Berton is one of the hospital evangelists. He has been leading a team who is involved in church planting in a town called Mananara on the East coast of Madagascar. It is a materially wealthy town compared to Mandritsara due to the booming vanilla trade. However, the spiritual need of the area has been keenly felt by the project leadership for some years now.

Berton writes....

The evangelism team has recently spent some extended time staying with the believers in Mananara. This has been really helpful as we were able to correct some false teaching in the church and give some good foundational biblical teaching. About 5 to 10 adults have been taking part in a course teaching the way of salvation.  

Currently, there are around 46 present each Sunday.  

We hope that God will manifest his grace in the town of Mananara as the gospel is preached. 'I am not ashamed of the Good News. It is the power of God for salvation for all who believe' (Romans 1:16)

Mananara is very difficult to get to by foot, so the easiest way to visit and encourage the church is to travel by MAF plane with the opthamology team as they visit about once every 8 weeks.

Please pray for the maturity of the church. The plan for the next visit, in March or April, is to use bible correspondance material to teach on the subjects of assurance of salvation and baptism. We are also looking for those that might be trained up to help lead Sunday School classes and women groups.

Please pray as the gospel continues to be proclaimed on Christian radio.

Please pray that our Lord would show his goodness amongst the people of Mananara and they would come to bow the knee before him.