good old-fashioned visiting

In the last few weeks, Jodie and I have been doing a lot of visiting in people’s homes. We have several ladies in the churches we’re involved with here in Tulear who love to be visited. Sometimes we aren’t able to really talk with them and fully get to know them in the church setting, and so it’s nice to have extra time to be with them and hear what God is teaching them. Also, it's so special to be able to do this ministry with Jodie!

Two ladies are older, and both are in my story-crafting groups. They are SO eager to learn Bible stories. The last few weeks, we’ve been going through stories that demonstrate the characteristics of the Proverbs 31 woman, which we studied this last month with them and other ladies in our church. Another woman is a pastor’s wife, and it is always a blessing whenever we have a chance to talk with her. She has a lot of wisdom, and I always feel encouraged when we pray together. It’s been fun to be in these women’s homes, meet some of their other family members, and just have special time just with them.

Also, this month our church’s youth group began what will hopefully be a monthly time set aside for visiting people, building relationships and sharing the Gospel. Our church is very small, and mostly youth, and it is so exciting to see them focusing outwardly, reaching out to the people living right around our church!

I will definitely say that for me, “door-to-door” type evangelism has never been easy in the US . . . but here it seems very applicable. People here are very relational, and love home visits. The Malagasy believers who have led us in these visits always prioritize the importance of using the visit as the beginning of a relationship—making frequent visits, being involved in family life events, like births and weddings and funerals. I’m just thankful for these opportunities to learn from believers, and to get to know the people around me on a deeper level. I’m praying that He’ll keep using these visit to teach me about the Malagasy people, as well as to bring people closer to Himself.