A Dozen Life Lessons Learned from Ambohinihaonana

1. There is no such thing as sweat-proof suntan lotion.

2. There are witches in Madagascar. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised since there are witch doctors, but there are also “good” and “bad” witches here who will help you out if you are in need of a potion (I didn’t see if they had love #9). Our guide said a witch placed a brief immobilizing spell on him during our first night in Ambohinihaonana. Just another reminder to keep praying and bringing the light of our wonderful Saviour to the rain forest!

3. A little heart language goes a long way with the elders of the village. After conversing with the wife of the chief, she invited Mirana and I to go visit her two grown sons in their fields. “Ha ha – she wants us to go flirt with them,” I whispered to Mirana. “Actually – that was an ‘invitation’,” she said. Apparently we passed the woman’s test for daughters-in-law! And by the way, the Malagasy word for having a “crush” on someone is a visual picture of a biscuit being smashed by a large machine. Youch!

4. It is a blessing to be able to sleep anywhere. For a while I thought myself to be normal, sleeping in tents and on hut floors, not caring if people were watching. Apparently, I am odd. I thank God for this ability.

5. We need to keep praying for our friends in the villages! Lolo, the woman who ran down from her fields to hear about God, came to worship a couple weeks ago, but has not been back since. We visited her on our way and she said she wanted to come to church, but she this past time she tried to bring her older child. Her husband got mad and said he did NOT want his child going to the “sect” that met in a hotel and had foreigners present. Her neighbors think she is crazy. Her husband is going to let her come this week with her newborn and she asked that we give her passages to study throughout the week with her children.

6. Normally I would say heed warnings, but know that tic-tacs do NOT need to be stored in a “cool, dry place.” :P

7. I enjoy playing Paul Harvey and giving “the rest of the story.” Our guide, Roland, saw my Children’s Bible and asked to hear about Peter betraying Jesus. I read it to him and asked if he knew the rest of the story. He said he didn’t, but thought that Peter was not a Christian because he didn’t even have enough faith to say he knew Jesus. We then looked at the passage where Jesus asks Peter to feed His sheep and the rest of the life of Peter. He really liked the part about Peter eventually having enough faith to heal the lame man at the temple!

8. My reading was very apt for our first night there. I found that Leviticus 1 is much more vivid if you have just watched an animal get hacked up.

9. It was difficult, sorting through intestines, feet, and chunks of blood floating around in the bowl in front of me in the dimly lit room. I do not think it is fair that there are prevalent rumors of us foreigners drinking blood when the Malagasy really do eat blood. “But it’s chicken blood, not human, so it is okay,” explains Mirana. But back to that dimly lit room…spying a chicken part that looks edible, I found out that if you think you have grabbed a succulent piece of chicken breast and it turns out to be the chicken’s head, you will be disappointed!

10. But also, that disappointment cannot last when four men are dancing in front of you Lollipop Gang style. Wizard of Oz, anyone? Yes. The village of Ambohinihaonana gave us a thank you concert the night before we left and it was HIGHLY enjoyed by all present. :)

11. Leech and worm filled mud or bilharzias water? Sometimes there is no good third option. Aka: I was not a fan of turning around and going back OR plopping down on the ground and sobbing. It was going to have to be the mud or the water. lol.

12. It is SUCH an honor to share.   The looks on the villagers’ faces as they hear how those who were sick were treated was just precious. I especially loved doing our very first “women only group.” Huddled in a hut, I got to teach about caring for children from birth to age two and about how God does not merely “overlook” our sin, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, He died for us.” Romans 5:8

Sweet people!

My dear friends, I recently realized my neglect. I have not yet told you about some people! That precious group of people who meet together weekly to praise God. I wish I could tell you about every single person, but that would be an insanely long update. :P I was extremely happy to see Lolo (the woman from my last update) rejoicing there today!

The 20-30 of us meet in a hotel lobby. Feel free to drop by if you’re ever around! We’ll be the ones sitting on wooden chairs in a semi-circle singing around the keyboard. Rivo normally teaches (that’s him with his wife and son in the picture), but only after the group of grade-school boys and I have had a race to call out the numbers of our favorite hymns and others have read a psalm or two. Glancing around, you’ll see hotel owners worshipping beside those who cut their grass (with hedge clippers or scissors, mind you!) and people raised in the city next to those from the villages who have hiked over mountains to get here this morning. It is a beautiful picture, my friends.

