader said to me – “if you were doing language teaching then your hours could be flexible and you would be free to help with the Holiday Bible Club.” So I said I would give it a try. It was in 2008.
I went to Antananarivo for a few weeks to look for some books and to talk to people about teaching Malagasy. Then I came back and started teaching Malagasy full-time. Over the years I think I have taught about 90 different people. Some were just staying for a short term – medical students and others staying up to 3 months. They just study a little essential Malagasy. But I think there are around 30 longer-term workers, who have stayed for a couple of years or more, that I have taught. Sometimes it is sad to see them leave, once they have learnt Malagasy!
I love teaching in Sunday school. In the church there is a Sunday school each week apart from the holidays, with classes for every age, from small children up to adults. I teach the younger children – up to 7 years old. As well as Sunday school there is the Holiday Bible Club during the school holidays, when we go out to a village around Mandritsara every Saturday for 5 weeks to share the gospel. That is also for all ages, but I have always taught the small children.
When I came here in 2003 together with Mirana Ratovo to teach at the Good News School, we noticed that when we had morning worship, there were many children who were really thirsty to listen, but the time was limited. So we decided to start a Children’s Club at our house on Saturdays. There were about a dozen children at first. But as time went on the numbers grew and we needed more teachers. We moved the meeting to the school and then to the church because so many children were coming. But it was not just for the children of the Good News School or the children coming to the Baptist church, but was for all children in Mandritsara with the aim of sharing the gospel and the Word of God with them. And some of those children received the Lord Jesus as their Saviour and became keen to read the Bible for themselves.
Over many years, Jane Mann, who used to be a missionary here, wrote lessons from the Bible, with picture illustrations, for the Sunday school. She wrote them in Malagasy, and I helped her by correcting her Malagasy language. When they were all done, she put all the lessons and their pictures on 2 CD’s. And these are the lessons that we use in the Sunday school here, and in the Bible clubs. And not only in the church here in Mandritsara, but in many churches throughout Madagascar. She also gave us many books and materials that we can use in preaching the Good News – and I have been responsible for looking after these books for the past 10 years.
In August 2018 I developed a problem with my right eye. I went to Antananarivo to see a doctor who told me that I had a detached retina and I needed urgent surgery. At that time, in the mercy of God, a retina specialist from Mauritius was visiting Madagascar and I was able to have the operation in Antananarivo. 8 months later he told me it was time to remove the oil he had put inside my eye. After he took out the oil, the detachment of the retina came back. But the surgeon had already returned to Mauritius. When he came back to Madagascar again he put back the oil, but by now it didn’t help my eyesight. That is to say my right eye was completely useless.
Then in 2020, my left eye developed a problem and when I went to Antananarivo, the doctor said that I had another retinal detachment. But at that time I couldn’t be operated on in Madagascar because there is no retina specialist here and no doctors were visiting Madagascar at that time because of Covid.
I thought of going to Germany where I have a sister, and wrote to the embassies of the European Union, but none of them would give me a visa. But then God opened a way for me to go to Kenya where there was a retina surgeon and a hospital which could do the operation. Friends prayed and some gave money so that I could go, and a missionary family in Nairobi looked after me. I had the operation and all was going well. But when the surgeon took the oil out of my eye, the detachment recurred and I needed a second and a third operation. Finally I was able to come home to Madagascar with the oil still in my eye. It wasn’t easy because my visa ran out and I had to travel via France. But God worked it all out for me.
Over the years, many people have come to Mandritsara and then gone again. Bako is one of the few who has stayed on. We asked her to tell us what has kept her in Mandritsara.
It’s now 20 years that I’ve been in Mandritsara. I didn’t expect to stay such a long time when I arrived in 2003. But I am still here. They have not been an easy twenty years, either for my personal life, or for my family at home or for my work. There have been times when I have been on the mountains and all has been going well. At other times I have been in the valley and I didn’t think I could get out. But the Lord who sent me here has always been faithful – whether I have been on the mountain or in the valley. I am still learning. I don’t know about my next 20 years – but He is the Lord of the future.
It is true that Mandritsara is a “passing by” place for missionaries. There’s a lot of coming and going. Some folk are here just a short time. And others stay longer. And, to tell the truth, there have been three occasions that I have thought about leaving Mandritsara, but I am still here! Sometimes I have asked myself “why am I still here?” I think the reason that I am still here is the gospel – the Good News of Jesus. I love telling children the gospel. It really makes me happy – in the church, in the Bible club, or in the villages with the Community Health team, to tell children about the Lord Jesus. That’s the reason that keeps me here. I think that when the day comes that I can no longer teach the gospel to children, then perhaps that is the day for me to return home.
Please pray for the teachers of the Good News School, that they will not only be good teachers, but that they will also bring the gospel to the children. Pray that they may be teachers who love the children, whom God loves, and that they will have compassion for lost souls.
Please pray for the workers in the Good News Hospital laboratory. It is a place where there is a lot of urgent emergency work as they help the doctors to treat the patients. Pray that the workers may be given strength and skill to enable them to do their work. And pray too that they may have love because sometimes, when there is lots of work and they are racing to get the work done, it is easy for them to forget to have a caring heart for the patients.
Please pray for Bako as she teaches Malagasy to the foreign missionaries, that she may have patience and perseverance. Pray for her various gospel ministries among children. And pray for her remaining eye which has caused some concern – may she know whether to return to Nairobi for further treatment.