We are ready to be baptized - they said | Newsletter Feb24

 READY TO BE BAPTIZED

Jean & Diana Alexis

Missionaires in Madagascar

I have no words to thank God for everything He is doing here in Madagascar, I am still in awe of what has just happened these last few days. I (Diana) want to confess something to you, I want to open my heart to you who have been with me in this walk, praying to God together, going through the challenges we have had together. Yeah! You guys have been with me on that too.

MY CONFESSION

In February, I felt deeply sad, frustrated, discouraged and I could say very unoptimistic. All the visits in January and what I was experiencing in February made me feel unmotivated. Our groups of disciples were distant, cold, little quiet. We certainly met throughout January and continued to meet in February however, some were absent from several of the meetings.

In those weeks, I felt that they were not taking the Bible studies seriously, perhaps they were doing it to just check off their checklist and be ok with us. Their desire to be baptized had remained silent and I did not want to force anything. I honestly felt helpless and frustrated. I was giving my 100% but the fruits were not reflected.

I shared this feeling with Jean and we both concluded that we should enter into a time of fasting and prayer again, just as we did last year during October and November.

TIME TO ADJUST THE SPIRITUAL BELTS

This time of fasting and prayer was very necessary for us and at the same time decisive, since we had a very clear objective and the enemy would surely be very upset. We wanted to see our disciples truly commit to the Lord.

This time was full of crying, begging, and praying to the Lord for these disciples. It was also a time to renew our spiritual strength, remove all discouragement, and trust in God. We are doing this fasting time every Monday.

BIBLE STUDIES AND TRAININGS

We studied about baptism last year but in December we had to take a break because of Christmas holidays. This was our first break in almost two years of work and it was needed to rest and regain strength.

When we started the Bible studies again in January, I realized they no longer remembered anything. January was like a month of transition. In fact, everyone was still talking about what they had done at the end of the year. Well, long story short, our next topic was about "devotional time with God" and while I was preparing the draft of the topic I felt that God was leading me to return to everything we saw about baptism. And I said to myself "no well, not the same thing again" and I continued searching for the next topic but I did not feel peace until I realized that it was not my voice but rather the Holy Spirit leading me to make a review about baptism. So I obeyed.

Between those days, one of our disciples became terribly ill. Her hand became swollen and filled with pus. We had to end the meeting early and promptly take her to the hospital, 30 minutes from the bush where we were. We were very worried about this disciple's hand. It was so deformed due to the swelling that she could no longer straighten her fingers but rather curled them more and more. The doctor told her clearly that if she did not remove the pus she could lose her hand. That day I couldn't sleep well thinking about that situation so I diligently prayed that her illness would not get worse. Jean and I had to talk to her firmly to get him to obey and take the pills and medications that the doctor prescribed. Generally, they are not used to taking medicines. After two weeks, her hand was recovering and returning to normal size.

TESTIMONY

Jean and I realized that there was always something happening there in the bush during our Bible studies that made them stop, or finish them quickly, etc. After those events, the time of peace came and I was able to review again about baptism.

After reading the Bible and seeing the example of Jesus being baptized in the Jordan, I asked each one of our disciples (without expecting anything affirmative): are you ready to be baptized? They all said in chorus: Yes, we are very ready! So I responded: When are you going to be baptized? It's up to you, they said. I was amazed at this, and at the same time, I didn't understand why it depended on me. Then I asked again: Why is it up to me? Isn't it up to you all? To which they responded: "We are ready, it depends on when you are going to baptize us" WOWWWWW!!!!

Last year they had already told me that they were ready and I was waiting for them to agree and tell us the day to do this. Apparently, I was the one who had to decide the date and time. So this time, we decided to make it March 3, 2024. And this is how they were baptized:

"I WANT COUNSEL, I WANT TO FOLLOW THE LORD"

At the same time, during those weeks that we were busy at the hospital with our disciple, a Malagasy friend, who we met when we arrived in this city for the first time called us. He had told us that he was a Christian, that he had already been baptized but that his leaders had moved to another city so he was on his own spiritually.

After almost two years, he asked us for spiritual help because during all this time, it seems, he has not remained strong in the Truth but has had setbacks that he struggles with. This friend asked for help so that we advise him, disciple him to follow the Lord righteously. He told us that he wanted to learn from the Bible and that he longed to preach the Gospel to others.

We are now meeting on Friday afternoons to learn from God's Word, sing, and pray together. He is a guy with great potential for the Kingdom of God, I know that God can bring out the best in him and transform him for his heavenly goals.

