It’s the afternoon of December 20th.  Christmas is 5 days away…. so technically 4 more days until Christmas. Have I done any shopping?  No. Have I sung any familiar Christmas hymns in church?  No.  Have I done any holiday baking?  No.  Have I seen any Christmas lights glittering the neighborhoods and lighted trees, dotting the streets?  Sadly, no.  The truth is, it’s haarrrrrddddddd to get into the Christmas spirit here....

Tuesday is market day in our house.  There’s nothing really special about why Tuesday is the market day other than the largest deliveries of fresh produce arrive on Tuesday and Friday mornings at the market that I shop at.  Of course, when I say “market”, I don’t mean the clean, nicely manicured, air conditioned market with music overhead, lots of lights and a shopping cart to tote all our soon-to-be purchases in.  I...

I’m not sure of the number of traditional midwives here in Madagascar but I know there’s a good number of them.  These women have no formal training but rather their knowledge has been passed down from older generations.  Dadan’i Sisy, pictured here with her youngest grandson, Jedi in 2002, was a traditional midwife in Mahabana for several years.  She has since moved to our city of Mahajanga where she cares for Jedi and his...

This is a guest post from Tara Livesay.  Tara is a gifted writer, a fellow worker and soon-to-be midwife doing what we’re getting ready to do in terms of providing maternity care to some of the “least of these”.   Tara and her family live and work in Haiti with Heartline Ministries.  You can read more of Tara’s blogs here.         O Holy Night Every direction you turn, images of Christmas are evident....

You may have read about our doozy of a Thanksgiving last week… if not, my last post will give you the back story. I was sick.  Sick as a dog.  5 full days of raging fever, intense body aches, and extreme fatigue… and that’s all.  No respiratory symptoms, no GI symptoms, no rash.  In fact, this bout of illness put the bout of Malaria I had in 2001 to shame.  Or maybe time has faded my recollection of the intensity of malaria....

Celebrating major American holidays and living in Madagascar somehow just don’t go together very well… or maybe we just haven’t found our groove with them just yet.  In fact, the last 4 holidays we’ve celebrated in Madagascar have been doozies… starting with Christmas, then New Year’s, Halloween and most recently, Thanksgiving.  Some more have been doozier than others. Christmas of 2011 was bad, real bad....

Not necessarily a fun topic to think about or address but it’s a killer (quite literally) to live with day in and day out, everyday of one’s life.  Poverty and Injustice.  They happen all around us.  Sometimes we’re aware of them and often times, unintentionally, we’re completely oblivious to the realities that surround the people we live amongst. Last week I was told about two tragic stories that reflect this poverty...

You read that right… Jamie and I had our 10-year vodiondry anniversary November 2.  Vodiondry in Malagasy is literally translated as sheep’s butt, so yes, in fact we did celebrate our 10th sheep’s butt anniversary!  Or in other terms, we celebrated our 10-year anniversary of when we got married Malagasy-style.  The name for this Malagasy wedding ceremony between the families… you guessed it… sheep’s butt or...

Many of you have heard about Mahabana over the last 13 years. Mahabana is an incredibly special place to us for many reasons… the people, the relationships, the simplicity of life, the fishing, the history, the ways God has worked, the ways He has transformed lives there, the ways He has allowed us to witness His hand at work.  You can read about the history of Mahabana here and the transformation that has occurred in Mahabana here. The...

If you’ve got 6 minutes and want to see an absolutely spectacular movie trailer about the real deal Madagascar– no cartoon animals here, you really must check out this video.  The full-length movie is coming soon. Here’s a little blurb from their website, “WITH LOVE FROM MADAGASCAR is an eco-adventure documentary about two Europeans traveling through Madagascar trying to find out if there is still a way to save the...

Do you have know those people that you totally look up to?  Those that are doing awesome things?  Doing awesome things as they allow God to use their giftings and their passions?  And while at the same time, making a Kingdom impact as well as an impact on the lives of others… the lives of people who are born into extreme poverty and will very likely live their entire lives in poverty?  Do you know what I’m talking about?  Do you...

The other day I wrote the post, Part of the Solution to Poverty… part 1.  If you haven’t read it yet, check it out as it’s a reflection of my thoughts and emotions.  This post below is NOT written by me… oh, how I wish I had the writing talents of Ann Voskamp.  Incredible.  This online journal of hers was shared with me by a dear friend about 2 weeks after all my reflections while in yoga class.  It’s long....

