3rd September 2010
Hello, or mana oana!
Here comes a long awaited update from
Madagascar! What has been happening over the last month-and-a-half? A lot, so
much I can tell you immediately...
Let's start with our latest news: Iris Madagascar officialy exists as an NGO in Madagascar!!! Thank you all so much for praying. It took about 70 visits to the ministry of foreign affairs by our lovely Malagasy representative Lanto, but after 2 years of preparing, Iris Madagascar has been officially 'born'. We are so glad that we have received this recognition from the government and that we are now allowed to start doing what we came here for.
Not that we've been sitting still since we came in the country. After we (Caroline and Rachel) had spent some time staying with our YWAM friends out of the city, we found an amazing house to rent in Tana. And only 10 days after moving in we ended up with a feeding program for a group of boys that live on the street and kids from our neighborhood who come from very poor families. Why do I say 'ended up with'? Because that's how it feels, in a very positive way. We never planned on starting this way, but we found 4 boys sleeping on the pavement in the end of our street. There was no way that we could ignore them until our paperwork was finished, so we invited them to come for lunch the next day. We had so much fun! Playing football, eating together, getting to know them. And even though they can't live with us yet, we asked them if they'd like to come every weekday for lunch. Of course their answer was a big yes, and that's how our lunch 'program' was born. Over the days, they asked us if they could bring some of their friends. These kids all live close to our home, often from broken families and usually have only one meal a day. So now we offer them a good Malagasy lunch of rice and topping. Yesterday, there were 26 kids, today probably 1 or 2 more and next week? We'll just wait and see :)
Even the smallest things with the kids
we could not have done without Julio & Patty. They are a lovely Malagasy
couple who are working and living with us. They are completely amazing!! Later
on they'll introduce themselves to you, but let me just say they are invaluable
to us! Not only are they doing a great job translating, but Julio has a real
heart for (street) kids and Patty is very passionate about administration...
Hallelujah :) What a great team!!
Also, we have a very nice couple
living in the guard house. Gerard works as our guard, and Tiana helps with
cooking for the kids, cleaning the house and doing our laundry. They have a
very, very cute little girl, Yazna, and we love them a lot. They like the kids
that come for lunch a lot, and Gerard spontaneously offered to build a big
picnic style table so they could all sit and eat together, so sweet.
Every week we go 1 evening to
Analakely, the centre of Antananarivo. It is the place where most of the
street-kids and prostitutes live, eat and sleep, right there on the streets.
The first time we went, we met a lot of kids, and one of them is Rochelle. He
is a funny, slightly naughty boy of about 10 and we love him! We've seen him
every week since and give him and his friends a good meal. And they are very,
very Malagasy... Who would have thought that they prefer rice & beans over
pizza? But they really do! Last week, when we were walking around with them,
they shouted to the prostitutes: 'look at us, we are sons and daughters of the
vasa (white people), and you are just prostitutes...!' The women laughed a lot! It's a good
thing they all look out for each other, and the ladies were not a bit offended.
We laughed a lot :) Seems that they understand sonship and adoption pretty
fast!
In between organizing, kids, visa,
administration etc, we've made our house our home. We're exploring the place we
live, going to the market, chatting with the madames who are selling the fruit
and vegetables and trying the little Malagasy we know by now.
In our living room we have a box
filled with everything we need to take care of babies, so we're ready to take
care of these little precious ones. God has proven His timing absolutely
perfect throughout the whole process, and we trust Him to give us any kids He
wants us to take care of, whenever and wherever.
We are so thankful for your support!
We couldn't have done this without your financial help and most of all, your
prayers. And we would love to ask you to keep praying. It's really
ground-breaking work, getting everything started from nothing and we have our
challenges. But none of them are too big! God has provided everything we needed
and will continue to do so.
If you want to lift us up in prayer,
please pray for:
- Incredible
wisdom! Now that our paperwork is finalized, we are allowed to take in
kids. Please pray for wisdom in how to do that in a good and honoring way
- Good
relationships with the local gouvernment
- Our
team
- Tiana's
family. Tiana is one of the boys that lives on the street close to our
home, and over the past week we've gotten to know his family a little.
