All articles in category Madagascar
March 2015
Madagascar
Mandritsara Good News Hospital, Madagascar
In ET, May 2014, World Mission featured the strategic work of Mandritsara Good News Hospital, Madagascar. This month, Dr David Mann, recently retired from many years missionary medical work there, shares about his colleagues. Readers unacquainted with this thriving work will readily understand that most successful ministries, including the apostolic ministry within Acts, have been team enterprises, albeit with gifted leaders.
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By Gareth Crossley
October 2014
Madagascar
Training in Madagascar
Madagascar is the fourth largest island in the world. Situated off the east coast of South Africa, it is shaped like a large left foot, roughly 900 miles long and 350 miles at its widest. Carey Outreach Ministries has been assisting with the work of training ministers on the island of Madagascar for the past three years. Its founder, Dr Bob Penhearow, has made two visits of two weeks each, delivering 50 hours of lectures and addressing the Bible Convention that follows. This year I went in Dr Penhearow’s place. Pastor Rabenja Ramiaraka (known by all as Pastor Miara) is the key worker in the...
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By David Mann
May 2014
Madagascar
Can we really establish mission hospitals today?
In today’s world, many Christians and non-Christians would raise their eyebrows at the thought of opening a mission hospital in our generation. Surely the day of mission hospitals is past? Perhaps they served a purpose in the days of David Livingstone. But today? When we were involved in planning a mission hospital in Madagascar, over 20 years ago, many objections were raised against such a venture; and many people still raise doubts today. Here are some reasons why a mission hospital is often considered outmoded or inappropriate: 1) It’s a way of forcing people to be converted, in order for them to obtain medical help....
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By David Mann
May 2014
Madagascar
A new mission hospital in our generation
The Good News Hospital in Mandritsara, Madagascar, began in 1993 when a small group of missionaries and Malagasy Christians moved to this remote town, in a largely unevangelised area of northern Madagascar. The location was suggested by the Malagasy government health department, because of the large rural population and minimal government facilities. But, in the providence of God, it was also a very needy area spiritually. During the past 20 years, the hospital has developed with medical, surgical and maternity facilities, X-ray, laboratory, and an eye department. A community health team has established work in over 20 villages, in an area over half the size...
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May 2014
Madagascar
Gospel tracts
Patients all over the world spend a lot of time waiting. Waiting time is an opportunity for Christians to talk to them about the Lord — and for them to read the Scriptures and gospel tracts. With this in mind, several tracts have been written and translated into Malagasy. Here are some of them: Better is a tract to give when patients go home. It is based around the story of the ten whom Jesus healed of their leprosy, and the one who came back to give thanks. I want an abortion is for women who have had an abortion or are requesting one. It...
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By David Mann
May 2014
Madagascar
An unusual patient
‘What seems to be the trouble?’ is the question doctors all over the world ask the patients in their consulting rooms. It is no different in Mandritsara, and I asked the Malagasy equivalent question of a 44-year-old lady in my consulting room. ‘I’m breathless’, came the reply (I could see that!), ‘and my abdomen is a bit swollen’. ‘And I died and came back to life again’. Now there are many standard complaints that patients present with, but I don’t ever remember someone saying quite that to me. And it is not the sort of thing you are likely to forget! But, although the lady’s...
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September 2003
Madagascar
Missionary Spotlight – Fact File – Madagascar
Fact File – Madagascar Area: 226,657 square miles; the fourth largest island in the world; lying east of Mozambique. Environment : The climate is tropical on the coast, temperate inland, and arid in the south and south west. Madagascar has a narrow coastal plain and central mountainous plateau (Maromokotro 2,876 metres). It experiences periodic devastating cyclones. Population : 16 million. Only 3% are 65 years and over. Infant mortality : 85 deaths per 1,000 live births. Life expectancy : 55 years. Ethnic groups : Malagasy (mixed Indonesian, African and Arab) 98.6%; others, including Chinese, Reunionese, Comoran, Arab, Indian and French, 1.4%. Official languages :...
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By John Williams
September 2003
Madagascar
Missionary Spotlight – Madagascar’s religions
The Malagasy people are a unique mix of Indonesian and African. Their religion is based on ancestor worship. Madagascar is famous for its cults of the dead. The capital is full of boutiques, internet cafes and cars — yet most Malagasy live far from ‘civilisation’ and cook home-grown rice on wood fires, dwell under thatch and rarely using wheeled transport. But a more ‘civil’ people one cannot find, as measured by a wide, toothless smile no dentist ever saw, and a courtesy that kills the last scrawny chicken in the village to provide a meal of welcome to a passing stranger. An elderly...
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By Colin Hamer
September 2003
Madagascar
Missionary Spotlight : Madagascar – seizing the opportunities
Madagascar is a large island (1,000 miles long and 300 miles across) 250 miles off the east coast of Africa. It is one of the poorest countries in the world. No one knows the origins of the indigenous people, although it seems fairly certain that Malagasy culture has Malayo-Polynesian roots. Many of the people have light brown skin, straight black hair and Polynesian features, while others have a more distinctly Negroid look. What unites them is a common language — Malagasy — and an amazingly gentle, smiling, forbearing temperament that makes them a delight to be with. Missionaries Among the earliest missionaries to...
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By David Mann
September 2003
Madagascar
Missionary Spotlight – Medicine in Mandritsara
In 1996 a small mission hospital called the Good News Hospital was opened in Mandritsara, a market town in the northern interior of Madagascar. This is a remote but populous area, where almost everyone lives by subsistence farming — mainly of rice and cattle. The hospital was begun by a team from Africa Evangelical Fellowship, working in partnership with Malagasy Christians from the Association of Bible Baptist Churches of Madagascar. This indigenous group of churches, which is now fully responsible for the hospital project, was the fruit of the former Madagascar Bible Mission, begun in 1932 by Brynlee Evans and his wife, who...
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