Madagascar: The Final Day In Toliara

It's Ryan again.  Today was the last day of Downline's time in Toliara.  Tomorrow, Shad, Ari, Stephanie, Dr. Reardon, Brad, Brandon, Candice, Angela, Jake, and Mary Holland will start their long journey back to the United States.  I think they might be stopping to see lemurs on their way.  This will be my last blog update, so enjoy these final pictures.

First, Brad taught The Key That Hangs, and then Brandon and Candice taught about the importance of a Quiet Time or Devotional time, and gave the students some great advice that they can apply themselves and teach to a disciple.  They were well received teachings.  Then Shad closed everything with Luke 19.

The women students blessed us with a song they had learned.

And then we had a time to pray for and commission the students to close the conference.  They gave all the team members gifts, like the colorful lambas Ari and Candice are modeling so stylishly.

These are the second group of conference participants.  They were fantastic to teach and to learn from!

In the evening we went to the beach and got to watch the sunset and enjoy the last bit of time in Toliara.  Honestly, things have been so busy this week that this was one of the only times the team got to go into town and see things. 

Candice is sitting on a local canoe.

Girls like lifting their hands for pictures.

See.

Boys like jumping off sand dunes for pictures.

Like this.

Thank you downline for coming and spending the week with us!!!!!

Take Heart.  Sincerely, Ryan

Madagascar Day 5

Good morning from Tulear, Madagascar! It's a beautiful and already very warm day at 8:30am. We just finished breakfast and enjoyed stories from the one and only Dr. Jim Reardon:) Yesterday was an eventful day filled with the teachings of Ephesians. Our time here has been truly surreal. The Spirit is working in ways that only the Spirit can, and it's such a great comfort and blessing to experience this perfect joy and peace that can come from no where else. The men were able to convey to the class yesterday that discipleship is done through not only lecture but also discussion. They were able to model discipleship in the midst of a small group and reveal Truth to several individuals in a way they had not understood it before. Praise God. We are definitely facing some spiritual opposition here, so we ask for your prayers during these next few days. Please pray for our health and also our spiritual and mental well-being. Please also be praying for those who we have come to speak with, and also for our gracious hosts - Bishop Todd, Patsy and Ryan. The Malagasi people have humbled our American team in many ways. As Brandon put it, they are selfless in ways they don't even realize. Not even the children seem to put themselves first. My favorite example is this past Sunday at church. Eva, a little girl sitting between Brandon and myself, saw me dripping sweat and began to blow air on me. She continued to on and off throughout the entire two and a half hour service. It was a beautiful picture of servanthood, selflessness and childlike love. Needless to say, we are learning just as much from the people we have come to teach - even the smallest of ones...

Madagascar Day 4 (part 1)

This is just a quick update for the morning (our morning, your middle of the night). Y'all, this trip has been such a blessing! Yesterday, we worshiped at Bishop Todd and Reverend Patsy's church. What a joy to gather with brothers and sisters to praise the Creator and Author of life! Though we speak far from the same language, our God is the same yesterday and today and forever! In the afternoon, half of the team went to teach lessons on Ephesians to the men and women attending the conference, the other half of the team taught a group of local children, gathering in the church yard for games and a lesson on creation. Both groups returned to the hotel with story after story of God's grace and faithfulness shown in sweet ways through our time with the Malagasy people. We will write more later!

Madagascar Saturday Day 3??

Hello, my name is Ryan and I am that Downline guy who was already here in Madagascar when Shad, Brad, Brandon, Dr. Reardon, Jake, Angela, Ariyana, Stephanie, Candice, and Mary Holland came today.  They are really tired, so I'm updating the blog for them.

The team arrived here in Madagascar early this morning and in about an hour were already at the training center teaching all the church leaders who traveled to be a part of Downline's training.

After Shad taught the Great Commission, we had to take a long break because the church here had a huge Dedication Ceremony for one of its new buildings. 

