August! Summer in Europe...winter on Madagascar. But fear not: despite the freezing temperature of 20°C we’ve managed, with cold fingers and an extra sweater, to write a newsletter. ;-)
Translation Work
We already proudly mentioned it on Facebook: The whole set of Bible-stories (41 total) is ready! Jurgen used the stories before but he had to make changes and correction along the way.
We gave the first set to our friends Doris en Alphossin. This young pastor-couple goes out to the small villages on a regular base to share the Gospel. The take young Christians with them to teach them the ‘trait’ of evangelist. These young Christians come from our area and only speak the dialect. Some of them can read but the official language is still difficult for them. The stories in their own dialect are a wonderful tool for them to work with. But also for Doris and Alphossin. They are not of the Antanala tribe but they are Betsimisaraka, who speak a different language. With the stories in the Tanala dialect they too can preach better in the heart language of the hearers.
Our translator, Menja, is not finished yet: we said in our last newsletter that he finished the translation of the Gospel of Luke. Now he is working on the book of Acts. Meanwhile he and Jurgen meet regularly to discuss and correct the Luke-concept. Until lately Menja had to do all the writing with a pen and paper. Earlier he expressed the wish to have a laptop. Good news, as a friend of us, Tanja Hock, just received a new laptop to work on in the birth-centre near Tana. Tanja is running this centre. After some cleaning she gladly gave the old laptop to Menja. The battery is bad but we hope to find a new one next time we come to Tana.
Progress Evangelism
Tsiombivohitra
By now the king of Tsiombivohitra and his wife have heard all stories. Both said that they believe in Jesus now. However, the follow up on their decision is still difficult. We have encouraged them to get baptised and to contact other Christians, but we do not (yet) see any initiatives towards spiritual growth.
The visits at Tsiombivohitra did have a new development. At first only the king and his wife listened to the stories, but now the agreement is that Jurgen will do the same in front of all the people of the village. In the meantime Jurgen is working on a new relation with a pastor living near Tsiombivohitra. The pastor just recently arrived in our area and thus not yet speak the local dialect. We hope that, in due time, he and his church members will continue the work in Tsiombivohitra. That would give Jurgen a change to visit new villages.
Beono
This is the village Jurgen started to visit after we purchased the motorbike. Jurgen visits this villages weekly and shares the stories with the king, iaban’i Velotia and the deputy mayor, iaban’i Dimpy. We have become good friends. When the king needs to be in our village for business, he gladly comes by for a nice chat and a coffee.
Iaban’i Velotia enjoys the stories. He and the people in his village are not Tanala but Antemoro. This is an extra challenge. Jurgen mainly speaks Tanala but in this village he needs to adapt some words in order for the king and the people to understand it.
We live in the Tanala area (nr. 16 picture left). The Antemoro area is next to this area (nr. 2).
Other villages
Jurgen finished the stories at the school in Tanamboa. Soon the school children will enjoy a long holiday so the timing is perfect. For now we leave the work of evangelism in Tanamboa and the nearby village, Ambohitsara, in the hands of Doris and Alphossin. Naturally we are always ready to help when necessary.
In our own village, in the church nearby, Jurgen shared most of the stories to the children The program started Sunday mornings at 8. However, the children were expected to stay during the normal service as well. To sit still from 8 till 11:30 is a bit to much and soon the children did not show up any more.
One of the kings of our village however, said that he would very much like to hear the stories. He said that Jurgen can use his house which is in the centre of the village. The house is still being build. We hope that a ‘normal’ house will attract many listeners: a church has a high threshold on Madagascar as well.
Website
We have a brand new website! We have been busy to give the site a new look. All important information can be found on the homepage. Your not such a big reader? We would recommend take a look anyway. You’ll find some beautiful photographs www.jurgenenkatja.nl/en/
We hope to post new updates in the blog regularly. That way you do not have to miss anything that is going on in the lives of the Hofmanns on Madagascar..
Car Fund
We hope to go on a furlough in March 2020. More about that later. In that period the car will go to the garage of our friend in Tana. It needs some big repairs and maintenance. Driving, or better still ‘crawling’, in our area is not a healthy thing to do for the car. The blazing sun, the tropical rains and the salty sea air are causing the car to rust and the rubbers to harden. Here and there the rust penetrated the chassis and the frame underneath the car can do with some repairs as well. Besides these repairs we also need new mud-tires in the coming season.
All together we will have to invest considerably if we want to be able to travel into our area next year as well. We would like to ask you to think and pray about an extra gift for these repairs. It will help our ministry among the Tanala greatly! Please visit our website form more information: https://www.jurgenenkatja.nl/en/geven/ The money in this fund can be used for our motorbike as well, but besides some new tires we foresee no big costs yet.
You can give directly:
'AIM International' te Wageningen
IBAN: NL91 RABO 01 55 6 57 712
Please mention: Project Missionwork Madagaskar – Car
Furlough
Before you know it the Hofmann are wandering the low lands again! We hope to go on a four month furlough from March until June 2020. It still seems like a long time but we can assure you that it is a topic that pops up regularly in the family
Preparations
Our homefrontcommittee has already started the process of finding a house. We would like to stay in our own town, Den Helder. We are already busy making lists about what we want to do in Holland and what we need in our next term. What we need? Yes, we, for example, did not take all school material with us to Madagascar, where the rats gnaw and fungi ruins your clothes and books.
Katja needs to make a list of what can go back to Holland and what we need to bring here again. It is a puzzle to see, for example, what schoolbooks the children need the next two years. Jurgen has his own wish list. Little parts for the motorbike, very difficult to find here but in stock at most garages in Holland.
Presentations/Gast-speaker
We have been invited several time the last time when we were on furlough. Mostly to give presentations about our work and sometimes combined with a sermon. Some of our English speaking friends live in the Netherlands and might want to hear about our work among the Tanala. Please, don’t hesitate to invite us. Don’t wait to long as four months are over before you know it and the agendas fill up quickly. You can contact us through our contactpage. For the rest of our English speaking friends… Sorry, we will probably have to little time to go and visit your church in other parts of the world (although we can do something on Skype or Whatsapp).
This was it for now
Until then: God bless and goodbye!
Jurgen and Katja Hofmann
with Vanya, Issa, Abbey, Dani and Simeon