Culture shock or God's way of bringing us to the end of ourself??

Deuteronomy 31:6 - "Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them; for the Lord your God, He is the One who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you."

How very true those words are! This week I have clung to them. I have reminded myself over and over that my God is there...He is always there! This week has been a time of learning and growing. It's been a week of dependence and trust. It's been a time of weakness and strength.

As I sat on my bed a few nights ago...I began to feel that sense of inadequacy. I began to feel useless and to be honest...I was longing for home. I wanted my comforts back. I wanted my security back. During that time of loneliness and longing, I realized my security was in the wrong place. I realized that I had began to trust in myself and my own strength. I let a guard down and became "confident" in my own abilities instead of totally depending on God. You see...when I came to Madagascar, I set out to learn a lesson of independence and dependence. I wanted to really learn to be independent from people and things and to be fully dependent on God, and all He is for me!! I knew it was going to be hard. I knew it was going to be challenging, but I knew that I desperately needed it. 

In our week of orientation we were "warned" about culture shock. We were told that we would go through these phases where we would feel great and excited about all the new things. We would love the culture and feel so peaceful and great! Then we would probably go through a time where we had culture shock. We would be ready to go home...we would feel overwhelmed with everything. The  newness would fade away and we would face reality. We would realize that 4.5 months is a lot longer than it seems. But we also learned that we would come back up and get settled back in and remember why we were there. 

Like I said...I realized I was right in the middle of the culture shock cycle. However, as I began to pray and seek God, I realized something. It is so much more than a culture shock that we go through during that time. I think it's more Gods way of bring us to the place of total dependence on Him. You see I had become comfortable. I felt somewhat confident in my abilities to get around the city. I felt good about being here. I felt good about what we were going to be doing here. I felt too good...too confident. So God began breaking me down and taking "me" out of the equation. It was all for His purpose...for my good. I was reminded by my sweet friend and mentor that God had a purpose for me here. She reminded me that In my weakness...I am strong...because His strength is made perfect in my weakness!! What a blessing it is to have good..honest people to speak into your life!!

So I sit here tonight...amazed at His grace! I am totally amazed that He cares so much about me. That He wants to use me. That He wants to mold me into who He wants me to be.

Today was our first day speaking about True Love Waits to the youth at a church here in Tana. It went so good and was so encouraging! I plan to blog about it in the next few days. I have been working on this post for a couple days and haven't been able to finish it. :)


Sorry it's so long :) More on the TLW later!!

Love Loves!!

Weekend fun! :)

Just thought I would post a quick update sharing how our weekend went. :) 

We had a great weekend!!

We began by sleeping in...I love sleep!! :) So it was great! We also decided we were going to fast for the day to spend time praying for our mission that we have here and the opportunities that are before us. It was just a sweet time of prayer and reflection on who God is!!

We then took our friend at the dumpster food...we also gave him a tract! We are praying God speaks to him through the truth he now has!! Please pray God stirs his heart!!

I think I mentioned before that we have a family that lives in a house across from ours...it really just a square mud shack. It has been so humbling to see how they live. How joyful they are when they have hardly anything. We decided we were going to try and play and talk with the kids. So I got some crackers we had and some water (the water here is non drinkable...so clean water is hard to get or expensive for them) so we just sat with them. 

There was a 12 year old girl named Rosa

A 3 year old girl named Majon (May for short :) )

And this 6 month old lil guy name Fola (Fula)

They were so precious!!!   I am so excited at the relationships we are going to be able to build with this precious family!! While we were sitting with them the mom came home from the store. She invited us into her home! The small building we thought was their home was even smaller than we knew. There are two families that live in it. It is two houses in one building. So half of the small building was their house. It was about the size of my bedroom in the house I am staying here. 

