Dear Friends,

Greetings from Madagascar! This letter comes to you from the very wet, flooded, big island off the east African coast—our weather has even made the CNN news. It has been raining heavily pretty much every day since Christmas, destroying rice fields and other produce that were close to harvest. While we have been spared a direct hit from a cyclone so far this season, the weather systems that surround a cyclone somewhere else in the Indian Ocean always seem to dump a lot of rain here. This rainy season is more wet than most; many, many roads, bridges, and railroads are out. One example: between here and the capital, the main north-south road has suffered a break of around 500 yards, which won’t be fixed soon. This situation will do nothing for decreasing the cost of foodstuffs or the daily struggle for most Malagasy people.

A word of introduction

For those receiving this news for the first time: we are Mark Rich and Cynthia Holder Rich, professors at the Lutheran Graduate Seminary of the Malagasy Lutheran Church, partner to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and Amboniavaratra Theological College-FJKM (Church of Jesus Christ in Madagascar), partner to the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). We have served in Madagascar for three years. Mark, ordained in the ELCA, teaches New Testament; Cynthia, ordained in the PC(USA), teaches ministry courses at both schools and English at Amboniavaratra.

We are working to finish up the first semester well and get ready for the second. Our students at both schools are working hard, too. Here’s an update on current work and projects.

Family center construction funded

The Lutheran Graduate Seminary has received funding from ELCA for the first phase of a three-phase construction project for our new Family Center. The Women’s Committee is very excited and gratified about this news. The Family Center project grew out of the work of the Women’s Committee, which seeks to strengthen women and families in the seminary community, the Fianarantsoa community, and within the Malagasy Lutheran Church. When all three buildings are complete, the center will house classrooms, space for income-producing projects like Maky Madagascar, a large kitchen for cooking and nutrition classes, meeting rooms for use by seminary and community groups, offices, and a residence for the future director of the Center and her family. It will also have guest rooms for the seminary that will double as "safe house" space when needed for abuse victims within our community. This first phase will house the kitchen, a large meeting/classroom, storage spaces, and public restrooms. The Committee has applied to the Lutheran World Federation for the funding of the second phase, which will house the offices, another large meeting/classroom, and more storage. Included in the plans are training and practical experience in pastoral care and counselling for students, and counselling services available to the seminary and wider communities.

The Women’s Committee was also pleased to sponsor a seminary gathering for all students, staff and spouses in January. The topic was the education of children. A really fascinating discussion ensued about traditional Malagasy ways of raising children, Christian ways, and comparisons/contrasts between the two. We learned a lot. These gatherings, all dealing with family-strengthening issues, have been very well received and attended; another is planned for March.

Malagasy family law curriculum

Together with the Provincial Appellate Court in Fianarantsoa, the University of Andrainjato Law School, and two theological education institutions in town, the Women’s Committee is working on developing a two-pronged curriculum on Malagasy family law. The first prong is to be for Malagasy judges, lawyers, and state and local police; the second is for women in churches and villages.

This project grew out of the Committee’s understanding that while there are good, helpful laws in the Malagasy law code that affect women and families (i.e. laws concerning inheritance, children, divorce, child custody, and domestic violence), the law is rarely enforced. Consequently, there is often no justice for women and families in Madagascar. The sponsoring groups are applying to the U.S. embassy in the capital for funding for this project. If funded, the project components would include: (1) a conference for legal and law enforcement professionals at the law school (co-sponsored by the SALT) (2) a conference for area Christian leaders and theological students on the Christian Church’s response to family violence (co-sponsored by the three seminaries in town—Lutheran, Reformed and Roman Catholic) and (3) printed curriculum resources for women in villages and churches, for the legal and law enforcement community, and for training handbooks for use by those teaching the two curricula. We plan to make first use of the women’s curriculum with our student wives program, and train graduating student wives in how to teach the program where they serve after graduation. Stay tuned for further developments in this project.

English, English, we teach English

Our English teaching time is on the increase. Cynthia’s time teaching English at Amboniavaratra Theological College-FJKM has increased by taking on time each week with teachers there, emphasizing English conversation. Mark has taken on partial responsibility for leading a weekly Bible study in English for students at the University of Andrainjato. And we’re pleased to have been able to begin in January to offer English videos night once a month for the seminary. A new TV and VCR were given by a French Lutheran church, enabling us to offer leisure-time activities for the student community coupled with English learning. Our first night attracted over 100 people. We’re already planning for the second one, to be held in late February.

