Our top 10 life-changing happenings of the year (in no specific order):
1. Being obedient in being intentional!
God led our family to focus on being intentional. Intentional with our faith, devotion, time, relationships, network and ministry. We went through Experiencing God as a family in January and the threads of this small step have run powerfully through the year.
2. Being intentional in seeing where He is at work!
We started networking, visiting other ministries, making new friends, and met many new families that became instant friends like family!
3. Monday Morning Dates!
Danielle and I picked a morning to meet weekly where we could talk, plan, study and pray. Our time together proved to be an incredible blessing for our marriage, for our family, in processing life back on the field and discerning ministry steps- a date with each other and God.
4. Empowering our kiddos with language learning!
Last January we enrolled the kids in French lessons to help dust off those skills and this school year, we’ve chosen to plug them into Malagasy language learning. They already had a base, of course, but the formal lessons have launched all 3 of them to a new level and we hope it will help them integrate with our community and build relationships even more!
5. Being Present
Being present for our dear friends Peter and Corine through the birth and tragic death of their 2nd son. While we don’t understand all the reasons why God allows certain tragedies to happen, we have witnessed amazing testimonies of faith, of God using their story to draw more to Himself. Knowing how powerfully God moved through our family in the Experiencing God group study book, Neal started translating it into Malagasy for them. We praised God and were honored to be there when they had a call on their lives into full time ministry! We then committed to them to meet weekly to pray, encourage, disciple, and help improve their English for potential work as a Chaplain on Mercy Ships. Join us in praying for this opportunity as Peter’s interview is next week.
6. Being discipled!
Anyone who wants to disciple/ mentor someone should find someone who can disciple / mentor them. That is why we made the commitment to find someone who can speak into our lives and who we could be accountable to and challenge us.
Wes Ehrhart- Thank you Wes for being willing to be process and discern this crazy journey with me, all the ups and downs, week after week, you have been my coach, counselor, networking Guru, my Pastor, Mentor, Friend, and my Brother! I am so grateful.
Bonnie Ward – You are an incredible, inspirational Prayer Warrior! Your way with words and encouragement is humbling. You speak His Word into every crevice of life and we are honored to have you.
To all of our prayer warriors, supporters, those who have sent notes of encouragement, connections, care packages…thank you from the bottom of our hearts!
7. Saying “we will” to a blessed opportunity to help friends!
Our commitment to Mantasoa, the Barbers, helping as we can at Lake Mantasoa School, their clinic, and many wonderful little ministries, has rekindled the love and call to love on and empower through teaching… especially around women and babies and birth .
8. Researching and networking, “What’s out there that’s working?”
Discovering and rediscovering Helping Babies Breathe, Helping Mothers Survive, The first 1,000 Days, to name a few, led to our equipment campaign… at first to help equip the clinic at Mantasoa. Then God opened the door to allow us to go to a training in the Philippines which just happens to combine every single one of these and we get to see it all in action! Incredible!
9. Putting roots down in Tamatave!
| Our call to Tamatave was due, in large part, to a dear family, the Phillips. We love them deeply and are so thankful as they helped us settle with friendship and understanding. They also helped us jump right into ministry opportunities at the FBBM churches! |
| We are saddened and excited for the Phillips as they have been called into new roles with their organization. God has so clearly been preparing them for this transition but boy will they leave a big hole here as they move to the capital city. We hope to meet up often with our trips to Mantasoa! |
10. Equip Madagascar!
As all of these pieces of the puzzle started to come together, we realized God was leading us into some awesome ministry opportunities. This is why and how we know we need to start a new association here in Madagascar, and we are calling it,
Equip Madagascar!
We are called to Equip Malagasy leaders to be the body of Christ! Through discipleship, community development, and healthcare.