Pastoral Visit
We didn’t know exactly what a pastoral visit was all about, so we were just happy that Tiaan, one of our All Nations Family members along with Fred (a friend helping with translation) came to visit us. They took the road trip from Toamasina to Mananara and then up to our village, spending five days on the road.At the same time we were very sad to hear from him that Stephen’s mom had passed away on 27th of May. We as a team took time to encourage Stephen and grief with him. This wasn’t a difficult time for our team. We prayed together and gave Stephen personal time to pray and contact his family in South Africa. As a team we are blessed that he decided to stay with us until the end of cross border outreach (CBO) as he became an integral part of the team and the work here. He decided that he will be do a memorial journey for his mom along with his family when he returns home.Tiaan and Fred stayed for five days with us and we had a good time together. We all had individual debrief time and also a debrief time together as a team. It helped us a great deal to internalize our last two months experience in Madagascar as individuals and as a team. We spent a day together to empower one another, praying for each together and giving words of encouragement. It also included some fun time at the beach where we enjoyed the warm water and had some fun, surfing in dug-out canoes with two local guys that randomly joined us.