Daily Gospel Witness at the Good News Hospital
by Nathan Lawrence, Trustee of Friends of Mandritsara Trust UK
It’s early on Monday morning. The sun is up and the courtyard of outpatients is gloriously green. It’s warm but not yet hot, and the sweaty humidity of the rainy season has given way to a beautifully clear May morning – possibly the nicest month of the year in Mandritsara. Over the last hour there’s been a steady stream of people trickling in and sitting on the wooden benches waiting for the reception desk to open. Many of them are wrapped in the brightly patterned pieces of cloth called lambas that are such a distinctive part of the Madagascar’s culture.
It’s not a massive crowd this morning – this is rice harvest season, so a lot of people are in the fields, and the eye team are away on a mission trip to Mananara. But as the staff filter in and the little family who have slept on the benches after arriving late last night are prodded awake to make room for new arrivals, there must be 30 or 40 people here, with who knows what assortment of aches and pains and chronic problems wanting to see one of the doctors this morning.
And the gospel is preached!
Out-patient evangelism
At 07h30 on the dot, Berton, the head of the evangelism team, opens up Romans chapter 3 and begins to explain that everyone here is a sinner, and that we are all separated from God. Berton is a winsome and dynamic preacher, but he pulls no punches, and ends with a clear explanation of how anyone there can be saved.
Over on the Surgical ward, the scene is a little different. The teenage boy in bed 5 has his leg stuck in traction after a nasty fall from a mango tree two weeks before, so the patients who can walk and the assorted families and visitors gather at the right hand end of the ward this morning. The nurses are just restocking the dressings trolley, and everyone has had their morning rice porridge, apart from the patient in bed 6 who is off for a hernia repair later today and so isn’t allowed to eat anything. Even the lady from bed 9 who needed 4 units of blood transfused as the surgeons fought for her life in the operating theatre is looking a little brighter today, and walks round to take a seat with the help of her sister who has slept under her bed all night to help with the personal care and meal preparation that a patient’s family take care of here.
And the gospel is preached!
Surgical ward evangelism
Marguerite, a passionate evangelist married to one of the surgeons is speaking about the thief on the cross from Luke 23 and the assembled group listen carefully as she fervently calls them to repent and believe the Good News.
In the new maternity unit, by contrast, Rabemahazaka has his work cut out to be heard above the cries of the newborns. There have been 6 new babies in the last 24 hours, including one set of twins! The mothers and the midwives are both wearing happy but exhausted smiles, and the mother in bed 4 winces slightly as she rolls over and the stitches from her Caesarean operation catch her briefly. The hum of the CPAP machine from the high dependency bay adds some bass to the cacophony as it supports the breathing of one of the little ones who was born premature and will need a lot of prayers and medical input over the coming weeks.
And yet the gospel is preached!
Maternity ward evangelism
Rabehamahazaka uses Paul’s speech to the Areopagus from Acts 17 as a launch pad to ask some big questions about why we exist, what we’re doing here on earth, and what God requires of us. Then he homes in on the fact that, since Jesus has come, we can no longer plead ignorance, and need to run to Him and Him alone to be saved.
And the gospel is preached on the medical ward, where Bertin is speaking on the faith of the bleeding woman who touches Jesus’s cloak.
And in the recovery unit the gospel is preached. Dr Aimée, recent recruit to the medical team, speaks of how we can bring all our worries and fears to Jesus.
Recovery unit evangelism
All across the hospital, the gospel is being preached this morning, as it is every week day morning at the Good News Hospital, and men and women are hearing of Jesus’s love for them, His saving work for them on the cross and His call to repent and believe. Oh how we pray these words would find good soil! Oh how we pray for gospel fruit and changed lives!
For prayer:
Thank God for the freedom we have to proclaim the gospel here in Mandritsara. For the continued blessing of good relationships with local, regional and national authorities without whose approval the project could not operate and pray for the ongoing, behind-the-scenes work of the management committee to maintain and grow those relationships.
Pray that the gospel would bear fruit, that there would be hundreds of people hearing about Jesus who put their faith in Him through these talks every morning.
For follow up conversations. Please pray for the evangelism team in particular, that they would be led by the Spirit to people who are interested in what they’ve heard, and for skill in leading them onwards and shepherding those who do trust and believe in Jesus. Pray for those who have confessed faith or shown interest in the gospel to be connected with a cell group or church in or near their village.
Pray for deep faith, that those who believe would hold on to Jesus through thick and thin and wouldn’t fall away when a bad harvest or someone getting sick knocks their confidence.
Thank God for the 49 members of staff now signed up to participate in the morning preaching rota. Pray for the training that the evangelism team arrange in how to deliver these talks. Pray for the missionary team, that more and more of them would grow in their language skills and confidence, so that they can join in alongside the Malagasy staff in this ministry.
Pray that the work of holding out the gospel wouldn’t just be confined to those 49 preachers though, and that every nurse, every doctor, everyone who works in outpatients, even everyone who staffs the front gate would catch the vision that sharing the gospel with patients is an every-member ministry that they can be a part of. Pray that this vision would become more and more a reality.