Toliara, Madagascar

Eliakim Monista was born and raised in the southern province of Toliara and attended a denominational church with his family. As a student, Eli decided that he wanted to learn English and came across the World English Institute website, an course that uses the Bible to teach English to non-English speakers. Once enrolled, he was taught by Vicki Murphy, a former member at Dalraida. During his study with WEI and Vicki, he came to an understanding of the Bible, the church, and the Gospel. He made the decision to be baptized into Christ!

Eli immediately began sharing the lessons he had learned with his friends and encouraged them to study with him. They began meeting each Sunday by the sea until the headmaster of the school in Toliara offered them a school room for meeting. Eli continued to teach his friends each week in the new meeting place, but he faced some backlash from his own family as they did not understand the Church as he now knew it. Eli leaned on the Murphys and the prayers from Dalraida to make it through these difficulties and his perseverance began to bring fruit with other conversions to the Lord.

As the church in Toliara has grown, they realized their spiritual development depends on reaching out to others and evangelize. So, they went to surrounding villages and began teaching the Gospel. These can be difficult trips because of the distance and not reachable by bicycle, so they cannot go regularly. However, the church has learned from the zeal of Eli and has a strong desire to teach in these villages so they go as often as they can.