 The ceremony took a few hours and included a fun feast that they killed a whole cow for!

After the feast, we still had time for a few more teachings.  Dr. Reardon Taught Vision and Strategy, and I got the privilege of Teaching the 10 How To's. 

 While that was going on, Mary Holland, Stephanie and Candice were teaching the local children about God's creation by making animal balloons!  I cannot describe how wonderful that was for the local children.  Honestly, the animal balloons might have been the most amazing thing they have ever experienced.

The first day was a whirlwind, and I imagine everyone who just arrived is fast asleep and probably won't remember much about today since they were all so tired from barely sleeping since Wednesday.  Despite that, they did a great job today, and we are so thrilled to have them here.

Be praying for our Ephesians Bible Study which begins tomorrow.  Pray for the translators, since one of them has not had much previous experience.  Also pray that the Downline team would continue to have energy like they did today, even when they have not had much rest.  

Madagascar 2012 - Days 1-2

Team Madagascar 2012 is off to a running and roaring start.  We got started on Wednesday, February 29^th with our first flight from Memphis to Charlotte and then flew from Charlotte through the night to Paris, France where we landed at 9:00 AM. Our flight from Paris to Antananarivo, Madagascar wasn’t until Friday so we took advantage of our time and the fact that we had the most European American on earth on our trip; Dr. Jim Reardon (AKA- Dr. Holy Tooth, Dr. J, Dr. Drano) Dr. J loves Europe almost as much as his love for Jesus, his beautiful wife Martha, and his family.  We got out of the airport, on the train, and headed into the heart of Paris.  Walking over ten miles with his running commentary which included incomplete history, a thick French accent, and a VERY BRISK PACE.  This 70 year old wore us out and would have probably gone another 10 miles after being energized by an opportunity to shop at his favorite tea shop where he picked up some “fabulous French breakfast tea for Martha and I”. 

Our team enjoyed some wonderful experiences including eating snails, standing atop the Arc de Triumph, and walking under the Eifel tower, touring the Notre Dame Cathedral, and walking by the Louvre.  For dinner, everyone tasted snails, even Stephanie Hill who describes herself as an unadventurous eater and required a blindfold and fed by force (Ariyanna). Mary Holland, also blindfolded the snail whole through tears! Dr. Reardon happens to still be wearing a remnant of his snail as is his dinner neighbor, Brad Crawford, due to Reardon’s lack of coordination and fatigue which lead to the disaster which nearly caused an international incident. The only team member that did not partake was Ari who cited an allergy to shellfish.  An investigation into whether or not snails are in the shellfish family continues. 

This morning started bright and early with train ride back to the airport.  A last second train switch almost saw the loss of my backpack which included my laptop and iPad had it not been for my life long friend Jake “the Snake” Tigert whose West Point training and instinct kicked in.  Jake reached back into the train which was just beginning to pull away and grabbed my bag and saved the trip.  I would probably still be running down the train tracks chasing the train had it not been for his presence of mind and cat like skills and reflexes!

The longer we are together the stronger the bond of this team grows! I knew from the beginning this was a special group that God had assembled based on the ministry needs that lay before us. As we sit in the Paris airport, awaiting our flight to Madagascar, I am grateful; grateful for brothers and sisters in Christ who desire to LIVE the gospel and reorder their lives around Jesus.  Brothers and Sisters who are filled with the joy of the spirit and desire to happily spend themselves for the benefit of others.  I am more confident than ever that our brothers and sisters of Madagascar are going to hear, see, and feel the presence of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and that our lives will never be the same after serving Him together.

Madagascar Update

Hello again!  It's me Ryan Brazile form over in Toliara, Madagascar!  I have been here about three months now, and as the weather continues to get hotter, there continue to be more and more exciting opportunities.  I just got back from another conference for the youth here in Southern Madagascar.  This time, the conference was on the opposite coast in Ft. Dauphin.  We had about forty people come and it was a very exciting week.  There are some strong young leaders at the church in Ft. Dauphin.