They are facing quite a lot of challenges, and we'd love to see this
family restored
With lots of love and greetings,
Team Madagasikara
Caroline, Rachel, Julio, Patty
He raises the poor from the dust and
lifts the needy from their misery
and makes them companions of princes
Psalm 113:7-8
30th August 2010
We got all our paperwork back today and now have NGO status in Madagascar!!!!!! After 2 years of writing, planning and waiting it's done!!!! Thank you so much for all your prayers! It is so exciting that it's all finalised and that we have NGO status!!!!!!!!! YEAH!!!!! We are all so happy and all went out for a meal this evening to celebrate!!!! God has once again done it beautifully is His perfect timing!!!
Much love! Caroline
27th August 2010
Had a lovely day taking the boyz (and one girl) to the Tana Zoo! They were most excited about the biby lava (snakes), but the crocodiles and wild pigs scored high too :) Pumpkin soup on the stove, hmmmmm......
19th August 2010
Caroline - just spent the evening on the streets with the street kids....they are such amazing kids.
18th August 2010
Rachel - what to say... we have the best bunch of lunch guests every weekday! Koto, Tiana, Fifi, Kely... those boys rock! Oh, and Madagascar is (slowly) saying goodbye to winter, yay!!!
Manawana! ino vavao? tsi misy? feloma! ... phiew, beginning to learn malagasy!
7th August 2010
Wow...so we now have a sweet house, an awesome team, hopefully a car next week... and a dirty, mischievious and adorable bunch of street kids coming to the house for lunch every day! ...Fun fun fun in the Mad house!!
16th July 2010
Caroline and Rachel are moving to Madagascar to live on Sunday!!! Our flights are booked and we are getting ready to go!!! Iris Madagascar here we come!!!!!!!!!!
21st June 2010
Caroline and Rachel have had an amazing time with Iris Zimbabwe and are sad to leave. Tomorrow we're heading back to Maputo...
10th June 2010
Rachel & I are currently at the Iris Zimbabwe base which is very lovely! We are enjoying it and learning a lot... we are even hoping to get to see Victoria falls whilst we are here too! ...so that's the latest news from us! Caroline
28th May 2010
Zimbabwe!!! What an amazing country :) Staying with the Jourden family in Harare, they are so sweet & full of life! Yesterday afternoon visited Epworth church in the poorest part of the city, beautiful people, can't wait to go back there on sunday. In a nutshell... having a good time! Rachel
23rd May 2010
I had an amazing time this week visiting a Mozambican family in their mud hut... sitting in the dirt... feeling at home, hmm I love this place! Wondering what Zimbabwe is gonna be like... can only be good!! Rachel
12th March 2010
At the moment the paperwork has made it through 6 out of 10 government offices and has almost got through the 7th! So it's going well!!
15th February 2010
Hi all, sorry it has been so long but internet access is very limited.
I came back to Pemba for Christmas which was AWESOME!!! We had a great Christmas here with the children, handing out presents, having a candle light service and eating ice cream! I am still in Pemba and am continuing to learn so much here just from seeing how they do things here. I'm helping in the baby house at the moment which is a lot of fun! It's been a great time to be able to see a baby house up and running and full of sweet little people! It really is so great to be able to be a part of it and to think more about the practicalities of Madagascar, from the layout of the rooms and the whole house, to the activities to do with the children, to the medical care that the children receive and how that can best be achieved in Madagascar. So it's a great time and God is showing me more about the practical side of things, as well as showing me more of his many facets of who He is, how He sees me and others around me, and how his LOVE is bigger than anything and is so healing and so restoring and is so enormous! and that He just loves to love us and to show us how much we mean to Him, so that we can also let Him love other people through us...from the smallest baby to the oldest person. I want to be able to see other people as God sees them and to learn to love them as He does. It's such a process and I'm so not there yet, but it's the cry of my heart right now for God to teach me and show me more and more about His love....how high and how wide and how deep it is. How is casts out all fear, how it transforms people completely and how is brings such complete healing and restoration...and how He just longs to love us. He IS love. Isn't that amazing?!
The Madagascar paperwork is going well and has currently been approved by 5 out of 10 government officers...so I am just waiting for the other 5 to read it too. So it's in process.
Very exciting news is that a lovely girl called Rachel has joined the Madagascar team!! She is a midwife from Holland and she did the last mission school here. She's coming out here to join me for some team training in Pemba before we start in Madagascar together. So that is amazing! God really brought her along just at the right time, and we're so exciting to be going together. It's a real answer to prayer and we have had some lovely talks just dreaming about what we will be able to do and what it might look like!
Thank you so much for your prayers, your support and your encouragement.