“Part of the solution to poverty is doing whatever it takes to get your heart to stay with the poor.”  ~Ann Voskamp Back in July when we were still in the States I had all these thoughts swarming around in my head.  Thoughts of extreme poverty and extreme wealth.  Of injustice and justice, of ignorance and knowledge, of faith and action. We had just come from 2 impoverished countries (Madagascar and the Philippines) and then landed...

I have so many blog posts swirling around in my head that I may start to get dizzy.  I’m always inspired to write when I’m here but don’t always get the time to do so.  I’ve got some fun things to share, some stories to share, some people to introduce you to, and unfortunately  some sad things to share about life and so many of the injustices around us. This time though I’m going to share with you about the...

We landed back in Madagascar just about 3 weeks ago.  Time goes fast. The first few days back hit me hard.  Not like being rushed and tackled by a 300-pound 6.5-foot linebacker with a grudge…. but more innocently– like being rushed and tackled by our giggling two-year old.   Here’s a few of the things that hit me: …back to crazy driving– dodging people, cars, rickshaws, chickens, ox-carts, cows and...

I last wrote about our ten, make it eleven, 50-pound checked bags that we toted across the world to Madagascar from Santa Barbara.  You may be asking yourself, what in the world do you pack that takes up 550 pounds??  Well, I’m glad you asked. For starters, there’s always the clothes.  Clothes here take a big time beating.  Massive stains, holes from moths, stretching due to line drying and the persistent tint of the red dirt of...

The days leading up to our departure from Santa Barbara were a little hectic…. an all-day softball tournament, 3 church services, and a wedding…oh my.  And that was just the 3 days before we left. In the 2 weeks between my midwifery licensure exam and our departure, I was the faithful and persistent shopper whereas Jamie was the faithful and persistent packer… I’ll take my role anyday over his.  Though I must admit, I...

That’s right… I passed my NARM midwifery board exams!  How ’bout a little “woohoo!” with me!?!  I’m absolutely thrilled and so incredibly relieved!  To be quite honest, in the last two weeks since my test, I haven’t spent too much time thinking about my results.  I think there was just too many other things to accomplish.  The morning after the exam when I returned from Sacramento, we hit full-board the...

The last 3 years of my life have been forever shifted.  It all started one day when I was vacuuming our house…. which really is a miracle in itself because I loathe vacuuming.  It’s one of the jobs I leave for my incredibly awesome husband.  Fortunately, in Madagascar we don’t have carpet so Jamie gets out of vacuuming but we do have tile floors and lots of dirt and mud and grass and bugs, pick your poison I guess.  Alas, I digress. Like I was...

Yesterday I did something that I’ve only done one other time in my life as a parent for the last 6+ years… I left all my kids and husband and boarded an airplane and flew to another state.  The last time this occurred I went to a Midwifery Volunteerism in Developing Countries seminar in Taos, NM.  This time, I’m in Boise, Idaho for a 6-day intensive midwifery study retreat just prior to my all-encompassing-I-really-pray-I-pass...

Ok, so I think I just totally made up that word…. the busies but nonetheless, that’s what life is these days. Full of the busies, with studying for my midwifery board exams, writing thank you notes, partnership development, purchasing plane tickets, organizing events, developing a website, teaching our kids to read, being a mom and a wife and daughter and trying to find some sanity in it all with exercise and quiet time and...

Our Red Island Restoration website is getting a much needed new look…. thanks to Apple giving MobileME the boot which forces us to switch things up a bit. I can’t tell you when it’s gonna be done, hopefully soon, so keep checking back to this same address for what we hope will be a new and improved website!

We just spent a week at Redwood Christian Park in the Santa Cruz Mountains. We were the missionary speakers for their June Family Camp which entailed leading/teaching 4-one hour seminars, giving 3-five minute “mission moments”, and sharing about the work in Madagascar for an hour to the roughly 300 folks in attendance. It was awesome! The worship was awesome, the speakers were awesome, the fellowship was awesome! Awesome, awesome, AWESOME! I...

Though Madagascar often lacks a lot of the medical means to help fight against death, the people of Madagascar certainly know how to be with their deceased.  Traditionally speaking, the Malagasy actually worship their ancestors… but this isn’t what I’m talking about.  What I am talking about is Malagasy seem to know how to mourn the loss of a loved one. In March 2011, just 3 months after we arrived in Madagascar, Jamie’s Malagasy...

We’re getting ready for a whirl-wind week. This afternoon we leave with the 3 kids in tow to drive north to Monterey where we’ll be presenting and preaching in both services at First Baptist Church of Monterey. This is an awesome church that has partnered with Jamie’s folks and now us in Madagascar for over 30 years! From there, we continue north to the Santa Cruz Mountains to Redwood Christian Park for their June Family Camp. We’re privileged...

