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2. M A D A G A S C A R :
VISITORS' HELPING HANDS TURN VILLAGERS FROM THE PAST...
ANCESTRAL WORSHIPPERS IN a village of outcasts instituted a new annual celebration after the love-in-action of a team of visiting missionaries opened their hearts to the gospel.
The people of Impooza announced that they would mark the anniversary of the day they decided en masse to follow Christ, following a month-long involvement with a group from the Anastasis, flagship of the Mercy Ships medical missionary fleet.
The new celebration marks a dramatic change for the community, which traditionally shows respect for deceased family members through the weekly "turning of the bones" - when a corpse would be disinterred and paraded around.
On learning that the 120-strong rural group was considered to be "the poorest of the poor" and largely shunned by surrounding villages, the Mercy Ships team decided to go and show that they had not been forgotten by God, by offering practical help.
Four mornings each week they trekked out to the small settlement to help clean and disinfect the homes, and treat cases of scabies. Other worked alongside locals in their fields, and arranged for a well to be dug to provide Impooza with its own water source.
At first some of the villagers were suspicious of the outsiders' help, "because they thought we were coming in to take over...they couldn't believe that we would be there just because we wanted to help", said Shane Perry, a member of the team.
But as time passed, they warmed to the visitors - who gave up their free days to return to Impooza, and later arranged a special banquet for their last day in the village. After the meal, the Mercy Ships team presented the gospel through drama and personal testimonies - seeing the entire village follow their chief in responding to the message.
"I think they saw that we were committed, not only to helping them but to loving them. Initially some of them thought that we were there to take advantage of them. It paid off to keep persevering," said Perry.
Before the villagers said good-bye to their new friends - who had to leave as the Anastasis departed at the end of her three-month outreach - they said that they planned to build a church, and celebrate September 10 each year. Members of a church in a nearby village agreed to visit Impooza to help the new Christians.
Mercy Ships was founded in 1978 as the maritime division of Youth With A Mission.
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