We are excited about what is happening around our new home at the Good News Hospital in Mandritsara. Last month we made the trip from Canada to Madagascar during this pandemic world. Our timing was coincidentally or providentially good because the route we took has now been shut down due to further travel restrictions into Madagascar.

Despite what is going on in the rest of the world, the hospital here is bustling with construction activity including a new surgical building, new houses, and supporting structures. It is a beacon of hope in this remote community.

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But, buildings and construction are not the only things bringing hope. We were very excited to meet new and veteran national and international colleagues and their families who like us, have also come to support the hospital. This includes a Malagasy surgeon and his wife who moved to the hospital to help support the surgical department and future training. His arrival gives us the minimum number of surgeons we require to train surgical residents and we look forward to this spring as the details of surgical training at the Good News Hospital will be determined. People from multiple European countries, Madagascar, and now Canada are all represented in the mix of hospital support staff.

We can honestly say that we are excited to be learning a new language (in fact, the wife of the Malagasy surgeon is our teacher) and yet it is humbling to feel like a child again! But we know that as our capacity to communicate in Malagasy increases, so does our capacity to better support the work and build relationships. Most patients and those in the community do not speak french so understanding the local language is vital for building relationships and working.

On Sunday we attended a small local church a short walk from the hospital. As we expected, it was almost all in Malagasy. We were just thankful to recognize a Malagasy number when they listed the song numbers. What we didn’t expect was when the choir and congregation attempted to sing a song in English. What an encouragement and joy to worship God in two languages together even when we don’t speak each other’s language….yet!

When I read about the life of Christ, I can’t help but see two essential and integral aspects of His ministry. The first was His message of hope – the Gospel. But the second, which validated the gospel, was His life. He helped the suffering through healing, the hungry through feeding and the downcast with encouragement.

There is hope and we need to live it!

– Jesh and Julie


Prayer Request:

  1. Waiting to hear if our hospital will be accepted by PAACS to begin the Surgical Residency program in January 2022
  2. Perseverance as we study the language so we can be more equipped to build relationships and teach/train/support the hospital project
  3. Our children as they adjust to new languages, schools, and a new community (we arrived less than a month ago!)

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