“…this month has mostly been focussed on learning Malagasy. We spent the first half of the month learning and practicing what is called the passive tense in Malagasy. It can be used in lots of situations where only the active voice is normally used in English (e.g the equivalent of ‘the chair is being sat on by me’ – would be a common way of saying I am sitting on the chair). At the end of the block of lessons we began learning the third verb tense called the relative form which doesn’t have an equivalent in English.

Apparently using the active or passive or relative forms alters the emphasis of the sentence but that is a nuance of Malagasy we have yet to develop a feel for. Our level is still more that of wild gesturing while butchering the language but we will get there.  Please pray for a trip Graeme is making up the coast this weekend to observe Pastor Guim’s ministry to a Sakalava village; for our continued language learning; and for a ministry proposal we are going to write.”