Author: falyravoahangy

Tuesday, January 13^th, 2015. My first day of seminary. I was completely jetlagged and confused. We had landed the prior Saturday evening, gone to church the next day and met one of my heroes, Dr John MacArthur. He told me during our brief discussion that I had come to the right place to study because The Master’s Seminary is dedicated to train men and then send them into the world so that they can train others also. That conversation solidified my resolve not to allow my seminary experience to simply be an academic exercise but to be a time through which I would be shaped more into Christ-likeness and develop a desire to see others come to Christ and His service. I knew from that first day of seminary that I was blessed with a unique opportunity to not only be a recipient of great teaching but a conduit of that truth to others. My wife and I had committed from the time we left that we will return once my studies completed to serve in our home country and get as many as we can to benefit from what we received.

Saturday, January 13^th, 2018. We have been back in our home country for 5 months now. In God’s gracious plan, the time has come to pass on the baton. 41 men and young adults attended the first session of the 3-year training program in our local church called LAFATRA (An acronym of the Malagasy for “Men After God’s Own Heart.” You can read more about it here.)

What a joy to see these men alert and ready to study the Word on a Saturday morning at 6:30am! What a thrill to hear them all commit to the reading, praying, studying, sharing and loving one another involved in the program. What a delight to see them undergo the first-day assessment and hear them mentioning how it was an enlightening moment for them as they realized how much they still needed to learn. I remember scoring 28% on my initial test at The Master’s Seminary; I remember scratching my head wondering what I had done during my time in the Word up to that time. I know many of them are asking themselves the same question, and that’s healthy. A prideful and blasé Christian is not honoring to God; one who constantly hungers for more of Him is healthy. The Lord is unsearchable (Psalm 145:3), there is and will always be more to learn about Him and His will.

Please pray that we will each remain humble, with teachable hearts and malleable minds as we embark on this journey together. Please pray for the families, ministries (present and future) and churches represented by these men. Please pray for a new generation of unashamed and approved workmen, correctly handling the Word of Truth (2 Tim 2:15).

The Lord wants us to grow in our trust in Him and reliance on Him. He made it clear to my family and me through our first major trial of the year. We were driving back from Tamatave, on the East Coast of Madagascar, after a few days of ministry and rest. 60 miles into our trip, I started to feel the steering wheel shaking and vibrating more than normal. I told Lily that something was not right and that we would have to check it when we get to the next town. Yet, 7 miles before reaching our desired pit stop, I was overtaking a slow mover when the wheel came off…literally. 4 out of 5 tire mounting studs cleanly broke, somewhat inexplicably. It flew 200 yards down the side of the road into a ditch. I managed to keep control of the car and let it drift towards the grassy curb. Then started a 23-hour adventure, fixing the car. We all came out unscathed from the incident, and we learned much from it.

Preparedness

First, we realized we were truly unprepared for the unexpected. Yet, if there is one thing to assume on the mission field, traveling in the countryside a day before the tropical storm Ava is to hit the coastline, it is that something is going to happen. We lacked, to mention a few, tools (ever thought of always carrying a 36-mm wrench in your pocket just in case? … Now I do!), spare parts, emergency contact numbers and proper rain gear. This made solving the problem at hand even more difficult. We learned. We need to be more proactive in anticipating difficulties and making sure we have a bare minimum of the things we would need to face them.

Prayerfulness

There is so much that could have gone worst in this incident. We could have hit the truck that was coming from the other direction as we lost our wheel, but we didn’t. The cyclone could have hit at 3am as it was expected to, as we were still busy fixing the car, but it didn’t. Lily and the kids could have been in the car for the whole 23 hours, but they didn’t; someone kindly stopped by and offered to take them back to Antananarivo 4 hours into the ordeal. I could have had to deal with the situation alone, but I didn’t, my brother-in-law, Melchi, was traveling with us and stayed with me the whole time. We also had a couple of brothers and a sister in the Lord who traveled all the way from Tamatave, staying up with us through the night and helping us fix the car. We could have been stuck as the nearby town of Brickaville doesn’t have many repair shops and as most of the people were locking everything up to get ready for the cyclone’s arrival; but we were not. We managed to find one man in town who had a welding machine, got him to agree to give us the phone number of his welder who lived 6 miles away, went to collect him to find out he is a Christian (!), and worked with them until 11pm to get the broken pieces of studs out of the tire disc. The car could have started at 1:30 am when we finally got the wheel back on, but it didn’t as the battery was flat. We found out later it was the Lord’s interposition as it prevented Melchi and me from driving off immediately that night, and probably get into serious problems given the weather conditions; instead we drove off the next morning at 8:30, which made it a lot easier to avoid potholes and also stop to get out of the car and tighten the bolts every 25 miles as they kept loosening. We made it safely home after a 7-hour drive.

