We celebrated Women’s Day, March 8th, in Toliara with over 1,000 women gathered for prayer at the Stadium.
Rev. Noel led the service, Bishop Todd spoke well of the women who have influenced his life, some of the Time to Dance songs were performed, and Patsy delivered the sermon in Malagasy. All in all, God was glorified.
Nolavy is on her way to New York.
Please pray for the Holy Spirit to guide and equip her as she goes to the United Nations to participate in the 62nd session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women
Please hold Jacky in your prayers as she prepares to leave for Toliara on 17th March.
Jacky writes: The journey continues as I prepare for mission work in Madagascar.
October 2017: I completed the IMPACT course in Toronto Canada. It was an amazing course on mission preparation including spiritual formation, culture, communication, personal issues, health, team building and God’s faithfulness. I am well prepared for the mission field.
February 2018: I returned to Toronto for the Principles of Language Acquisition: Natural Tools and Strategies course (PLANTS). An incredible course providing a proactive approach to learning a new language. We studied child like learning activities, grammar, semantics, and phonetics. We spent 3 days in small groups with a language helper learning a new language using methods outlined in the course. It worked! I have never successfully learned a second language, but at the end of the three days I had a small vocabulary and a few phrases that I could pronounce in Tagalog a Philippine language.
I am ready for my departure date of March 17. Please continue to pray for me for safe travel and a smooth transition to life in Toliara. My support raising still continues, no amount is too small.
Click on “Support Jacky” to make ONLINE donations. She still needs around $5,000 to cover the costs of her three years in Toliara
Mail checks to: SAMS USA, PO Box 399, Ambridge, PA 15003
Check payable to: SAMS USA
In memo write: Jacky/women
And the Diocese celebrates:
Bishops of the Anglican Church of the Indian Ocean met with Malagasy President Hery to discuss reconciliation in the country this week. 
The photo was taken during their visit to the presidential Palace Iavoloha.
Dear friends,
We are half way through our three month language course in Antsirabe which is in the beautiful, cool and rainy highlands of Madagascar. This seemed a good time to give you a brief report – though we won’t tell you what our teacher, Mamia, makes of us!
Mamia has told us to our surprise that she has now taught us 90% of the grammar we need. This comes as a relief because we’re not sure we could have coped with more actives, passives, relatives, imperatives, passive imperatives….. At times our brains have felt in overload with the volume and complexity of Malagasy grammar and vocabulary. For example, the subject comes at the end of the sentence and by the time we have worked out the rest of the sentence we have often forgotten to add it!
Thankfully, we are now concentrating on listening and speaking. Slowly we’re gaining confidence in communicating in this strange tongue. Malagasy is a fascinating and beautiful language with many fun words. So a butterfly is a “lulu” and words are often doubled but in a different way to English: so “fotsy” is white, while “fotsifotsy ” is off white.
We know that we have a long way to go and the weeks ahead will continue to stretch us but the prize of both being able to share more deeply in the lives of the delightful Malagasy people and to share God’s love in Christ is a great spur. Thank you for your prayers. Please continue to pray for God’s gift of grace.
The peace of the Lord,
Derek and Jane
Thanks be to God for the consecration of Bishop Samitiana Jhonson Razafindralambo on February 25th, 2018! He will be serving God in the Diocese of Toliara, as Assistant Bishop.
And the Diocese celebrates by singing its song:
Please hold the landscaping team from Illinois in your prayers for the next two weeks. They are (left to right) Eric from St David’s in Glenview, Irma from St Mark’s, Glen Ellyn and Betsy & Glen from St James the Less in Northfield. Jacky Lowe writes: 
Join us in a journey of hope, to empower the women and children of Madagascar to overcome poverty through education and the love of Jesus Christ.
The journey began in November 2007 , when Rev. Patsy McGregor spoke at the Diocesan Convention in S. E. FLorida, and I was inspired to go to Madagascar. Three short term mission trips were completed in 2009, 2010 and 2015 but I wanted to do more.
Mark 1:17-18 Jesus said to them, “Come with me and I will make you fishers of men” and at once they left their nets and followed him.”
In January 2016, Rev. Patsy asked me to work at the women’s center. I will be there for 3 years. Raising funds for my support began in July 2016 and I hope to depart in March 2018.
I will teach the women in Madagascar to develop workplace skills to provide for their families, but I need your help with prayer and financial support.
Click on Support Jacky to make ONLINE donations; or
mail checks to: SAMS USA, PO Box 399, Ambridge, PA 15003
Checks should be payable to: SAMS USA; memo: Jacky/women
Please join us on this journey of hope.