Preaching, preaching, we love preaching

Now that our Malagasy has developed from slow-and-painful to less slow and less painful, we have begun to get pretty regular invitations to preach and lead worship. Cynthia led worship for Amboniavaratra on festival occasions twice in the last months and preached the Reformed service for an ecumenical congregation in the area. Mark will lead worship in February at that same congregation, using the Lutheran worship style. Both Mark and Cynthia will preach in the coming months at local Lutheran congregations as well. This is a growing part of our ministry here.

In addition, we were very pleased to have the opportunity to both preach and lead worship at the Lutheran Mission Annual Meeting over the Christmas holidays, where we were able to preach in English. We were gratified to see that we remembered how!

Maky Madagascar—now making chameleons

Maky Madagascar, an income-producing project for student families at the Lutheran Seminary, has sold close to 1000 stuffed lemur toys to date, including a number of big orders to U.S. churches and a sale of over 70 toys in December at the American School of Antananarivo. The project committee decided it was time to branch out.

Now, the project is also offering stuffed chameleon toys! The price for each toy is $6.00. We’re hoping people want to buy island lizards as much as they’re taken by the island primates. While lemurs are only found in Madagascar, about half the world’s chameleons are only found here, including the world’s largest and smallest. Chameleons are a common sight on the island—we have a lot of them in our backyard, and you often see them crossing streets in town.

Home leave 2001

After 3½ years, we will be taking our first home leave this fall. We will be available for speaking and interpretation dates from September through November, when we will be based in Chicago, serving as missionaries-in-residence at LSTC and McCormick Seminaries. We have a

lot of churches that we will try to visit, and we hope to send out a tentative schedule to sponsoring congregations this month. As a number of the congregations are in close proximity to one another, we will be working to put together a schedule that reaches the most congregations while making the best use of time and resources. A tentative cost for each visit will also be included when we send out the schedule. If your church and another church would like to combine your visits (and we bless you in advance for that!), please let us know those planned dates as well. Mission festivals that are co-sponsored by two or more sponsoring congregations will receive first priority, as we seek to put together a schedule that serves the interpretation needs of the most congregations possible in the time.

Please note

We’re also in need of a car for use during our home leave. If you know someone who has a car that is available for use, let us know. We really enjoy sharing about Madagascar and Protestant mission here! We do so look forward to putting some names with faces after a long and fulfilling first term.

Family news

Our three children have all had birthdays since we last wrote. Joseph, 9, Paul, 6, and Ella, 4, are all proud of their growth. (We share this pride with them!) The kids are all doing well in school and enjoying life. We had a wonderful time at Fort Dauphin on the southern tip of the island at the mission’s Annual Meeting at Christmastime. Cynthia developed a children’s program in which all three of our kids participated with six other kids. The mission hired an experienced teacher from the American School to lead the program, and it really went well. It was great for our three to have the opportunity for Bible school with other children. They will attend school in Chicago this fall, and all three are very curious as to what that will be like.

Thanks so much to all the churches and friends who remembered us at Christmas and our anniversary with gifts, cards (e-mail or posted), and other remembrances. We so appreciate your kindness.

Thanks also to all churches and friends who have remembered our projects with special gifts. In recent months, we have received funds to continue the Lutheran seminary food bank; to buy school supplies for area children; and to start a nutritional enhancement program for children of students. If you are looking for ways to help above and beyond your sponsorship commitment, or if you as an individual or group want to make a special gift, whether or not you are part of a sponsoring congregation, contact PC(USA) Worldwide Ministries or ELCA Division for Global Mission—or drop us a line.

Prayer requests

• For the students and staff of Amboniavaratra Theological College-FJKM and the Lutheran Graduate Seminary
• For the construction of the new Family Center, that it may go smoothly and serve well
• For the people of Madagascar, battered again by heavy rains and lost crops
• For our family, as we look toward the transitions of coming home for leave and returning again to our work here.

With the Presbyterian Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, we encourage special prayers for the people of Madagascar on February 10!

As always, heartfelt thanks go to all those who support us in prayer, with funds, and with other material support. We couldn’t do it without you. We are blessed to have so many co-workers in the mission of Christ’s church.

In His Peace,

Cynthia Holder Rich and Mark Rich

The 2001 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 42