July 27, 2006

Dear Friends,

Greetings! Well, hard to believe it, but a year has come and gone. We are preparing for our return to Madagascar on August 5, 2006. We will be going for a 3-year term.

It has been a wonderful and full year. We have been blessed with good visits with friends and family. Robert and Frances both had very good school years—a marvelous answer to prayer.

We have enjoyed visiting with many of you as we traveled to supporting churches. Thank you so much for welcoming us and caring for the people of Madagascar. The depth of commitment to mission that we witnessed in so many churches was a source of strength and renewal for us. We have been especially moved by the many children in Sunday School classes who have given so faithfully.

We appreciated the many special ways that different congregations found to symbolize and express their commitment to mission: ‘Water for Madagascar’ drinking water, Madagascar place mats, Malagasy dishes complete with Malagasy names, a Malagasy child’s drawing of a tree put on the front of a church bulletin, and knitted dolls sold to raise money for mosquito nets—to name just a few. Other creative ways to do mission included a reference librarian helping get technical articles and Missionary Computer Fellowship donating laptop computers and providing computer expertise. Through your efforts enough money has been raised to put in at least 25 wells. The FJKM water team is set to begin work on wells at Ambondromamy in September 2006. ECHO in North Fort Myers, Florida has assembled an excellent collection of grafted tropical fruit trees to be taken back with us to Madagascar, including some of the world’s best carambola, mango, avocado, jackfruit, sapodilla, and white sapote varieties.

We regret that we have been unable to visit all of you who support us so faithfully with prayers and contributions. Thank you for your continued support. Please know that everyone’s support this year will help the FJKM bring safe drinking water and mosquito nets to needy communities, expand its fruit tree program to more rural farmers, help with reforestation and environmental education, and help the FJKM church fight the spread of HIV/AIDS. Thank you also to those of you who have given to other FJKM ministries. We will have more to share when we get back and see what has been happening. We were pleasantly surprised to receive the William Gibson Lifetime Achievement award from Presbyterians for Restoring Creation at the 217th General Assembly. This award reflects the shared vision and commitment of both the FJKM and PC(USA) to improve people’s health and preserve God’s creation in Madagascar. It is our joy to be able to partner alongside the FJKM and PC(USA) in these wonderful ministries.

We look forward to seeing our friends in Madagascar, getting our children set up for school, checking up on the various programs that we are involved with, and launching into our new term of partnership with the FJKM. Our address in Madagascar will remain the same: c/o FJKM, B.P. 623, Antananarivo 101, Madagascar. Please note our new email address.

Requests

Please pray for the FJKM (PC(USA)’s partner church) as it seeks to minister in God’s word to the people of Madagascar through evangelism, discipleship, and outreach ministries.

Please pray for us for safety in travel; the children as they re-adjust to French and Malagasy, a new school, and changes that occurred while they were gone; a clear calling of what God wants us to do this term; to depend on God to help us find the balance between the needs of the many and our family.

Please pray for continued peace and positive change in Madagascar and a calm and just presidential election this December.

May we all remember that everything we have comes from God. First and foremost is His unshakeable love that nothing can destroy—“neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our God.” (Romans 8:35-39). In this assurance, let us realize that we “can do all things through Christ who strengthens us” (Philippians 4:13).

In His Peace,

Dan & Elizabeth Turk

The 2006 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 343