Note: This was written in September but we haven’t gotten a round to sending it until now, October. Sorry!
Greetings from Antananarivo, Madagascar. The dust has not yet settled from our tornado tour around the US and the continuation of that pace since returning back to Madagascar. I have thought about the wonderful blessing the time in the USA was in spite of the hectic pace we kept. We are thankful for:
- over 11,000 miles traveled SAFELY during those 3 months, in 14 states and Washington, DC We saw many accidents along the way so were reminded not to take our safety for granted.
- our health through all the travels and healthy doctor reports for all of us.
- the encouragement from many who expressed support, concern, and interest in our ministry in Madagascar, as well as those who shared such precious words, “I pray for you every day.”
- the many churches and host families who welcomed us and shared such warm hospitality.
- some “American cultural” training for our kids to help them remember their heritage. They got to see Mount Rushmore, eat plenty of hamburgers J, visit an amusement park, watch lots of cartoons, and attend Vacation Bible School.
- wonderful (but all too brief) connections with family and friends.
Many touched our lives, helped us, took care of us, and left their fingerprints on our summer memories. We can’t express our thanks enough for all of it!! And we can’t express enough how thankful we are for the Lord’s protection, provisions, and perfect plans.
So now we’re back in Madagascar and trying to settle in after our fifth move since the year 2000. As you may remember, we packed up everything in Diego before we left for homeleave the end of April. Our things were left in storage so that we could move IN when we got back. Thus, our return meant intensive house hunting (the house we thought would be available turned out not to be so), contract negotiating, guard hiring, and moving our stuff from storage to the house. As we had not expected the timing to be what it was, Doug had scheduled a trip to Diego right at the time we needed to move in. He was able to delay it enough to get phone hook-up arranged (which didn’t actually occur until more than a week later), electricity working, and our beds unpacked and put together. All furniture that came from Diego had been wrapped in grass mats which had been tied on with twine. Thus unpacking meant cutting open all the twine and getting out the very dirty furniture inside.
Today most of what we need is accessible, but there are still a lot of boxes everywhere. I’ve been learning my way around Antananarivo (Tana) by bus since Doug had the car up north for several weeks. He is back home now and we’ll tell more about his trip in a future letter. (We’ll also tell more about the Malagasy political situation in our next letter.) The boys are settling in to their new school, which is a 15 minute walk from here along a busy, narrow road. Jeremiah attends Pre-Kindergarten and Ben is in 4th Grade. It has been hard for Ben to have to leave the French educational system, and he is disappointed to leave behind his friends, house, yard, and life in Diego. It is also a big adjustment to school in English which has much higher expectations than the French school had. Already though he’s enjoying the myriad of activities this school offers which were not offered there.
I will update more about the Manna for Madagascar work in the next letter as well, but will only add a note here that 2006 Bazaar Kits are ready for shipment. If your church wants to participate you should order one soon through lea.mannausa@yahoo.com .
Blessings in Christ, Pastor Doug, Monica, Ben, and Jeremiah Cox