EXCESSIVE HEAT CLIMATE

The hot season began in December and will last until May. Last year we already went through this season but it was not excessive as we are experiencing it now.

Especially the month of February has been extremely hot, making it impossible to stay home in the afternoons. My skin (Diana) has suffered a lot of irritation from the rash. I once had a rash when I was a little girl, but now as an adult, I have never had one. But this hot season here in Madagascar has made me resort to prayer to ask for healing. I have rashes all over my body, back, chest, belly, legs, hands, fingers, neck, absolutely everywhere.

This terrible irritation along with what was happening in the bush had me depressed. There have been times when I have felt like Job with his leprosy. Thank the Lord for my prayer team who has been very attentive and praying for all these situations. I thank other brothers and sisters who have also prayed for me specifically regarding the rash issue. I still have the discomfort, it hasn't gone away. This prevents me from being comfortable doing my work here but I am in God's hands.

ANKIZY SAROBIDY CHILDREN

The children's ministry is in all its splendor every week. I thank God for my husband who is in charge of this ministry. He has the gift to be with the kids and teach them.

Also, we have grown in number. We now have a new group of kids in town of almost 40 and we are meeting on Saturdays. The songs and the drawings to colour make everything exciting for them.

My husband feels that the children are learning each day through memorizing the verses. We continue to reward children who learn all the verses. We have 3 girls who are very participatory all the time and we can see them as leaders for others.

Additionally, we continue with our healthy breakfast project, bringing fruits, hard-boiled eggs, and hot soup.

In addition to this, we are teaching kids about hand washing and how they should do it. We talked about the importance of soap after using the toilet and before eating. We gave away a cleaning kit for each child.

We are currently ministering to 65 children between two groups in the city and one group in the countryside. Please pray to God for these children every day.

PRAY FOR

• The women who were baptized last weekend, for wisdom and boldness among their neighbors.

• The group of kids we have so they can learn all the Bible verses and share them with their families.

• The Bible studies during the week, for people who are hearing the Gospel so they can open their hearts, connect with God, and feel the Holy Spirit.

The harvest in a good soil

 THE HARVEST IN A GOOD SOIL

Jean & Diana Alexis

Missionaries in Madagascar

Other seeds fell into the good soil, and as they grew up and increased, they yielded a crop and produced thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.

Mark 4:8

For those who are new reading our news here in Madagascar, here is the context: Last year, we dedicated ourselves to sowing the seed of the Gospel. Glory be to God, opportunities were opened to us to visit several families and share the Gospel with them each week. To evangelize them, we established Bible studies at home.

From these studies, we have obtained a baptized disciple and 5 women who are little by little understanding the Word of God and two of them are very soon to be baptized. Through visits to these families, we have also had access to their children, bringing them the Word of God every Sunday.

We are now looking for child and adult leaders to begin training them to continue a life of service to God.

A REVOLUTION HAS STARTED HERE

In this last week of January, we have begun training our disciples so that they can reach others with the Gospel. At this time, what we intend is to challenge believers to fulfill their role as faithful witnesses as chosen and loved servants of God.

Launching God's vision for the world: being saved through Jesus

Our disciples are learning to thank God through prayer and to worship Him through praise, something that previously could be said they were not accustomed to doing.

Something I want to emphasize is that we are also teaching them to memorize verses that make them understand the heart of God for the world.

Reading Bible verses and memorizing them

ANKIZY SAROBIDY (PRECIOUS CHILDREN) KIDS MINISTRY 

For this year we have acquired new teachers' books to be able to continue the teaching program. These books are not available here in our place and the vast majority of them are in French, but thank God we had the opportunity to be in another city for a team meeting and there was a Christian bookstore there.

We continued with our two groups (those from the countryside and the city) making them paint and memorizing the Scriptures. We used to ask them questions about the Bible stories we had told them and they answered everything, they are very intelligent.

Kids from the bush

Kids from town

OUR FIRST DISCIPLE

We continue teaching our disciple at home, and we are sharing more time with him. The good news is that his wife and young daughter are already hearing the Word with us. The 5 of us meet once a week to pray together, worship together, and read the Bible together.

PRAY FOR

• The new year of teaching Scriptures to children.

• Believers who have been listening to the Gospel all this time to make decisions to be baptized.

• The new visits, to encourage other believers to do the Great Commission.

