(Stephen and Cecilie Thomas and their daughter Charlotte arrived in Madagascar in September 2019 after a long time of preparing. The first year has been reserved for language studies in Antsirabe, where Cecilie lived as a missionary-kid 18 years earlier. After the initial year Stephen will mostly work in administration and Cecilie will help the local bible-translators deepen their understanding of Bible-background and culture. Their daughter Charlotte’s main job is to play.

Recently they were ordered to return quickly to Norway, an event Cecilie has written about below.)

 

When you are given approximately 12-hours notice to leave your house, friends and colleagues, find somewhere safe to store your car, pack, buy plane- tickets and leave the country for an unknown amount of time, how do you prioritize? Our daughter was asleep when the message from the board of Wycliffe Norway came to us: “We want you to come back to Norway as soon as possible, preferably tomorrow!” The borders were going to close in Madagascar in a few days and in Norway the very next day. The news took us by surprise and for a moment there we could not get our heads to work properly. Whilst one of us was on the phone trying to get tickets to Norway, the other one tried to locate the winter clothes we had stored somewhere; pack a suitcase in a hurry, and try to organize messages to the appropriate people. We had just restocked on food and water the day before and were prepared to have a nice and relaxing weekend. After a few hours of sleep we started the near 5 hour journey to the airport. We had no time to mentally prepare our 3-year old, no time to say goodbye or to leave the house tidy and give away all the food we had bought.

We felt a bit like thieves fleeing in the night when after parking our car with some friends, a taxi driver came to pick us up to take us to the airport. He whispered a little hello and we drove off in silence. Outside the airport reporters were lined up to document all the foreigners leaving the country, but thankfully they left us alone. We were a little anxious about the journey, not knowing if we would be allowed to travel all the way or if we would be put in quarantine somewhere along the way. We also were not sure how our three year old would cope with seeing people wearing face masks and with the unexpected rushed travel. But she thought it was a great adventure and had a lovely time. In France we were told we would be put in quarantine at the first airport we landed on in Norway and would have to stay there for two weeks. Thankfully that was not the case and we were allowed to travel all the way to my parents house. We really felt God’s protection over us throughout.

During our two week quarantine-time in Norway we had to try and find a new normal. After a busy 48 hours preparing and traveling it was nice to take it easy for a few days. Our stay in Norway has already been longer than we hoped for and have now arranged for our belongings to be put into storage in Madagascar. For the most part we are able to continue our language learning remotely. We are very thankful that we have enough to do and that the internet connection has been good enough for us to continue working. Our hope is to return to Madagascar as soon as borders reopen.