On to Madagascar
Trip Start
Jan 16, 2007
1
7
31
Trip End
Feb 12, 2007
Antananarivo,
Madagascar
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
The check-in happend without incident and I was ready for my flight to Antananarivo, the capital of Madagascar. This would be my first visit to this large island off the coast of South Africa. I had been corresponding with some people there for over a year. How they found us an interesting story. Our deacon in Togo, Mr. Fiaboé works for ASECNA, the pan-African civil aviation authority. He was in Niger several years back and men a fellow ASECNA employee from Madagascar. They began discussing religion as Africans are not at all shy to do, including their own particular beliefs. It turns out that the Malagasy (the offical term from people from Madagascar) man had very similar beliefs indeed. As they kept on with their discussion it turned out that he had actually attended services with our previous church association in Paris in the early 1990s! Quite a coincidence to be sure. Mr. Fiaboé put him in touch with me via e-mail, we began corresponding, and they began receiving our literature. They had requested a visit, but my travel schedule is so full, and they are so far away that it took more than a year before one could be arranged. I anticipated with pleasure the chance to finally meet with this group in person.
The flight left Mauritius on time at 10:10. Ninety minutes later we descended into Antananarivo (try pronouncing that quickly three times!), which name is understandably often shortened to Tana. My correspondent, named Patrick (his last name is a typically long Malagasy name and difficult for westerners to pronounce), and a pastor from the local church (his first and shorter name is "Maminiaina") met me at the airport and drove me to my hotel. During the forty-five minute drive they ask question after question; their curiosity and enthusiasm was palpable. Maminiaina doesn't speak much French, so Patrick, who speaks excellent French, would translate back and forth from French to Malagasy as we drove.
After I checked in at the hotel near the lake in the center of town we continued our discussion for more than another hour, discussing things like Sabbath and Holy Day observance, the origins of the United Church of God, our understanding of Bible prophecy prior to the return of Christ and many more things as well. Several members of their group have a Seventh Day Adventist background, and although they are no longer part of that group and have formed an independent church association; they did have some questions about Adventist theology compared to our beliefs. It was a wide-ranging and generally delightful discussion. Finally we agreed to meet the next day at 09:30 when we would go to meet with others of their pastors for further discussions.
We will attempt to ascertain if we are compatible doctrinally and administratively and find out what they would like from us if anything. In any event it is exciting to find people with very similar beliefs in a culture and country quite different from even other francophone countries. I look forward to our follow-up visit tomorrow.