Three days ago we spoke with our good friend and ministry partner, Josy, in Madagascar. He called to tell us that his older sister Maman’i Petana had just passed away. You may remember that I shared about Maman’i Petana in my last blog here. Cancer had wreaked havoc on her body and most likely, had she been somewhere else in the world in a developed country, she would’ve at worst, lived longer and at best, been cured. But sadly, she was in...

I know… not such a nice title nor subject. Nonetheless death in Madagascar is a huge reality. In one of the poorest countries of the world with little resources and most living in poverty, death is too common. Death from preventable and treatable diseases and conditions. Death that would have never happened had the person been living in a place of opportunity and quality medical care, a place like America. The last three weeks we’ve been...

[singlepic id=71 w=320 h=240 float=center] From the remote fishing village of Mahabana in Madagascar to the sprawling park of Disneyland… this is our life in two worlds.     We’ve been back in the States for 3 weeks now.  It’s been a period of adjustment as we transition from our lives in Madagascar and the Philippines to our life here in Santa Barbara.  On many levels it’s been a fairly easy transition but there has also definitely been...

If you’re in the Santa Barbara area, this Sunday, May 20th, we’ll be presenting in all three services at our home church, the Free Methodist Church on the Mesa. You’ll be able to see our latest video with lots of pictures, hear all about what God is doing in Madagascar and buy some super awesome Malagasy art such raffia market bags, placemats and the paper-mache fish project we’ve initiated in our city of Mahajanga, helping some of the poorest...

Late Tuesday night, we made it back to the USA…. the land of the free, the oversized, and the paved and clean roads. It’s nice to be “home” for some time. It’s also weird. Weird on a lot of different levels. We’re living with my folks, in the house I grew up in since I came home from the hospital as a newborn. This isn’t weird per se as we’ve done this before. What has been weird is that some things haven’t changed. For example, the...

As we get ready to re-enter into our American life in Santa Barbara, we’ve been thinking and talking about all the things we’re looking forward to. Here are just a few: We can all say we’re looking forward to family and friends and worshipping in our home church in English! And after 6+ week in the Philippines, we also all agree that we’re really looking forward to being able to put toilet paper in the toilet rather than the trash can and...

  We’re on the eve of our departure from the Philippines.  It’s been a blessed 6+ weeks here as we experienced a new culture and new way of life.  Though we’ve written other blog posts about certain aspects of our time here, here’s a larger recap and closer look at our life in Olongapo, Philippines. Bennett Road… our street in Olongapo And our humble little abode The Mercy In Action birth center directly across the street from our house...

  The Philippines, like other cultures is unique. One of the many unique characteristics about the PI is the names of some of the people… sure, there’s some Tom’s and Sally’s, Mike’s and Jenny’s but there’s also names like Jha Jha, Bong, Princess Fay and Baby Jane. Yes, unique. We’ve also come across some pretty great signs. Sadly we didn’t always have a camera with us on such occasions but when we did, we made sure to get a shot....

During my time both here in the Philippines as well as in Madagascar, I’ve been with women during childbirth in hospital settings. On this blog, I can’t describe in detail the things I’ve witnessed, experienced and heard… they are not my stories to tell and to be honest, they are too gruesome to share in such a public setting. However, what I can share is my feelings in relation to what I’ve seen. I’ve always known to an extent that women...

My midwifery courses are nearly all complete, my internship is wrapping up in the Philippines, and most of my “required numbers” are fulfilled. In less than a month, Lord willing, my formal midwifery education will be complete and all that will remain will be studying for and sitting for my midwifery board exams in mid-August. It’s at this point that I have total mixed emotions. Am I excited to be done with school? Absolutely!! Especially...

Do you all remember Steve Irwin… AKA The Crocodile Hunter? I have always shared a similar love and passion for the wild and the animals within. Last week I finally got an hour to go for a run so I decided to explore the forests of Subic Bay Freeport Zone. In hindsight, it was a run in memory of Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter. It all started off with a face off with a troop of cranky Macaque monkeys, all whom had serious cases of...

The last three weeks I have shifted not only countries but also roles as Alissa is doing an intensive midwifery internship with the Mercy In Action midwives. As she is working many hours a day and on call 24/7 for births, I am at home with the kids. I have become Mr. Mom in the Philippines. We’re in an unknown country where I have to learn how to and where to shop all over again, where I don’t know the best brand of laundry detergent, or butter...

