Welcome to March 2010!

Salama tompoko namako! [Hello my friends!]

Oh my word. Time is FLYING by. I cannot believe that it is already March! Here I thought language school was probably going to drag on, but ONCE AGAIN God has astounded me by doing exceedingly abundantly above all I could ask or imagine. He has provided some fantastic ministry opportunities for us here in Antsirabe, and Heather and I now have only six more weeks of language school before we head out for our month-long wilderness survival training in Zambia. Incredible.

Praises:
- For the language that we have learned and been able to use.
- For the many relationships God has blessed us with.
- For many opportunities that have immensely blessed our hearts.

Prayer requests:
- That God would give Heather and I memory retention of LOTS of vocabulary so we can talk to people.
- That I would keep the “first things first."
- That our entire team here in Mada would demonstrate unity and love in everything we do and continue to be an encouragement one another.

I’m glad y’all enjoyed the ticket/jail story. Sorry to have frightened some of you with the title! :P I so enjoy hearing from you all and please know that I pray for you often! If there’s anything specific you want me to pray for, have any questions for me, or just want to fill me in on the news back home, I’d love to hear from you!

There are some tidbits below for those of you who would like to hear more of what’s been happening here in the beautiful land of Madagascar!

Hitahy anao anie Andriamanitra, [May God bless you,]
Cara :)

My Malaglish Twin – I was lured by the tantalizing aroma into a small chocolate shop in town. The shop lady greeted me with “Bonjour, madam.” Note: if you are white you are automatically assumed to be a French tourist. “Salama tompoko,” I replied with a grin. “Ahh! You speak my language!” she exclaimed happily in Malagasy; “Speak kely kely English aho.” THIS WOMAN SPOKE MY LANGUAGE! From then on we had a simply delightful conversation in our shared tongue: Malaglish. *grin* I shared about what we will be doing in the rain forest and why and she was very encouraged by that and said that she is a believer, as well. As she handed me a chocolate caramel square, I told her that I was very happy to have met her, and turned to walk out. “Good riddance,” she replied. Shocked and more than a little confused (I thought we had a good connection here!) I turned around to see her happily waving with a HUGE smile on her face, “Speak I English! Good riddance!” HA HA HA HA HA! Good riddance to you, too, sweet lady. :)

Time with ankizy – we see kids (ankizy) on the streets every day. Heather and I decided we wanted to take an afternoon to play with them. Going to the place where we normally see the most beggars we were pleased to see a group of children. Later when we were shopping, a little girl carrying her baby brother on her back unwrapped him and let me carry him all over the market – and he was a snuggler! Oh my goodness. I love babies.

Leper colony and the mental institute – we have gotten to visit a couple places near Antsirabe started by the Norwegian Lutherans (technically as “field trips” for our language school) and it has been so fun. I officially received my “off roading” stick-shift badge after driving to these places! Heather and I both have a soft place in our hearts for those that most people cast away, so getting to talk with the people, see how they live, pray with them, and bring them gifts has been such a blessing to us!

I found a dead lizard in our sink. I hope he died happy.