Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies…
Watching Generations Grow–
Mamitiana’s story is deeply intertwined with the story of our family and ministry in Madagascar. As a young girl, she lived just across the small dirt road from Jamie’s parents. She and her sisters would gather mangoes from the trees in their yard and sell them to Jamie’s mom– something they continued doing even after the passing of their own mother as a way to help support their father, Jeje, and their family. I still remember slicing and preparing those mangoes from Mamitiana in 2001– either for eating fresh or for dehydrating.
Over the years, we have had the privilege of watching Mamitiana grow from a little girl into a wife, mother, and woman of faith. Early on, she became one of the first employees in the reforestation ministry work. Then, in 2013, during a summer ministry partnership with students from Westmont College serving in Madagascar, Mamitiana worked alongside the American students and other Malagasy young adults to help paint the Sarobidy Maternity Center before it opened. It was during that same summer that she accepted Christ as her Lord and Savior.
In 2016, Mamitiana became the very first woman to deliver at the Sarobidy Maternity Center. Her son, Elyace, was the first baby born with our midwives– a moment our team still remembers with great joy. In 2021, their family welcomed a little girl, Eliana, who was also born at SMC. This past March, they celebrated the arrival of another baby boy, Eliano.
One of the greatest gifts of long-term ministry is the privilege of witnessing stories like this unfold over generations. To see a young girl from our community help prepare the maternity center, place her faith in Christ, work within the ministry, and now raise her own family through the care of that same maternity center is a beautiful picture of God’s faithfulness through the years!
Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Sponsorship Program…
Stories like Mamitiana’s are only possible because of faithful support of people who believe every mother and every baby deserve compassionate, life-saving care.
Through our Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Sponsorship Program, just $60 a month provides a woman with prenatal care, safe delivery support, postpartum care, nutritional assistance, medications, and emergency medical support when needed– all within a compassionate Christ-centered environment where mothers are treated with dignity, prayed for, encouraged, and reminded of their value in the Lord.
Sponsors receive a photo and story of an expectant mother in our program, 1-2 updates during her pregnancy, including a special photo around 36 weeks as she prepares to welcome her baby, and a final update with photos after delivery. Our hope is that sponsors will not simply give financially, but walk alongside and pray for a mother during one of the most important yet dangerous seasons of her life.
We invite you to become a sponsor! If you would like to support more than one mother, you are welcome to give in increments of $60 per month, and we’ll provide corresponding sponsor updates and stories for each woman you support!
Currently, the Sarobidy Maternity Center is operating more than 50% below our monthly funding needs, and our financial reserves have dwindled to only a few months remaining. Our monthly operating budget of $6500 supports 24 Malagasy employees and covers all medical care, emergency hospital transfers for C-sections, medications, medical supplies, utilities, and daily care for vulnerable mothers and newborns.
If you’re interested in supporting a mother and baby through the Sarobidy Maternity Center, donations can be made through WorldVenture, our mission organization, where all gifts are tax deductible. Alternatively, scan the QR code to sponsor a mother and baby today!
We are deeply grateful for your generosity, encouragement, and prayers as together we seek to reflect the love of Christ by helping bring safe beginnings and hope to families in need!
Join Us on Epistle for continued updates!
Beginning last September, we started moving our regular updates to Epistle, a platform designed to create deeper connection and engagement between missionaries and ministry partners. It’s been a wonderful transition, with more people reading, interacting with, and responding to our updates– and we would love for you to join us there as well! Our hope is to fully transition away from this current newsletter by the end of the year.
Once you subscribe to Epistle, you’ll receive shorter, more frequent updates, and you can choose how often they arrive in your inbox: daily, weekly, or monthly.
Just TWO simple steps…
1. Subscribe here.
https://jamie-alissa redislandrestoration.epistle.org/subscribe
2. Confirm your subscription through the email you receive (be sure to check your junk or spam folder just in case it lands there!). This second step is critical.
There is already new content waiting for you on Epistle- including family updates, ministry stories, and urgent prayer requests that we haven’t shared in our newsletters– and we would love for you to be a part of our community there!
Thank you for praying, generously giving, and walking alongside our family and the midwives as we provide a safe haven for mothers and babies in Madagascar and as we see women like Mamitiana surrender their lives to Christ and discover true hope in Him!!
With love and gratitude,
Alissa, Jamie, Isabella, Eliana and Gavin
Recent Comments