Their house

 

It was so humbling to see how they live. They were so happy and full of joy and have so little! Material possessions didn't matter to them. I learned so much that day. Things I already knew...but needed to be reminded of. Even here...in Africa...in Madagascar...I am still faced with the human desires for more and better. I am so human. I can be so selfish at times. I am thankful God placed a great reminder right outside the gate to my house that the things of this world are rubbish. One day they will all pass away and all I will have is Jesus...He is enough!! 

He will always be enough.

Even on the days I feel I need more...on the days I lose sight of what my existence is for. 

He will be enough.

I am so thankful for this time God is changing me and growing me. He is so amazing that He would chose to not only use me here in Mada...but change me...to be more like Him! I am humbled!!

I saw trash....he saw food

We have all heard the phrase... "One man's trash is another man's treasure." but what if that were true about you? What if what someone else considered to be garbage...you longed for?? 

I crossed paths with a man who did just that. He longed for my garbage. He treasured it. 

As I turned the corner around a dumpster to put my garbage in it, I noticed something strange. There was a man sitting in the middle of the dumpster. Right in the middle of all the trash. As we put our bags of trash in the dumpster....I saw it....His face! I looked in his eyes. I saw the look of desperation across his face. I saw the remnants of garbage caked on his face. I saw the pile of garbage he was picking through in front of him. I saw him hurry to get our bags after we set them down. I saw him in the dumpster. He was real. He wasn't a statistic...he was a man. 

What we considered garbage....he longed for. 

As I walked away from him the tears flowed from my eyes. I couldn't believe what I just saw. I couldn't forget about him. I sat and thought...what if my next meal depended on the next person to bring their garbage by. What if my bed was the ground under the edge of it. What if the dumpster was my home. What if I smelled so bad that I was covered in flies because I had no where to bathe. What if no one wanted me because I wasn't normal. I thought about this man for days. Ashley (my partner) decided to bring him food and place a tract in it. We did take him food but he was asleep and I'm pretty sure someone else took it from him. We plan to continue to minister to him and share the gospel with him in any way we can. Please pray for him along with us!! 

Also pray that God will awaken your heart to the need for Him all over the world. There is such a great need. Not only physical needs..but more importantly...Spiritual needs! Also I want to challenge you to pray that God would show you just how much He has blessed you with all you have!! 

We met with about 20 pastors and leaders today and scheduled most of our events. God blessed us to be pretty booked up! I am humbled at the fact He would chose me to be used in this place. He is so good! Our first meeting is February 17th. I will try and update more about that later. We finished our language studies this week and we are so grateful for the opportunity to learn some Malagasy. :) 

Thank you so much for your prayers and support for me here in Madagascar!! I feel them everyday!!

More later! Love Loves!!

The need is great...

We often hear the words unengaged and unreached. We hear them but do we really understand what it means. We see statistics and look at numbers and try to ponder what they represent. It's hard. It's hard to really feel the depth of those words until you are face to face with the reality of them. 

When a place is unengaged it not only means there is no one sharing Christ with them, but they have also never heard the gospel. Can you imagine for one second, living your life and never hearing the gospel??? They have never heard the name of Christ uttered from anyone. That should break your heart in two. People often hear of places and never imagine how dark it can be. 

When I came to Madagascar, I came with the mindset of teaching them True Love Waits. I was focused on that and prepared for that. During orientation week we had amazing opportunities to share the gospel with many people. They were moments I will never forget. I have never had experiences like before. As I made my way to my destination of Mada I had a different mindset. While I knew my main purpose for being here was to teach them TLW, I also knew there was a greater need. However, I didn't fully understand that need till I sat at a table in the missionaries house and was given the stats for Madagascar. God is working here...and in great and mighty ways. However, there is still such a need for him, and there is so much darkness. I know God has placed me here for a purpose and I want to be involved in everything He is doing!! Below is a map that shows the specifics of Mada.

As you can see from the Map the dark red are people groups who are unengaged and unreached. Which means that they have never heard the gospel and no one is currently working among them to share it with them. They currently have no knowledge they have a need for a Savior.