These are evidence of God’s sovereign control over our circumstances and of His caring hand over His own. We were praying all the time, and we know we are prayed for. The Lord intervened in amazing ways.

Poise

One of the things that amazed me is how calm we all remained. I didn’t panic when the wheel came off and even had enough consciousness of the situation to ask my brother-in-law not to lose sight of the wheel as it was bouncing downhill at quite a speed. The kids did not panic as they were all busy watching a movie or reading on their tablets. None of us lost our nerves when, after fixing the wheel for 13 hours, the car did not want to start. Edginess would have made things worst for sure. The Lord gave us remarkable peace of mind and composure. I am so grateful for this.

Perseverance

As you have read so far, it was one trial after another. Getting the disc off was a struggle, getting the broken studs off the disc was a pain, putting everything back on in the pouring rain and with a cellphone as our only source of light was very trying. Dealing with a flat battery at 2am in the middle of nowhere and with nothing like AAA at hand was difficult. It took us a while to locate it under the passenger seat. Then, we could not get it off as we didn’t have the pipe wrenches necessary for the task. We tried to tow it, but our towing lines kept breaking. When the morning came, some of us went to town to find everything closed because of the approaching cyclone. The others stayed and had to regulate truck traffic under the pouring rain as they passed by our car. Just as we decided that the only solution was to go back to Tamatave to get some help, we met a recovery car which was coming to help a stranded passenger van. They had the tools we needed and helped us charge our battery. And just like that, problem solved. God is good.

I can see an obvious parallel between what we went through and spiritual trials. What do you do when you go through a time of trials, temptation or seeming silence from God? First, it does not come to you as a surprise as you have prepared yourself to it through Scripture reading and memorization (Psalm 119:105). Then you prayerfully lift your situation up to God and trust Him to work out things for your eternal good (Phil 4:6; 1 Pet 5:7). You keep your poise, having confidence not in yourself but in your omniscient and omnipotent Father (Psalm 23:4). Finally, you persevere; knowing that the trial, the victory over a temptation and the persistence in spiritual disciplines when God seems far away, all produce some measure of growth in your likeness to Christ.

We can truly glorify God… even when the wheel comes off!

There are two things that make a Christian camp a unique experience. First, they provide an opportunity for a group of people, with some sort of connection between them, to spend a focused time studying a topic from God’s Word, usually away from their daily-life setting. It is a “spiritual spa”, a time of healing and reconstruction for the soul, for building friendships and seeking spiritual strength. Secondly, they are an apposite setting for the enemy to attack. As the deceiver, he would actively prowl seeking to discourage, distract or mislead any person seeking to find truth or grow in it. It is a “spiritual boot camp”, where spiritual muscles are stretched and tested.

The 88 of us experienced both aspects last week during our time in Morondava, on the Southwest coast of Madagascar. I am thankful for the opportunity I had to be part of that camp.  We were blessed by the study of Ephesians 6:10-18, on the soldier of God and his dependence on God’s strength and armor to fulfill his duty.

We were also blessed by the various trials we experienced, enabling us to put into practice what we were learning. Logistical hitches, adverse weather, tyre bursts, delays in food preparation, power cuts, unavailability of water in a region averaging over 100 deg F (38 deg C) during the day, material losses through theft, a few moody campers, tested our ability to adapt, to be content and have servant hearts towards one another. It was especially pleasant for me to see the team in charge of the camp out their heads down and pile through one hassle after another.

It was a pleasure for me to teach alongside Camille, a dear brother who was already part of the staff at the camp I attended in July 1994, yes, 23 years ago, the very camp where I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior. It was an emotional moment for me as memories were flowing back as we embraced and talked for a short while. I was elated to see him teach again so many years later. He is such an example of steadiness and faithfulness in the Lord’s work. He is truly passionate about teaching the youth and God gifted him uniquely for it.

It was a time of growth, for me personally and I think for many of these youths. They are the future of this country. The Christian club motto says: “A Christian Manager, that’s different.” That is true if that Christian manager does not compromise on ethics and lives as a testimony to the Gospel. I pray that the teaching they have received this week and what they have gone through will have a lasting impact on their lives, growing their endurance, as well as their dependence and trust in God, so that they would be radiant lights at school and in their future workplaces.

