Africa Inland Mission (AIM) is a missionary organisation with over 100 years of experience in Africa. It was founded in 1895 and works on the continent of Africa and the isles in the Indian Ocean (including Madagascar). AIM is an evangelical, non-denominational organisation: missionaries come from a wide variety of church backgrounds.

AIM’s stated mission is to see Christ-centered churches among all African peoples. The goal is to introduce those who have never heard to the One who died to save them – Jesus Christ. AIM seeks to help new believers to grow strong and healthy in their faith and to see new believers enfolded in a maturing church. AIM aims to invest in the lives of current and future church leaders so they can effectively affect the lives of others who can in turn reach out to the vast population of Africa and beyond.

From it’s very beginning, AIM has sought to work alongside local churches and local believers – if existing. AIM has succeeded to gain the trust of the people served through the perseverance and morality of its workers. Today, AIM still seeks to work together with local churches and believers. As an illustration: there are several teams with African team leaders.

AIM works in several countries, as shown below. Madagascar, where we hope to serve, is part of Southern Region. Would you like to learn more? Then visit AIM Europe’s website.

AIM focuses on unreached people groups, but what are they. According to Joshuaproject.net unreached people groups lack enough followers of Christ and resources to evangelise their own people. In other words: unreached people groups have no chance to hear the gospel.

An estimated 6,900 people groups are still unreached, 42% of earth’s population. That means almost 3 billion people! In Africa there are more than 900 groups still unevangelised, representing 27% of Africa’s people, or 316 million people.

Sometimes people groups are only partly reached, or it may seem they have acces to the gospel through the presence of a church. In Africa and other developing regions it is of the utmost importance to bring the gospel close to the people, to deliver it on their doorstep. There are tribes that live isolated from the outside world. Illiteracy prohibits people from taking in written information. To reach people in such circumstances, believers must physically visit the people where they live and work to tell the gospel in their own language.

The existence of a local church does not guarantee that people have a chance to hear the good news. An example is a small church in Betroka. Betroka, in South-Madagascar, is a central town in Bara territory. The church is not visited by Bara. Why? Part of the answer lies in the fact that the service is not in Bara, the only language they speak. The readings are from the Malagasi Bible, which they cannot read. The minister has no means to evangelise the Bara. In situations like these, AIM can come alongside (which has happened in Betroka). Read more here.

AIM expects its missionaries to learn the local language, study and – where appropriate – to live the culture of the people they serve. In that way the gospel message can be shared in a way that is culturally fitting, in the heart language of the people.

Madagascar is an island off the coast of Africa (separated from it by the Mozambique Channel) in the Indian Ocean. It size compares to twice the UK. From north to south the island measures 1500 km and 500 km across. Because of its size and the biodiversity on the isle Madagascar is sometimes referred to as ‘the eighth continent’.

The first inhabitants came ashore around the beginning of our calendar. During the first century to 700 AD the far away neighbours from Africa, Arabia and the Indonesion archipelago travelled across the ocean to start a new life on Madagascar. In 2013 the number of people had grown to over 22 million.

Madagascar’s people are diverse: 18 different people groups are distinguished. Sometimes their looks reveal clearly where there origins lie: the Bara and Mikéa look most like Africans with their dark skin and frizzy hair, whereas the Mérina have a lighter skin and straight black hair like the Indonesians. Malagasi is spoken throughout the island, but in 10 very different dialects.

In the early days the different tribes formed their own kingdoms with their own laws. There were conflicts between them. In the 17th century Madagascar became a stopping place for ship travelling to the east. Slave traders, pirates, merchants and shipwrecked crews found a save harbour. In 1828 the Mérina had conquered almost the entire island and subjected the other tribes to their rule. This rule ended when the French colonised Madagascar in 1896 and sent away the Mérina-queen. In 1960 the country became an independent republic with a central government.

Most Malagasy are animists: they worship the spirits of their ancestors. The spirit world must be appeased to prevent mishappenings. Ambiosy (witch doctors) function as intermediaries between the people and the spirits. There is the belief in a creator, Zanahary or Andriamanitra, but he is far away is not concerned with everyday life. A special act of worship is the exhumation of the dead to rebury them again in their tombs after a feast.

The first protestant missionaries (from the London Missionary Society) came in 1818. They proselytised the people mainly through their literacy programme, in which children learned to read and write with the help of a Bible in Malagasy. They started the school on the special request of King Radama I. In 1835 all missionaries had to flee the country since Queen Ranavalona banned the Christian faith. The young church was heavily persecuted until her death in 1861. Missionaries came back and the church grew in large numbers. Christianity became popular amongst the upper class Mérina and the royal court, but traditional beliefs were still adhered to.

Although there are Christ-centered churches on Madagascar, they can be found mainly in the highland. The highland people (mainly Mérina) have sofar taken very little initiative to evangelise the other peoples of Madagascar. This is beginning to change. Where possible, AIM trains local Christians as missionaries amongst the unreached people groups of Madagascar.

Of the 18 people groups on the island at least 8 belong to the unreached / least reached: the Antandroy, Antanosy, Mahafaly, Tanala, Antakarana, Bara, Gujaraty and Sakalava peoples. More information about them and how to pray for them is available from www.prayafrica.org.

So ones in a while we receive questions about the children.

• Is it wise to take kids with you to the mission-fields?
• How do mission organisations respond on children?
• What about schooling?

We would like to answer these questions on this page. The answer on the first question can be read below. The others will follow.

Please let us know if you have a question that is relevant for this page: Contact

Is it wise to take kids with you to the mission-fields?

