Re: Ambassadors to Amboasary Part 2

23 July 2025 View this email in your browser Ambassadors to Amboasary Part 2 The team from St James the Less, Northfield, Illinois, USA (Simon & Sue Babbs & Josh Langhoff), with friends from France (Paul & Maggie Simmons)  had an exciting week with the Malagasy in Amboasary District, starting with meeting most of the children who are sponsored by members of St James the Less.  Each child introduced themselves, giving their name, grade and activities they enjoy.   We were able to provide 50 water filters to the sponsored children and their families, with the remaining filters shared among the other church families, so that all would have access to clean drinking water. Here you can see one group assembling the buckets and filters. Life with God is a Time to Dance! When Simon, Sue and Matthew Babbs first visited Toliara in 2014, they taught a lesson to the children, based on the Malagasy love of dance.  That year, we were assisted by student evangelist, Antsa (now Dean of the District of Amboasary), in our work with the children.  She was keen that we teach this lesson in her District this year, and asked that we also add Bible study material for the adults and youth to use.  The basic idea behind the lesson being that a dance works best if we all follow the steps of the dance, and listen to the music - the same being true of the Christian life.  If we all follow God's guidance for our lives, and listen to the inner music of the Holy Spirit, all our lives will work better.  We started the session with Josh leading progressively more complicated clapping patterns, which did not phase the Malagasy at all, as it seems to be part of their learning in school. Our attempts to teach English country dancing to over 100 adults and children, who had never danced with a partner or in a circle before, ended in joyous, dusty chaos, but the lesson still stood!   The children were interested to try coloring a picture, which seemed to be a new concept for most of them.  They were delighted to use the variety of colored pencils, crayons and markers we had brought out for them.  The adults and youth formed 4 distinct study groups to discuss the following passages and report back to the whole group on what they had learned -  Section 1 Group A : Matthew 22:34-36 & John 13:34-35 Group B : Exodus 20: 1-11 Group D* : Luke 6:27-38   Group E : Exodus 20: 12-21   Section 2 Group A : Acts 1:12-14  & 2: 43-47 Group B : Philippians 4:1-9 Group D : Romans12: 1-3; 9-21 Group E : 1 Thessalonians 5: 12-24   Section 3 All groups : Galatians 5:22-23 *The Malagasy do not have the letter C in their alphabet.  Fiadanana (Diocesan Child Sponsorship Coordinator) was very excited by this material, and plans to use it on his visits to other parishes in the Diocese.  Sue was especially delighted that Fiadanana took the initiative of asking her if he could use it in this way, as she had very much hoped that this material would be of use to the whole diocese.  Sunday's service saw Josh leading "How Great Thou Art" on his melodica - a hymn we had sung the week before at St James the Less (and actually sang again the following Sunday in the Cathedral!)   Sue stood in to preach from Simon's notes as he was sick.  Neny Holy acted as her translator, as Fiadanana was too tired to do so.  At the end of the service Josh led a song we'd taught him at breakfast 'God is good'. We sang it, then Josh led it call and response style. The Malagasy loved it and repeated it instantly.  Members of the church of Sampoana walked over 12 miles to join the service, and still had energy to sing and dance in worship after sleeping on the church floor overnight. The president of the Sampoana church, told how his son was kidnapped in April, and his family mocked his faith in a God who let his son be kidnapped. After failing to sell him in several towns across the south of the island, the slave traders took him to the provincial capital, Toliara. The 12-year-old boy escaped, and came to St Luke's church in Ankilifaly, where he recognized the initials EEM (Eklesia Episkopaly Malagasy) as being the same as his father's church. Neny Holy was at a Mother's Union conference when the boy walked in. The boy was reunited with his family, and the father's and church's faith in God was vindicated by the way the boy found the church.  Rev Antsa said that unfortunately kidnapping for slavery is quite common in this area.  Please pray for the safety of the children. The Malagasy love of dance had been borne out in the Sunday service, and also in the greeting we were given in Ampananvy on Monday morning! We visited the villages of Ampanavy and Marodo Ankilemasy, where St James the Less supports the local public schools.  We followed a guide vehicle along bumpy dirt tracks to find the villages. About 400 villagers gathered under the tamarind tree with singing and dancing, and we once again taught a short version of the dance lesson. Then we listened to a Bible passage read in Malagasy and Sue was unexpectedly asked to talk about the passage, which she hadn't been able to follow as she had no internet connectivity on her phone to read the Bible!  It was Matthew 25, the parable of the talents and as she started rambling about talents, God put coherent thoughts into her head!  Thank the Lord!   In the village of Marodo Ankilemasy, we saw their water storage tank, and asked a boy to show us what the water looked like when drawn from it.  The water had been collected from this watering hole by the side of the main road.   Our hope is to provide enough water filters for the whole village to get clean drinking water! Please email Sue if you would be interested in helping with the costs of these filters.  If you found this newsletter helpful, please forward it to your friends and invite them to subscribe too.  Thank you!  Click here to subscribe Copyright © 2025 Friends of Toliara, All rights reserved. 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