The Ellingson Family

The Ellingson Family

David and Ashley Ellingson are missionaries to the island nation of Madagascar, Africa.

David and Ashley Ellingson are missionaries to the island nation of Madagascar, Africa.

David and Ashley Ellingson are missionaries to the island nation of Madagascar, Africa.

David has the privilege of training indigenous pastors in the Scriptures, theology, counseling, and preaching God’s Word, so they can properly feed and shepherd their flocks. By God’s grace, his team is accomplishing this training through workshops, conferences, and through the first biblical seminary in Madagascar focused on expository preaching: Madagascar 3M Preaching Institute.

David and Ashley also love their local church: Ankadivato Biblical Baptist Church. David is a Bible study shepherd and a teacher for the men’s group. David and Ashley also serve this local body of believers through hospitality, discipleship, neighborhood evangelism, and serving on the new visitor welcome team.

God has richly blessed them with four daughters: Isabella (June 2010), Lydia (June 2011), Anna (April 2013), and Clara (January 2015).

Why Madagascar?

In my first year of seminary a missionary came and spoke to the students during chapel. He challenged us to consider serving in other countries rather than the USA. He helped us see that in most other countries, Christians may want training in theology and preaching but have no access to it. We decided to pray seriously about this need and God gave us the increasingly strong desire to serve as missionaries in a country that lacked access to sound biblical training and resources.

Many people have asked us why we chose the country of Madagascar. We never pursued a specific country, but rather a specific type of ministry and ministry partners. We wanted to serve in a country where I could train indigenous pastors, and work alongside men with the same doctrine and commitments. In the Lord’s providence, He connected us with a Malagasy family also at seminary: Faly and Lily Ravoahangy. We shared a common desire to train and equip national pastors for the work of ministry.

The Country of Madagascar and the City of Tana

Madagascar is a beautiful country with friendly people. Despite plentiful resources and great potential, the country is one of the poorest in the world. Many people cannot find sufficient work to support their family, corruption is rampant, and many are suffering. But there is power in the Gospel! Many Christians are hungry for God’s Word and pursue training in sound doctrine and ministry.

Overview of the Madagascar 3M Preaching Institute (3MPI)

“3M” corresponds to three Malagasy words which translate to “Preacher-Shepherd-Slave”. Our aim is to train men to be powerful preachers of God’s Word, faithful shepherds of God’s flock, and humble slaves of Christ.

Our training model can be summarized by three key words: identifying, training, and equipping.

  • First—we aim to identify men that God may be calling into ministry—those who evidence Godly character, who are already connected and serving in a local church, and who have a desire to faithfully herald the truth of God’s Word to others.
  • Second—we aim to train the men to be faithful preachers of God’s Word, compassionate shepherds of God’s flock, and to recognize that they are slaves of Christ who must lead through serving others.
  • Third—we aim equip the men we have trained with the tools that will aid them in their ministry such as providing them access to solid biblical resources, by giving them practical ministry experience—especially in expository preaching and biblical counseling, and by modeling how to entrust sound doctrine to other faithful men after them who can then teach others also (2 Tim 2:2). The end goal is “the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the full knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ” (Eph 4:12–13).

Connect with Us