We were not prepared for leaving Mandritsara and Madagascar to be so difficult.

We are the Sherratt family, and we had the immense privilege of serving in the Good News Project for eight years. Matt worked as an anaesthetist and surgeon; Sarah worked as an English teacher at the Good News school; and Hannah (13), Jacob (11), Chloe (7) and Bethany (6) were all students at Ecole Bonne Nouvelle in turn. Ben (1) has yet to have had the joy. We returned to our former home (Leamington Spa) in the latter half of 2019 and have been working to find our feet ever since.

I think it is fair to say that much thought and preparation goes into cross-cultural service; much less goes into home-country re-entry. And so well over a year after having left Madagascar, we feel we are still in the transition state. I think a part of that has to do with the circumstances into which we returned (about which you will need no reminder!); but we are saddened by no longer being able to be ‘on the ground’ team members of this remarkable kingdom project, saddened by no longer being able to enjoy fellowship with our dear Malagasy brothers and sisters (from whom we learnt so much), and grieving the innumerable little things that made living in that part of the world such a privilege and joy.

Having wrestled, frustrated for years with the Malagasy language, the great surprise is quite how much we miss it now (admittedly some more than others!). It is not unusual to have Malagasy Christian music playing in our kitchen from time to time, or for one of us to be watching the national news (via internet). We and the children are all desperate to have an opportunity to visit Mandritsara and introduce our youngest to the one place that means so much to us where he has never been.

And so it is with real heartfelt joy to be accepted as members of ‘Friends of Mandritsara Trust’ and to be very kindly asked by John Whitaker to continue to contribute to this wonderful work of God from afar – through committed prayer and through compiling some pieces for this ‘stories’ section of the website. We hope to be able to add a couple per month – to stir the faithful to prayer. We will aim to keep as up to date as possible and give as good an overview of the many areas of the project as possible.