Back to the US for the Holidays

Well, Tonight I begin my long journey back to the states. I spoke to my father this morning and was told my Mom came home from the hospital today. Praise God. You could just hear how happy my Dad was to have her back home. He loves her so much I just pray all of my married friends can have that kind of love. They have been married 62 years. What a faithful witness to what God has in mind for marriage. My Mom is still having a lot of problems, so please continue to keep her in your prayers. My time in the U.S will be from the 14 Nov to 18 Jan. I will have the same phone number I had last summer. If you want you can contact me. I will be without a computer for the next couple of weeks because my lap top died. It slowly went until now you can not even turn it on. Oh well, I guess that will be my Christmas present to myself. I will watch for the day after thanksgiving sales. Thanks for all your prayers.
Love Sandi

Hi everyone, Well, here is the latest news from Madagascar. We had a volunteer arrive 3 weeks ago. Her name is Alison Fowler. She will be here until the end of January. She is a college student with a major in Missions. We have another volunteer that arrived this week. She was here previously for 2 years teaching at Fitiavana school in Mahajunga. She and Alison will go there after she recovers from the long trip.

I will be returning to the States for 2 months beginning November 13 until January 17th. As you know my mother has recently had a very hard time. She is in a nursing home at the present time and hopefully will return home within the next month or so. My Dad really misses her and wants her back home with him. I pray God will use me when I am home to help prepare for her return and help my Dad get things ready. Mom is now in a wheel chair so Dad is having a ramp put on the front of the house. I really feel God led me to believe this is the right time to be back there. Please keep us in your prayers. I will try to find tickets that I can afford back to Tucson for 10 days, this might mean arriving and leaving from Phx. If I do that I will probably rent a car for the short stay and just drive down. If anyone has a discount on rental cars please let me know.

Now on a lighter note. 6 ladies went to the rain forest this weekend. We had such a good time. We played with the lemurs, feed them, petted them, and even had them climb on our shoulders. It was a lot of fun. I will try to attach a picture.

I started a bible study on Thursday nights. The group is all Malagasy except me. We have had an average of 8 people in attendence. The group is presented in English with my Malagasy teacher in attendance if someone doesn't understand and needs it translated. One very intersting topic we discussed and I did some research on is 1John 5:17. This is the verse that says there is a sin that does not lead to death. If anyone has insite on this verse please send it to me. I looked on the internet and saw there are many theories on this topic. I will miss the group when I am back in the states, but will resume upon my return.

Well I must get ready for my Malagasy lesson now, so Veloma vetivety (good bye for now)

October 15, 2008

I'm still praying for the health of my mother. I am seriously looking into getting a ticket back to America. I really need all the prayer support I can get at this time. I was planning to start a bible study this Thursday, but am not sure if I should postpone it for now. I am praying for God's timing on this. I think this may be the time. If I return now it will probably be for a couple of months at least through the holidays. Thanks for praying

another prayer request

I have a couple of prayer requests.
1st please pray for my parents. My mother is in the hospital with blood on her brain. The Doctors have been waiting to see if it will disappear without surgery, but it has been a week with no change. They have moved her to a rehab section of the hospital and will transport her back and forth for further CT scans. Please pray that God will make it disappear with the need for surgery. Also, please pray for my Father. He has been working hard at taking care of my mother, but they both are struggling with health issues and this latest with my mother has been very hard on him. Please keep them both in your prayers.

2ND I will be starting a new bible study "Having a real relationship with God" with about 10 Malagasy people. Some will be attending just because it is in English. Please keep this opportunity to share the Gospel in your prayers. Pray for me as I lead them and for them to have an open heart to hear the word.

I am continuing in my participation in the woman's bible study about the Fruit of the Spirit. It really has been good for me. I am finding myself spending the hour in the study, but then wanting to be in the Word more. Praise God for this strength. This week we are studying Peace. Isn't it wonderful that if we let God be God he can give us strength and peace even during difficult times. Yesterday's lesson was on Job and how he lost his peace. Please don't let the devil rob you of your peace.

Until next time, may you never allow your peace through Jesus Christ leave you.

Your sister in Christ
Sandi

prayer request

Hi everyone. This last week has brought some very sad news. On Sunday I had lunch with Shelly (Rich and Bonnie's daughter) She told me they found more cancer in her mother. They had a PET scan on Wednesday and found the breast cancer spread to her bones. They also found that it is possibly in her lungs also. At this point they do not know what the future holds. They believe it is terminal. please keep her in your prayers.

At this point I do not know what will happen to the ministry here in Madagascar. I am just trusting in God to show me the way. There is a new volunteer arriving next Wednesday. She will stay here in the capital city with me for a few weeks then another volunteer that has been her previously for 2 years will return towards the end of October and they will both go to Mahajunga together. I am excited to host this new volunteer and help her get acquainted here in Madagascar.