2023 The year of sowing

  2023: THE YEAR OF SOWING

Jean & Diana Alexis

Missionaries in Madagascar 

Throughout the year 2023, Jean and I focused on sowing the Word of God in children and adults here in northern Madagascar. We have seen God's support in the results of the fruits of our efforts.

First of all, we thank God for helping us master the Malagasy language and allowing us to communicate, still with some mistakes, but we are improving little by little.

For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power.

1 Corinthians 4:20

JEAN AND DIANA SERVING AMONG BETSIMISARAKA PEOPLE

God has allowed us to have two ministries: children and adults. We started Kid's ministry with 4 and closed the year with 27 kids in total.

Kids from the bush

We are developing this ministry in the bush and in town. We meet with the rural children every Sunday morning, while with the remaining ones, we meet in town every Sunday early evening.

Kids in town

All year long we have taught them about the life of Jesus and how to communicate with him through prayer. Every Sunday, we learn a key Bible verse since it is very important for them to memorize the Word of God.

Likewise, Jean created a roulette with the different needs to pray to God. They have learned to give thanks for the day, for the food, for family and friends.

Jean teaching how to pray in Malagasy language

As a testimony, we had a meal that we provided for them, and we asked who wanted to pray and immediately one of our 4-year-old children began to bow his little head and thank God for the food in the same way as we had taught him. Wow, that was very encouraging for us because previously they were very shy and did not want to participate.

SPIRITUAL AND PHYSICAL FOOD

Our main goal is to introduce Jesus to their lives but also we cannot be insensitive knowing that they do not have food to eat every day and giving nothing. 

So, Jean and I added a giving-food section in our ministry. We had the opportunity to give healthy breakfast at least every Sunday. This breakfast consists of boiled corn, hard-boiled eggs, and seasonal fruits. Sometimes we give tuna sandwiches but they are not used to eating this kind of food and they find it very strange flavor haha. So, we changed into noodle soup or spaghetti with vegetables. 

Finally, in our meetings, we also have worship time. This time is so precious for them. They love singing and moving their bodies. 

ADULTS MINISTRY

In the adult ministry, we have 5 women who each represent a family, meaning that these single mothers are going to spread the seeds of the Gospel with their children. They are the mothers of the children whom we are teaching the Good News in the bush.

They have been hearing the Gospel for more than eight months and we trust that Jesus has been working on them all. At first, they felt very uncomfortable with the Gospel but now they welcome us very enthusiastic and happy with the teachings of God. In this picture, they received Bibles so they could start reading them.

One of our ladies in this group has already confessed that she is ready to be baptized. We are just waiting for her to be with great conviction and without pressure to take this important decision.

Also, they have shared with us their needs and difficult times with no food. For us, it's very touching to hear these kinds of things and we are sharing row food with them every month. 

OUR FIRST MAN BAPTIZED

In town, we are also sharing the Gospel with our Malagasy friends. One of them wanted to be baptized and we were very excited and happy for this big and serious decision he made. 

Now, we are visiting him to continue teaching the Word of God. He is paying so much attention to the teachings and we can see his excitement in his face. 

Our disciple being baptized

Our disciple with his new Bible

 

PRAY FOR

• Wisdom and boldness to share the Gospel with everyone.
• Kids ministry so things go smoothly and they can learn with clarity and enthusiasm. 
• For women to be obedient to get baptized this year.
• Finances and other resources to give away for kids.

Newsletter from Madagascar Aug2023

 

GOD'S BEEN MOVING ALL THIS YEAR

Jean & Diana Alexis

Missionaries in Madagascar

Many of you know that we left Ecuador last June 2022, and it’s been one year since we came to live in northern Madagascar. For us, it’s been so quickly but, of course, this time here has been full of new experiences.

The anointing before going to the mission field

So, we want to summarize up what we have been doing here:

FIRST THINGS FIRST: LANGUAGE LEARNING

In order to approach people and start up the ministry we must learn how to speak Malagasy language. So, as soon as we stablished we begun “class”. I put this word between quotes because it hasn’t been real classes but we found what we call “a nurturer”, it means a Malagasy guy who isn’t a teacher but who guide us in this adventure called language learning. 

