This is a journal made by those who work for or work with Makarios. We invite anyone who has been involved with our work to post thoughts and stories. For more information on our organization, please visit our website at www.makariosinternational.org

Tuesday, May 31, 2005

we love teachers!

posted by Sharla

there are several teachers in the group from the austin stone and they collected all manner of educational supplies from their students and fellow teachers at the end of the school year (last week). i was just over at Allison's apartment sorting through it all, and i'm telling you what, that stash rivals even the largest of pencil shops. okay, i have not actually ever been to a pencil shop, but if i had been, i'm sure my observation would have been the same. there are pencils, pens, crayons, glue, notebooks, etc. it's so exciting! the kids are going to love it! and we'll be able to provide all 200+ kids in our programs with full back to school gear. thank you, austin!

AND a big fat thank you to the people of westlake bible church who collected shoes, swimsuits, underwear, and other articles of clothing for our kids. we're taking some of the kids to the beach (most of whom have never been even though it's only a few minutes away) and they don't have anything to wear in the water. they will LOVE having swimsuits. i can't wait to see their faces!

so to all of you out there in donationville, THANK YOU! be watching for pictures of kids in their swimmies have the time of their vida at the beach!

Sunday, May 29, 2005

Preparing for the groups

Posted by Brian

We have just a little over a week until the first of 2 groups arrive to work with us this summer. We are planning a multilingual concert in which Josh Davis is going to perform. This concert is intended to bring Haitians and Dominicans together for worship. To say that the relations between these two countries are strained right now is an understatement. In the past month there have been mass repatriations of haitians living in the DR. Thousands have been arrested and sent back to Haiti. This stems from an incident where alledgedly 2 haitians killed a couple in a campo area close to Puerto Plata. In our neighborhood we have found signs posted on telephone poles saying "get out haitian invaders" and have a drawing of a person being hung.
Thsi is not a feeling shared buy the majority of Dominicans but when things go wrong there is a tendency to blame others and Haitians are always around to be the scapegoat.

Continue to pray for the children of the bateys and Bethany's health.

Wednesday, May 25, 2005

from Josh Davis

Josh was having some technical difficulties posting this, so he emailed this to me:

Hi! this is my first blog ever, and i am quite excited, even after a 14 hour work day so far!

For years i have prayed about relationships between Dominicans and Haitians. In fact, it was my first "up close" loo
k at racism and discrimination. I can remember riding in a concho with my friend "roberto" who was a haitian guy and seeing all the looks the people gave him, and hearing all the insults muttered quietly. I also have this vivid recollection of a Dominican guy on a bicycle riding by and hitting this Haitian guy on the head as he passed. Many Dominicans see Haitians as "sub-human"...so I am thrilled that PROSKUNEO (www.proskuneo.info) gets to team up with MAKARIOS for two days in the DR.

PROSKUNEO exists to promote unity in the body of
Christ through multi-lingual, multicultural worship gatherings...(sounds like a mission statement, doeesn't it...well it is!) and I am so excited for this first attempt to bring Dominicans and Haitians together. Some of the ones that will be there are already brothers and sisters in Christ. We just are giving them the opportunity to recognize it, and celebrate it a little bit, as we adore GOD together. What a testimony to the watching world as Dominicans and Haitians worship GOD together and love each other in the process. man! I get a big smile on my face just thinking about it. So, that is where we are...pray for the process if you think about it. That GOD's kingdom will come and HIS will be done on earth like it is in heaven...

more later, as we celebrate what GOD does...
Josh Davis

Saturday, May 21, 2005

bringing nations together in worship

posted by Sharla

one of the things that the Lord has laid on my heart is racial reconciliation between the Haitians and Dominicans. the majority of the kids in our programs are either Haitian or Dominicans of Haitian descent, and the relationship between this people group and Dominicans is strained at best, with a history of violence and political unrest. on june 13th and 14th, we'll be able to address this issue head-on. we'll be teaming up with Josh and Jennifer Davis of proskuneo ministries (http://www.proskuneo.info/) to hold two evenings of multilingual worship events. local Haitian and Dominican churches will be helping to host the event, in which the gospel will be clearly communicated. We'll be worshipping the Lord in song in Spanish, Creole, and some English (we'll have a work team there from Austin). If you've ever been in a multilingual group singing the same song at the same time in different languages, you know how cool that is. to have different cultures come together to worship the Lord WITHOUT language being a barrier is an awesome thing. thanks to World Missionary Press, we'll have Bible literature in Spanish and Creole to pass out afterwards. please pray for these events! there is so much that goes into them - translation, renting equipment, including a generator because the power goes out regularly, advertising, busing people in, etc. pray that the gospel will be clearly communicated and that God will squelch the conflict between these groups - both those who are in attendence and others across the island.

Saturday, May 14, 2005

summertime in the DR

posted by Sharla

We have a summer of activity coming up in the DR. I'll be there for the month of June, in which we'll have work teams for three weeks. We're hoping to build our first education center, but it's been hard to find land in Pancho Mateo. If that doesn't work out for this summer, the teams will work on other projects like building playgrounds and sports fields. Generally they spend half of their time on the work project and the other half working with the kids.

We also have an exciting opportunity to join up with Josh Davis and Proskuneo Ministries for two evenings of multilingual worship. Haitian and Dominican churches will be joining together to host these events. I am so excited about this as this will be a chance to bring together these two people groups (plus a group of Americans) under one roof to worship our one God in unity. Please pray that the walls that separate these cultures will be brought down and that many will come to know Christ as a result of this time. There are many details that need to be worked out, and we would appreciate your prayers.

Wednesday, May 11, 2005

Rainy day

Posted by Brian

Well we are almost underwater here in Puerto Plata. On the main roads there is close to a foot of standing water. The villages are much worse Pancho Mateo's road was a rapidly flowing stream and the village is about ankle deep in mud. We have had rain for about a day straight.

Yesterday we had a group from Santiago Christian School come up to work with us. Lindsay, the third grade teacher brought her class. There were 19 students with her and 5 parents. This was a real meeting of the two extremes of Dominican culture, the Santiago students represent the high class and the Pancho Mateo students represent the side that no one wants to admit exists.
Despite the differences in status, the overwhelming heat and the unsanitary conditions the children played games and read books well together. It is very apparent that the Santiago students have a far superior education than these other children. Hopefully this will make the Santiago students appreciate what they have. They ate lunch together because the SCS students brought 2 lunches each to share. Many of the Pancho Mateo children were not eating much adn some of the SCS students asked me why, I explained to them that the don't always have the luxury of having food like this so they were going to take it home to share with their families. It was a touching experience to see how the mom's were literally reaching into their purses to give anything the had to these children.
Continue to pray for Bethany and I as she has a doctors appointment today and we have some medical decisions to make in the near future.