  For some odd parental reason I now have the kids song, “the ants go marching one by one” stuck in my head thanks to the catchy title of this post! In the last week here at the Mercy Midwives Birthing Home we’ve had 4 deliveries… 4 precious new babies entered the world safely. And at least for these last four, they’ve come in two by two. The first set of two ladies delivered within 45 minutes of one another. A few days later, two...

Mercy Midwives Birthing Home is the birth center through Mercy In Action that I’m interning at here in Olongapo. Though Mercy In Action has initiated, successfully operated and turned over many birth centers in the last 21 years here in the Philippines, this particular birth center has only been open for just over a year. Word is still getting out. The first week that we were here, I helped Lanie, a Philippino friend and employee of Mercy...

Last week we arrived in Olongapo, Philippines where we’ll call home for the next 6+ weeks. We were blessed beyond measure as our teammates here had already found and furnished a small house for us… no easy feat in a developing country! As though this isn’t gift enough, the house is literally right across the street from the Mercy Midwives Birthing Home where I’ll continue my midwifery training. Within 2 hours of our arrival, I was called...

One of the great benefits of the missionary life is the requirement of traveling through other countries to get to your final destination. For example, we’re currently in the Philippines so that I can complete my midwifery training (more to come on this one) and the most direct way to the Philippines from Madagascar is through Thailand. In my opinion, not such a bad place to have to travel through! As such, we made the most of our pass through...

It’s been a week since we left the great Red Island of Madagascar. There are several aspects of our life that we already miss… and there are some aspects for which we’re happy to have a break from. Here’s our top few…. TO MISS… 1. Friends… We’ll all miss our Malagasy friends who are an integral part of our lives. 2. Jamie will miss his direct involvement with the  management of the large scale mangrove reforestation work...

Flashback to October 9, 1999– I stepped off a Malagasy sailboat and into life within the village of Mahabana. A village barely touched by the outside world and so entrapped by the vices of poverty on every level. A village where 30% of the population controlled the other 70% simply due to ownership of canoes and fishing supplies. A village were many of the desperate 70% were enslaved to the manipulating 30% through debt bondage, as...

Since we’re below the equator here in Madagascar, our seasons are reversed. So while many of you are enjoying some cooler days, perhaps even too cold, we’re suffering through some intense heat and humidity. If you’ve ever been to my hometown of Santa Barbara, you know that the weather there is really as close to perfect as you can get….well maybe it could be a little warmer in the summers… but still, it’s pretty darn amazing. Not...

These two words don’t seem to make a lot of sense when put together… why would someone choose poverty? Why when someone has lived their entire life in poverty, married into poverty, birthed their babies into poverty and currently are raising their kids in poverty, why would they choose to continue to live in life debilitating extreme poverty? Why when given an opportunity to enter a women’s training program where they can make money every...

My husband is a Third Culture Kid (TCK)…. I am not… I’m a Santa Barbara kid! Yet we are raising TCK’s. And what exactly is a TCK? Well, I’m glad you asked… By definition the Third Culture Kid “is a person who has spent a significant part of their developmental years outside the parents’ culture. The TCK frequently builds relationships to all of the cultures, while not having full ownership in any. Although elements from each...

A week and a half ago we made the drive to the capital city, Antananarivo. 2/3 of the way there, we pulled over on the side of the road for a potty break and to stretch our legs. As we got out of the car, there was a man and two women walking towards us along the road. We said hello to them and then they turned off the main road onto a footpath to continue on to their destination. Jamie, being the wonderful dad that he is, decided to play hide...

Traveling between our city of Mahajanga and the capital city of Antananarivo is roughly 350 miles but travel takes 10+ hours with only small towns dotted along the two lane national highway. As such, there are only small take-your-chances-on-getting-sick restaurants along the way. So when hunger pains come and it’s time to stop for lunch, we pull over under a good tree, find a descent rock to sit on and take out our packed lunches. And when...

This last week has been an interesting one with ever-changing plans. The kind of interesting that happens with life in ministry and the associated spiritual battles. Last Thursday our family made the 10-hour drive to the capital city to take care of some things before we leave Madagascar next month. The kids and I were scheduled to fly back to Mahajanga while Jamie stayed in the capital to pick up Steve Fitch, the president of Eden...

The drastic contrasts we experience in our life in Madagascar on a daily basis is phenomenal and sometimes overwhelming. The cold of our air conditioned car to the oppressive heat outside, the filth on the streets to the cleanliness of a nice restaurant, but by and far, the biggest contrast we’re faced with daily is the extreme poverty and the rich. In America, we’re not rich… we’re middle class folks. In Madagascar however, we’re...