15 November 2008

Dear Friends,

Greetings from Madagascar.

We returned from two months in the United States last August. Our time there was good family time: we went to my sister’s wedding in California, driving there and back from Georgia with my parents and brother Luke and his family. We were also able to do some mission interpretation at supporting churches, particularly in Florida. We look forward to getting to other churches when we are next in the United States for interpretation assignment.

The children have switched to the American School of Antananarivo where the class sizes are larger (Frances had just two other students in her class last year). They are making new friends and rising to their new challenges. Elizabeth continues to help the FJKM AIDS committee and the community health program. She will write about her work in a separate newsletter.

The fruit tree program is gaining momentum. The church has an exciting vision to help low-income farmers grow good fruit varieties to improve their families’ nutrition and income. The new nursery started last year at Moramanga is moving along at a fast pace. Most of the infrastructure improvements are done, including a wall around the nursery and a well with water tower. Propagation is going full steam. The nursery workers there have grafted many kinds of fruit trees not commonly grafted in Madagascar such as avocados, starfruit, jackfruit, Indian jujube, and Annona squamosa, as well as good varieties of peaches, nectarines, persimmons, and citrus. We have delayed opening the nursery to the public so as to supply the church’s needs for extension work.

Training at the Moramanga Tree Nursery, October 2008.

The fruit program recently invited five of our colleagues in the FJKM Development Department to visit the Moramanga nursery, the orchard planted last year at Isoavina, and the central nursery at Ivato. They came away very encouraged about the potential. Bera, the head of the development department unit at Ampary, in particular wants to capitalize on the potential of his area for producing avocados. It was a good reminder of how important it is to invest in people.

Robert Turk and Betsy Langford helping Dan get trees out of quarantine, October 2008.

The biggest addition to the Ranomafana Arboretum was a demonstration orchard of over 150 varieties planted in early 2008. The next big step will be to set up a nursery there. We have found land along the main road but we still must purchase it.

This November we will establish a new nursery in western Madagascar at Ambondromamy on the road to Mahajanga. Betsy Langford, PC(USA) volunteer and fruit specialist, will move there to get it going. It will focus on mangos with other fruits suitable for the drier west such as Indian jujube. The nursery will be at the site of the FJKM dispensary where the PC(USA) recently helped put in a well. A major objective is to propagate by grafting the 22 varieties of mangos that we have from Florida. Betsy will also begin evaluating local mango varieties.  We have high hopes that the new nursery will help to greatly improve the quality and quantity of mangos grown in Madagascar.

The church’s extension activities are continuing. In addition to ongoing work at Andramasina, Ampary, and Andasibe, we recently began work about 40 kilometers south of Ambositra at a place where people have grown plums for years. We started work there this October by planting small orchards at each of seven schools. Four representatives of each school will receive training in how to plant and take care of the school’s trees. In 2009, we plan to start a more general fruit extension program involving more local farmers.

We were able to get out of quarantine the trees that we recently brought from the United States. This time we appear to have had success with mangos (25 of 27 living) and jackfruit (4 of 4). We also got in some good varieties of olives, star apples, plums, and peaches in addition to several species not grown here previously as far as we know such as marang, pulasan, imbe, and abiu.

We continue to be blessed here in many ways. Over 250 small seedlings of Tahina spectabilis (google it!) are now in the nursery.  It is a large palm that is one of the most amazing botanical discoveries so far this century. I look forward to planting them in public places to help educate people about the wonders of creation.

Prayer concerns

• For the FJKM Development Department. We have a new director. Please pray that Tse may have wisdom.
• For the Malagasy people as they head into the hardship period amid rising rice prices and the wider worldwide economic crisis.
• For continued health and safety as we live and travel in Madagascar.

Peace in Christ,

The 2008 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 31