Off to Diego

Well I thought I would do one last blog before I go to Diego for three weeks.  If you look at a map Diego is the very Northern tip of Madagascar. I am taking the place so it will only take me a couple of hours but if I did decide to take the taxi bus it would have taken two days. I am looking forward to going to another region especially when this one happens to have lovely beaches. I am a little nervous however about taking the airplane all by myself with my limited ability to speak Malagasy.  Oh well guess I will just show anyone my plane ticket and they will point me out in the right direction. I am thankful for the opportunity to be going by plane since I heard the bus is very rough and usually takes longer than expected.

So Diego is an opportunity to observe another ministry; specifically one that works with Muslims. Another AIM missionary, Esther has started working in Diego shortly after I arrived in Madagascar. Her ministry is working as a teacher teaching English to the University. About 90% of Diego is Muslim and I'm not sure about the other 10% but at least you get the idea. Esther's job is go along side the Christian Malagasy young people and equip them to minister to their fellow Muslim peers. Now I'm not quite sure what I am doing yet; I think I might help Esther in preparing her English lessons and I know she has a Bible study that she might want help with but other than that I will see when I get there. I think for the most part I am there to observe what Muslim ministry could look like for me in the future. Yeah I'm a little nervous because I'm not sure what to expect.  I know Diego is a very dark region and many people have told me it's nice to visit but not so nice to live.  I also just found out that there is no running water where I will be staying, this shouldn't be a surprise to me at all but to be honest it is a little. Hey I have been living in Africa like a queen; I'm surprised it has lasted this long. So just please pray that God will do wonderful things in these next few weeks; especially to my heart as I learn from these people and hopefully build some relationships with some of the students I will be working along side. I know it's hard to build relationships in just three weeks but hey they know English so lets start there.  Oh and here's another important fact; the Malagasy language is different there.  So in other words back to square one.  I did however learn the greeting, Bola Tsara which basically means Hello!