December 2001

Dear Friends,

Sambatra Krisimasy! Merry Christmas!

By the time you receive this we will be in the U.S. for a brief visit with family. Elizabeth’s father, Bill Warlick, was diagnosed with prostate cancer in late November, shortly after returning to the U.S. after over 20 years of service in the mission field. We will be staying mostly at Elizabeth’s parent’s house (1221 Falcon Dr., Orlando FL 32803, dadabe@msn.com), leaving from there to return to Madagascar on 6 January.

As we write this in early December, central Madagascar is once again enveloped in a thick haze of smoke from the burning of grasslands and forests. The haze reminds us of one of the major challenges the church here faces—how to take care of God’s creation while looking after the needs of the country’s mostly poor people. Madagascar is justly famous for the richness of God’s creation here—all of Madagascar’s lemurs and tenrecs, and the majority of its native plants, freshwater fish, reptiles, and frogs occur only in Madagascar. Unfortunately the native forest habitat of these animals and plants is fast disappearing, cut down for fuelwood or slashed and burned to grow crops.

We would like to highlight an exciting project coordinated by the Church of Jesus Christ in Madagascar (FJKM) environment program. FJKM, PC(USA)’s partner church, is perhaps unique among churches in having an environment program nestled within its development department. In 2001 FJKM expanded its environmental education activities to reach over 100 schools. Most of the activities are funded by PC(USA), including alternative Christmas contributions towards "Native Trees and Fruit Trees for Madagascar" (ECO 047980).

Fifty-five of the participating schools are in mid-western Madagascar, near the town of Tsiroanomandidy. Mid-western Madagascar is a windswept land of grassy hills scarred by eroded gullies, where dust mingles with fear of cattle rustlers. Thought to have once been covered with trees, the landscape is now almost treeless, with native forests reduced to isolated fragments hidden behind far-off hills. Yet native trees continue to provide much of the fuelwood used to cook meals.

The three-year environmental education project in the Tsiroanomandidy area includes training for teachers and parents, establishing tree nurseries, planting native trees and fruit trees on school grounds, digging wells, and helping to refurbish school buildings. To help set up the project, I (Dan) did two week-long trips to Tsiroanomandidy, going from school to school to speak with parents and teachers. On these trips I was accompanied by representatives of FJKM’s development unit in Tsiroanomandidy, the National Environmental Education Center, and the local school district.

I was impressed with the high degree of parental involvement at the schools. Parents provide salaries for about half of the teachers, paid partially in money and partially in rice. Parents also build and repair school buildings. My hat goes off to the teachers: most have classes of about 50 students, minimal materials, no electricity or running water either at home or school, receive salaries of less than two dollars a day, and yet work diligently to educate their students to the best of their abilities.

The Tsiroanomandidy environmental education project is off to a good start. I feel particularly good about:

• Good collaborations with both the Tsiroanomandidy school district and with the National Environmental Education Center.
• A high degree of parental participation in the schools and with the project.
• A highly competent and motivated local FJKM development team.

Prayer concerns

• for Elizabeth’s father’s recovery from cancer
• for God’s guidance in planning environmental programs for 2002
• for the future of Madagascar following presidential elections on December 16
• for God’s guidance in planning and implementing the FJKM AIDS program
• thanksgiving for a successful AIDS Day event

Peace in Christ,

Dan & Elizabeth Turk

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