Me teaching the book of 1Tesaloniana 

Now I am back here in Toliara.  I have gotten teach a lot of English this last month, which I really enjoy, as it allows me to get to know many of the Malagasy.  I have also gotten to start discipling a couple people.  This is Johnson, a brilliant young guy from here who teaches the beginners English class here.  He is a very faithful and devoted follower of Christ, and I am so thankful to have the opportunity to disciple him.

This next week, I will be traveling to several small villages to help set up water collection tanks before the rainy season comes.  I am very excited about being able to go see the villages, as I hear the churches there, though small, are very zealous.

Sorry that I haven't updated the blog more recently.  I feel like I just tried to cram a lot of information into a tiny space.  Know that things are going well here.  You can pray for me, that I would continue to have joyful energy as it moves into the hot season here in Toliara.  It get REALLY hot here, and it can be a bit draining.  Pray that I would find joy in Christ, even when days are a bit hot and miserable.  We are doing the Lord's work, so really should have no reason to complain.  And finally pray that the church continues to grow with people who are passionate about making disciples.  There is a ton of work to be done here in Southern Madagascar, but that makes the harvest that much more exciting!

Madagascar: The First Month and a Half

Hello everyone!  It's me, Ryan Brazile, the former EL that Downline sent to Madagascar in August.  Sorry that I haven't updated this much.  I wanted to let you know that things are going very well, and more and more opportunities are opening for teaching and Discipleship here.  There are a couple young men who I have been watching, hoping to disciple them.  They are certainly faithful and available and I believe they will also be very teachable.

This first month and a half I have gotten many opportunities to travel around the south on evangelism trips, and teaching conferences.  In fact, I just returned from several days in a neighboring town, where we gathered the young men and women from this area for a teaching conference.  I had the privilege of teaching 1 Thessalonians, and thankfully, that went well enough that we also decided I would teach Bible Overview.  The believers here are still very young in their faith, and Bishop Todd and I believe disciplship is the key to raising up leaders in the church.

Please pray that:

• These new discipling relationship would prove fruitful.
• That I would continue to learn Malagasy. (Praise that I am already able to say more than I would have expected at this point!)
• That God would raise up young people, especially men as there are very few of them involved, who will be thirsty for the word and passionate about spreading it here in Toliara, Madagascar.

Teaching at the Youth Conference

The church where we were located

Nine Months in Mada

Hello! For those of you in the Downline world who do not know me, my name is Ryan Brazile, and in the 2010-2011 season of Downline, I was an Emerging Leader. This year, I have the exciting opportunity to have been sent out by Downline to aide Bishop Todd McGregor and his wife Patsy in their missionary efforts. Todd is the Anglican Bishop of Toliara, the hub of southern Madagascar, where I arrived four days ago.

Those of you who participated in Downline's past trips to Madagascar will be thrilled to know that their ministry is going very well, and as I write we are currently having a training conference for about 40 evangelists, who lead churches in villages around the south. That training conference is taking place at the new training center, which was a mere piece of barren land last time Downline had a group here in Madagascar.

I am very excited and humbled in view of the opportunities here in Madagascar, and both Todd and Patsy are very dedicated to discipleship and excited about the opportunity to partner with me. Right now, I am doing all I can to take in everything. As much as I want to "do something" Patsy gave me to very wise advise to start off not trying to do anything. Rather, she advised, be with the people and observe. Live with the people and see what God is doing. Trying to "do something" right off the plane is a great way to feel overwhelmed, especially in light all of the incredible needs here in Toliara, spiritually, and economically. Anyway, I have spent these past few days observing and trying to learn as much Malagasy as possible. I hope to keep all of you in the Downline world updated as the year goes on!