God bless you! Caroline
17th November 2009
Hi All, it's been a busy, exciting month!
Madagascar: the paperwork was handed in when I was there in October and I am waiting for it to be processed.
Pemba: I spent 5 days there last week talking to the current mission school students who have an interest in Madagascar and joining the team! At least one of them is interested and is going to talk to the long term committee about joining me! I am now back in South Africa for 2 weeks, back with the babies. Welcome is doing really well at the moment and has been home from hospital now for a week and a half which is awesome! Sibo is teething! hmmm!
I will be going back to Pemba on the 2nd December to lead a team of 6 mission school students to the Iris base in Sudan! I am really looking forward to this, it will be a great experience to see how another Iris base is run, plus a great experience in leading a small team. We are going to be there until 22nd December and then I will return to Pemba for Christmas. I will probably remain in Pemba, helping out in the base until I get into Madagascar at some point next year.
So it's all exciting, and it's more traveling than I've ever done before!!!! This is really teaching me about having my identity in God, and not in any one place! I don't have an address at the moment and I have moved countries 8 times since October already! I went UK-Jo'burg-Madagascar-Jo'burg-Maputo-Nelspruit-Pemba-Nelspruit. I plan to return to Pemba on the 2nd December to spend a week talking and praying with the Sudan team before we leave, we then have 2 days in Uganda and 10 days in Sudan! So much traveling! God is showing me that I have to be rooted in HIM and living in HIM to have the stability to know that WHEREVER I am, I am a daughter of Zion, and that's where my identity is!
6th November 2009
The baby came home from the hospital today!!!!!! And this time he's gonna stay home with his Mama's!!!!!
30th October 2009
Our poorly little baby hasn't been doing very well the last few days, please keep praying for him, we've taken him back to hospital every day this week and think they might admit him again today. He's got fevers almost all the time, not eating, just sleeping. I so want to see this baby doing well!
26th October 2009
OUR BABY IS HOME FROM HOSPITAL TODAY!!!!! He's doing so much better! It took 8 1/2 hours to discharge him, but I've seen a peadiatrician, an ocupational therapist and a dietician and have lots of meds, excercises and plans for baby food that will fatten the boy up! It's so nice to have him home! He knew he was coming home, and he waved bye bye to everyone that walked past him all day!!!!
15th October 2009
Please pray for one of our lovely babies here in South Africa. He's got TB and now maybe some kind of chest infection on top of it. Like his lungs needed that right now! He's been admitted back into hospital. He needs a strong immune system and to get rid of all the nasty bugs in his little body. Thank you. ♥
14th October 2009
Please pray for one of 'my' babies, the one with TB. He's not well right now going to take him to hospital to be checked out.
11th October 2009
I'm in South Africa now for 6 weeks looking after two beautiful little babies! One is pretty sick with TB and needs lots of love and care, but he's doing well! So I'm Mama Carolina now for sure! They live with me! I love South Africa!!!
25th September 2009
Dear Friends,
Hello! I just wanted to give you a quick update on where I am and what's going on with me and Iris Madagascar at the moment.
Me: I've been doing base leaders training with Iris in Pemba Mozambique which has been amazing.
There is so much to learn but it's been a fantastic time. I've learnt a lot from some incredible people and have been so blessed by my time there. I've spent some time helping and learning in the clinic, which was awesome, helping with the kids medicine rounds, spending time in the baby house, watching how God just transforms the little ones, even ones who start off looking pretty miserable, by His amazing love. It sometimes feels like the more I learn, the more I can see that I need to learn! but it's been a great time of learning practically and spiritually and letting God be God! He so know's what I need to learn and He's been so great at putting that all together and making sure that I learn it. It's been an incredibly rich and blessed time.
Madagascar: Things are really coming together which is so exciting to see! The paperwork is all completed and made it into Madagascar about 2 weeks ago. It is being submitted to the Malagasy government and then we just need to wait until it's been approved! (it's supposed to take 4-6 months but one organisation just got their's approved in 3 months!.. it will all happen in God's perfect timing!) We have a 20 foot container now in my hometown which we've bought and it's currently being filled with the most amazing donated equipement, baby clothes, blankets, cots, toys..and furniture for the baby house. It's so exciting to see all the amazing things that will one day make up the baby house! The container will be sent out when we have got NGO status in Madagascar.
The next steps: I've had 6 weeks back home in the UK with friends and family, which has been a great time of resting and catching up with people, and I'm flying back out to Africa again this Sunday to continue with more base leaders training.
