Dada Be and the Flashlight

The wizened old man, hunched over with age, crouches beside me to eat the scrumptious meal of rice and beans. The beans were a treat – we brought them from town. It’s not the season for them up in the mountains. “Dada be likes the beans!” His daughter announces happily. Dada be is the general term for grandfather. I am caught up in a conversation with her until movement on my right catches my eye.

It’s Dada be. He has discovered my flashlight, but can’t for the life of him figure out how to turn it on! I lean towards him and show him the trick. Suddenly beams of light off and on, off and on, illuminate his daughters face. *chuckle* Turning to talk with him, his daughter informs me that he is nearly deaf. We have somewhat of a conversation with me repeating things multiple times until I am loud enough, but always he returns my efforts with an infectious, nearly-toothless grin. :D

His sweet daughter cooked for us last time we came to this village, to assess it. This time we ate at their home again in order to continue the relationship. After our meal, on the way back to the tent, I tell Heather, “I really like Dada be – he’s adorable!”

The next morning we sit in front of the fire eating the cassava prepared for us. Hanging over the pot is a piece of zebu fat. Others have told us that they keep it there to season their rice with, but Dada be has another reason. “He uses it to heal broken bones,” his daughter informs us. “Dada be knows ahead of time when people are on their way for healing. He gets a fever, has to stay in bed, and sees them coming.” Answering my query about how he heals them when they get there, “He puts saliva and zebu fat on the area and then holds it over the fire and prays to God and the ancestors. He got this tradition from his father, and he will pass it to another before he dies. The power of the healer is passed down by prayer.”

In another village, a man stops me before I have finished the first part of my teaching. “You say that some things can harm the baby in utero (such as the mother drinking alcohol), but the father can harm the baby, too.” How so, I ask him. “You see, if a man with a pregnant wife is in the field and his hoe gets split down the middle and he continues to use it, his child will be born with a hairlip. And if he has certain things in his pockets and he puts his hands down in them, the baby will have twelve fingers.”

These mountains are filled with superstitions, taboos, and belief in the ancestors’ power in daily activities. Their eyes have been blinded to the truth. And they are hungry for spiritual teaching. A couple days ago a chief asked us to please always teach spiritual lessons with our medical ones, as we have been doing, for that is what they need. We pray that God will open their eyes to discern the Truth of God’s Word. We pray that as they learn about Who God is, they will accept Him and worship Him alone!

My Latest Update: In Which I Tell A Village That They Are Dead

Shifting to get comfortable on the wooden bench outside the chief’s house, I ask Heather what time it is. “Five thirty,” she announces. Perfect. Half an hour after the villagers of Kianjanomby said they would be back from the rice fields and ready to listen, they had assembled and it was time to get started!

Gathering up my lesson papers, I glance around. A lot of people are huddled in a corner. There’s plenty of space for people to sit down around me, so I smile broadly at the wary group and motion while saying in Malagasy, “Please, sit!”

Pandemonium ensues. Wide-eyes and people turning to run quickly turns into laughter as they realize that I have no idea what I had just done. The word that means “please sit” in the dialect of Malagasy that I learned is a bad word here that means “you are all dead,” they inform me.

Remember when we went around and assessed the villages? We asked about shameful things in this area. Stealing a zebu, women wearing pants, and saying bad words came out the top three. Oops. Thankfully, much grace was given to this crazy foreigner by the villagers of Kianjanomby. :0)

Permayhaps this story is to illustrate the fact that even though I have officially been on board for a year (can you believe it’s half way over?!), I am by NO means an expert. :P True, it’s not every day that I mess up that badly in language and tell people they’re dead, but there are still struggles in the language area, for sure. I feel like I can fairly easily now discern cultural jokes and expectations, but it wasn’t until the third time we ate in a home that I figured out it was the home of the witch doctor (story to come)! All that to say, THANK YOU for the prayers you have been so faithful to lift up on my behalf and the emails, letters, and boxes you have sent to encourage me. Please carry on! You all are a continual blessing to my heart. Pray that I would stay close to God and live out the love He has bestowed upon me.