Madagascar Team Update

Hey everyone,

We are about to eat our last Malagash meal before heading to the airport to fly home. It's been an incredible trip thus far! (Beyond my expectation, and I've been accused of being an optimist!)

We were able to complete 4 full days of extensive discipleship training (6-8 hours per day) with everyone on the team taking part in the teaching. We trained 1 bishop, 2 presbyters (reverends), 10 evangelists, 5 evangelists in training (residents), 10 male lay leaders, and about 20 female lay leaders. The looks on their faces were priceless on so many occasions! They seemed to TOTALLY understand the mandate given in the Great Commission, and I honestly believe they were refreshed, encouraged, and equipped to go back to their villages and towns all over the island and MAKE DISCIPLES! It's going to be extremely exciting to see this unfold!!

We also gave them all 2 Bibles, one for them and one for the person they will identify as their primary Timothy over the next few days/weeks/months! We also purchased commentaries (the only one available in their language) for all of them and they were so excited to have a resource to aid them in their personal study, as most of them are basically in the bush with nothing more than an old Bible, if that. We will also be continuing to send Bishop Todd materials that he will translate into Malagash and he will distribute to them. There is much excitement about them coming next year to the conference with those they have been discipling, and we can continue to be an equipper for them long term.

I have met some men here who are simply unbelievable. These evangelists literally walk all over the countryside as pioneer evangelists and once people convert to Christ they build churches and act as itinerant preachers until a presbyter is raised up...unbelievable their commitment to our King! I have been extremely encouraged by their faithfulness.

One specifically is named Dacise. He had polio at birth and with no medication he is now crippled. he only has the use of one leg and he walks with a long cane to brace the other. He is an evangelist in training. He walks all over his province (about the size of
Germantown) with his cane to share the good news of the Gospel. he has a GIANT heart and is very intelligent. He doesn't have much on this Earth, but I can't wait to see his reward in heaven! Let's keep him in our prayers as he labors for Christ...

If you get this before Sunday night, please pray for our 4 flights, 2 of which are over 11 hours long. Very difficult journey. Pray for smooth and on-time flights. We love you guys and can't wait to return home and share more stories of the incredible work God has done in our lives as well as the people here! We'll have to have a video night soon!!

Praise God!
KV

PS - we have some pretty hilarious out-takes from the teaching time (here's a few to wet your appetite):
Lara - "Greetings from God"
Paul - "In the name of the Lord, i mean, the Father, the Son, and Jesus Christ"
Brad - "I was born...to a mother and a father..."
...more to come!!

Madagascar Team Update

KV here. We have a small window here of time (and internet service, which is sporadic) so I will try and do a brief update for you to pass on to the prayers and class.

First i must just say that God is so good! It never fails to amaze me when i have the privilege of going on short term missions the way Gos has gone before us...this is clearly the case here, and this has already been a powerful experience for all of us on the team (and God-willing, for the people here).

The Malagasy are the most genuine and friendly people i have ever met. it is their custom to honor their guest (they know the passage in Hebrews and treat us as if they are entertaining angels). it is an incredible kind of hospitality. they have nothing to give (from an earthly standpoint) but their hearts are full of love.

Todd and Patsy are true soldiers in the faith. They have been laboring in Africa (10 years in Madagascar and 6 in Kenya) for 16 years. Unbelievable. Todd has such a spirit of joy. They live in a tiny place in the slums of Tulear (southern city in Mada) and have such a joy about their work. Todd has a blast as he ministers to these people. he is full of love and wisdom, humility and purpose. It is a rare privilege to work alongside of him.

We arrived on Friday afternoon after 2 VERY long days of travel (incl 2 overnight flights)!! We were exhausted but immediately amazed by the beauty of the island and the unique culture (i have been all over mainland africa, middle East, europe, and central and south america and have never seen anything quite like it). it's like watching the Discovery Channel half the time. The peopl get around in pus-pus's (like these push carts where a guy literally is running on foot and dragging the cart of people like a chariot.) there are Zebu's (like oxen), goats, chickens, and sheep all over the roads. The people are extremely "chill". Sparks is right at home with his people here!!! They must have been able to sense his Madagascarean demeanor for when we did team introduction at the conference, he got an ovation (we still have no idea why!).

