Pitterle Family
BP 14043
Talatamaty
Antananarivo 105
Madagascar
Via France
(261) 20 22
48155
(261) 33 11
55644
April 2004
Dear Family and Friends:
Greetings from Madagascar. We are
doing fairly well. Grace is becoming a "big girl"
and is talking more. Stephen and Leigh have five weeks of
school to go in fifth grade. Leigh continues keeping the
(American AoG) field books and will soon file the first quarter
report.
We have faced a few challenges in the
past months: flea bites, continuing leaking water heater, a
drunk and a motor-scooter running into the side of our moving
vehicle (but nobody was seriously injured),
getting our pickup stuck in the mud, and losing a 4' x
18' section of our roof for three days during a hurricane
accompanied by some rain in the house. "In all these
things we are more than conquerors through him who loved
us." (Romans 8:37)
However, the two hurricanes - that both
hit Madagascar, left, and returned - caused much damage and left
more than 200,000 people without homes. And on top of this,
the Malagasy Franc has experienced significant depreciation
recently. While this may be helpful for the relatively
small number of foreigners, this is not good for the 12.4 million
people (73% of the nation) who live on less than $1 per day.
Book of Hope distributions continue
throughout Madagascar. In the past four months: 2,500
high school and 2,000 Jr. high students received books in
Tamatave; more than 1,000 children in an area nicknamed Texas
received books in their elementary schools; and books were sent
out for another 900 students in the Antananarivo area. Please
pray for changed lives.
Except for a few minor revisions, we have
completed the revision of the high school version of the Malagasy
Book of Hope. This new, shorter version is the one that is
being used in many other countries around the world.
John recently started training 65 Bible
school students about using the Book of Hope. Prayerfully
these future pastors and Christian leaders will later prioritize
children's ministry, reach out to children in their areas, follow
up on them, and disciple them.
We continue to spend most of our time
working on what should be the first Malagasy study Bible. Each
book of the Bible has the following study materials: study
notes, outline / introduction, center references, footnotes, and
many books have articles, maps, and charts. Last year, we
finished the study materials from Genesis – Ruth. Through
March, our 17-person team (see most of our team in the photo
above) worked on the books from 1 Samuel to Esther and now we are
working on Job – Song of Songs.
In March, we had three American study
Bible leaders who came to visit us. They gave us a new font
to use for our Malagasy translations. They were also
helpful in various other areas, including providing us with some
valuable lessons learned by the team in the Philippines that
completed the Tagalog version of this Bible.
One of our (pastor/) editors is leading
our team in working on an article that addresses ancestor worship
from a biblical point of view. This is a common issue here.
Also, although we have had some personnel changes in the last few
months, Jesus has been good and has provided more good coworkers.
We want to thank everyone who has prayed
for direction for us. This is something that we have been
praying about for many months over the last several years. We
had been tentatively scheduled to return to the States in July
and we now believe that the next step of the plan for us is to
not return to Madagascar (in the near future). John has put
together a resume and has started looking for a job. For
example, he recently applied for a job at the Applied Research
Lab of Penn State where he used to work.
We do not know where we will be living or
what we will be doing, but our future is in the Lord's hands.
Once again we will face the transition of leaving our present
country and moving to a different place. We will be
starting over again.
Both the Book of Hope and study Bible programs will continue in Madagascar. Children's missionaries are planning to come to Madagascar in August and they will probably help with the Book of Hope but maybe a while after their arrival. In the meantime, we pray that the Malagasies will take more leadership in the program. Our original supervisors also plan to return in August and they may resume leadership of the study Bible. We are currently praying about getting a central editor for the study Bible and such a person may not only help with creating a Bible with minimal errors but also with the upcoming transition.
We are especially grateful to everyone
who has been part of our "team" and helped us to be
here in Madagascar making Good News available to the children and
putting together a one-book "library" that will help
Malagasy people to study God's word and know His truth. We
will continue to need your prayers and financial support
(via General Council of the Assemblies of God, 1445 Boonville Ave., Springfield, MO 65802-1894;
with "Pitterle, MA, 292883" on the check).
Please
tell us if you have any prayer requests.
In His infinite awesomeness
and awesome infiniteness,
John, Leigh, Stephen and Grace