Now about me. I have been working hard at my Malagasy studies. I can hold a simple conversation. for about 1/2 hour. I started attending a bible study by Beth Moore on the Fruit of the Spirit (my life verse) Gal 5:22,23. God really has been speaking to me through this study. I was hesitant to join, because I wanted to start an outreach Bible study myself, however I am so glad I did join. I am still preparing to host an outreach Bible study starting the third Thursday in October. Please be in prayer for the ladies that will join and for my preparation for the study.

I pray you are all well and I thank you all for all your prayers and engorgement.

sydonie

Who is Sydonie? She is a little 5 year old Malagasy girl that wants to go to school very badly. Last year a missionary from NY sponsored her to go to a school near her house. This missionary returned home in July. Last Saturday she went by the missionary's home to see if she could go to school again this year only to find out the missionary left Madagascar. She had a list of school supplies and a book that needed to be taken to the school on Monday. I was approched to help keep her in school. I agreed by faith that maybe someone on my prayer team would like to partner with me and her. I got all her school supplies and paid the fee until December it cost me almost $75.00. About $50.00 for the school fees and $25.oo for books a pair of shoes 1 pair of socks 1 pair of shorts for gym, and material for the uniform. (her teacher is a seamstrest and offered to make the shorts and uniform). Here is a picture of Sydonie. Please pray someone would like to help this little girl. Her mother is a single mother and operates a little shop on the road. she makes enough to provide rice for 3 meals a day. I am praying with your help to be able to provide some fruit and milk for breakfast along with the rice. I am thinking $15 or $20 a month will pay the fees and provide some food for her. Do you want to help?

Im Back in Madagascar

Hi everyone, well, I have been back for just over a week now. When I arrived the couple that stayed at my home while I was away picked me up with my car. When we got home I had a surprise to find a few of my good friends there waiting for me. It is good to be home. I had a lot of things to arrange when I got back, but think it is now time to get down to business with my language studies.

I've had a chance to see almost all my friends and was glad to see them. Some however have moved on to either different locations or returned to their home country. They say that is the life of missionaries. I went to the school on Tuesday to see all the teachers and on Wednesday to see the students. It was a real joy to see the kids I taught last year. Sadiyah and Sharmine both contacted me on facebook and were excited to see me. I still pray Sadiyah will come to accept the Lord as her God. I also think Wendy (the teacher) is very close to accepting Christ. She has a beautiful little baby boy. She is just the happiest mother you can imagine. She came to visit again on Saturday. It was a joy to be able to visit with her.

God really does have a sense of humor, He really wanted to see how I would deal with seeing Gavin upon my return and put him in my path twice. First when I went to see the teachers he showed up and I had to ask God to take my hand and help me through it. He did and it was fine, the second time was Sunday I went to the English Chapel and guess who the guest preacher was? You probably guessed Gavin. He preached on God's love and how you don't have to like everyone, but you are commanded to love them. It was a good sermon and God spoke to me through it. I pray Gavin listens to his own words and follows them.

Today Miora the student that quit last year will come to visit. I am excited to hear what is happening in her life. I pray she is back to school.

Well until next time May God be with you all.

On my way back to Madagascar

Well I arrived in New York yesterday and will be here for 10 days. I leave for Madagascar on August 22nd and arrive on the 24th. I am very excited to get back. The last couple weeks were very busy with packing and re-packing then sending packages by mail and still need to send another because Southafrican Airways only lets your cary-on to weigh 18 pounds. As I traveled yesterday my cary-on without my laptop was 25 pounds. I sure don't know how I collected so much stuff. Hopefully next time it won't be so bad. LOL. This weekend I will go to buffalo to visit with my friends Beth and David Larson. They were the pastorial team at the church when I first started there. I will update again when I get back to Mad.

Sandi's latest travel

Well, I left Tucson on June 11, 2008 and went to NYC for two days. I tried to get my visa extended but was told it was too far in advance. I will have to wait until just before I go back and get a 30 day renewal visa. After visiting the Malagasy Embsay I went to the Statue of Liberty. Of all the times I visited there this was the first time I went to the Island. Other times I just took a ferry the went by the Statue of Liberty. Boy it was awsome. On the 13th I went to Michigan just in time for my mothers birthday. She turned 80 on June 15, 2008. This past week I went to the Mackinaw Bridge and went to get an updated Indian card. By the way if you aren't sure what this means, it is an American Indian. Doesn't mean a lot except to me as a reminder of my hearatage. Today is Sunday and I found a really nice church here in Bay City Michigan. I was allowed to give a short 10 min talk about my testamony. I will try to write more later.

New to this stuff

Here I am back in Tucson and just learning how to do this. Nichole is here visiting from CA and showed me how to get started.