So, we have moved forward in this matter but with many stops in between because sometimes our nurturer is busy or, on our side, we needed to go to the capital city to do some paperwork. Anyways, here I have learnt to be flexible with time and leave aside my task-oriented lifestyle and get accustomed to ‘pays de moramora’ (slow lifestyle country) 

Jean is getting better in Malagasy language. He’s been trying hard to be fluent or at least now he’s able to ask many questions, buy things in the market on his own, command things we need, and so on. As for me, as you already know I got Malagasy language in my first two-year mission. But, just to emphasized, I needed to learn so many new words and also adapt some of my Malagasy knowledge because here in the north they don’t speak the same dialect I learnt last time. In general, we are getting better as we practice more and more. 

MINISTRY AND THE WORK HERE

After six month of adapting ourselves to our new life here, we felt we should start sharing the Gospel at least with one person. So we prayed and God showed us a guy who came to our home one day in order to clean something on our roof and then we agreed to visit him every Friday. Praised the Lord this guy was so interested in the Gospel that he received Christ as his Saviour. 

After this time, in April we needed a person who clean our house deeply because we weren’t here for one month and our house was extremely dirty. So, one day a woman came around and she was taking water out of the common well we have next to our house. I started a conversation with her and she asked me for a job. I didn’t have much to offer her but then I remembered the house was so dirty and she ended up cleaning the house. The day she came I was ready to share a Bible story with her, so I did it while she was mopping the floor. She was paying attention to every detail of the story because when I asked some inductive questions she answered them all. 

The woman who cleaned our house with her family in her bush home

From that time on, we have been visiting her neighborhood in the bush (30 minutes from our home) twice a week. We teach her and four other family members Bible stories of Jesus in order to Holy Spirit to convince them about repentance. 

Also, we just begun a Bible Sunday School for the kids in that area. We started last Sunday with 4 kids but I´m sure it will increase in number as the time passes. 

Paying attention to the Bible story

Painting the drawings of the Bible story

Here in town we started an English club with some teenagers as a strategy of making friends with them. We also want to share the Bible with these teenagers but we are still praying for them. At the same time, we have seen so much need in our neighborhood. Some of the little kids here do not have food everyday, so we have just open our home doors to serve these kids in everything we can and in some other ways God will put in front of us.  

The English club with teenagers

Sharing the Bible with the kids here in town

JEAN’S PASSPORT AND OTHER PAPERWORK

All this year, we have experienced stressful moments about paperwork but in all this we have seen God’s powerful hand. Jean must renew his passport because it expires this September 2023 and we did all the processes required in order to get his passport done. It was very difficult because Haitian Embassies are not present in all countries and this kind of processes must be done in person, that means we needed to go out of Madagascar to do this. At the end of the day, God intervened in this situation and Jean could do his passport online without travelling. Praise the Lord!! 

PRAYER REQUEST

• For wisdom in order to do what God lead us to do in every step.
• For the activities of outreaching in the different areas (town & bush)
• For body and mental health.
• For our marriage as we are still adapting in this new season of our lives.

MAR-ABR17: Prayer letter: Jesus is the same yesterday and He is still working today

I look back in time and realize that I am not the same person who came to Madagascar 9 months ago, I am not even the same since I did my training in Quito after quitting my job in late 2015. God has changed my way of seeing people, seeing the world, but most importantly, God has changed the way I used to see Him. I have always said, "God is great, powerful, good, merciful..." etc., etc. And it is true because He is all that, but still the words to describe Him are short and limit who He really is.

In all this adventure that I started when I left home, I was able to experience His love and His perfection. When I first started this career in 2016 my days were up and down. Some days I rejoiced in the beauty of His holiness, other days I fought against my emotions because it seemed irrational to have left everything. I ended up mentally exhausted, wondering over and over again “why did I do it?” Was it worthy? And this does NOT mean that I was sorry to have said "yes" to the call that God spoke to me in 2005, because all this time until now all things have led me to the path He had prepared for me: serving in Madagascar . The answers to my questions were a longing to feel and live, from the depths of my being, the pain of seeing a human being without Jesus Christ, the compassion of knowing that entire communities have not heard about this Savior who gives life in abundance, the true love for people you do not know that makes in your mind to think about: can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?

This is my way of seeing God now: He does not change, his essence is love and, the salvation of the lost his greatest desire, and for that He brought me here to Madagascar to share with others the salvation that one day was also shared to me. There are no more questions that exhaust my mind, now I say to myself: Who is the next person to whom I can talk about Jesus? How do I improve my Malagasy in order to share Jesus in the language of their hearts?

NEW CHALLENGES... BUT ALL UNDER GOD’S CONTROL

I have been learning Malagasy language with a new program which I am also the first to try it. Starting this program has given me the opportunity to learn massively while living the language, which is something completely different from a classroom. On the other hand, in the process we have been adapting the rules of the program, analyzing what is viable and what is not.

