Missionary profile – Iando and Rolland

By AfriGO Team

Iando and Rolland, 21 years old

Missionaries to Madagascar

We went as short-term missionaries through Africa Inland Mission (AIM) to Nosy Mitsio, Madagascar, with the goal to mobilize national churches to develop cross-cultural missionaries. We were the first Harvest Team run by AIM Madagascar. Despite Covid, we went from February to April 2021.

In Madagascar, we had training in the mornings from 9 am and in the afternoons we visited villages and had social involvements. We also read Bible stories at the school and showed video projections at our host’s house.

The church fully supported us. They were even able to send additional support after our stay in Nosy Mitsio was extended by one month due to road closures.

Learning to live on what we could find there, fish and beans were our usual dishes. We learned a lot through both the formal morning training sessions and the informal exchanges with the coaches. We also learned other skills such as fishing (necessity) and swimming (to get the fish).

Iando

I wanted to gain experience in cross-cultural evangelism. However, I still had some fears thinking about it. Among those were that the people of Nosy Mitsio do not like Merina (highlanders), as well as health issues and spiritual warfare.

We got much of the training and were able to help the villagers in their daily activities. We learned much more about evangelism, disciple-making, cross-cultural church planting, and a missionary’s task. We also got a lot of mindset-changing insights from observing the missionaries’ lives, mostly on how they relate to their children.

This was an excellent opportunity to deepen our relationship with God, enabling us to hear His directions, which redirected our requests to Him. We felt that a poor connection or lack of connection with God would jeopardize all aspects of our lives. As a long-term vision, I plan to share my experiences with my relatives, church, community, and even maybe until the ends of the earth.

Rolland

I was raised in the Christian faith and grew a heart for evangelism. That was my main urge for the Harvest Team training programme. I had my fears, though: I easily get car-sick; I had never travelled out of my region, never sailed on the sea, and I had heard about how the local Antankarana people, hated the Merina.

However, we praise God that our travel to Nosy Mitsio went well, both by road and by boat, and the villagers received us very well.

I gained much more insights and experience on spiritual matters such as evangelism, discipleship, church planting. I also felt I grew as an individual, relating to others, and connecting with God.

After the training, I want to set up a project to help fund future missionary trips. I plan on living on farming and hope that it could also help further evangelism and missions work.