Mandy and I have some exciting news to share as we move forward towards our goal of departing for Madagascar in autumn of '09.

We recently received notification that we were accepted for a grant to repay our school loans. This is a huge blessing and brings our departure goal closer to reality. Without this help it would be many more years before we could head to the mission field. The granting organization is called MedSend. They will take over our payments as long as we continue our work overseas.

We are also excited about our new partners both here in the US and in Madagascar as this "Mad Vision" builds momentum. We now have 30% of the ongoing monthly expenses raised! Thank you to those who have donated recently or are continuing as monthly givers.

Fun Fact



The Malagasy language has the same letters as the English alphabet minus the letters C, Q, U, W, and X. The word "Madagascar" is not in the Malagasy language since it has a "C". The Malagasy spell it Madagasikara. The name came from the European explorer, Marco Polo, who never went to this area of the world and probably confused it with the town of Mogadishu in Somalia. The Malagasy people actually have several names for the island including Nosin-dambo, Izao tontolo, or Ny aninvon'ny riaka.
(Info from www.wildmadagascar.org)