I have experienced some changes because both, my nurturer and me, have been learning in the process how to make the program work at its best. Feelings of joy, emotion, frustration and disenchantment I have experienced within normal terms but with the help of God, the Master of Teachers, I have been able to make it.

SMALL FRUIT IN A WIDE FIELD

The seed has been scattered in different soils which, with the Lord's help and dedication, will bear fruit in time. As many of you already know, as I mentioned in my previous updates, I am sharing the Good News with some groups of people: students, friends and ladies. These people are the ones I've been following up and I'm investing a lot of my time.

At the beginning of April, the lady whom I called "C" and with whom I met every week to tell the stories of Jesus, came to me and said "I want to be baptized." That day was a joy to my soul. She was convinced by the Holy Spirit to give her life to Jesus and be baptized. The most amazing part was the day of her baptism, coming out of the waters she raised her arms to heaven in a sign of victory. I could not hold back the tears as I saw how God had brought light into her life by overthrowing all the darkness of the enemy. 

A week after this event, one of the girls I met on Saturday "T" listened attentively when I explained to her why Christ came to this earth, the purpose of His death, and that He will come back a second time and that one day we will be with Him forever. In the end, she said "I want to be with Him forever" and hearing that was so amazing that I had a difficult time asking "are you ready to receive Jesus in your heart?". That day I hugged her and said, "Welcome to this sweet life with Jesus." I ask you to pray that the Owner of the seed will cause this harvest to produce a crop "thirty, sixty and even a hundred times more than it was sown" (Matthew 13: 8)

SHARING IN THE LANGUAGE OF THEIR HEART

What a joy was to start sharing Bible stories in Malagasy! In these months I had been sharing them in English (at least with the people who speak it), and at first I thought it was not so urgent to do it in Malagasy but my heart jumped with emotion when a month ago the Holy Spirit led me to tell the story of Zacchaeus to a lady who sells coffee near my house. I went with my nurturer to have coffee because that day the class started early and we wanted to have breakfast. Having finished eating, my heart told me "share with her". I was full of fear to start talking. Do not think it was easy and do not believe that from one moment to another could already speak, I confess that I had a written paper with the main points of what I was going to say lol. At the end of the Bible story, I asked did you understand the Bible story I told you? She replied “of course, I understood everything. You are good at Malagasy” but that is not all, what surprised me was to see the face of the lady full of joy because someone from another country has told the story in her own language.

On another occasion, I told the story of Nicodemus. Well, I planned to tell that story in English because I still struggle with switching from one language to another. So I started to tell it in English when suddenly I spoke in Malagasy because the words came to my mind one after another, I was confused at that time because I knew I had to do it in English but I could not. The listeners were so happy to hear me and their eyes were bright. So, I could understand that there is nothing better than speaking to them in the language of their hearts.

“And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues;they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.” 

Mark 16:17-18

PLEASE PRAY FOR

·     The study of the language that I will take up again this week in May. May God give me wisdom and may my mind be open to the changes that may arise.

·     May the seeds that have been shared bear fruit.

·     That people like "C" and "T" be convinced and challenged by the Holy Spirit to share with others about Jesus Christ. May they be disciples who teaches others.

·      For more opportunities to share the gospel.

·    For my family in Ecuador, my mom is having a birthday this week. May God give him a beautiful day even though he is not with her to celebrate it.

·      For more people who commit to God in praying and offering for this ministry.

PRAISES

For the people who continually pray for me and the ministry in Madagascar.

For those who are still committed to offering, may God multiply even more than they give.

For those who send greetings and messages of affection. God bless the gift you have which bless my life.

JAN-FEB17: Prayer letter: Honeymoon in Madagascar

Seven months in Madagascar has been one of the best experiences of my life. Knowing the city where I live and all the beautiful places here make me feel very happy. Making friends with other customs and sharing time together has been a blessing. Starting Bible studies in houses have been a challenge because when you get into each one, you also get into a subculture of the homeowners. So many diversity has fulfilled my life with an unimaginable cultural richness.

