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Brian offers a fascinating insight into what life on the mission field is like, taken from the point of view of an outsider.
Written as a journal during a five-week trip to the village of Mandritsara, Mission Madagascar effectively captures the essence of what it’s like to be immersed in a different culture. This book is a valuable resource for anybody venturing into the overseas mission world. Whether you’ve visited, plan to visit, or never even heard of the island, it speaks to the heart of mission and gives a little taste of life in Madagascar.
It is 25 years since Brian and his late wife Sheila visited Madagascar and Brian wrote a daily journal. It was not intended for public consumption, but was just for personal use. However, he was persuaded to turn it into a book, and its publication was very much a family affair. Sheila typed up his scribblings, Brian proof read the copy, and his son Phil both designed the cover and arranged for the printing and assembling as a ring-bound paperback book.
Brian‘s original intention was to make brief notes each day as a personal reminder of all that happened and of any amusing incidents during their brief stay in Madagascar at the end of 1996. Once he started, however, it was easier just to let the words flow and tell the stories as they happened, and it quickly became a daily journal. Brian kept thinking that soon he would be able to stop, because there would be nothing new or different to write about. Some hope! Every day was different, often full of funny goings-on (ha-ha and peculiar), a few of which have been left out to protect other people’s feelings.
Each day Sheila would look forward to reading the instalment, and Brian knew their hosts were itching to find out what he had written, especially when they realised there was a chance of publication to a wider audience.
They had an initial run of 60 copies, hoping to sell these to church members and friends with the proceeds going to the work of HVM (Hopitaly Vaovao Mahafaly) in Mandritsara. In the end, they produced and sold around 200 copies, and were later told that a copy was given to each new missionary arriving at the hospital to give them an insight into the culture and life of the Malagasy people.
Phil is now an author of children’s books in his own right, as well as having himself become a missionary working in Nepal from 2011 until 2020, and he thought that it would be fitting in this 25th Anniversary year to produce a new version of the book – as an e-book; a softback and a hardback. This gave Brian the opportunity to correct a number of typos and grammatical errors that had been missed first time around because of the speed of production. So the main body of text is largely untouched apart from the additions of a few explanations to help a wider audience’s understanding.
As well as adding a Preface and Chapter Numbers and Titles to the revised edition, Brian has also added Chapter One – The Call, to give the background as to why and how they came to travel so far for such a short time; and Chapter Thirteen – An Update: 1997 to 2021, giving some idea of his involvement in the work since and the thriving gospel and health work that continues there to this day.
Also added are new images scattered throughout to help aid in the story telling. These are in colour in the hardback version, and black and white in the softback. Sadly, due to size limitations they are not included in the e-book.
Much of the stories in this book are Brian‘s impression of what he saw and heard. He sincerely hopes you will enjoy it as much as he has and that all readers will be better informed about life on the mission field, as seen by an outsider.
Available to buy now in the store, and all good online bookstores.