Madagascar

October 2009

Greetings from Antananarivo, Madagascar!
We thank God that we arrived safely home. We thank you for every thing you have done for us. Thanks, Charity church, for prayer and financial support during the five years of our training. The graduation was August 7, 2009. We appreciate your kindness and love shown to us. May God bless you all.

We left Cameroon on August 19th. The ELCA did not give us money for land travel, only airline tickets. Our PAACS Director gave $300 toward expenses, but we had to also spend all the money we had saved for the children’s school. We gave most of our clothes to our children’s friends and Elson’s books to his colleagues to avoid extra baggage.

We just brought the children’s school documents and some important books for Elson.  We have to buy furniture (beds, tables, utensils, school supplies and so on...) and to pay school fees for our 3 children. We didn’t receive any money from SALFA or Ejeda Hospital because they have financial problems. The Ejeda staff informed us the hospital had to go into debts and they cannot pay Elson’ s salary, so we are in difficulty now. The continuation of your support, Charity Church, is a great solution for our missionary work at Ejeda Hospital. Please continue to pray for us.

Our plan is that Elson will go and start work at Ejeda Hospital. I (Hanitra) will stay with our children in Antananarivo to assist them for their schooling.

In Christ, Dr. Elson, Hanitra, Maoly, Tsiory and Diary

Charity disciples with Dr. Elson and Hanitra from Madagascar with a truck Charity helped purchase for remote outreach. October 2005. *

June 2009:

Greetings from Ngaoundere,
We hope and pray that Rev. Ose is improving well. We thank God and we thank you also for your prayer. We are fine even we are little bit weak. We praise the Lord, Elson succeeded his oral exam he did on June 24, 2009. Our three children did well also in their schooling. All of them have passed. They got prize, " God is winning". We thank you for your supports. We are grateful for all of you have done for us. Please give thanks to Charity Church we received safely the gift and tell them also that Elson and our three children did well on their exam. Continue to pray for Elson' s writing and final exam on July 4, 2009. Elson's graduation will be on August 8, 2009. We will go back to Madagascar soon.

In Christ, Elson, Hanitra, Maoly, Tsiory and Diary.

OCTOBER 2005:  Rev. Roger Ose and wife Jan (Ose Ministries, Richfield, MN) escorted Dr. Elson and his wife, Hanitra, (currently living in Cameroon, Africa) to Charity Lutheran on October 16, 2005. 

Charity Lutheran was responsible for raising money that paid for medicine for Dr. Elson when he was near death from tuberculosis, and also for contributing funds that purchased a Toyota 4-wheel drive truck for use in outreach in southern Madagascar, where Dr. Elson, Hanitra and their family do both medical and evangelistic ministry among non-Christians, primarily in poor rural communities. He and his wife came to Charity to convey their personal thanks.

Rev. Robert D. Nordvall, formerly senior pastor at Charity, with Dr. Elson and wife, Hanitra, and Rev. Randall J. Upgren, preaching/teaching pastor, and Rev. Scott Bauman, congregational life pastor with the Toyota truck Charity helped to purchase for Madagascar mission work.*

Dr. Elson and Hanitra speak three languages and are responsible for "tree" ministries - gatherings of village people in Madagascar where information about medical, schooling and Christianity is shared. Dr. Elson showed slides of life in Madagascar:  many people are constantly thirsty; there is little rainfall and all streams and rivers are polluted by cattle. Trees and shrubs are cut down for fuel; many people walk up to 25 miles a day to find water or wood. Children spend all day pounding corn into meal for the evening supper: cornbread. There is almost 100 percent illiteracy and witch doctors still practice pagan "medicine" with amulets.

 

Times are changing for the people: corn-grinding machines have been installed, powered by solar panels. Solar ovens boil water and are used for cooking meals, thereby saving fuel. Women are taught how to fight malnutrition, run the automatic corn-grinders, and perform sanitary food preparation. Small clinics are set up by traveling medical teams who use Land Rovers and 4-wheel drive vehicles to access remote villages. Basic reading and mathematics classes under the village tree for not only children, but grown women and men, anxious to learn how to read and write.

The Bible is available in their native language and evangelists are being trained to bring the Good News through the holistic approach of helping the people improve their water, food, and medical resources and self-care.

Dr. Elson thanked Charity Lutheran for helping to save his life and for contributing to the Madagascar mission work. Rev. Ose, formerly a missionary to Madagascar in the 1970s, translated for Dr. Elson and narrated the slide show. After the second service, some of the congregation gathered around a Toyota 4-wheel drive truck in the Charity parking lot for a photo with Dr. Elson and Hanitra, the Oses, and Pastors Bob, Scott and Randy.

Rev. Ose challenged Charity to fund 500 solar ovens for Madagascar. Each oven, produced in the Twin Cities, costs $70 each. Disciples were encouraged to give a solar oven in the name(s) of loved ones instead of gifts this Christmas.

Rev. Ose and Jan Ose with Dr. Elson and Hanitra*

To donate a solar oven from a loved one, friend or fellow disciple, simply write out a check to Charity and put "solar ovens" in the memo portion of the check and list the people in whose name you are donating the ovens. Charity will forward the money and list to Rev. Ose, who will see that each oven sent to Madagascar will have the name(s) of the people who are being honored (or) who have donated the oven printed on the side of the oven.  Roger Ose Ministries sends six 20-ton sea-freight cartons to Madagascar each year to support the people and the Christian hospital at Ejeda.  

 

Dr. Elson is currently in the Cameroon for a three-year surgical residency program. He will be returning to Madagascar.  His wife, Hanitra, home schools their three children and sews all the family's clothes. Many of the children's lesson plans must be sent electronically over the Internet, so Charity Lutheran raised enough money at its 3 services to purchase a new laptop with all the programs for the family to take back to Africa.

 

For more information on how YOU can make a difference:

 

 ROGER OSE MINISTRIES
 6824 10th Avenue South
 Richfield, MN 55423-2501