Operation: TERAKA

I love my life (John 17:3)!

Glancing around during our tour of the local hospital, I remarked to the medical director that it seemed rather busy for a weekend. “Yes, it is very busy; right after this I have to go do a c-section which we normally don’t do on Saturdays.” Hope rising up within me, I queried, “May we watch?!” “Sure,” he replied! After changing into the scrubs provided (yup, high waters for the tall girl!), Heather and I entered the operating room with great excitement and expectation (although perhaps we were not quite as expectant as the mother – ha ha ha!). We were not disappointed. The doctor prayed before starting the operation and a beautiful 5lb girl entered this world with no difficulties. As her mom continued to get stitched up, Heather and I held the baby within minutes of her teraka (birth). Heather even got to introduce the baby girl to her daddy! It was such a wonderful blessing. God knows exactly how to spoil me. ;)

We are now officially done with language school – woohoo! I enjoyed the time, but was definitely ready to finish classroom study. ;) Please continue to pray that we would learn Malagasy well.

Thank you for your prayers that God would continually have first place in my life. He has been encouraging me daily through His Word. How true the verse in Jeremiah 15: "Your words were found and I ate them, and Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart; for I am called by Your name, O LORD God of hosts!"

In one week we head out to Zambia for our wilderness survival training called 40/40. We’ll spend 12 days in dorms at the seminary, 12 days in a safari tent, 3 days with a Zambian family, and then have 3 days of debriefing. This, combined with 5 days of pre-devotions and post-devotions, equals 40 days…and thus the name. :0) During this time I will NOT have my laptop. I heard a rumor we might be able to get to an internet café once or twice, so an update might be possible, but don’t worry if you don’t hear from me for a month! Do keep emailing, however, because I love getting all of your encouraging notes!

After 40/40, I am thrilled to be able to take a quick trip down to Victoria Falls with some friends. One of the seven natural wonders of the world AND great company? You betcha! :D We fly back to our beloved Madagascar on May 25th and head down to the rain forest.

Prayer requests:
1. For the many transitions we have coming up with packing up our house here in Antsirabe, traveling around Africa, and moving down to the rain forest.
2. That Heather and I would continue to learn the Malagasy language.
3. That God would receive glory in all that we do!

I love you all,
Cara :)
2 Corinthians 4:1-7

We introduced our teacher to the Easter bunny…

Heather and I went to jail again, but I decided not to put that as the title due to the outcry tamin’ny lasa (last time). Figured the Easter bunny was much less scary (for most people – CALI!). We also taught Edouard about Santa Claus. :P

Anyway, with our final language study week coming up, we have been taking lots of field trips, which I love! Yesterday we visited a orphanage and my heart was SO blessed by the joy of the children. They quizzed Heather and I for a while with questions like, “Do you know Michael Jackson?”, “What are your parents’ names?”, “Have you seen snow?” and danced and played games with us. :) The girl in the picture wondered about our favorite colors because she wants to be a seamstress someday.

We were curious about what a Malagasy prison is like and wanted to investigate possible ministry opportunities, so we headed back to jail. A couple of the guards took Edouard back and interrogated him regarding why these American girls wanted a tour, apparently because a fonja (jail) in a nearby city was recently busted by a journalist for their poor treatment of prisoners. Edouard came out smiling after only a few minutes, so that was good. :P After chatting with the chief of police for an hour and a half and agreeing not to take any pictures or question those inside, he agreed to show us around. For those of you who are visual people, the jail looked like The Hiding Place meets The Inn of Sixth Happiness. There’s a women’s side (their children are allowed to stay with them), a children’s side (teenage boys who were studying French at the time we entered), and a place for the men. It seems like our new BFF (see above picture of us with the chief) is trying to help the men out by providing education, medical attention, and assisting them in selling crafts, but the area is drastically too small for 105 men. All who can fit sleep in one room on wooden boards and the rest stay out in the courtyard.