I'm going to first spend a week in Madagacsar, looking at land for sale that would be potential sights for the base, ensuring that the paperwork has been submitted sucessfully to the Malagasy government and finding out as much as I can about the potential progress of our NGO status. Then whilst the paperwork is being processed, I'm going back to Mozambique to visit some different Iris bases to learn how they work and to see how different bases are being run.
Thank you all so much for your prayers, your support and your encouragement. It is such an incredible blessing to have such an amazing group of friends around me!
I would love prayer for my time in Madagascar that it would be a blessed time, and that God would really speak to me about the land that He wants this baby house to be built on. That the paperwork would be processed without any obstacles, in His perfect timing. Also for the next 6 months of travelling and learning, that it would be a really enjoyable time of learning, and I would learn all that my Father wants me to learn. Also for a team of His choosing to be called and to hear the call so clearly. I would so love to have a team with me soon!
Thank you, God bless you guys so much! With much love from Caroline
January 26th 2009
Hello! I just thought that I would send you some encouraging news about the baby house! Which should, I hope, make you smile!!
On New Years day I went into Woolworths, a shop in my area that was closing down. They were selling some really cheap children's clothing, so I bought a few things there. As I was looking around, a newspaper reporter from our local paper came up and asked if he could ask me a few questions. He asked me how I felt about Woolworths closing, and why I was buying clothes. So, I told him all about the baby house. He got really excited and wants to do a separate story. He sent a photographer round today to take photos of me surrounded by donated baby clothes. He was going to come too, but then he got called onto another story. So he is hopefully coming over on Friday instead to talk about it.
My amazing church has been doing some awesome fundraising. So far, we have raised £9000 ($13,000 US) !!!! WOOOHOOO!!!!!!
A little girl called Annabel, who is 4 years old, heard about the baby house from my friend Josie who's kids go to the same school. Josie has been collecting donated toys and clothes for me and also doing lots of fundraising for a container to send to Madagascar. She's a
star.
Little Annabel donated lots of her old toys and some musical instrument toys for the children. Then she told her daddy that this wasn't enough. She wanted to give me her money as well to help send the toys to the children. She took her money from her money box. It was 22 pence (about 10 cents). She put this in an envelope for me with a note that she wrote herself in big kiddie writing. It said, "dear josys frend. this is my money, its for the truck. love Annabel." Isn't that just so cute!! That made me cry!!!
Ever since I have been thinking about getting land, I have told everyone that I need about 6000 square meters (one and a half acres) in order to have enough space. So that's the amount for which we been raising money. The YWAM (Youth With A Mission) Madagascar people have been looking for land for me around the area that where they are located, but thought that I was looking for a really big piece of land. I didn't tell them the size that I was thinking of, as I just wanted them to look for anything.
This week, the YWAM base leader, who is Malagasy, emailed me to say that he can't find any really big land for me. He didn't know if I'd be interested, but he is selling a piece of land in the same village, and it's 6000 square meters. It's about a 5 minute walk from the YWAM Base. So, it is in the same village that I have already lived in for 6 months before and where my lovely Malagasy YWAM friends live. On the YWAM base, there is a primary school, a secondary school and medical clinic. A King's Kids Team comes every Wednesday to do Christian singing, games and teaching with the local kids. It sounds pretty perfect. Also because they know me and love the idea of an Iris baby house, they will sell it to me for half price. That's £21,500 instead of £43,000.
Can you believe that? I feel like I can't really take it in. But isn't God awesome and amazing? Isn't He just so funny how He makes things work out like that? So I thought that would make you smile. Thank you so much for all your prayers and all your help. You guys are amazing. Please keep praying for God's perfect team to go with me.
Lots of love to you all!!!
Caroline XXXXXX
November 2008
At present Iris Madagascar is being set up from outside the country. As things in Africa are quite fluid, I do not have a fixed date to be commencing on the ground in Madagascar, but I am aiming for between September and November this year.
I am currently working on getting all the necessary paperwork completed, raising funds for the project and planning the design and layout of all the buildings on the land, in preparation for commencing building work. I will also be doing an internship with Iris Ministries learning more about how to run an Iris base.
I would really appreciate your prayers. For the preparations to go smoothly and well, for all the paperwork to be completed quickly, and for God to put in place the right core team for this project.
Thank you so much!
Caroline
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