Adventures In Madagascar

Malagasy Midwife
Madame Edvige

Madame Edvige and Deborah Hamilton

Last weekend I took the family camera to Madame Edvige’s house. (She doesn’t wear the hat when she sees clients in her home.) Madame Edvige is a nationally certified nurse/midwife; she has been working in the north for 31 years and has been working out of her private home for the last 5 years. She is a very gentle Christian sister and my friend.

Madame Edvige and clients

This is Madame Edvige with a client and her “husband”. The mommy-to-be just turned 14 in June and was in labor the day I took this picture. The young man is about 25 years old and is very protective of his wife, it’s quite precious. Even though the Malagasy are very reserved emotionally, most of the time, one could tell that they were both worried and a little excited to have this little one. She delivered at 1:40 a.m. Saturday, June 30th, both mommy and baby healthy. It isn’t the custom to weigh the baby until the one week check but to guess, I’d say between 3,000 and 3,200 kg. at birth. That’s about average weight for most Malagasy babies.

Peace, Deborah

Child with Lemur

Children Posing

"Laundry" Day in Madagascar 

Selling Our Wares

Sunset In Madagascar

Tidbits from EBONY

His GRACE

Rainbow of Promise over Ebony
 

Ebony Happenings and Conference Going:

Ebony and the surrounding areas really need your prayers! The security situation is dire at this time and there are several brothers and sisters in Christ whose lives are in danger. Also, the city has lost about half of its population of “workers,” so the need for laborers into these harvest fields is ever increasing!! The main ethnic group of Ebony has a population of about 40 million. Yet, there are only about 40 of Father’s workers serving among them. That is ONE worker per ONE MILLION people in Ebony. The odds seem overwhelmingly against us, yet we know that He who is in US is greater than he who is in the world. Father is pursuing these people ~ the most unlikely candidates for the Kingdom! Will you labor with Him in prayer so that many might come to know Love and Grace through Jesus Christ?
 

Ebony boys enjoying their suckers
 

This newsletter is making a difference! God is truly spreading His “charis” ~ His GRACE ~ throughout the world. The July 2007 Charis Newsletter included an article about Lawangga, a little girl in Ebony who was born with a terrible and painful skin disease. Someone passed our newsletter on to a doctor in the United States, but she let it fall into her deleted items box thinking she would have no time to read it. She felt the Lord prompting her to open the newsletter, however. When she did, she was drawn to the portions about overseas work.

Immediately she knew why Father wanted her to see this newsletter! She read the story about Lawangga and knew that she could help. This doctor just “happens” to be a skin specialist and is connected with all kinds of other people in the medical community who could be a help to little Lawangga. Not only that, but God has already been working in this doctor’s life to give her compassion and vision for reaching the nations of the world with His love. She is very familiar with cross-cultural situations and especially with people from developing countries. The doctor has contacted Charis and we have put her in touch with the workers in Ebony. Please continue to pray about this situation. Ask that workers would have the opportunity to gather all the necessary information, so that the doctors can discern how to help Lawangga. Be in prayer for this little girl and her family to know what True Grace is!

Blessings At Home:
I’ve shared some before about what it is like to come home to the States after being overseas for a long time. One of my primary concerns is always finances. This month the issue has been, “How do I take care of my health needs when I am not on insurance and have no income?” Hmmmm....a perplexing question. Well, I really felt that the Lord was leading me to pursue good health maintenance this month, so I stepped forward and made some appointments. Praise Him!, because, so far, I have seen a family doctor, an eye doctor and a dentist for FREE ~ including X-rays, medicines, three months worth of contacts and new glasses for 50% off! :-) No, this is not the new Lens Crafter’s deal! This is our great God providing for His daughter. It is such a struggle sometimes not to give in to worry. But, I’ve got to remind myself to look at the birds and the fields. They are not lacking in their basic needs, nor in beauty—and God gives the same to us as we trust Him.

Life and Death:
Some of you know that I spent June and July in California caring for my sick grandfather. I learned so much about grace at that time, and couldn’t help but think of all the things I am learning at Charis about how to be a true servant for God’s Kingdom. My grandfather was diagnosed with cancer that had metastasized to his bones and liver, so his time was very short. He started from being able to cook me a three course dinner and treat me like royalty in May, to slowly progressing into an immobile state, unable to cope without the pain relieving properties of morphine. I am so thankful for the time I still had with him before he went on the stronger medication. He was in pain, but he was himself for a while. I moved in with him and became what he called his, “Helpmate.” When I started having to sleep at his feet and get up with him every hour in the night, he began to call me his “Blue Angel” because I’d fly up off of my mat on the floor and all he would see was a flash of blue from my night shirt before I was at his side. What a precious time it was, learning how to meet his demands with patience and perseverance, studying his body, expressions and moods in order to address his pain coping needs, disciplining myself to take rests whenever he was sleeping, seizing those moments to be quiet with him and just hold his hand. It wasn’t a birth I attended, but, rather, a death. Yet, the Lord still used it to teach me about the glory of serving in His name. In the last hours of his life, I sang through the hymn book until he finally went, full of faith, to be with Jesus. It was a beautiful, life changing experience. I realized, more than ever, that this life is temporary and only a shadow of the wonderful glory we will experience when we are finally face to face with our Creator. This is the good news that I want the nations to hear from my life and my voice as I serve among them!

With Love, Elizabeth
 

Sunset In Ebony