In spite of all the hard things about living in Madagascar, we actually do, most of the time, love living over there! You learn to adjust to a different way of living, like walking on the roads and dodging chickens, carts and wagons, learning a new language and a new culture. The other missionaries who live over there are so supportive and welcoming, they know what its like to live in a culture completely different from your own, and they help you settle in, and welcome you into the ever-changing community of missionaries living in a third world country. We had/have wonderful friends over in Madagascar and we miss them and look forward to seeing them again.
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| There are no footpaths in our village! |
I think the biggest reason we want to go back, is that we feel compelled by God to go back and share His love with the people of Madagascar, and especially our precious Iris kids. We miss them, and when we came home last time, it was for a medical emergency, and we felt our work at Iris was not finished. We strongly believe, that as followers of God, we need to be open to His voice leading us and directing our lives (Proverbs 3:5-6) and therefore, it is hard for us, to ever create 5 year plans, as God usually only tells us the next step - go here, go there. So many times in our lives, things have not worked out the way we thought they would, be we know, that we have always tried to be obedient to His calling, every time.
Also, it is actually something we really love doing. We love being a part of helping to rescue children out of horrible situations, where children are living on the street, being abused, abandoned etc. We don't just get to donate money (which is amazing and thank you to everyone that donates money to us as we need it to be able to go!) but we get to be there, doing it. We get to love on children, who haven't been loved before. We get to be the hands, feet, arms, legs, tongue and heart of Jesus! Hugging children, who haven't had much love before; snuggling babies who have been abandoned; giving out Christmas presents to children who have never received gifts before - there is so much joy in that! In fact, my favourite Christmas ever, was the Christmas we had at Iris in Madagascar, where I got to give out presents to the Iris children, for the newer kids, who hadn't had a Christmas at Iris before, it was beautiful, to see their excited, amazed faces, that the whole shoe box of presents could be for them - their own. Wow!
It is such a privilege, to bring up kids in a third world country. Sure they may not have playgrounds and it is harder for them in a lot of ways. They are stared at, pointed at and sometimes even touched on the head, because they are white. They cannot understand the main language spoken around them, and people don't understand them. But, they have the opportunity to minister alongside Mum and Dad at the local rubbish dump, giving out biscuits at our lunch time feeding programme and learning to befriend a child of another culture. Our children have the opportunities to grow immensely in compassion, evangelism, generosity, understanding, appreciation for what we have and how much God has blessed us. They see first hand God providing for us and for Iris, and Him answering prayers. They grow culturally, where they are, on a daily basis, interacting with others of another culture and language, and they learn to get on with all types of people.
I have found that we have an opportunity, also, to grow closer as a family unit. Our children are home-schooled, and the little ones don't go to a preschool, as there are no English speaking preschools and schools in Madagascar. They play more with their siblings than anyone else, as they are around them so much more. Gerhard also comes home for lunch each day and we are able to spend more time as a family, than we would in NZ, when he works long hours as a teacher/Principal.
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| Baking is always an enjoyable home-schooling lesson! |
We often focus on the negatives, as people expect there to be, with living in a third world country. But there are so many positives about living in Madagascar! The weather is a lot nicer for one thing, the sky is almost always blue and 9 days out of 10, it is sunny and warm. There are delicious tropical fruit like mangoes and liches and the fruit and veges are a LOT cheaper than New Zealand. We also get to do new experiences, like seeing lemurs in their natural habitat, eating freshly caught seafood by the ocean or celebrating the Madagascar Independence Day with the Iris children by walking the streets at night with paper lanterns lit up.
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| Madagascar Independence Day |
Lastly, God has given us the great commission, to go into ALL the world and preach the good news. We are commanded to go everywhere, and everywhere can hardly be staying in one's own town or country all one's life. We are inspired by stories of missionaries from the earliest apostles eg Thomas going to India to today's Heidi Bakers (founder of Iris Global). It is a great privilege to be able to partner with God and many others to serve in another country, loving the poorest of the poor.
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| The village where we live. |
