4 September 2007

Dear Friends,

Greetings! We are still alive and well in chilly Madagascar. Robert and Frances start school next week. After school starts, I head off to Ranomafana to begin a project that will further develop the arboretum.

Elizabeth continues her work with AIDS prevention, safe drinking water, and community health work. (In a separate newsletter, she shares more about the health ministries of Church of Jesus Christ in Madagascar, or FJKM.) In short, life and work with the church are as busy and exciting as ever.

Update on the Environment Program

In August 2006, we brought over an orchard in our luggage from the United States. In total, 430 trees belonging to 30 species and 150 varieties arrived bare-rooted and went directly to quarantine. Educational Concerns for Hunger Organization (ECHO) from North Fort Myers, Florida, got them together and helped with paperwork. Although we lost some in quarantine due to transplanting stress, we now have a collection of trees including 10 avocado varieties, 14 mango varieties, 6 litchi varieties, one of the best commercial jackfruits from Malaysia, 17 banana varieties, 7 persimmon varieties, as well as muscadines, kiwis, and others.

Victor (left) grafted this apple tree in his own orchard at Andramasina after training in February 2007.

We are in the process of propagating a number of them and have successfully grafted 12 species in the nursery. Betsy Langford, a fruit specialist from ECHO, is now a PC(USA) volunteer here for a year helping with propagation, training, and nursery improvements. She is a major boost to the program. We plan to bring in more selected fruit trees from Florida in October 2007.

We are setting up a new FJKM tree nursery in Moramanga to propagate and distribute the new varieties. We held a training there on fruit propagation in July for church development workers from around the country.

A pilot extension project has been started at Andramasina with nine farmers. Each has received about 20 fruit trees along with training in orchard establishment and training and propagation techniques. We will be starting new extension work next month at two other sites. We look forward to getting even more of our new trees to farmers next year.

Robert Turk, 11, and friends at the Ranomafana Arboretum.

The biggest event for us this year was the opening of the Ranomafana Arboretum on March 16. The Minister of Environment cut the ribbon. The arboretum is an educational center highlighting native trees—over 165 species so far. Over 70 species are labeled with a paragraph of information in three languages. Our new challenge is not so much how to grow the trees as how to ensure that the arboretum is managed well. (It is owned by the local government and administered by a local management committee.) The arboretum is proving a popular field trip destination for school and church groups. Our next step is to put in a major demonstration orchard of fruit trees.

We have continued to plant native trees at schools and churches. The biggest planting was the landscaping of the new FJKM church in Antsirabe with 120 native tree species, a real celebration of creation.

Please continue to pray for the FJKM development department as it undergoes restructuring. I am thankful to have an excellent team of colleagues in the environment program.

The work we do is the fruit of your support.  Thank you very much for your prayers and financial assistance.

Mission Challenge ’07

An exciting event is about to unfold in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). It’s called Mission Challenge ’07. During October, 47 PC(USA) missionaries will be sharing the stories of their ministries in 143 presbyteries. That’s more than 80 percent of our presbyteries!

Hopefully there will be speakers in 700 churches that month to share the news that every day, in Christ’s name—and thanks to your faithful support—lives are being saved, wells are being dug, and Christ’s hope is being shared with people around the world.

Another part of Mission Challenge ’07 is an appeal to every church in the denomination to support Presbyterian missionaries like us. In mid-September, a letter will go to the pastors and clerks of session in all 10,884 churches in our denomination informing them of materials coming in early October.

During the first week of October, bulletin inserts will be sent to each church. The inserts include a call to action, inviting all to participate in PC(USA)’s mission by praying faithfully and giving generously. These are accompanied by a DVD featuring our new director, Hunter Farrell. It contains two brief videos that bring to life the wonderful and exciting ministries that PC(USA) is involved in around the world.

While there can’t be a missionary in every church this October, we hope that all churches will participate in Mission Challenge ’07 by choosing a Sunday to view the DVD and distribute the bulletin inserts.

Please encourage your church to participate in Mission Challenge ’07.

In Christ,

Dan

The 2007 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 327