A few campers stood up to proclaim their desire to follow Christ or renew their commitment to Him one evening. I pray it was not an emotion-driven decision but that they will faithfully persevere in their walk with God. As a conclusion to the camp I left them with 2 Tim 4:5 “Fulfill your ministry.” Each believer has a God-given mandate to accomplish. Each believer is a soldier in God’s army and must endeavor to do what pleases Him. May we each keep pressing on until our Captain returns or calls us home. Let us be those who live in light of His First Coming to be the Suffering Servant dying to atone for our sins, and His Second Coming as the Conquering King, who will come to crush His foes and reward His faithful soldiers.

Tomorrow, I will be traveling to Morondava as one of the speakers for the INSCAE Christian Club annual camp. It will be an evangelization camp attended by approximately 70 to 80 students from this major business administration school here in the capital city. The 14-hour bus ride will take to the beautiful southwest coastline of Madagascar, famous for its baobabs, seafood, and scenic sunsets.

The theme of the camp is “God’s Soldier” based on Ephesians 6:11. It should a very exciting journey into this last section of Paul’s instructions to the Ephesians. As I have been reflecting and preparing to teach on this topic, I noticed that there are often misconceptions about being God’s soldier, probably induced by Hollywood movies and childhood fairy tales.

First, we want to be the hero of the battle. Who in my generation hasn’t marveled at Rambo’s bravery? Who did not want to be the gladiator in the middle of the arena defeating wild animals and fiercely mean people? Well, maybe a few women only, but you guys know what I am talking about. Well, in the context of Ephesians 6 and the spiritual battle, you are not the hero. You are the target. The battle takes place around you, so far above your head, and your soul is the bounty. You are weak and dependent upon a power that is not yours (Eph 6:10). God is the hero of the story. It’s His power, His armor, His victory. We sometimes want to usurp that from Him to be acclaimed for our valor. A wrong slant guarantees an adverse outcome to the battle.

The second delusion pertains to the nature of the battle. We imagine Lord-of-the-ring-type scenes, with epic battles, acts of incredible heroism, a dragon and a princess locked in a dungeon. The spiritual battle often has a more mundane setting. Commonplace is the most dangerous place, as it is where the soldier puts his guard down. Those are the seemingly meaningless conversations, the trivialities of life and the outwardly innocent choices. The schemes of the devil (Eph 6:11) are seldom coming with a big billboard giving away their nature; they aim to catch you when you expect it the least.

Finally, there is a misconception in the approach to the battle, as we come to it as if it were an even fight in which we hope to have an edge. We forget that greater is He who is inside of us than he who is in the world (1 John 4:4). We forget that Jesus, Our Captain, has already defeated the enemy and that victory is ours in Him (1 Cor 15:55-57). We need to come to the battle prepared, strengthened and equipped, but we must also have poise, courage, and faith in the certainty of our victory if we abide by our Captain.

There is no room for nonchalance in this fight, nor is there room for fear and apathy. We are called to do what pleases the One who has enrolled us for battle (2 Tim 2:4); let’s be faithful to that task.

Wait, what am I doing? I’m preaching again, can’t help it, it seems.

Thanks for your prayers friends. This camp will be a spiritual battleground.

God has unique ways of testing our hearts. Waking up was difficult, standing up was worst. Yet, we knew we had to do it for the final time on this trip. We were excited though as we knew there will be baptisms. So, we left on time to be able to reach the river where the baptisms would take place by 7:30. When we got there at around 7:45, we didn’t see anybody. We tried to ask around and were told that nobody showed up thus the church might have elected to do the baptisms elsewhere. So, we resumed our walk towards the church.

A few minutes before reaching the church, we see a huge group of people flocking and walking our way. Things were delayed a bit and they had not done the baptism yet. It meant that we had to walk back to the river with them despite our aching legs. We encouraged one another to give the extra push but also not to grumble in our hearts, as it were to be a happy occasion.

And it was. It was a joy to sing along with the church on the way to the river. It was a joy to witness these 9 people testifying of their faith in Christ and their obedience to Scripture through baptism. We then walked back to the church.

The church service was attended by around 500 people. The singing made me tear up seeing how it came from the heart. Our team did the teaching for the kids and Pastor Rija, visiting from a nearby region, preached a great sermon from Luke 9:23ff, challenging all to a genuine walk with Christ despite the cost. We then took communion together as a great way to cap off the week.