Before we answer the actual question we would like to look at it from an different angle. When we look at other missionaries we see that they mostly leave while they are still very young. Than after a while, when we read up on them, we found out that they were blessed with children. That is great of course because that is the way life goes. But now we have a question. Why is it that people do not mind missionaries to receive children whilst on the field and at the same time question whether it is responsible to receive them before one goes? In both cases children grow up in two or more cultures. Children, born on the field, will have to deal with a return (for short or long term to the culture of their parents. It will be no different for our children. They are used to the Netherlands and will have to get accustomed to an other culture when we leave for Madagascar.

Now the actual question. We are fully aware of the responsibility we have over our children. This made that we were consciously looking for a suitable location. Sadly enough there are many unsafe countries. Than there are projects that are simply not suitable for families. One such project is the AIM Extreme Lesotho team.¹ The missionaries have to travel along with the shepherds under very primitive circumstances. Together with AIM we have examined the possibilities and came up with Madagascar. The people of Madagascar are not hostile towards white people. The landscape where we are going to live is save and the roads are relatively good. Next to that we are only going to work among people who invited us, thus we will be welcome. Matters of hygiene and medical care are taken very serious. Our house will have a concrete floor to avoid rainwater flowing in. Appropriate sanitary measures will be taken. And we will have a connection (telephone and internet) to contact the home front and, when necessary, important people or other authorities. No, we will have not the same luxury as in Holland but we will have the most important necessities in place.

All in all it will be a unique experience for the children. An experience that will have its advantages in a world that becomes more and more globalist. The children will quickly learn that other habits are not bad by definition… just different. They will also learn how to function in a strange environment. Adapting to the people, language learning, discovering what habits they can use and what they should not use. This knowledge shall be in their advantage when they grow up.

AIM is aware of the impact a move can have on children. To help they have organised a course called Europe Based Orientation (EBO). We attended this course in 2014. The children had their own programme in which they learned a lot about being a mission-kid. This course will be extended in Africa. When we leave for Madagascar we will receive a Africa Based orientation (ABO) which will take three weeks. Besides these two important courses we also attended a course in the UK which was completely about families going abroad. Just like the EBO the children received their own education during this course as well. In addition to these organised courses we do a lot about world orientation at home. This means that the children learn many things about different cultures and countries. Ever since we know that we are going to Madagascar these lessons are more concentrated on that country. What kind of people live there, what does the area look like, what are their habits and languages. The children are looking forward to go! And of course there is this feeling of ‘leaving behind’, which the oldest two can pretty well describe. But all in all, they cannot wait untill we go. We belief that all this preparation will contribute to the well-being of the children and will make the transition much smoother.

Endnotes:

1. ↑ The AIM Extreme Lesotho team: http://eu.aimint.org/lesotho-shepherds-basic-living/ and [wp_fancybox_media url=”https://vimeo.com/73642590″ type=”vimeo” width=”640″ height=”360″ hyperlink=”click here to see a video about these shepherds.”]

How do mission organisations respond on children?

The danger of answering this question is that people might feel hurt by hearing it. However, we would like to try with the trust that the reader realises that we have no intentions to judge the choices that have been made in the past.

The presupposition of this question was that the mission couple would not have as much time for the work when they have five kids around to take care for. An understandable, but very Western thought. Why Western? Because this thought suggests that both the mother and the father need to do the work as much as possible. To accomplish that, one could say that children are a bit of a burden. This thought use to be present in mission work as well. It was not unusual to send children to a boarding-school or to find others means to free up the parents time.

We have heard remarks from people whether the missionaries were wrong in doing so. Our answer is simple and short: No! Nevertheless, with the passing of the time also the insights are changed. Missionaries brought big sacrifices in their families, and we have great respect for their works and efforts. Just like these pioneers and with the lessons of the generations before us and the new insights we want to see God’s kingdom grow!

We al ready mentioned the term ‘Western’. In many non-Western cultures people do not leave the education and upbringing of their children easily to others. Whenever the mother works outside the house one can find the children close to her. Family ties are very important and children often mean security for the future. Besides that, many groups see children as a blessings of God. The more children one has, the more God blessed this person. Organisations noticed that it is harder for individual missionaries to make contact with the local people. This seems strange as the individual has more time than the missionaries with a family. The work done by these individuals are enormous! But when it comes to social contacts the families are in the advantage. Children around the world have the habit to play together. Parents have a common topic of interest which can speed up the social contacts. In cultures where children are this important, the locals will think it is strange when those Western children are send away from home.

Of course one can find many more examples but we trust you will see the logic of our decision. Mission organisation are happy with all missionaries but have certain situations in which they prefer whole families. AIM Is no different in this. AIM responded very enthusiastic on our longing to serve, as a family, on Madagascar. The announcement of Katja’s pregnancy (2015) resulted in many happy reaction among the AIM-workers. As for us, we are glad to go together. There are these situations in which the individual worker (although supported by the organisation) needs to deal alone with all the emotions—a problem acknowledged by many of them. This can be less of a problem for families, who always have each other. AIM is well aware of this problem for singles. They do their utmost to help them as it would be a pity to see them return to their country because of a burn-out or something else. Not to say that this cannot take place among families but they do have some advantage above singles.

We would like to end this answer with a short anecdote out of our own life:
A while ago Jurgen had a conversation with a Dutch lady and a lady from Eritrea. The Dutch lady heard about Katja’s pregnancy and responded with a joke that now we surely will not go to Africa? Jurgen’s answer was that the Africans finally start to take us seriously. All this time the lady from Eritrea listened and did not realise that we where joking. She answered on Jurgen’s responds and said: “you are absolutely right! In Eritrea we would think it is strange when a man without children comes and talks about God as God’s blessing is apparently not on him.”
We would not like to go down this road but it illustrates nicely how different people groups can view the value of big families.