The rest of our trip was eventful and great. There were some HARD hills to climb, but our Lord graciously gave the strength needed. We were able to give out a lot of medicine.

“In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. I John 4:10-11

I love you all,
Cara :)
Eph. 3:14-21

P.S. The attached pictures are of a boy who was just too adorable in his sagging drawers and Mirana, Heather, and I while out on one of our medical hikes. :D

Three Funerals and a Wedding

Entering the village of Bevoahazo, it is evident that the village is in mourning. Everything comes to a halt when someone dies. The men do not work in the fields. The women do not shell coffee beans. The children do not sing or play games. Last week a mother and her newborn baby died and were buried. This week, a woman with “abdominal pain and high blood pressure.” The time of mourning lasts for three days. Family and friends sit continuously with the body, fanning it to keep the flies away. We do not teach our village study this night, but instead visit in the home of the deceased woman to mourn with her family. The next afternoon, the corpse, wrapped in cloths and placed in a wooden coffin, is taken to her tomb. That evening, over 220 people listen as Rivo taught and showed them the movie. While the deaths of the villagers were heartrending, they were definitely used by God (Gen 50:20). You better believe that place got quiet when, in the film, Jesus raised up a body, wrapped in cloths, from the dead. They gasped when the snake came to tempt Jesus, were bewildered at the mountains of sand with no trees, and horrified when our Lord was beaten and nailed to a cross. Relief and joy were evident at His resurrection.  Praise the Lord!

“Sing to the LORD, all the earth; proclaim the good news of His salvation from day to day. Declare His glory among the nations, His wonders among all peoples. For the LORD is great and greatly to be praised; He is also to be feared above all gods… let them say among the nations, The LORD reigns.”
I Chronicles 16:23-25, 31b

And the wedding?

MY SISTER IS GETTING MARRIED! :D I am quite delighted that God has brought Cali & Nyk together in such a beautiful way and am very excited to be able to make a quick trip back to the good ol’ USA to celebrate this day with them in November.

Praise report! We had many neat opportunities on Market Day and one young man recognized the truth! Another woman shared with us how she was in a coma for three years and, during that time, Satan tried to get her to take his hand. She said she did not, and that is why her right hand does not work right to this day. She has not yet become a follower of God, but heard the Truth and we were able to pray for her and her two-year-old son.

Prayer requests! For the new believers in Bevoahazo to be strengthened in their faith. For Heather and I: wisdom wisdom wisdom! The ability to see situations and people from GOD’S point of view. Please lift us up this week as we prepare medical lessons, study Malagasy, and spend quality time with God! As this is October (!), we are already halfway through our term. Pray that we would be faithful to serve our amazing Lord and rely on Him for everything.

I thank you all for your thoughts and prayers. You are a constant encouragement to me.
Love,
Cara :)

[pic above is villagers waiting as we set up the film]

The Boogie Man

The six-year-old girl tosses her braids defiantly and shakes her head no as her mother tells her to hike down to the spring to fetch a bucket of water. “You better obey me,” her mother warns, “or else the vaza will come to take you away!”

This widespread tale about white people stealing children sometimes results in children running away as we first approach a village. Sadly, there is truth to the child trafficking, but in many places it is used as a scare tactic by parents to get their children to obey…like the Boogie Man, the Little White Men in Their Little White Coats, Pegleg (whatever name that terrorizing creature took when you were a child).

Did we ever turn the tables on the parents today! *grin*

I have sat through many a medical lecture, and know it is much more fun and memorable if something other than just talking happens. So while teaching about disease transmission in the village, we added a little game…

The fashionable, yet appropriately scary, Bacteria Woman stealthily looks to see who she should pursue. Chasing everyone from women with babies on their backs to the chief, all were falling prey to her attack! The only thing stopping her was if they yelled out one of the ways they had just heard to stop the bacteria: “Wash your hands! Boil water!” Only then would this frightening infectious organism - known to most as Heather - turn away from certain disaster.