On top of all this wonderfulness, it’s Easter time! Surprisingly, our town has become the hub of the season’s celebrations. Since we live in the center of town, we merely step outside into a fair-like atmosphere complete with a Ferris wheel and cotton candy on a bamboo stick – yes! The air is thick with excitement. And well deserved excitement, too, for that brings me to the most wonderful thing of all…

I love you all, am continually grateful for your prayers, and bid you a fond arahaba tratry ny Paska – Happy Easter!

Cara :)
Philippians 1:3,9-11

Just a tease...

Our trip to Morondava was gorgeous and relaxing. Here's the link to the rest of the pics:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2001300&id=85900022&l=24f3c882ac

March Mada-ness

Ardor. Fondness. Attraction. Desire. Affection. Fancy. Admiration. Passion.

LOVE

I’ve been thinking about love recently. Love not as the world depicts, but what is true (Rom. 12:9-21, I Cor. 13, I Peter 1:22, I John 3:16, 4:10-11, 19, 5:3 to start with!). Love that is not just a feeling, but a choice and a commitment. A self-sacrificing love that endures relentlessly through persecution. The descriptions of love found in the aforementioned passages are the ones I ask you to pray for me – not that I would merely love the people who love me back and when it’s easy, but the tough people and during all situations. So when…

…the furniture molds for the fourth time in a week.
…there’s a choice between flour with bugs or no flour.
…the 76th person in a day asks me for money because my face is white.
…I itch and have unsightly bug bites all over.
…there is no internet or “entertainment” in the rain forest.
…I miss people.

God would bless me with His supernatural love. Love that in every situation would allow me to deny myself and follow Him (Lk. 9:23). For His yoke is easy and His burden, light (Mt. 11:29-30)! In a world that proclaims “do whatever it takes to make yourself happy,” we should defy normality.  God said they will know us by our LOVE and was, Himself, the ultimate example of love (John 15:13).

So if you would pray that God would saturate me with that kind of love, I would muchly appreciate it. That and please pray that Heather and I will finish language school strong. We have three weeks left before we head to Zambia for our month of wilderness survival training. :0)

We saw Safidisoa (the malnourished baby we took to the hospital a couple weeks ago) recently and she looks FANTASTIC! Much more alert and no signs of infection present. Praise God!

The trip to Kelilalina was so good. The rain forest was AMAZINGLY beautiful. We thought we could make the trip down there in a day, but actually had to spend the night in a town a couple hours away because a cyclone had flooded the road and our car couldn't make it through 5 feet of water! The people were very welcoming. There seems to be a spiritual darkness there that is not as visible here on the more evangelized plateau. We will have to adapt to their Malagasy dialect, but it is basically understandable, so that was a GREAT encouragement. We also got to be a part of the very first church service in Rivo’s hotel (Rivo is a believer and in one of my pictures– here’s the link to the rain forest album - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2001275&id=85900022&l=d1d09b83e3 if you want to check it out!).

I thank my God at every remembrance of you all!
Cara :)
Psalm 95:1

Sharing the Story + a Newborn = Great Day!

You don’t know me very long before finding out that I love babies. I adore newborns and even though am not a frequent crier by any means, get close to tears at every miraculous birth I witness (which is all of them!). All that to say when I was prayer-walking around town yesterday and God nudged me to share the story with a woman who had a three-week old baby in her arms I was MORE than excited. :D

I sat down beside her in the shade and started talking about how cute her baby was (zazakely botrabotra!), how much she was sleeping at night, etc. Except for a stuffy nose, this little one was doing great. I asked the woman if I could read her a story.

Leaning her head close to mine so she could read along with me, I cuddled her baby close and told her of God’s love, grace, and power. I don’t know how much was lost in translation, but after the story the woman smiled at me with a tobacco-filled grin and told me she believed in God.

Love you guys,
Cara :)
Hebrews 4:12

P.S. An update about our trip to the rain forest and such is coming soon!
P.P.S. The baby in the pics above is not the one from the story, but an adorable one from church this morning!