Update from Ryan

To my gracious church family and friends-

We’re here, safe and sound! The flights were long but pretty good. The flight to Paris was around 9 hours and the flight to Madagascar was 10.5. We all held up very well, which was a testimony to your prayers! We finally got in about 10:30 local time (12:30 Sunday afternoon for you), but by the time we got our visas, our bags, went through customs, and then got to the house we’re staying in, it was about midnight.

The place we’re staying is very comfortable. It is the upstairs of a guest house, with two bedrooms (Dave and I are sharing), a kitchen, a living room, and a bathroom. It is actually very clean and has a European feel to it. We had a nice French breakfast this morning, and shared the company of two British nurses who are here for 8 weeks doing medical work.

The weather here is great right now- somewhere in the 70’s. There is a nice breeze today, which helps with the humidity. Last night, when we landed, it was only 65 degrees, but with the humidity being about 100%, it felt like we were in an oven. The airport, with all of the bodies crowded together, was especially muggy.

Another blessing is that the bugs, especially the mosquitoes, don’t seem like much of an issue, as we’re at 4,000 feet. We even slept without our mosquito netting last night!

Please continue to be in prayer for the conference which starts tomorrow, 04/07. Julian, our conference coordinator, told us that right now it looks like only 40 pastors will be attending (instead of 80) because many of the pastors go on vacation following Easter. Pray that word would get around about the conference and the quality of the teaching, and more pastors would come.

Also, pray for Sunday morning. Both Bob and I will be preaching in a local church. The church has two services, one in French and another in the native language. Bob will be preaching in the French service and I’ll be praying in the native service. Right now, I’m praying about preaching from 1 Cor. 15:3. Pray that God would give me clarity regarding what to preach and that the Spirit would empower the message.

Continue to pray for God’s blessing upon Julian. He is a wonderful man of God who is graciously caring for us. He is the pastor of evangelism in his church here and has served for years with Campus Crusade for Christ. He just finished a four day evangelistic outreach and now is busy caring for us and coordinating the conference. Pray for strength and endurance for him.

Thank you so much for sacrificing, as a church, to allow us to be able to do this. I know God will continue to bless EBC for its commitment to world missions. This is a very needy place and I praise God I can be here, serving these people as your representative.

I don’t know when I’ll be able to get internet access again. It probably won’t be until Saturday. I’ll try to send you another update then.

In Christ,

Pastor Ryan

2 Cor. 4:6