More than just trees… September has proved to be most likely our busiest month this term in Madagascar. Amongst a sea of other things, we received and hosted a major Eden Projects group, including Steve, the founder and president of Eden, two board members, six major donors and two cinematographers. For 9 days this large group plus Jamie, Neal and our Malagasy crew traveled by helicopter to visit 3 mangrove planting sites, 5 dry deciduous...

Transition and re-entry.  It’s become a regular part of our lives, typically on a 20 month then 5 month then 20 month then 5 month rotation. Each and every time we return to the USA we experience transition.  Each and every time we return to Madagascar we experience transition.  Through the years, the transition and re-entry back home to Madagascar has become easier while the transition and re-entry to the USA has increasingly become more...

A couple months ago I was telling Jamie how much I would love it if he swept me away someplace as a surprise.  At that time, it was talk and I was loftily dreaming of someplace in Europe or Asia… walking the streets, exploring the culture, eating yummy cuisine, snapping pictures and enjoying each other, sans children.  I put my dream on the back burner because you know… REALITY. Last month we “celebrated” our 12-year...

In Madagascar, parents are known by their children… Maman’i Josy is Josy’s mom.  Sometimes Josy’s mom also goes by the name of Maman’i Dina or Maman’i Redy… or any of her other 4 children.  She’s a sweet women who has seen a lot in her nearly 80 years of life– an age well past the average life expectancy in Madagascar.  After nearly 60 years of marriage, she’s seen her children born...

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...

   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...

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....

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...