By Ted Watts
Senior surgeon and missionary team leader at the Good News Hospital, Mandritsara
A surgeon at work in Mandritsara
A recent survey gave the number of trained surgeons in Madagascar, for a population around 30 million, to be about 100. The number in the UK for a population twice that of Madagascar is more than 100 times as many! That means that if a town like Nottingham, or Reading, or Oxford were in Madagascar, they would have at best one surgeon to cover all the surgical needs of the people there. The training of surgeons for Madagascar is absolutely vital!
So, what a joy it was on 17 September 2026, to celebrate the graduation of our first two residents from the “Pan-African Academy of Christian Surgeons” (PAACS) General Surgery training programme in Mandritsara. It was the culmination of many years of dreaming, praying and hard work to establish a surgical training programme in this remote and rural region of Madagascar.
This has been an incredible achievement for Dr Tefy and Dr Rado, who have not only passed their exams but have also demonstrated wonderful Christian character along with their surgical skill. We are confident that they will be a tremendous blessing to the people of Madagascar and a huge asset to God’s Kingdom work here.
Prayer for the graduating surgeons
We are also so thankful to all the members of our surgical faculty, both long-term and visiting, who have poured so much time, energy and expertise into training these two young men over the past five years. In particular, we thank God for Dr Jesh Thiessen, Dr Daniel Kradolfer and Dr Marco Faniriko, surgeons who have served here as trainers during these years.
But above all, we praise God for His faithfulness in turning what once seemed like a rather far-fetched dream into reality. Madagascar has now moved from having approximately 100 surgeons for 30 million people to having 102! And what’s more, these are surgeons who know the Lord and want to make Him known.
Our hearts are full of gratitude for God’s grace and kindness to us, and we are full of hope and expectancy as we look forward to seeing how He will use Tefy and Rado for His glory in the years ahead, in the further spreading of the Good News of Jesus in Madagascar. Please pray for them as well as for 5 more doctors currently in the surgical training programme.
Dr Tefy and Dr Rado with their wives
The surgeons currently in training are on the front row
On the same day as the graduation, we also celebrated the inauguration of our new laboratory. Laboratories are an essential part of a hospital, helping the doctors to make the right diagnosis and the best treatment plan for their patients.
The new laboratory
Cutting the ribbon
We have a spacious new building and new equipment. The planning and development of all this has been in partnership with Samaritan’s Purse. It has been so wonderful to work with their team of laboratory specialists in the planning stages. They are planning a second visit here in November and another visit in January to do training with our laboratory technicians as we begin to offer a wider range of laboratory tests at the hospital.
We praise God for His goodness in providing us with this resource, and pray that it will be a wonderful help to us as we seek to provide excellent care alongside sharing gospel hope at the hospital.
The graduation and inauguration ceremony was attended by a number of members of government and local authorities, and it was really striking to hear their comments about the hospital, how proud they are of its presence here, and how grateful they are to the hospital and to those who support the hospital for enabling it to be here.
We do not do these things in order to be praised by men, but at the same time it is an encouragement that the authorities are really grateful for our presence and see the benefit not only of the medical work but also of the Christian ministry to the local community. We have a spacious new building and new equipment. The planning and development of all this has been in partnership with Samaritan’s Purse. It has been so wonderful to work with their team of laboratory specialists in the planning stages. They are planning a second visit here in November and another visit in January to do training with our laboratory technicians as we begin to offer a wider range of laboratory tests at the hospital.
We praise God for His goodness in providing us with this resource, and pray that it will be a wonderful help to us as we seek to provide excellent care alongside sharing gospel hope at the hospital.
The graduation and inauguration ceremony was attended by a number of members of government and local authorities, and it was really striking to hear their comments about the hospital, how proud they are of its presence here, and how grateful they are to the hospital and to those who support the hospital for enabling it to be here.
We do not do these things in order to be praised by men, but at the same time it is an encouragement that the authorities are really grateful for our presence and see the benefit not only of the medical work but also of the Christian ministry to the local community.
Government officials arriving
Please pray for our laboratory team learning new techniques with new apparatus and pray for ongoing finances to keep it all going. And pray that God may be glorified, sick patients healed, and lost sinners saved. Thank you.
The lab team on the official opening day