We had one last thing to do before leaving. We gathered all the pastors and church leaders and presented to them a project that Hasiniaina is piloting through which we aim to provide means for the pastor to improve their financial status. Most rural pastors are poor and survive by working the field or animal farming. It leaves them very little time to focus on the work of the ministry. I will share with you on another post about the project we are setting up to help them, using cassava to make biofuel.

They insisted that we would stay for lunch and then we finally left. We arrived at the car at around 3:30 pm and drove back to Tana for the next 8 hours.

Luke 17:10 says “when you do all the things which are commanded you, say, ‘We are unworthy slaves; we have done only that which we ought to have done.’” We have indeed done nothing special nor exceptional, but we do serve a very special and exceptional God!

To God only be the glory for everything He has done during these 4 days.

Sore legs and happy hearts. These words sum up how we feel at the end of the day. We took off at 6:00am and managed to drive the car a little bit further up the road. 10 minutes less walking is a great bonus! No canoe today so we had to walk across the river finding a shallower area where we could walk with water up to the waist. That was really fun!

We reached the village 15 minutes before the start of the conference and thus jumped right into it. I taught for 3 hours, the first session on how Christ rebukes those who serve Him heartlessly from Revelation 2, then a second session during which I took them through the different “walks” in Ephesians 4-6.

Meanwhile, Hasiniaina, Joeny and Onja did a great job with the kids once more. These kids were amazing, with their number growing from around 35 yesterday to over 150 today! They had so much fun singing, playing and were very attentive during the teaching time.

Lunch was a problematic time for us. They had set us apart in a separate hut from the rest of the group and killed a chicken for us while all the other attendees had rice and leaves. We did not ask for such special attention, but they insisted, and it felt to us like we would offend them if we refused it. So, we ate the delicious chicken yet still with somewhat of an uncomfortable aftertaste to it.

In the afternoon, the adults were split into different age groups and our team was in charge of the youths.  We had around 150 of them gathered under the trees. Hasiniaina did a great job teaching on the importance of prayer in the life of the follower of Christ from the life of Epaphras. A very lively Q&A followed, and we were so pleased to see many of them asking deep and thoughtful questions. We ended up our time together with great singing. My heart almost burst a few times as I was just filled with joy to see these youths singing from their heart.

Now, any sanely-minded individual would have started the walk back to home base right after that time. But not us… we decided to stay in order to… play soccer with them. Yes, that’s how little we think through things at times as we were just excited to spend more time with them. Oh, and we had to walk for another 15 minutes with an extra 100-feet elevation to reach the pitch. Then, our team won the game… and so we decided to do another one! (By now, if you do facepalms as you read this I completely understand why…) At halftime of that second game, we finally came to our senses and asked to be subbed out and headed home.

The walk back was awfully steep, slow and hard. But we made it, somehow. We are tired yet still had to do our evening routine preparing meals, drawing water from the well and showering. The end of another “normal” day on the field.

The day started with us finding a small hut nearby with some locally made donut-like fried pastries.

 

We then went to the market to shop for what we needed for our next meals. The market was vibrant with colors and sounds, and a very friendly atmosphere. After finding all we needed including powder syrup to be used for Sunday communion, we went back to Mahatsara where the team started cooking while I had a working meeting. I was impressed and so delightfully surprised by the meal they prepared with mash potato, shrimp cakes, and tomatoes.

We left right after lunch and the car got stuck quickly after…We worked at it for an hour and finally got it out of the mud.

We though decided to leave the car there and continue on foot. 1h30min later we reached Tananan’i Lemanana after crossing a river on a canoe.

The killer part of the move was the 150-feet uphill climb to get to the church as the final part of the 90 minutes’ walk. Let’s say everyone smiled at our exhausted faces once reaching the top.

The worship service started soon after our arrival with around 230 people in attendance. The conference was opened up by the local pastor and I then taught from Colossians 2, reminding them of the price Christ paid so we could be His followers. In the meantime, the 3 youths taught the kids songs and lessons from the life of John the Baptist and the story of the good Samaritan.

The walk back went well after a very brief trial using bicycles. When we got home, the day was not over for us as we still needed to draw water from the well to cook and to shower. We then prepared dinner and washed the dishes before each crashing on our bed. Joeny exemplified servant-heartedness as she still gave the 3 of us a foot massage! She might kill me for mentioning this but she is incredible… and she is still single guys!

We tried to rest as we knew we had to go at it again tomorrow, leaving at 6 and teaching all day once there. What a privilege to be spent for Him! And how humbling it is to know that what we experience is nothing compared to what the local pastors go through on a daily basis and to what missionaries of old had to endure.

