equip the Church

Dear friends and prayer partners,

I just returned from Madagascar, and I’m still turning over in my mind everything God did there. I know I’ve gone quiet between updates — time on the field has a way of swallowing the time I mean to spend writing to you — but I want you close to what’s actually happening on the ground, because none of it happens without your prayers. I covet them, and I don’t take them for granted.

Books in the Hands of Shepherds

Through Christian International Outreach, we distributed five titles — 800 copies of each, 4,000 books in all — into the hands of pastors and church leaders across the country. Two titles were in Malagasy, three in French, and every one of them will end up on a shelf or in a study where a shepherd is trying to feed his flock well.

What made this trip different was where the books came from. For the first time, we gave away books printed right there in Madagascar, at a local print shop I’ve had the privilege of helping start. Watching that team step up — running presses, binding, boxing, delivering — and knowing this was theirs, not something flown in from the outside, was one of the more moving moments I’ve had on the field.

A Gathering of Shepherds

The distribution happened alongside a pastors’ conference held in partnership with Union, where I also serve on the board. Pastors came from across the country — more than fifteen denominations were represented in the room — and we spent our time together talking honestly about the realities of pastoral ministry and the gospel that sustains it.

We also hosted a gathering for business leaders, and we had the joy of watching the very first graduating class come through Union’s GDIP program. I’m proud of every student in that class — but I have to say a special word about my friend Avo, who completed the program while also helping lead Madagascar 3M. Watching him grow in his own theological training while pouring himself out for rural pastors at the same time was one of the highlights of the whole trip. In the margins of it all, we had real time to dream about what’s next for Madagascar: what future partnerships could look like, what the country still needs, where the gaps are.

Standing on the Martyrs’ Ground

Before I left, we spent time visiting the sites where the Malagasy martyrs died — men and women whose blood is, quite literally, the ground the church stands on today. In 1837, under Queen Ranavalona I, Christianity was outlawed and converts were hunted down. The first to die was a young woman named Rasalama, speared to death on a hillside outside the capital after she was discovered hiding in a cave, refusing to renounce her faith. She walked to her execution singing hymns. In the decades that followed, others were burned, thrown from cliffs, or hanged over ravines rather than deny Christ. Memorial churches now stand on those very sites, quiet witnesses to what it cost the first believers here to hand the faith down.

Standing on that ground changes how you read the story. The books we hand a pastor today, the training a young man receives, the crops that free up a bivocational pastor to shepherd — none of it is owed to us. It was purchased first by believers who refused to let go of Christ when it cost them everything. We get to keep building on a foundation someone else bled for.

Looking Ahead

There is a lot of possibility here. We’re prayerfully considering what a sustained, multi-year strategy in Madagascar could look like — more printing capacity, more pastors equipped, deeper partnership with ministries like Madagascar 3M, and getting Malagasy-language Bibles into the hands of families in poorer regions who don’t yet own one.

Would you pray with me for:

• The pastors and church leaders who received books, that the Word would take deep root in how they lead
• The local print shop and its team, as they grow into a lasting resource for the Malagasy church
• Wisdom as we shape what comes next for Madagascar — partnerships, funding, and the right next steps
• Families in the poorer regions still waiting for a Bible in their own language

Thank you for standing with me in this important work.

Grateful for you,

Daniel