Our Mission: Bring life to the people of Madagascar through the message of Jesus Christ. Our desire is to take the message of true life to the “land of the tree of life”

I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. John 10:10

Our Story

Phil started attending church at Baptist Temple in Springfield, Missouri through the bus ministry when he was three years old.  He grew up under the ministry of Dr. W.E. Dowell and gave his heart to the Lord when he was a freshman in high school.  Soon after, he surrendered his life to full time ministry while at a summer youth camp. After a year of college, Phil joined the United States Marine Corps where he served as a Presidential Guard in Washington D.C.  He completed one term in the Corps and then returned to Springfield, MO to complete his education at Baptist Bible College.  He graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Missions and Bible in May, 2003. 

Phil served on staff at Baptist Temple in Springfield, MO while completing his education at Baptist Bible College. During this time, he served in a variety ministries; from youth to young adult, and the bus ministry.   Phil surrendered to the mission field in the fall of 2000.  He felt the Lord burdening his heart for missions while attending the Missions Emphasis Week at BBC. Vala was saved when she was nine years old at a small church in Texas. When she was nineteen she joined Bellview Baptist Church in Springfield, Missouri by baptism.  A few months after joining Bellview, Vala surrendered her life to the Lord.  Phil and Vala were married in February 1996. The Lord has allowed them to serve side-by-side in ministry throughout their marriage. As newlyweds they served in the youth ministry as lay leaders and have continued to work alongside each other in whatever the Lord calls them to do. In 2003, after graduating from Bible College, the Longs began deputation to go to Scotland. They moved to Scotland in April 2006. Shortly afterward, the exchange rate for the British Pound rose sharply. The Longs continued to serve in Scotland until they finally had to return home in order to raise more support to counteract the ever-increasing exchange rate. In September 2007, Phil and Vala arrived in Lee’s Summit, MO to stay in a missions house while Phil traveled to raise additional support. To their dismay, the Lord closed the door for them to return to Scotland. However, God had a plan; He opened the door for Phil to join the staff at Abundant Life Baptist Church as the Outreach Pastor. Phil began his new position in March 2008 and Vala joined the staff in 2009. The Lord used the time at Abundant Life to teach and prepare Phil and Vala to better serve Him in ministry. What a privilege it has been for them to see so many people accept Jesus Christ as their Savior and be discipled in their new faith! Phil’s passion is preaching and teaching the Word of God. He had the opportunity to teach adult and children’s classes as well as preach on several occasions, but one of the biggest joys for Phil and Vala was the two young marrieds classes that they led on Sunday mornings. It was a tremendous blessing to see the Lord mold and shape the couples as Phil and Vala walked through some very difficult challenges with many of them. As the Outreach Pastor, Phil was also blessed with the opportunity to build bridges from the church into the community through partnering with the public school system, ministering as a chaplain with the police department, and leading many special outreach events.
 Vala served on the staff at Abundant Life for over four years. She enjoys serving people whenever needed, but her heart’s desire is teaching ladies about her Savior and their true value in Him. She also enjoyed being involved in the Worship Ministry and coordinating several short-term mission trips for the church. Phil and Vala have four children: Tabitha, Phillip, Gabriel, and Deacon. It is has been the biggest joy of Phil and Vala’s lives to see their children use their gifts to serve the Lord.

About Madagascar

Madagascar is truly a beautiful and diverse land – and the people are no different. While the world has poured millions of dollars into studying the unique plant and wildlife of the island, the people have been all but forgotten. But the people are why the Lord has called the Longs to go to Madagascar!

Madagascar is home to nearly 23 million people. The average income for a Malagasy is $1.68 per day and 70% of the population would be considered malnourished. One missionary said that the typical Malagasy family consists of a single mom and her 6 children. 

While about 50% of the population claim Christianity as their religion, in actuality they have integrated their traditional religion with Christianity. Malagasy people have a deep respect for their family – and ancestry worship is commonly practiced. Family tombs are usually spacious and well cared for. One of the rituals among the Malagasy people is the “famadihana” or the “turning of the bones.” In the famadihana, ancestral remains are exhumed, bathed, and reshroud in an expensive silk, then paraded among well-wishers in a great celebration. The idea behind the ritual is to reaffirm the connection between the living and the dead, and to ensure the protection afforded by the ancestors. There are several different versions of this ritual, but the consistent factor in all is the worship of ancestors.

In a land where the living barely have what is needed to survive, death is the focal point, and the only hope that people have is in their dead relatives. 

God has not forgotten the Malagasy People! The hope of Madagascar lies in Jesus Christ! Only Jesus can heal this broken and forgotten people, and it is our privilege to be called to take His message to them!  

