Couple find refuge in Grand Rapids from turmoil in Madagascar

Lala and Zoe Rasendrahasina looked back with laughter when discussing the dangerous days following his arrest last month in Madagascar. She wanted to stay at home after Rasendrahasina was released. Feeling threatened, he wanted to be on the move and sought the hospitality of friends.

"So why did you come with me?" Rasendrahasina asked.

"Because you need me," his wife answered.

Now, Zoe Rasendrahasina has followed her husband to Grand Rapids where the couple have made a home away from home as they await safe return to Madagascar. Lala Rasendrahasina, president of the country's largest Protestant church, believes he can play a role in resolving a political crisis that has erupted on the island nation off the coast of Africa in the Indian Ocean.

Yet, as Zoe Rasendrahasina notes, "he's afraid."

The news he sees on the Internet "still makes me uncomfortable," he said.

"The first priority is safety and security. Without that, we cannot function properly," said Rasendrahasina, president of the Church of Jesus Christ in Madagascar. "It seems that the mayor can't control (the military leaders), or at least some of them.

"Here (in Grand Rapids), we feel kind of free and peaceful. You don't have to think that maybe the military is coming to fetch you out."

Rasendrahasina said he was detained for six hours March 17 when Madagascar's president, Marc Ravalomanana, stepped down amid a violent conflict with an opposition movement. Andry Rajoelina, the former mayor of the country's capital, has seized power with military backing.

Rasendrahasina believes he was arrested because Ravalomanana is a lay leader in his church.

"People think I'm kind of his adviser. They took me as a kind of hostage," he said. "I had to move from place to place (after my release). I didn't sleep at home. So we decided to get away from the country for awhile."

Church reaches out to family

U.S. officials granted entry and Rasendrahasina, 50, looked to Grand Rapids where he lived while studying for a master's degree that he earned in 2001 at Calvin Theological Seminary. His family, including 20-year-old son, Fitahiana, is now living in an off-campus apartment owned by the seminary and worshipping at Woodlawn Christian Reformed Church, where Rasendrahasina made connections when he was a student here.

Woodlawn members have supplied the family with food and furnishings. Fita, who attended Millbrook Christian School when his father was a seminary student, has joined the church choir and performed in a Good Friday service last week.

The family's return to Madagascar depends on how the political situation progresses.

"We'll just give him shelter until it becomes clear what is going to happen," said Henry DeMoor, a Woodlawn member and seminary vice president of academic affairs. "We'll try to take care of him, sort of treat him like a refugee for awhile. You can't be an ally of (Ravalomanana's right now) and stay free."

Church has 4 million members

Rasendrahasina first came to Calvin on the advice of a professor in Madagascar who earned the seminary's first doctorate.

He now leads a church of 4 million members with about 5,000 congregations, including pastors supportive of Rajoelina, a Catholic.

From visits to churches around the country, Rasendrahasina said he can see that "people are happy with what the (Ravalomanana) government has done." And he said some of Rajoelina's supporters are corrupt, because "when I got arrested by the military I heard them arguing in the lobby about the money they got" to undermine the government.

Still, the church makes no political statement, he said.

"We, as a church, from the beginning have tried to mediate between the two parties. The church should have a role in finding a solution," Lala said. "Whichever government will be there should correct its way of conducting its affairs.

"Because of the situation we've had now, maybe it would be better for any leader to take into account any criticism (from opposition groups). They have done that, but maybe not enough. They need such criticism to adjust their way."


E-mail the author of this story: localnews@grpress.com
by Matt Vande Bunte | The Grand Rapids Press
Saturday April 18
http://www.mlive.com/living/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2009/04/couple_find_refuge_in_grand_ra.html