Pitterle Family
BP 5196
Antananarivo 101
Madagascar
Via France
(261) 20 22 48155
(261) 33 11 55644
October 2003
Dear Friends and Family:
Grace is talking more and her vocabulary is
growing. Stephen (and Leigh) started 5’th grade in
August. In addition to teaching Stephen and doing many
other things, Leigh filed her first quarterly report for our
mission and continues keeping the books.
As we continue in our fourth year here, perhaps some have wondered why we left the U.S. in the year 2000 to go to a third-world country while receiving a near 50% cut in pay and only one week of personal vacation (for our first year) instead of five. We want to emphasize that life is all about obeying Jesus and following His plan for our lives. In this we have recently been encouraged to see the Gospel story in 80,000 of the Jr. high school and 24,000 of the Sr. high Malagasy Books of Hope that we worked on. We are also thankful for testimonies like the following. These statements are from parents in the vanilla-growing region of Antalaha whose children’s lives were touched by the Lord through the Book of Hope.
"My
children received their Book of Hope and they teach their friends
about what they have learned. Let your children receive
their Book of Hope, and give them an opportunity to read and
experience something good for their life. It is a way that
brings them close to God, to know and respect Him. The fact
of fearing God keeps them from doing bad things."
"When my
daughter comes to know the word of God in spite of social
barriers, she experiences happiness. She had no idea about
giving glory to God before but now she is living it. She
gives glory to God by her way of dressing. Now she wears
only clothes that please Jesus. She has become responsible
for her own life. This change has convinced me
personally."
In August, we had more than 20 Americans
with 4 evangelists come to do evangelistic outreaches in four
major cities: Tamatave, Antsirabe, Ambatondrazaka, and
Antananarivo. The meetings were well attended and many
people received Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Then we had
a large crusade in the heart of the downtown region. Many
people filled the amphitheater with a standing room only crowd of
4,000 or 5,000 on the last afternoon. Many people responded
to the call to follow Jesus (see photo above) and several people
shared how Jesus had miraculously healed them.
In July we completed renovations of our study Bible office here on our property. Since then we have added office and reference materials and recently acquired a new computer (which was a bit of an adventure). On September 30, we submitted our first quarter's work. In addition to the translations for the table of contents, abbreviations, and titles for 78 articles and 44 maps/tables, our team submitted study notes, four articles, center references, introduction, footnotes, and headings for the book of Genesis. Reviewing the work in Malagasy is challenging but worth it. From now through December, we have almost three times as much work to do as our team works on Exodus through Ruth. Since we have much work to do, John just trained three new translators and we hope to get another translator as well. We now have six translators, four editors, and one computer person (with possibly another soon). Please pray for this quality team as they help put together a tool for people here to better study and know God’s truth that will set them free and help them have a better relationship with Jesus.
We have been helping with the orphanage here. Last month, we typed in the translation of a report on the 30+ children and we sent this and a financial report to some supporters.
We are happy to report that missionaries Doug and Pat Blue have returned. We are very glad to have them back here and also pleased to be relieved of some responsibilities.
We have continued work on condensing the Malagasy Book of Hope for high school and university students. We very recently submitted a request to the Minister of Public Education asking for permission to distribute the Book of Hope in the public schools. Could you please pray for favor regarding his decision? On October 7, we have a significant refresher / training here in the capital. The ministry here slowed down during and after the crisis last year and we pray that this will help jumpstart the program.
The Bible school begins another school year on October 14. John will again be teaching the first year students about personal evangelism on Tuesdays. Since some of these students most likely have not attended much school in the past, your prayers would be appreciated so that they will study and learn well.
We are grateful to our Father who continues
to meet our needs and also for everyone who has helped us to be
here in Madagascar. As our current financial situation is
still a bit tight, we continue raising funds for this term.
Regular and/or one-time checks can be made payable to and sent to
General Council of the Assemblies of God, 1445 Boonville Ave.,
Springfield, MO 65802-1894. On the memo portion of the
check, it would be good to write, “Pitterle, MA, 292883.”
We have been privileged to serve here in Madagascar. Thank you especially for your vitally needed prayers. Prayer is especially important for the children who will be receiving the life-transforming news of Jesus in the Book of Hope, for future Christian leaders at the Bible school, and for the development of a Bible study tool that we hope will help advance the kingdom of God in this nation. Please do let us know if you have any prayer requests.
In His infinite awesomeness
and awesome infiniteness,
John, Leigh, Stephen and Grace
