In every nation, tribe, language, people, and in the islands of the sea, God has in reserve a firmament of chosen ones that will shine in the midst of the darkness of this world. Madagascar in the Indian Ocean is one of these islands of the Lord.

The Reform Movement arrived in Madagascar when a family, interested in living a reformed life, came across the SDARM website and contacted the GC Secretary who after a brief time of online communication with the interested brethren, asked Brother John Bosco, the Regional Secretary of Northern Africa, to visit these interested souls. Brother Bosco promptly arranged to visit Madagascar and, after the necessary preparation, organized the work there.

In just four years, the brethren have 130 baptized members, and they have organized 12 small groups; they have five part-time workers. The brethren are very happy, united, and fervent in the work of God’s vineyard.

This West African nation is also growing fast. In the report prepared for the delegation session up to December of 2018, it shows 14 members, now at the time of writing this article. I received the report showing that 24 more souls have joined the church of God during these last six months therefore, we currently have 38 members in Togo and more souls are being prepared for baptism.

Young people, adults, and elderly brethren have joined their efforts with faithful missionaries. Evangelistic meetings were held in different countries around the world, thus helping to established the work in missions recently formed. Souls are being added to the flock of God by the work of missionaries who are willing to sacrifice all for the cause of Christ.

“To everyone who offers himself to the Lord for service, withholding nothing, is given power for the attainment of measureless results. For these God will do great things.

“To young men and young women, as well as to those who are older, God will give power from above. With converted minds, converted hands, converted feet, and converted tongues, their lips touched with a living coal from the divine altar, they will go forth into the Master’s service, moving steadily onward and upward, carrying the work forward to completion.”1

“The facts are before us. The burden bearers among us are dropping off into the silent grave. The active members of the church, the true workers in all reforms, are mostly past the meridian of life, and are declining in physical and mental strength. We should anxiously contemplate who are to rise up and fill their places. To whom are to be committed the vital interests of the church? The question may be asked by us with the deepest concern, Who will bear the responsibilities of the cause of God when a few more standard-bearers fall? We can but look anxiously upon the youth of today as those who must take these burdens, and upon whom responsibilities must fall. They must take the work where others leave it; and their course will determine whether morality, religion, and vital godliness shall prevail, or whether immorality and infidelity shall corrupt and blight all that is valuable. It is the way the standard is carried now that will determine the future.”2

Are you willing to answer the call and go wherever God leads you? The work needs to go forward and God is calling those who are willing to serve. Are you willing to say: “Here I am, send me”?

“The solemn, sacred message of warning must be proclaimed in the most difficult fields and in the most sinful cities, in every place where the light of the great threefold gospel message has not yet dawned. Everyone is to hear the last call to the marriage supper of the Lamb. . . .

“Countries hitherto closed to the gospel are opening their doors, and are pleading for the Word of God to be explained to them. Kings and princes are opening their long-closed gates, inviting the heralds of the cross to enter. The harvest truly is great. Eternity alone will reveal the results of well-directed efforts put forth now.”3

In some of the countries not yet reached, we have already interested souls who are looking forward to receiving further studies. Means are needed to send missionaries to attend these souls, so please remember these souls in your prayers and when giving your offerings to new missions. A great task is still before us to continue spreading the work in the countries already reached and in countries still missing.

“And it is necessary that the best kind of labor be given. The time has come, the important time, when, through God’s messengers, the scroll is being unrolled to the world. The truth comprised in the first, second, and third angels’ messages must go to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people; it must lighten the darkness of every continent and extend to the islands of the sea.”4

“Although there are evils existing in the church, and will be until the end of the world, the church in these last days is to be the light of the world that is polluted and demoralized by sin. The church, enfeebled and defective, needing to be reproved, warned, and counseled, is the only object upon earth upon which Christ bestows His supreme regard. The world is a workshop in which, through the cooperation of human and divine agencies, Jesus is making experiments by His grace and divine mercy upon human hearts.

“God has a distinct people, a church on earth, second to none, but superior to all in their facilities to teach the truth, to vindicate the law of God. God has divinely appointed agencies—men whom He is leading, who have borne the heat and burden of the day, who are cooperating with heavenly instrumentalities to advance the kingdom of Christ in our world. Let all unite with these chosen agents, and be found at last among those who have the patience of the saints, who keep the commandments of God, and have the faith of Jesus.”5

May the prayer of Jesus be answered in our lives, uniting us for the great task before us, and thus in many souls will see and know that we are one in Christ and will have the desire to be part of this great family.

“I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me” (John 17:23).