Red Island Restoration is a response to God’s leading in our lives to see Madagascar restored in Health, Forests and Hope in Christ. Jamie was born and raised in Madagascar as a missionary kid and as a result, has a deep understanding of Malagasy culture and language as well as a powerful love for his home country and the…

Everyday, over 800 women die in pregnancy or childbirth due to preventable causes. Most of these occur in the developing world. (WHO). Women throughout the world deliver their babies at home, alone and unassisted. Other times, they deliver in facilities that are understocked in equipment, medications and professional…

An all-too-often ignored fundamental cause of extreme poverty is environmental destruction. In Madagascar, radical deforestation is wreaking havoc on millions of villagers as over 90% of the nation’s forests have been destroyed due to slash and burn farming, charcoal production and clear-cut logging. With the loss of inland…

In 1999, Jamie and long-time friend and ministry partner, Josy, traveled to Mahabana to live and fish for three months. During this time, a small group gathered by candlelight to read the book of John. This small group became a regular Bible Study which then became a small church in a village that was taboo Jesus and the…

” Better to love God and die unknown than to love the world and be a hero; better to be content with poverty than to die a slave to wealth; better to have taken some risks and lost than to have done nothing and succeeded at it. –Erwin Lutzer “

Field Meetings

Field Meetings

Earlier this month, we had our annual WorldVenture field meetings, which consisted of a day of prayer, a day of business, a day of team building and a day of play.  Our immediate team recently tripled in size when our family of five and the Casurella family of four,...

POTW

POTW

Madagascar, probably like most other developing counties, is home to the “knock off” as seen here in this classic case... is this pair of shoes made by Reebok... or Nike... apparently the manufacturer couldn’t decide either.  

“For how long shall we let our women continue to die?”

“For how long shall we let our women continue to die?”

Last weekend our family traveled to Antananarivo, the capital city, so that I could attend a conference about “Ideas For Women’s Cancer Control in Africa”.  This conference, organized by TEDx, brought in specialists from several countries, including Italy, France,...

HOUSE!

HOUSE!

OK, so this is NOT our house... in fact, it’s NOTHING like our house... this house is in the remote village of Mahabana that we’ve been going to for the last 12 years... HOWEVER.. we DID GET THE HOUSE we were hoping and praying for!  If you don’t get our newsletters,...

Field Trip to the School for the Visually Impaired

Field Trip to the School for the Visually Impaired

Yesterday our Malagasy class took a field trip to a school for visually impaired children.  The purpose of such field trips is to not only to be able to listen and speak in Malagasy but also to raise our cultural awareness.  I love these field trips and find them...

OUCH!

OUCH!

Last week I finally had a chance to pull out my mother-in-law’s old Singer sewing machine.  Sewing was a wonderful hobby that Bonnie and I enjoyed doing when we lived together 9 years ago.  She passed away in January 2010 and I consider this sewing machine to be a bit...