We like to move it move it!

Well, not exactly! I am writing this to you from the house of our good friends. They have kindly offered their home and space to our family as we re-integrate back temporarily into Canadian culture. It's not easy to find a furnished rental for "a month or so” for a family of five during the covid pandemic. We are so blessed to have an amazing church and friends who have really reached out to help our family with everything from a place to live, vehicles, groceries and even some good times fishing! 

But what does our future hold? In March of this year, I travelled to the northern part of the island of Madagascar to visit a surgeon from the UK I had previously met at a surgical conference. 

The town of Mandritsara

Our transition from the Post-Residency Program with Samaritan’s Purse, opened a door for us to join a french speaking mission in Mandritsara, Madagascar. We wanted to continue using the french we have learned and used during last 3 years.

Wait! Madagascar… King Julian… “I like to move it move it.”  Yes, that is the place. But aside from an incredible natural world inspiring a popular animated movie, what is also found in Madagascar is immense poverty and a great need for surgical care and the gospel.

Foundations of the new surgical building

We are excited to partner with the Good News Hospital to help build their surgical program, train Malagasy surgeons and live out the gospel in word and deed. For a great film by Mission Aviation Fellowship on the travel challenges to the Good News Hospital, click here.

Currently the hospital is undergoing a major construction project to build new operating rooms, a peri-anesthetic care unit and sterilization area. This will greatly enable the surgical and teaching capacity of the hospital.

Our family will join a Malagasy and expat team dedicated to improving health and spiritual care in the region. 

New surgical building construction

We are humbled and grateful for the current and ongoing support from so many of you whose prayers, encouragement and finances have enabled our family to assist those less fortunate. We are also grateful of during this season of COVID that the poor, who don’t have income assistance much of what we have here in North America, have not been forgotten.

Over the next few months, Julie and I will be helping load a shipping container of surgical and personal supplies to Madagascar. We are so thankful for the role Samaritan’s Purse has played in organizing this and look forward to continuing to work closely with them despite being with a different organization that supports long-term missions. I will be travelling to help pack surgical and personal items on the container. Julie is already planning how to set up a home in what will be the most remote location we have lived in. We will also prepare to learn the local language in addition to improving our French.

We are looking forward to visiting with many of you during our time back in Canada. 

Please keep our family in your prayers as we embark on yet another adventure. 

Pray for our children as they meet old and new friends and juggle a life that has spanned many countries, languages and cultures. 

Pray for wisdom as we purchase and pack equipment that will be shipped to Madagascar.

And ultimately pray that our efforts would glorify our Lord Jesus Christ. 

Please reach out to us if you would like to hear more about what we are doing and the projects we are supporting. We would love to talk to you face to face or via other means.

(Photo credits thanks to Dr. Ted Watts)