It is our passion to tell people about the good news of Jesus Christ. This good news, that Jesus came to restore the relation between humans and God, is almost unknown among the Antanala of Madagascar. This is why the Antanala are considered to be a so called un-reached people-group. What is more, the Antanala are considered to be one of the least reached people-groups on Madagascar.

The Antanala worship the spirits of their ancestors, they do nothing without consulting the spirits. Do you want to grow vegetables? Only if it is allowed! Marry that sweet girl from another tribe? That will not make the spirits happy! Someone in the family sick? Somebody else has done something that made the spirits angry! These and other thoughts are incomprehensible to an average European but to the Malagasy it is part of everyday life.

From the capital we visited the area where we live now. We spoke with various village elders and asked whether we would be welcome to come and live with them. When the village elders heard that we wanted to tell the people about Jesus, they unanimously agreed to help us where necessary. "If your news is really good then you have to come soon!"

Now, 2018, we have been living in Maroamboka for about a year. Maroamboka is one of the bigger villages in the area. We started to do what our hands found to do (Ecclesiastes 9:10). Clean water supply was one of the first things that we have been working on. If you do not speak the language correctly, it is best to start with your hands and feet. Also, we are trying to create an awareness of the importance of a good hygiene. Things, such as good toilets ore keeping the rats away (fleas on rats can pass on diseases lik the plague) are self-evident to us. These basic things are taught in school. Schooling! Such a privilege, and in the West we take it for granted. It is good to be able to let people share in that knowledge.

We have become good friends with the local teacher Menja. Menja speaks both the official Malagasy and the Tanala dialect. We are teaching him English and in exchange he helps us with the dialect. Eventually he hopes to teach his students some English as well.

As we started to understand the Tanala dialect better, we also started translating Bible stories. Together with Menja we translated 40 stories in Tanala during the first period. For the first time people see their own language in writing! As noted earlier, most people cannot read or write and have a hard time understanding the official national language, Malagasy. How beautiful is it to hear these beautiful stories in your heart language.

Armed with these stories we will go from village to village. Menja is already Christian and as the translations progressed, he became extremely enthusiastic. When we asked if he would like to go to the villages, he responded excited but a little scared at the same time ... "I am not a missionary; I do not know much about the Bible!". No problem Menja! We are in the here to help, aren't we? We sincerely hope that people like Menja will tell the Gospel of Jesus among their own people so that they can make their own choice.

We are convinced that the biblical truths bring true freedom. Free to plant what you want; to marry whom you want; think outside the box whenever you want. With Jesus as Lord you do not have to be afraid of the spirits anymore. These spirits all have one thing in common: They are the spirits of the dead. Jesus, He who has been dead for three days has returned from the grave, is stronger than death. He is the Lord of the living.

For those who do not know us: We are Jurgen and katja Hofmann and together with our five children we live in Maroamboka, Madagascar. Maroamboka is a remote rural village situated in the south-east of Madagascar in the middle of the Antanala area. The Antanala have to live and work under very harsh circumstances. They have to work hard for as little as 0,75 Euros a day. Especially after the cyclone season the area is very hard to reach by road.

It is our passion to tell the good news of Jesus Christ to those who have never heard; to give them the chance to believe and be saved. Besides sharing the Gospel we try to help people improve their circumstances. Last year we did this by repairing, together with the locals, all water pumps in and around Maroamboka. We also help people to become aware of the importance of good hygiene. Finally we hope to be of assistance in improving the overall situation in which the people need to live.

The roads are extremely bad and even though we have a sturdy 4x4 it is not always possible to come in or out of the area. After living in Maroamboka for a year we have to the conclusion that our car needs some modifications. These modifications will help us greatly to travel in and out the area more easily and, not unimportant, more safely.

These modifications are costly. Overall all modifications on 4x4s are expensive on Madagascar. This is the reason we started this Fundraising on Facebook.

We truly hope that we can raise enough money this way. It will help the Antanala people greatly!

Go to our Fundraising page on Facebook

However, there is one thing you can do to get a glimpse of our lives on
Madagascar! You can watch the tour in and around our house given by Katja and the children. In an 18 minutes video they will show you every corner of our house and there playground.

For now we give you a little teaser but stay tuned as on the 11^th of February this video will go live!

TRAILER: A Tour In And Around Our House in Maroamboka

It was Friday the 9th of June in the afternoon that we said to each other: 'What a relief that we could bring Anna (a visiting co-worker) to the bus station this morning. Surely we cannot leave the area any time soon after all this rain. Let's hope nothing happens.' That night Jurgen woke up with a terrible pain in his stomach and back. When he also started to show symptoms of bowel obstruction we were truly alarmed and decided to ask for an evacuation. At the beginning of the afternoon on Saturday a helicopter took Jurgen to a hospital in the capital.

Half a week later Jurgen was released from hospital after minor surgery. A large kidney stone was removed from his urinary tract and later that week he passed a smaller one naturally. A friend took him in and, after regaining some strength, Jurgen came back home after two weeks. We were all still very impressed with what had happened, but a week or two later Jurgen was his usual self again: ready for work!

However, for the translation of the Bible stories, Jurgen is dependent on Menja, the local school teacher. He speaks both official Malagasy and the Tanala dialect. He translates the stories from Malagasy to Tanala, after which Jurgen and he go through each and every story in detail checking the content against the Bible and making sure the stories are easy to understand. When Jurgen was well again Menja was very busy finishing the school year, and after that he became ill for weeks.

Halfway through July we had only one week left before having to return to the capital for supplies and paperwork. We were somewhat discouraged and felt we had accomplished little. We noticed that our friend Menja, although recovered from sickness, also seemed gloomy. He told us he was not able to visit his family for lack of money as he had not been payed his wages for seven months!

We suggested Menja we would pay him for every Bible story he translated. He did not agree: he liked helping and between friends no wages should be payed. 'How would you feel about a gift for every story you complete?' we asked. His face broke into a smile. We soon agreed on the size of the gift and half a week later he had completed the whole first set: we now have 40 stories to work on! Unexpectedly we left our village quite content, and Menja was able to leave the next day to visit his parents.