Southbridge Aug 2014 Pt 3: Reflections from Tulear by Bill Grimme

It is cool this morning, as I sit on the porch of the modest hotel in Betioky and sip on strong black coffee and snack on boko-boko (fried dough).  After a 45-minute time of early morning fellowship with Grant Waller, he has just left to return to the Mahafaly village of Andremba.  The rest of our remaining team members here (JD and our translator/friend/brother Chris) are still asleep.  It seems the perfect time to reflect on the past 6 days.

We arrived in Tulear, Madagascar after 2 full days of travel on Tuesday at dinner-time and Wednesday through Friday spent long days teaching Bible stories and Christian living concepts to thirty plus seminary students.  The lessons were based on the Ten Commandments and the “thou shall nots” and corresponding new testament scripture on “how to live”.   The students came from the surrounding area evangelical churches, represented several people groups, and were 20 years old up.  Our objective was to encourage and equip them to take over some of the work of discipleship and evangelization to their own people and also to go with us to the “bush” to get started.  The students were eager to learn, committed to the mission, faithful, smart, and fun.  They challenged our thinking with many hard questions and application ideas that taught us much, as we taught them.  They have been a great joy to get to know and challenge with God’s Word.  Additional team members Nathan (2 years in Tulear) and Tessa (5+ years in Madagascar) Baker were amazing with the students.  Nathan and JD taught half the lessons and Tessa and I did the rest.  The Bakers fit in and were loved like they never left for seminary at Southeastern, and their language skills and cultural knowledge allowed us to run things without placing any teaching burden on the Wallers.  

One special time for me in these initial days in Tulear was the chance for Jodie Waller and I to go to her gym (think 50 year old equipment) together early in the morning to exercise.  The lack of modern equipment was made up for by the view through the glass doors facing the Mozambique Strait that separates Madagascar from Africa, and the uninterrupted conversations that Jodie and I were able to share.

On Saturday, the two Baptists churches held a special church service to celebrate Nathan and Tessa’s marriage.  There was much special music from all ages and both churches, sweet worship time, prayer, a sermon, and much food.  I found out about 10 minutes before the service (think a missionary needs to be flexible) that I would be giving the sermon.  I had been reflecting on several passages earlier in the morning from our seminary teaching and Southbridge’s recent 18-month series on Paul’s missionary journey though Acts.  I prayed that God would get me out of the way and speak through me.  I believe that He did, as Grant stated afterwards that God had provided the message that both churches really needed to hear.  It’s interesting that the same challenge that Scott gave at Southbridge was same one needed here on the other side of the world.  Although we speak different languages and have different color skin, we are the same, as we struggle to live out our faith.  

On Sunday, we all attended the Waller’s church where Nathan preached a message completely in the southern Malagasy dialect.  It was a wonderful service and a chance for the 4 of us to get reacquainted with old friends including one of our frequent translators, Ando.  Following lunch, we met to begin the 4-hour journey to the bush.  After a time of prayer Nathan, Tessa, Pastor Jonoro, Ben Sprankle (Grant’s team member) and 9 of the seminary students headed to the north to the Masikoro people.   Grant, JD, Chris and I along with 5 seminary students headed to the south to the town of Betioky and the Mahafaly people.  In fact, the response was so good to the seminary that Grant will take another group of 5 or 6 to the south in the next couple of weeks.  We all slept well on Sunday night!

…. More to come from the bush