Hello Praying Friends,

We apologize for our silence! Things have certainly been anything but quiet around here & the weeks have been flying by full of activity. Thanks for praying for us even though you haven't had any recent news. I'll try to catch you up on what's been happening here (in typical unabridged Stacy style) & start back with the more frequent, shorter updates after this. 

This is a week of celebrations here! On Tuesday, we celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary. It's hard to believe we've been married that long already. We thank the Lord for His work in our lives & for the blessings of married life. So much to be thankful for!

Today is Madagascar's Independence Day & celebration of 50 years of independence from colonial rule. Independence Day is by far the biggest holiday celebrated here (at least in the rural areas, which is mainly where all our experience has been). Yet, despite the grand celebrations planned, which give an aura of everything being "ok", the country is definitely anything but ordered & stable, with the political situation still hanging by a thread & continued aid cuts & sanctions by the rest of the world. The promised presidential elections (which have been postponed several times) are scheduled for November. Please continue to pray that many people would turn to the Lord during this time & place their hope in Him.

Please pray for wisdom & patience for us with our car situation. It's been difficult to know what we should do about it and the various trips Marc needs to make. It's been over two months since our accident & the insurance company only just got the police report stating that the driver of the tractor-trailer was indeed at fault. While we are thankful that at least the police report seems accurate (which had been a concern), it is very frustrating to play this waiting game & be without a car. I think we've confused many of you in our past emails, so I'll try to explain better here...

We rented a 4x4 with a driver to get back to Betroky from Toliara in May. Our car is NOT fixed (hasn't even been started on) & remains at the mechanic shop in Fianarantsoa (a days drive from here). Marc has spent countless hours on the phone with the police, the insurance & the garage and still we wait for answers as to what they plan to do about it. The quote the garage gave the insurance to fix our car is about double the value (before the accident) of our car. We were told it could be months before the insurance gets back to us with an answer to our claim, which is very discouraging. Even if they did agree to having the car fixed (which we don't see how they would go for that option), we're not sure the garage has the equipment to fix it properly. If they get the go ahead to fix the car, the garage estimated it would take them at least three months to get parts before they could start work on it and could give us no estimate on how long the actual fixing would take. At this point, we would like to replace our car when possible with something more reliable & with more space to take passengers. 

We have been blown away by the love & support so many of you have shown through your emails & generous giving. At last check, we had almost $16,000 in our vehicle project fund. THANK YOU!! Finding a good used vehicle is not an easy task here.  Please join with us in prayer as to what we should do. 4x4's in Madagascar are at least double the price as in the States and a good used one can cost more than $20,000. If you purchase a newer one it is much more than that. At this point we don't have the funds to buy anything yet, so we continue to wait & ask the Lord to lead us in how we should proceed. Thanks for joining with us!

Please be praying for Marc this week as he plans to leave tomorrow morning (Sunday) by taxibrousse to Fianarantsoa. It's been a bit unsettling as there have been several violent crimes again in & around Betroky this week. He will go on from there to Tana on Monday (another full day on taxibrousse). On Tuesday afternoon Clare (our short-termer) is due to arrive at the airport & we are very excited about her arrival! They will come by taxibrousse back to Fiana on Wednesday & then hope to take care of checking on the car/insurance Thursday before heading back to Betroky next weekend. Please pray for Clare's trip from Vermont- she has a long road ahead of her. Pray also for Marc's safety as he travels many long days in public transportation & that he may be able to make some progress with the car. Please remember me at home with Isaac & Maria as well- that the time will fly by! We continue to be sick with long-lasting colds/coughs and pray for better health in the months to come.

Marc continues to work out details for his future seminars & teaching. Things have been at a bit of a standstill this past month as it's rice harvest time here & everyone is in the fields. It looks like things will pick up in the next few months, as he looks at another trip into Andriry, visits to some villages west of Betroky, as well as holding some seminars here in town. Please keep praying for wisdom for him & clarity in communicating as he makes decisions. 

We have been working on a few projects at our house the past month so that we can have a more constant water supply (water cuts here are daily) and hot water as well (thanks to some supporters in Montana who gave money for us to purchase a solar water heating system). It was quite a feat to get the water tower built & now we're waiting on a plumber & some other workers to do the final work. Pray that we would find the right people to get the job finished soon. It seems like these kind of projects, which you think won't have to be a big deal, end up turning into mountains that take a lot more time, money & headaches than you counted on. We are very excited to get the system up & running soon & it will definitely be worth all the sweat & hard work I'm sure! 

We do enjoy hearing from so many of you. Our internet connection continues to be hit & miss for some reason, but please keep the mail coming! You are a real blessing & encouragement to us.

Lovingly, 

Stacy for us