For the fifth time in six weeks, heavy rain and destructive wind are blowing into Madagascar from the Indian Ocean. Tropical Cyclone Emnati made landfall along the eastern coast between the cities of Mananjary and Manakara late on February 22, 2022.

In January 2022, a series of torrential tropical rainstorms was followed by tropical depression and storm Ana. February brought Cyclones Batsirai and Dumako. Now Cyclone Emnati is headed for landfall in the same region where Batsirai flooded and displaced thousands of people.

Former Bishop Lowell Almen writes:

The people of the Malagasy Lutheran Church and the whole population of the island of Madagascar have seen massive devastation from storm after storm. Imagine part of the U.S. with nearly weekly hurricanes. That essentially is what has happened for Madagascar.

Sitting off the coast of southeastern African, the island seems to escape the attention of much of the world.  The people of that church — a member church with the ELCA of the Lutheran World Federation — need to be remembered in prayer. 

Shalom, 

The Rev. Lowell G. Almen