The Orange groups indicate the engaged unreached people groups. This means that there is someone working in that area but less then %2 person of the people are evangelical christians. This can mean that in the whole area there may only be one missionary family....or there could be three missionary families. There is still however a great need!!

The grey areas are places where the gospel has taken root, and local people have began to see the need and take action. We praise God for bringing up Malagasy missionaries to share Christ with their country.

Please pray for these places and the people to whom God will send there. Please pray that there will be a great awakening and Christ will be known!! Pray for the families who are already here with a heart and desire to see the Malagasy know Jesus. Pray for the Malagasy people...that they will see their need for Jesus...and run to the Cross!!


Thank you for your support and prayers!! It means so much to me!! Continue to pray for us as we are learning the language!! I will update again when I can!!

Love loves!!

Hello Everyone!!!!

HI!!!

Just thought I would send out a little update to let ya'll know what's going on here in the world of Madagascar!! :) We are still getting settled in and getting everything we need! Today we went to the markets and a few stores and got some things for our house! :) That was fun! We just have to set it all up. We also had a chance to meet with a family that just moved here and is going to be working with us some!! They were so precious!! I am excited to see what God does!!

Today for lunch we ate at an indian restaurant!! Who knew my first time eating Indian food would be in Madagascar! :) On our way there...we were able to see a lot of the city. I am going to post some pics so you can see what we are seeing! :)

We start language school on Monday so please be praying for that!! We are excited to be able to communicate some with people here!! :)

Love Loves!!!

People drying there rice on the sidewalks in the heat!!!!

 Flying into Madagascar!!

 Rice Fields!! 

Dumella!!

Hello Everyone!!! I am finally able to update my blog!! It's been a crazy but awesome week!!! I have learned so much and seen so much I couldn't begin to explain everything!!

God has been so near to me during this week!! We have been non stop busy with experiences galore. We have had many opportunities to share the gospel with locals and just be totally immersed in Africa and it has been totally awesome!! I am not allowed to share specific details of what we did but I can give a vague description!!

Monday we arrived in Johannesburg and got ready for the week of our life. We arrived in Gaberone, Botswana on Tuesday morning and hit the ground running. We ended up arriving in Lobatse, Botswana by bus...all by ourself!! It was crazy!! Here we are sitting on a bus with a bunch of Africans and we don't know the language at all and we have no idea what we are doing! Through all those experiences we learned to rely on God and trust God in it all!!

This past weekend we stayed with an African family and it was great! We learned what it was like to be a family living in hard times in African and it was definitely a humbling experience for sure!! We ate some african food and went to the local Baptist Church!! :)

One thing that really sticks in my mind is when we were at a bus stop one day...our mission was just to share the gospel. I noticed this older woman sitting by herself with a bundle of blankets beside her. As I approached her I noticed that the bundle was a tiny baby. It was really windy and cold that day so that's why she was bundled up. I sat next to her and began to talking to her and of course asked if I could hold the baby. :) So as I held that sweet two month old baby I prayed over her that her life would be impacted by the gospel and that someone would tell her who Jesus was!! I began talking to her some more and ended up by sharing the gospel with her and praying with her an over her. It was such an awesome time and I will never forget it!!

Please continue to pray for me and my partner and the rest of the teams spreading out in Africa!! Our Plane leaves at 7 am my time in the morning!! :)

I will leave ya'll with some pics!! :)

Joannesburg!!

Well...I finally made it to Johannesburg. It was a long flight and I am so glad to finally be on the ground. I won't have internet after this post for about a week at least. So I will update again as soon as I can!!

Johannesburg is nothing like I thought it would be. It look like a big city from the US. It's busy and big. It is beautiful here though!! We are staying at a really nice place with a bunch of people from Hands On so that is nice. I am glad I have like minded people to talk with!!

I can't wait to be able to share more about what's going on! This week is going to be very interesting for me and I am sure there will be lots to tell when I am able to post again!!

please pray that it goes good this week and that I am able to learn a lot!!

Love to all and thank you so much for your prayers!!

~Dani