Were there moments of shock and fear as the crazy vaza bacteria dashed towards them? For sure. Are the people of the forest going to be talking for months about bacteria? You bet. ;)

At first we thought that we would teach the women of the village. When we went to get permission from the chiefs, they said, “But can we not come? We want to come, too!”

Random thoughts from the trail if you want more…

On the fourth time I successfully crossed the log bridge I fell off of weeks ago, I felt like I finally acquired the skill of bridge-balancing (thank you WiiFit balance games)! ;)

Watching the children play in the muddy rice field ponds of Ampitivanana, my heart sinks because this is exactly how they get worms…yet how can I ask them to give up frolicking in the one place that can keep them cool in the summer? And speaking of worms, we gave out nearly 300 de-worming pills between the two villages! I am sure that there will be many stomachs feeling better and many children excited to check out the worms in their poop in the next couple days... :P

Surprisingly, this three day medical trip turned out to be a nice spiritual retreat. With the teaching occurring in the early morning and late afternoon, it gave Heather, Mirana, and I time to nap and have some sweet times with our Lord! I thank Him for this unexpected blessing.

Each time you enter a village or want to do anything in it, you speak with the mpanjaka (chiefs). While talking with the chiefs of Ampitivanana, they mentioned that they are ready to worship God first and the ancestors second. We spoke of our Jealous God and they agreed that it is good to worship God, but “can’t” stop worshiping their ancestors. “We still think it will be okay as long as we just worship God more,” they said, “but we are very glad that you stimulated our minds which are often asleep.” Ask that our Father would continue to keep their minds stimulated!

It's September!

Hello my precious friends!

Thank you so much for remembering us in your prayers. A lot of exciting things are happening here in Madagascar! We hiked out to assess our “last” village this week and discovered not only another village, but heard tale of four more villages past the one we went to (Ambohinihaonana – a mouthful!). We are going to go ahead and start some of our projects with the villages we’ve already been to so they know that they are loved and don’t think we have forgotten them. We will assess the other villages later.

Ambohinihaonana was a village full of hearts that were ready to hear God’s Truth! The harvest is truly plentiful here. I am praying that the Lord will raise up leaders in each village. The people are ready to hear and learn, but right now there is no one to live with and teach them. We teach wherever we go, but there are many villages and only a few of us.

I am extremely excited about the rest of this month! Looking forward to our Kelilalina market outreach day, showing the film and studies, and medical teaching and clinics in the villages (more info on all of these below if you want it)!

My hard drive failed, so if I have not responded to your email it is because it was deleted and I am very sorry! If you’d all like to send me a quick note then I’ll both have your email addresses again and get to hear from you – win/win! :D

Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; and His greatness is unsearchable! Psalm 145:3

I love you all,
Cara :)
Psalm 150

For those of you who would like more info:

Kelilalina market outreach day: On September 18th, Heather, myself, and some friends from church are going to have our own market stall where we’re going to talk, pray, and share with people. We’re hoping this will bless both our neighbors in Kelilalina and all the people who come down from the villages to sell their wares on market day!

Film: It’s our turn with the island projector, which means that we can show a film in some of the villages! It will be quite a hike out with all of the equipment, for sure! We’re planning on staying out for at least four days with every showing so we can do some teaching before and after the film.

Medical: I had a little set back in the medical preparation area. My hard drive was attacked by a malicious virus and perished. Thankfully my friend Tim here was able to put the computer back together, but all my files from the last four months were lost (yes, I know, I should back up more often!). Anyway, that just means that I have to re-do my teaching plans, so you can continue to pray for wisdom in that area. During the second week of September, Mirana, Heather, and I are going out for the first time to teach about how diseases are transmitted, have a Q&A time (I think this will be my favorite part!), and then de-worm the entire village. Please also pray that God gives us discernment on which village(s) to make our guinea pigs!

Retreat: Last month we traveled up to Andasibe for our yearly Indian Ocean Islands retreat. We had a sweet group from Southbridge Fellowship come and spoil us. If you want to see pictures from our adventure to Lemur Island and the Croc Farm, you can check them out here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2001474&id=85900022&l=e11d0ecafd