Our Strategy

The Lord has given the Longs a vision to reach the people of Madagascar with His message, and they are trusting Him to move in a mighty way as they work to accomplish the goal. The Longs desire to start 7 churches in the capital city and 7 village churches within a 100 km radius from the city.
1) Reach and disciple individuals who will then reach out to other Malagasy people  Start 1 church and pour into the people who attend the church in a way that they will become mature, discipled believers so that they can then start other churches in different areas of the city.
2) Equip Malagasy believers to start 7 village churches  Identify individuals within the city churches who have roots in outlying villages and equip them to go into their own villages and reach other Malagasy people.  It is our desire to live out 2 Timothy 2:2 in a practical way on the island of Madagascar.
We want to REACH – GROW – REPRODUCE2
Timothy 2:2, “And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.”

Our Needs

Language School

We will actually need to learn 2 languages – French and Malagasy. The first portion of language study was in Massy, France at a language school for International French.  We completed this portion of our language study at the beginning of May 2018.
We will begin the Malagasy portion of our language study in September 2018. Please pray that we would be able to learn the Malagasy language well so that we can communicate the Gospel very soon to the people to whom the Lord has called  us. 

Home Set-Up

We purchased some things in the States and will be shipping them over to Madagascar, but there are other things we need to purchase here. The cost of setting up our home and settling into our new culture is an added expense and any help toward that is greatly appreciated! You can give directly to this by clicking on the “Donate Now” link. Please be sure to designate “Home Set-up” in the memo.
Thank you Cape Cod Church in Cape Cod, MA for contributing $500 in start-up costs!

Automobile

Once we have our home set up, we will begin to look at a car to purchase. This will be the largest expense of our move. We would love to purchase a 4X4 so that once we get into the bush ministry we have a vehicle that will operate well in the rough terrain, however they are very expensive. While we are in the capital city learning the language, we can use a smaller car. Whichever we purchase, the taxes will be very high; it almost doubles the cost of the vehicle. 
If you feel led by the Lord to donate toward the cost of a vehicle, you can give directly to this by clicking on the “Donate Now” link below. Please be sure to designate “Vehicle” in the memo.

Letter Update:

Dear Pastors and Prayer Partners,

Bonjour and Salama Ireo from the Big Red Island of Madagascar,

This April is the 10-year anniversary of the first time Vala and I set foot on the “Big Red Island” of Madagascar. In 2014, we were still on staff at our church and we were on a survey trip to see how we might be used once we moved here permanently. By the end of that survey trip, we were ready to make the move, but with missionary approval, deputation, and language school in front of us, we thought moving here seemed so far away. Yet ten years later, and here we are, almost a year into our second church plant, and we are still amazed at how God is working.

In our last update, I asked you to pray for us as we were going to be doing some teaching in preparation for the church’s first baptisms. The teaching went great! We did face some family opposition with some of the people who were wanting to be baptized, but are happy to report that seven people were baptized on Easter, one family had three generations baptized. One of our teenage young ladies who recently accepted Jesus came to Sarah and I after church one Sunday and pleaded with us to baptize her without her mom’s permission. She said, “Momma has already said no because of some witch doctor things, but I told her I don’t do that anymore because I am a Christian.” We told her we will needed to talk to her mom to get permission. Sarah and I went and spoke with her mom and we explained baptism and what it means, then she agreed to let her daughter be baptized. The young girl beamed with joy all the way out to the car because she did not think her momma would say yes. Well, on Easter Sunday, Momma came with her whole family and some of the extended family to see her get baptized. It has been awesome watching this young lady’s life-changing story play out. It was a great day for this new church!

Another thing that I asked you to pray with us about was our visa situation. For the last few years, the visas that have been granted to us have been getting short and shorter, which means as soon as we were finished with the paperwork for one visa, we had to start the paperwork for the next visa. It’s one of the challenges of missionary life, but it is also a lot of time that could be used to focus on ministry if we could just get a longer visa.

A few weeks ago, we received our latest visa and we were given ten-year visas! This is such a huge answer to prayer! We want to say thank you so much for praying for us over the past several weeks.

As we move into the next few months, please continue to pray with us as we explore some outreach opportunities into some new areas in our town. Ivato, where our church is located, is so densely populated with people that we have barely scratched the surface in reaching this community. Pray that we will be received and accepted as we continue our outreach into this community.

Again, thank you for praying for us, and please know we are also praying for you! Phil and Vala Long

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If you would like to stay updated with the Long family or feel led to give to help them on their journey, you can give your donations to Hickory Ridge Baptist Church. You can also stay connected with the Long family through their website. Click the button below.