Beyond studying and praising with us, our church members are a great help to Heather and I in our language, pray for us, send us out and go with us to the lost, have tea ready for us when we come back from a long hike (hot chocolate for me – they know me well!), and a myriad of other things (including skillfully dig out Heather’s sand flea!). I cannot tell you what a blessing this group of people has been to me. As you all are, as well! Y’all have sent emails, letters, boxes, and faithfully lifted me up before our Father’s throne. Today I am thanking God for my brothers and sisters all over the world. God truly knew what He was doing when He created fellowship. :)

HIGHLIGHTS you can be praying for!
Nov. 9 – We drive nine hours north to take Heather’s parents to the airport. It’s been enjoyable getting to know them. As Heather has been ill, we will also have another doctor visit. Please pray for wisdom for Dr. Tahiri as she treats her and that my friend is completely healed very soon!
Nov. 15-18 – hike out to Ambohinihaonana, a receptive village that needs much teaching. This is one of the villages that practices cattle sacrifice to appease the ancestors.
Nov. 23 – I begin my journey home for Cali’s wedding! Early congratulations to Cali & Nyk!
Dec. 2 – the Norton family returns to the rain forest with their new baby girl! :0)
Dec. 7-10 – hike out to Ambodivoahangy, a village that told us a bunch of their taboos, but none of them could tell us how to get to heaven. Last time we shared the gospel and gave them a Bible. At least two men committed their lives to God, so I am very interested to see what’s happening in this village!

Remember this blessed thought from Isaiah 1 for those of us who have been saved by His grace:
“Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”

In Christ’s love,
Cara :)

Overwhelmed

“The vaza are here!” I hear the cry with my ears and then it hits my heart. The foreigners! Could this be about last week? I had to find out. My fields are far from the village, so I was up in my little house in the mountains for planting season. When I heard that cry, I left my fields and started running…but I was too late.

Huffing and puffing, I walked into the school room as their lesson ended. One of the vaza asked me if I wanted some Tylenol. “No. I mean, yes,” I said, dazed. I have nothing to give my children when the fever hits them, so Tylenol is a welcome gift, but that’s not all I want. I came because I know the vaza have something more precious than medicine.

“Last week I was sick and felt God tell me that I need to know Him, but I don’t know how,” I explain. “I have questions about becoming a believer.” The face of the vaza and her Malagasy friend, Mirana, light up. Mirana takes me aside and explains what it means to be a follower of God. What she is saying sounds nice, but I don’t know. I’m messed up. I don’t do those things she says a follower of God should do. And I am depressed – again. This happens each time after I have a baby. The others think I’ve gone crazy, but the sadness in my heart just makes me want to go away. I need to deal with all this before I can be worthy to be a follower of God.

“No,” Mirana says. “You don’t have to get your life all sorted out before you follow Him. You need to believe in God first. After you believe in Him then you start to see your circumstances in a different light.” Come to Him as I am? I doubt God would want that. There are too many things to think about. I cannot become a follower tonight.

The next morning I make the trek again down to the village. I have been thinking all night long. I ask again if it is true that I don’t have to get rid of all the problems in my life before I can follow God. I am once again led through what it is all about. This time I understand. This time I decide to accept the forgiveness and freedom that is offered. This time, just as I am, I become a follower of my Lord!

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This is the story of Lolo, a woman of the village of Ankazotsara where we visited this week. My dear prayer partners, THANK YOU for praying that God would raise up Malagasy leaders. A young man in our church named Mik went out hiking with us last time. This time he came again and taught a lesson! For me you can pray that I stay close to God and be readily obedient to WHATEVER He wants me to do. I am amazed at what He is doing here, and have no earthly way to keep up with it all. And so I am overwhelmed. Overwhelmed by the goodness and grace of our heavenly Father. Praise be to His name!

“What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it?...Likewise I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” Luke 15:4, 10

Cara :)
Eph. 3:20

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