Cyclone Haruna

For the last few weeks, we’ve all been busy and a little overwhelmed with dealing with a cyclone that passed through Tulear at the end of February. I’m so thankful for the Lord’s protection during the cyclone, both for our mission family and for so many Malagasy families we know here in Tulear, and in the rural villages where we work. At the same time, our hearts are heavy and burdened with the damage the cyclone caused: lives lost and so many crops and homes destroyed—damage that we and those we work with will continue to face and need to deal with for some time. Please join me in praying for southwest Madagascar and for all those affected by this cyclone. Pray for us to have wisdom in how to respond to the needs around us.

Here’s the story of what happened during the cyclone and what we’ve been doing since: During my last trip to the forest midway through February, we got reports of a cyclone heading toward southwest Madagascar. We came back a little early, and later that next week the cyclone had gained strength and appeared to be heading right for us. We stocked up a little, and those of us without vehicles moved into one house next-door to another mission family to weather out the storm.

The storm actually made landfall north of us, and passed through our area headed southeast on February 22. Along with a lot of rain, we had several hours of high winds. The next day, a river near Tulear (which I have only ever seen with a tiny trickle of water in it), overflowed its banks and flooded into parts of Tulear. Many, many homes were full of water and mud.

For the first few days, there was no power or water in the city. After a few days, we had running water, and little by little parts of Tulear have gotten power—some of our mission houses just in the last few days.

Within the week after the cyclone, our supervisors, who had just arrived back in the city after five months in the US, led us in meeting with our church leaders and praying about how to move forward with relief. We came up with a project to give relief buckets (filled with food, medicine, and other helpful items) to all the families in our churches. The churches formed committees to give out the buckets through visits to each family, during which they prayed for them, shared encouragement through a Bible story, and looked for ways to possibly help more in the future if necessary. I’ve been very touched to see the churches reaching out to their families, particularly at a time like this when everyone is struggling. Pray for the churches to have wisdom to know how to follow up with those families that may continue to need help.

Much of the greatest damage has been in the villages in the rural areas where we work. Huge portions of their fields have been affected, so it is likely that they will feel the effects of this cyclone throughout the entire coming year because of the damage to their harvest. Pray for them as they replant and rebuild. Pray for God’s provision. Pray also for us to have wisdom in how to encourage them and how to help as well.