Entering the City

Many of you have requested information on our mailing address. Here are some things to remember when mailing us.

1. Big boxes probably won't get to us. They cost a lot to ship and we have to pay customs on the contents. Customs inspectors often steal from these packages during the inspection process.  The mail system is improving and smaller boxes are now making it through on a more regular basis. However, Customs may still apply.
2. Large Padded Envelopes and SMALL Boxes usually do make it through with little problems.
3. Regular Mail will almost always make it.
4. It usually takes 3 weeks to reach us with mail.

We will have "mail call" once a week at our AIM team prayer meetings. At that time we will receive letters and notifications of packages. We will the travel into Tana to pick those up when we receive a notice at the main Post Office. 

Our mailing address is:

AIM
Plemens Family

BP 714

Antananarivo 101

Madagascar 

On Monday we got our first experience with public transportation. Getting on a crowded bus when you don't speak the language or really know where you are going is an eye opening experience. We took about a 10 minute ride to where the children will most likely attend school, the Madagascar Christian Academy, and took a tour of the grounds. The school has doubled in size in the last two years and is in the midst of a construction project slated to finish next week. Many of the Muslim factory owners send their children to this school in order to learn English. The school uses the same curriculum as the Mauldin Christian Academy, a ministry of our home church, so the children are not only learning English, they are hearing the Gospel everyday! The school was originally started as an MK (Missionary Kid) school but now has more Malagasy families and teachers than any other category. These are the students that Deborah will be working with every Wednesday afternoon at AMI.

Today we are going south into downtown Tana for the first time. We will be visiting the crowded streets and marketplaces to see what it is like. In my head, I already hear Steven Curtis Chapman singing "It's All Yours."

No matter where you walk today remember that God is with you, He was there before yo got there and He'll still be there when you depart. There are people who need to hear the Good News in your city just as there are here in Mada.

You are Plan A. There is no Plan B.