Back in Madagascar!

We have been back in Madagascar for about a month now. We are enjoying seeing everyone that we had gotten to know the last time we were here. It was hard saying goodbye to friends and family in New Zealand, but so lovely seeing old familiar faces again. Our journey here was anything but easy! Of course, we didn't expect it to be easy with 4 young children, including a newborn and a heck of a lot of hand luggage and over 50 hours travelling, jet lag, airports etc. However stressful it was (and it certainly was!), God did answer our prayers, with making sure all our luggage arrived safely, and that was a miracle in itself, with not being able to leave customs in Joburg, due to not having a transit visa (which we were assured we didn't need, turns out we did!). Our children behaved really well for the most part, and slept on the plane. Hadassah slept really well everywhere we went. No one got sick and we got out Madagascar visas. So thank you to everyone who prayed for us before we left, and during our hours of travel.

When we finally arrived in Madagascar, it was such a lovely surprise to find our good friends and team mates, the Drekmeyers had set up our house, even putting things away for us (all our stuff had been in storage). Another friend had bought some food for us, and we even had a meal brought round for us. The kids loved exploring their new/old house again and checking out the gardens and bikes. They were pleased to see that our turtle 'Turbo' and our guinea pig 'Rosie' were still alive!

Immanuel adores his little sister!

On the first night, our water pipe in the kitchen broke and our kitchen flooded. Thankfully Michiel was able to fix it for us the next day. Then one week after being back, our hot water cylinder and shower broke. The landlady has refused to replace it, so for the last month, we have had bucket baths. Every 2 days we heat up a big pot of water and have a tiny bath. During our second week here, there were some BIG thunder storms with heavy rain. Both of our kids' bedrooms leaked, so we had to move their beds and put down buckets. We have been searching for a new house with a bigger yard, so the kids can ride their bikes, and so we can make more of a play area for them, as there are no playgrounds and places to ride their bikes here. We have found a place to move into, but there are some complications that need to be sorted, before we can move in.

The view from our bathroom towards the rice patties and local rubbish dump.

It has been great to be back with our Iris family again. On our first Tuesday, we went on a big picnic with all the kids and house mums. It was so lovely to see our children playing with the Iris kids. I (Rebekah) have started attending a small (discipleship) group of Iris girls aged 8-10. Tabitha and Mary-Beth go with me. I will be taking it over at the end of this month, when the leader returns to the USA. Gerhard has been helping out with ideas for some of the special needs children in the Iris School as well as meeting with the school principal and teachers. I have also started taking language lessons again. It has been frustrating not being able to talk with the Iris children as much as we would like to, but it has surprised us, just how much we have remembered after not speaking the language for 2 years.

Please pray for:
* Good health. Gerhard has been very sick for the last 24 hours, we suspect it is a tummy bug.
* That the complications with the house we want to move in to be sorted out.
* Good transitions for our Iris team, as our Director returns to the UK for 12-18 months to sort out adoption of her 3 children and 2 of our other long term missionaries return to the USA.

Give thanks for:
* Our suitcases arriving safely.
* Our visas being sorted.
* Finding a new house
* The kids settling in well.

Thanks for your prayers and journeying with us.

Love and Blessings
Rebekah