Last year God gave me a vision to start buying some small pieces of land here in Mahajanga, Madagascar and to start building small houses for the widows and vulnerable families to live in rent free.
So at the beginning of this year we bought our first piece of land, which we have called ‘’Tany Kanana - land of promise’. Tany Kanana is big enough to build 8 little houses to bless those who will never be able to pay us back.
I am very happy to announce, that the first four houses are now finished at ‘Tany Kanana – land of promise.’
It is such a joy to my heart to see the vision that God gave me starting to take shape and I cannot began to tell you how precious a moment it was – as we met with Mama Angela to tell her about the new project and invited her to choose one of the first four houses for herself and her two children, Jirese and Alexia to live in without charge.
As Mama Angela heard the news she fluctuated between crying and laughing for such a long time whilst praising Jesus.
We first met Mama Angela about 2 years ago – she was heavily pregnant and had just been abandoned by her husband, which always has such a devastating effect on families here in Madagascar. There is no government help for women in these situations here and so Mama Angela sold her bed and slept on the floor so that she could feed her family.
Mama Angela was not able to have a normal birth for her baby, but had to have a caesarean section, which we helped to pay for and because of the wound complications she was not able to work at all.
Mama Angela then downsized her house and rented something much more humble – in fact I couldn’t stand up in it – it was only big enough for two people to lay side by side. It was also in a really dangerous neighbourhood and so Mama Angela and her children had to literally bolt the window and door as soon as it became dusk and not to reopen it until sunrise. I cannot begin to imagine how uncomfortable that must have been with the Mahajanga heat - even in the night.
Living in this environment had a really devastating effect on Jirese, Mama Angela’s son – in fact he just stared and didn’t speak.
Knowing that the ‘Tany Kanana – Field of promise’ project was coming up – we moved Mama Angela into a better environment, paying her rent for a couple of months and it was amazing to see the immediate change in her son Jirese – who has now become playful and childlike again.
This week Mama Angela, Jirese and Alexia will move into their new home at Tany Kanana - field of promise, which is in a lovely community and quite a green area and also very near a lovely Christian school which we help Jirese to go to in the new school year.
In Isaiah 58, it speaks about ‘undoing heavy burdens’ –and as we announced the news to Mama Angela, I literally saw such a heavy burden lift off Mama Angela’s shoulders and a real peace come all over her countenance and I literally felt the manifest pleasure of God so tangibly in the room as we poured the Fathers love over her and her family in this practical and life changing way.