It’s early. 4:45am in Antananarivo, Madagascar’s capital. The sun is slowly beginning to transform the world with light. But life has already begun here in the MAF hangar.
Passengers begin to arrive and the Cessna Caravan is prepared for departure. Coffee is poured and I sit to hear one passenger’s story. Her name is Hilde, and she looks very alive – even at this unearthly hour. I already sense God’s love within her.
Hilde Vlaminckx is a nurse. Origionally from Belgium, she first came to Madagascar in 1997, with a deep sense of God’s calling and a yearning to follow His plan for her life. Having worked for many years in a government hospital with pleasing benefits, a comfortable salary and a convenient proximity to her family, she began to feel God stirring her heart. Change was on the horizon, and Hilde didn’t feel comfortable any more.
Her first visit brought her to the Good News Hospital in Mandritsara, approximately an hour and a half's flight north of Antananarivo, the route we are flying today. This trip would take two long days by road. Her journey in Madagascar had only just begun, but it ended abruptly when she reached the hospital; Hilde knew this was where she would stay.
Since then, Hilde has never looked back. After initial stays between one and two years, she now lives permanently in Madagascar. Sponsored as a missionary by the international Christian NGO Tearfund, Hilde feels completely settled in this remote town. She shares a house with a Malagasy doctor who now feels like her sister. ‘And Mandritsara feels like my home.’
Although she began as a practicing nurse at the Good News Hospital, Hilde now trains Malagasy to become nurses. 'They come to Mandritsara for three years, then leave fully qualified,' Hilde told me, once we were in settled in the aircraft.
'It's a very practical way of sharing Jesus. We may not speak about Christ with every word, but in our actions we do. Many have come to the hospital and have been trained, helped and healed. It's our way of doing the Gospel work.'
Hilde says that it is the Malagasy people coupled with God's call on her life that keeps her going. 'Yes there are challenges, but I know I am meant to be here,' she says.
'I'm not trained as a teacher but I am teaching - so this job can be challenging sometimes. But so many come from far away to be treated, I know it’s worthwhile. Women can give birth safely and babies are saved. Major wounds are treated. That's what keeps me going.'
Hilde says that a lot of the patients they treat come with injuries suffered on the road, because travelling overland can be extremely dangerous.
'Taxi-bus accidents happen a lot where vehicles turn upside down. Also people get injuries from cow horns, or they can lose an arm during tree-felling. Sometimes people walk for three days carrying others on a stretcher. The next hospital is 250km away.'
When I ask her about her experience with MAF, she doesn’t hesitate. ‘There is a lot of coming and going with MAF! People have become so used to seeing the aircraft that at the hospital people say, “Look! There’s our plane coming!” I hope no one thinks it’s really ours – we don’t have that kind of money!
‘But the MAF pilots – they are so flexible, helpful and always kind. Today I almost didn’t have a seat, but now I’m here! They work hard to find a solution and fit everyone in. I’m very thankful.’
Hilde and the rest of the team at the Good News Hospital are certainly humble. They have followed God’s call to work in a very challenging and deprived part of the world.
‘Sometimes I feel like such a small part of God’s big plan,’ Hilde says. ‘I even think, “Oh, other people are actually doing much more for the Gospel than me!” But then I realise that we can all believe that. Perhaps you do it in your office, or in the plane, or in the hospital – but we are all part of God’s big plan. We must each do our small part, be part of a project but also know our own personal vision and faith within ourselves. As long as we are giving to the poor, feeding the hungry and visiting the prisoners - together we can all make a big difference for Christ. It’s not our words. It’s what we do with our lives.’