Here is the first installment of a 4-part log of the trip we did between November 16th and 19th. I was invited to speak at a regional conference in a location 180 miles towards the East coast of Madagascar. I took Hasiniaina, Onja and Joeny with me, 3 youths from our home church eager to serve.

After 11 hours on the road because of multiple stops scouting hotels for another project, we finally made it to the village of Mahatsara. Tranquilin and his wife welcomed us warmly. They recently responded to the Lord’s call and became missionaries. We were able to be updated on what the Lord is doing in this region and were given basic instructions as to the way to minister to the natives. The 3 youths are unfamiliar with the local vernacular and got to learn a few key words in the Betsimisaraka dialect.

Missionary life in the countryside involves people coming at your door at all times of the day and of the night, asking for food or for help. One of the highlights for me was the visit of Jocelyn and his wife. Jocelyn has been struggling for a few years now in deep spiritual warfare. During his darkest hours, he is suddenly grabbed by forces giving him supernatural strength, in such a way that 4 or 5 men cannot hold this 5-feet man. These spirits also push him to hurt himself and anybody standing in his way. He has attempted to commit suicide a few times, but it has failed each time. “God does not want you dead yet until you come alive to Him”, says Tranquilin. Amid his spiritual struggles, Jocelyn has been looking for God. He often comes to Tranquilin for advice and comfort. This time he brought his wife to have her as his accountability partner on the path he wants to take to seek God. Tranquilin has repeatedly, and once more yesterday, taken him to the cross of Christ, the only way to God. Jocelyn leaves after an hour or so. The battle still rages on in his heart for its control. We pray that the Lord in His time will sovereignly grip his heart and that He will surrender his life to Christ and be freed. Another day ends on the field with mixed emotions; hope for Jocelyn as he has once more come to inquire about God, and anxiousness because of what he might do and who he might hurt until God changes his heart. Pray for him and many like him, in such need of the gospel to deliver them from the bondage of sin, whatever form it takes.

The Lord answers prayers in His time and according to His plans. Two exciting new ventures were set by Him to take place this coming weekend.

First, He has granted me a weekly radio show starting this Saturday evening. “Family Life According to God’s Will” gives me the opportunity to address week after week God’s intent, goals, and precepts for the family. The home nucleus has been much under attack recently and I am thus thankful for the prospect of providing weekly a biblical worldview on the family. I had a good time pre-recording the jingle of the show and Saturday’s first installment, planting a stake on biblical authority and sufficiency for all life and godliness.

Secondly, 3 youths from church and myself are leaving for an area 180 miles from the capital city, near Vatomandry, where I will be the speaker for their yearly regional conference gathering 14 churches from that region. The Lord is testing our faith through this trip as my car suddenly broke down today and thus we had to find a last-minute solution for transport and still have a lot of unknown as to the details of the trip tomorrow. We might have to walk for a few miles as the replacement car we found will not be able to reach the village where the conference will be held. We know that all of this was on the Lord’s agenda, and we would not want to miss what He wants to teach us on this journey.

Please pray for health and strength for our team and travel mercies as we leave today (Thursday) and plan to return on Sunday after church service. Please pray for those who are going to attend that they will be challenged by God’s Word as we explore the theme of “Being a Follower of Christ”. Pray for me, that God will grant me clarity in communicating His truth.

LAFATRA is an acronym derived from the Malagasy for “Man after God’s own heart” from 1 Samuel 13:14. It is the name chosen for the 3-year church-based training for men that will be launched at Ankadivato Baptist Church on January 13^th, 2018. It is also a suitable play on words as LAFATRA itself also can mean “mature” or “whole”.

Around 90 men attended the announcement made yesterday of the upcoming training where the objectives of LAFATRA were explicated. It was a joy to see many of them eager to grow in their knowledge of God’s Word and their faithfulness in applying it to their daily lives.

The purpose of LAFATRA is to help men to know and love God’s Word as well as to equip them to faithfully carry out the duties the Lord has assigned to them in their different spheres of responsibility, within the home, at school, at work, and at church. Through the teaching and memorizing of God’s Word, the men will be challenged to evaluate their own lives against the divine standard, and, through mutual edification, to put off the remains of the old nature and increasingly put on Christ-like thoughts, desires and behaviors.

Pray for these men as they prepare to embark on a journey to become better fathers, better husbands, better stewards and servants of God’s Word. Pray that we will grow together in our love for God, His Word, His people and His work for His glory.