I have concluded by the sticker on each of our tardy suitcases from Air France that the "Z" is French for "make zure zees sootcase eez zee last one off zee plane." For the record, we all have our missing luggage, except for ACU trustee Joe Powell from Paducah, Ky. He is being a better sport about it than most of us would be.
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Congratulations for Abilene Christian University, President Marc Ravalomanana, and the ACU Madagascar graduates of 2008 and their families! It has been exciting to learn about your achievements through the websites of ACU and the Madagascar Presidency.
I equate these ACU and Ravalomanana endeavors to those of the British rulers and King Radama I who sent to England students to be British educated. In 1821 seven boys from Madagascar were enrolled at the Borough Road School in Southwark, south London. The influence of their education lasted beyond the French colonization of Madagascar 1896-1960.
It is my hope that the ACU leadership and Marc Ravalomanana will find one day the resources to create an ACU campus at Antananarivo, where Christian education will be dispensed in English throughout the programs. Madagascar really needs a sort of Science and Technology institute to graduate 100 plus students per year. Besides, Madagascar could be a living laboratory for study abroad programs, such as in biology and zoology and sociology, for the ACU studentships at large.
I would equate such idea with Radama I’s initiative who invited the Protestant London Missionary Society (LMS) to “spread the words of Jesus Christ” and bring technology in Madagascar. The MLS missionaries arrived in Madagascar in 1818. The LMS brought a printing press, and devised a Roman character written form of the Malagasy language. The MLS developed many craft industries, from the traditional wood and iron work to European methods. From 1820 to 1835 they opened the first schools in Madagascar, founded the first protestant church, and translated the entire Bible into Malagasy.
Although founded in 1968, the Church of Jesus Christ in Madagascar (FJKM) is a direct fruit from the LMS work. The FJKM is the union of three churches which arose out of the work of the London Missionary Society, the Paris Missionary Society and the Friends Foreign Mission Association. As a living proof that the work of the LMS is still alive to date, suffice it to say that the present lay vice-president of the FJKM is no less than Marc Ravalomanana himself!
Your earnest and conscientious activities intended to accomplish good deeds in Madagascar are remarkable. May “the glorious gospel of the blessed God” be with all of you. God bless!
With my best regards from Lexington, Kentucky.
Bruno Rabarison
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