FUNNY ANECDOTES

I want to share a funny anecdote that happened to me during one of the Malagasy classes. I am learning to tell stories in the dialect "tanosy". One day my language guide came with a question and said: Diana, what do you use to cut your nails?, and the word “nails” in Malagasy is “vazakoho” but  I understood: what do you use to cut the nails of the chickens? Since the word chicken is “akoho” in Malagasy and if you all realized, both have the same ending and; therefore, the same sound. Anyway, my answer was that in Ecuador we use the KNIFE to cut chicken's nails, of course, before cooking them. As she did not believe that in Ecuador we used knives to cut our nails, she asked me again “do they use knives?” And I continued saying “yes, of course”. Then she said: and “don’t you cut your fingers when using the knife?” and I told her that if you cut a piece of chicken’s finger there was no problem hahahaha ... Then, my language guide was horrified to know about this dangerous practice in my country. Finally, we both realized we were talking about two different things. In the end, what she wanted me to respond was “nail clippers” hahaha. We spent more than half an hour laughing.

Learning Malagasy with my nurturer

MINISTERIAL WORK

It is true that since I arrived here in Madagascar, I set out to share the gospel with everyone around me. I must also recognize that if I do not focus on speaking in Malagasy, the doors will not be opened to other opportunities in places where Christ has not been preached yet. My desire is to reach out those who has not had the opportunity to hear the gospel yet, those who are scattered in hostile environment, those who has been forgotten, etc. On the other hand, I cannot stop giving thanks to the Lord for bringing me opportunities to share the gospel with people whom I have done up until now and who has blessed my life in an awesome way.

Some of my Malagasy friends and I still have Friday Bible study at the English Center. Praise the Lord for each person who comes to this Bible study especially men because they are the majority of them, this amazes me because normally women fill the groups and they are usually outgoing but in this group is quite the opposite.

On Saturdays, I have a Bible study with two young girls who have made very good progress. After several months of having told many gospel stories, we have now begun deeper studies with sound doctrine. So, now they are sharing these stories with others. Glory to God!

T & F at Saturday Bible Study 

C (in yellow) being trained to be ready to make disciples

The students of the English Center reading about Jesus

I thank Father Almighty for these first two months of the year of advancement and work. I close this section by recalling the promise He told me earlier this year in one of my devotionals:

“Listen to me, you islands; hear this, you distant nations: Before I was born the Lord called me; from my mother’s womb he has spoken my name. He made my mouth like a sharpened sword, in the shadow of his hand he hid me; he made me into a polished arrow and concealed me in his quiver. He said to me, “You are my servant, Israel (Diana), in whom I will display my splendor.” Isaiah 49:1-3

CYCLONE ENAWO

One of the most painful but frightening event was the cyclone which affected Madagascar a couple of weeks ago. The north of the island was the most affected, leaving many losses, both, material and human. In the south of the island where I live, it did not happen with the same intensity as in northern Madagascar but it does not mean nobody noticed it.

The electric power went out at 18:30 pm and we did not have access to it until the next day at the same time, 24 hours without any communication. During that week, we had a lot of rain but that day (Wednesday, March 9) there was a torrential rain. The night before, I went to sleep early when suddenly, at midnight, the windows and doors began to ring in a shocking, uncommon way. The sound of screams and whistles caused by the wind and, at the same time, the noise of things that flew in the air, woke me up. That feeling I could not forget because I woke abruptly without understanding what was happening.

Now, I am so sad to know that the cyclone left 38 dead, 180 injured people and more than 53,000 people displaced. This cyclone has been one of the most important since the last one in 2012. I remembered my homeland Ecuador and the earthquake on 16-April-2016 that caused thousands of deaths, hundreds of disappeared and displaced people. Until now they are living in shelters and we have almost one year of such an event. I felt very sad and touched by all this.

PRAY FOR:

* Malagasy language learning that I can increasingly understand it better and begin to speak it in a fluid way.

* The Bible studies I am still carrying on in English. Pray that I am gradually able to share them in Malagasy.

* For more opportunities to share the gospel with those who still live immersed in animistic practices.

* Victims of Cyclone ENAWO, so that God comforts the hearts of families who have lost their loved ones, and for those who lost their homes, so that in the midst of all this disaster they can see a light of hope.

* For my physical and mental health. I have had constant headaches that do not allow me to be in a good mood sometimes and I cannot develop myself 100%.

* For emotional health, to continue learning about culture, my mistakes, times alone, homesickness, but that all add up in a good way in my personal growth.

* For the trip I will be going this week to South Africa. It is an international meeting among missionaries from the sub-Saharan region. For all connecting flights are safe and I can enjoy a good time there.

* For my family, my mom Lupe has been through a viral process and she has fever, bone pain and so on. May God restore her immediately.