On Saturday we began the conference training. there are about 30 pastors, evangelists, and lay leaders who we are training to reproduce their faith into other leaders to multiply all over the island and around the globe. they are ALREADY starting to get it though we've only trained for one half day (3 sessions). KV, Shad, and Paul Ellis taught the first morning. KV did an intro to disciple-making according to the model set forth by Christ. Shad did "Ambassadors" out of II Cor.5 and Paul did the Great Commission. Some of the students are VERY sharp and are catching on quick. We did a Q and A at the end of the day and we were asked some of the toughest questions of the faith (Where's Josh Mcdowell when you need him?) ex: How do you reconcile John 3:5 with Romans 10:9 in order to understand salvation? How do you reconcile Acts 16 with "you and your family will be saved" when you say every man must receive Christ for himself? Needless to say, we must be on our toes here (pray for wisdom and discernment).

Saturday afternoon we went out to the land in the country that Todd and Patsy and the Anglican church are purchasing here to begin a new church and training center. beautiful place. we walked the entire 5 acres with 50 of the church members and sang all the way. at each corner we prayed and blessed the land and prayed for the old spirits to be removed. we prayed that place would be one that would flow with the living water of Christ as we sprinkled water over it.

last night we ate a malagasy meal (chicken, Zebu, duck with different spices) with Todd and Patsy and went around and shared how Christ had ministered to us that day. It felt like the "last night" of most trips as we had already seen and learned and been blessed so deeply, and yet it was only the end of day 1. how i wish all the guys in class could be here and experience the tangioble presence of God in this place and these people. what a privilege it is to be a blessing with the knowledge we've been giving. i have the secure feeling that these men and women will be stewards of what we are giving them in the truths of disciple-making.

This morning (Sunday) we split and went to 2 churches. Paul preached at one and KV at the other. We taught on Matt.22:37-39 about BEING disciples and what that means before we are ready to BUILD DISCIPLES according to the Great Commission. The services were 2 1/2 hours of singing, praising, praying, preaching, and more singing. they LOVE to sing!! Rosanne, Brad, Wad, and Uno Zondo taught the people in our church "Hallelu-Hallelu-Hallelu-Hallelujah...Praise ye the Lord!" they went NUTS!! at the other church, lara veto shared her testimony (brad did at our church) and Meredith, Zach, Paul, and Shad went to worship there. Church was a true celebration of the presence of Christ in our lives. He is truly their HOPE in this world. last night, Richard and Brad both shared how blown away they were that these people have almost nothing (9th poorest country in the world, and poorest place in this country) and yet are so full of joy and sing all the day long!

couple tidbits:
-Brad is the great Madagascarean spider-cricket killer. KV challenged him to "conquer his fears" last night as they were forced to face down this deadly critter. Sparks responded "why don't you conquer your fears man?" but eventually came through like a man - Bryson would have been proud.
-Shad reports that Uno snores so loudly he wakes himself up every hour on the hour. Shad also says Uno claims the covers for Spain every night and utters random trains of thought in Spanish throughout the night.
-Zach is continually heard saying, "I can't believe what I'm seeing. This is awesome!"
-Wade is an incredible servant to the team.
-We pack 60 Maladasy and our team in a bus that holds 20 and sing at the top of our lungs though we don't know the words. They are no respecter of personal space here.
-We feel extremely blessed. this is AWESOME!!!

Pray for the training (which will be predominantly M-W) that is about to really kick-off. Pray for their understanding and our clarity. Pray we are continually a blessing in love, word, and deed to these people, and esp Todd and Patsy. Pray God would continue to teach our team and mold us into His image for a lifetime of serving Him