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Hello one and all!
Seems like no time since I sent out an email to you all but I’ve been reminded that it’s been quite a while! As I was writing the date on Sunday I wrote September the 9th instead of Dec so I’m a few months behind, time just seems to have flown!
Life’s still busy but busy spending time with people rather than
preparing music so it’s much more enjoyable! I haven’t really very
much news for you. Exams went well, teaching individual lessons is now
finished for the semester and we have just two public performances left
before we finish for the holidays.
This weekend was a rather sad
and tearful one in our house. Cheryl the American girl who we lived
with has returned to American so three have become two. Gina and I will
both miss her very much as the three of us in the house had become very
good friends. So for the next month and a half it will just be Gina and
I before another volunteer arrives.
It’s
getting rather hot here these days, not much like Christmas but I’m
enjoying the freedom from the commercial Christmas season at home! It
was wonderful in church on Sunday to sing silent night in Malagasy!
Visiting a student’s church and family on Sunday is a very enjoyable
ministry (minus the food part!). It’s lovely to know more about their
lives and how they live. It’s also very interesting to see how they act
in their homes. I was amazed on Sunday when the husband wanted more
food on his plate he couldn’t possibly reach for it himself but instead
he stopped his wife eating so she would get it for him…men are still
the chief of the house in this part of the world!
I’m sure most
of you heard that the last time it rained my bedroom roof started to
leak. It hasn’t rained since but entering rainy season I’m not looking
forward to the next lightening storm and downpour! It’s now cockroach
season and I am not appreciating it very much when the brutes come into
my room at night!!! I’ve felt like I’ve had the chicken pox as last few
days as my legs have been covered in huge red bites which are EXTREMELY
itchy! I think by the looks the local people give me when they see
them, they think I’m diseased! For every two bites the other
missionaries get I seem to get 20! But apart from that I have
absolutely nothing to complain about! God is good!
I just want to tell you about a few things that will be happening over the next few weeks so you can pray about them.
-Tomorrow
there will be elections for the Mare of tana…it’s a rather big affair
and in comparison to the advertising campaigns at home we have a lot to
learn!!! I’ve never seen so many poster and vechiles driving about
campaigning for their candidate. We hope the next few days will be
peaceful ones.
-also tomorrow will be the children’s test day at
school. After they do their test I will tell them all the Christmas
story which someone will translate for me into French. I’m really
looking forward to this as many listening do not know about Jesus. Pray
that it will be a good day in God’s kingdom. May the eyes, ears and
hearts of the kids and parents attending be opened.
-On Sat the adults will have their final performance and
graduation ceremony. God’s word will be preached at a short service
beforehand.
- Ronald will arrive on 19th Dec n the evening (I
think!!?) so pray it he may have a good journey here and that it will
be a good three weeks together.
-On 21st and 23rd we will go to Christmas concerts in churches that my students are involved in.
-On Sat 22nd I will play Christmas carols on the violin for children in an orphanage.
-On
27th we will head to the East coast to the sea for a holiday for 5 days
with 5 other missionaries (2 Canadians, 1 German, 1 Korean and 1
Chinese)
-the first week in Jan we hope to take a trip to a more remote area to see the needs of the children there.
-On Sat 5th I start back to school.
-Yesterday
I bought a French bible. I will start French lessons in January. Pray
that this will be a good basis for me to learn French but also in doing
so I will have opportunities to talk about Jesus with my French teacher.
-Until
they find another music teacher for the school for missionary kids I
have said I will teach the music class there next year.
I think
that’s all my plans that I know about. I’m really looking forward to a
Christmas with a difference and it really is a wonderful blessing to
celebrate the birth of our Lord with people from many nations!
I had better go and do something useful!
I hope you’re not feeling too cold today…I hear it was a little wet there for a while!
I
hope I’ve attached some pictures…hope you can see the glorious
sunshine! But also I hope you can see that the colour of our skin is
not important…we are all the same and indeed can be one in Christ. It
scares me to think that some of the boys and girls who sit on my knee
and the Malagasy people I greet with a hug are at the minute heading to
an eternity without Christ. Above all else please pray for their
salvation.
In Christ’s love,
Mandy.
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