When 1+1+1= 42… Forty-two is the number of boys and girls that are now receiving a preschool and early elementary school education after a father and his two adult daughters each took out a $95 loan and then combined them to open the Glory School.   Forty-two kids who no longer need to walk 2 hours to go to school in town.  Their favorite subjects?  Math, reading, writing and of course PE… which includes playing soccer and using a...

In early 2012 we started a small micro-finance loan project after some friends gave a generous gift to get this started.  Last month, we did a year-end review of the project.  We’re thrilled to share that in the last 12 months, 108 women and men have a received small loan to start or grow their existing businesses!!  So far, all 108 individuals who received loans are people who are known by the micro-finance committee from different...

Around here, life has been intense.  Our days have been beyond full and our nights of sleep sometimes a little a lot too short.  Around here, our minds have been swirling with the need-to-do’s, the want-to-do’s, the must-do-nows, and the emergency-do’s.  Around here, our bodies sometimes feel like they are keeping up simply with the force of adrenaline and a little afternoon caffeine. Around here, our hearts have been heavy...

It was just 3 short weeks yet what-feels-like-forever-ago, that we wrote to you with the devastating news of the prognosis for our dear friend and ministry partner Josy.  Three weeks ago that we were preparing ourselves that Josy might not live another week.  And truth be told, according to the physician, he was that close to death. God’s truth that He knows the number of our days is so apparent and we’re thankful that Josy has more...

A brutal reality is the medical care or lack-there-of, in this country. Madagascar doesn’t stand alone in this reality as I’ve experienced the same truths in other developing countries. We’ve recently been forced to look at this nasty reality square in the eyes as Josy, our long-time close friend and ministry partner has been in two different hospitals for the past 6 weeks in the capital city.  To read the back story, click...

Friends, thank you for your continued prayers for our dear friend Josy.  It’s been 2 weeks since our last update just after Josy had surgery.      There’s been several times that I’ve sat down to write a letter but the suspected diagnosis and prognosis hasn’t been concrete enough to share, until now.      Two days ago, Josy was readmitted to the hospital for monitoring and seen by a nephrologist yesterday.  We just spoke...

Friday. A grandmother in her late 40’s is seeking help frantically.  Her first daughter of 8 children is in labor with her first child.  She’s in the home of an extended family member, hemorrhaging with no medical attention– no doctor, no midwife. This daughter lost her husband to murder just 2 months prior.  She grieved deeply, she stopped eating, she stopped taking care for the life growing within her womb.  She was living 2...

   Friends, we are humbled by your prayers! We are humbled by your love and care for a dear friend of ours that many of you have never met but have only heard stories of over the years. We are humbled by your notes of encouragement to send along to Josy and notes for us.  We received well over 125 messages on email and facebook.  Many of you passed our prayer request on to others, emailed it to your friends and families, sent it to prayer...

God provides.  That’s all there is to it.  He provides.  For our work in Madagascar, He provides the resources, the finances, the people.  In our life, He provides the peace that passes all understanding.  He provides His incomparable love.  He provided His Son.  Not to say that we can sit back, lazy, just waiting for Him to provide.  Not saying that at all.  But I do know that He calls us to faith that He WILL provide– maybe not as...

It is with a heavy heart yet a heart still full of hope that we write to you today to ask you to pray for Josy, our closest friend and partner in ministry.  As you read this, he is laying in a hospital in the capital city awaiting emergency surgery on Monday.  I say emergent because the surgery should have been performed Friday, but his blood count was too low.  Yesterday, his brother Dina searched the city’s hospitals looking for enough...

Over New Year’s we went to Antananarivo for some cooler temps, some fellowship with other English speakers, some play, some work, and alas, some shopping.. though shopping for stuff like Oatmeal and Sundried Tomatoes is not necessarily what I consider exhilarating shopping. The beauty of this rugged landscape that is Madagascar never ceases to amaze me.  Every time we make this 10-hour drive, I stand in awe of God’s awesome creation...

The kids having been asking me to bake lately.  In fact, Gavin and Eliana both attempted to bake their own renditions of dessert yesterday… for Gavin it was chocolate pizza and for Eliana, it was chocolate cake.  Of course the measurements were all askew and Eliana was heartbroken and distraught when her cake came out of the oven still in liquid form.  I promised, “tomorrow we’ll make chocolate chip cookies!”  Squeels of...

Antananarivo, try saying that fast 10 times.  Antananarivo or Tana for short, is the capital city of Madagascar and is where we recently spent a week over New Years for business but also play and fellowship with other English speaking friends in the missionary community.  Some people despise Tana while others seem to enjoy it.  We enjoy it in somewhat small doses.  Like most capital cities, especially in developing countries, Tana is a city of...

It’s that time of year again… time for families and friends to share Christmas letters and cards, photos of how the kids have changed and stories of their latest news, accomplishments and/or tribulations.  So… we decided to do the same…              

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...