brian and yaina

I don't know if I'm spelling her name right, but here is a picture of Brian and a sweet girl in Chichigua, Yaina. Please pray for this village of about 100 people - that they will accept God's love and salvation and that He will meet their spiritual and physical needs.

1st TUFW student (of a whole half dozen) to reply

Hey, just wanted to drop in and say..."hey." It's great being back in the coldness and flatness of the heartland. Our experience down there was great...except for those eight legged things the size of my hand. Anyways...I wish we could have done more to improve the conditions of all the villages, but as it was clear, it will be a miracle if we could even get Chichigua taken care of.
I was going to ask you to say hey to Ruben for me, but he might recognize Kristen's words a lot better: "Ruben, what's he dippity doin'?"
...
Hopefully I could find the next trip down there and, if God lets it be, go. Say Hi to Cosquito for me (or however you spell his name.

TU-FW Group

Posted by Brian

Well we just finished hosting a Group from Taylor University Fort Wayne. They were here on a mission trip for a college class. It was fun getting to know them and work with them. We are still singing and humming the catchy tunes that their puppets sang for the children. The children thoroughly enjoyed the puppet show and skits they performed.
One cool thing they did was buying water filters for a small village with no access to any clean water. Previously the village got their water as it rained from a road side ditch that collects water as it runs off the sugar cane fields and down the road. They use this water for washing and bathing. It is very dirty. A few monthes ago, with the help of other missionaries we were able to get them a tank that holds 300 gallons of water, we have that filled once every 2 weeks with a water service truck that has a tank on the back of a flat bed truck, but this water is not clean enough for drinking. Now with the 8 filters they have they will be able to clean this water. This alone should cut down on many of the health problem they have.
Continue to pray for the Dominican Republic and Haiti, especially the Haitian elections on February 7.

the puppet show

a week in santiago

posted by sharla

we just returned to the north coast after spending a week in santiago. the group did their puppet show for a variety of kids - at shelley's preschool, at a village near Ruben's, and in cien fuegos, a village that lives off of a dump. they also had the opportunity to go to a home for crippled children and help feed them their lunch. the kids there enjoyed playing with the puppets. you'll have to hear more about this from the group members. hopefully they'll post some blogs about their experiences here and then you'll be able to see it through their eyes. they're going on three weeks here and have a lot of stories.

thank you for praying for us and for this group!

The Latest Group

Posted by Brian:

The latest group to come down to the Dominican Republic with makarios is a group of college students fro Taylor University Ft. Wayne. This trip fulfills on e of their credits to graduation.
The group spent the past week with Beth and I in on the North Coast of the D.R. they spent time going around to some areas and doing puppet shows and playing games with the children. The performed in all the villages we work in and in a public school. It was great to see the children in all the villages react to the puppets. There were only about 2 in the whole week that were scared, the rest sang the songs and did the motions along with the puppets. In most cases at least a few children reacted in astonishment at how the puppets were singing. The funniest overall reaction was probably in Los Cocos, a tiny Haitian village were most people speak little Spanish. The children were silent here but the adults were laughing uproariously and loving the show. One adult even casually walked back behind the stage to see how the puppets really worked. It was great and it was a great chance to share Gods word with all the people in a little of an unusual manner.
Please pray for the DR and Haiti, tensions are high between the 2 countries because of an incident this past week where 24 hating were asphyxiated while being illegally smuggled into the DR. Also Haiti has elections coming up on February 7th.

new year, new groups, new fun

posted by sharla

happy 2006! our first group of the new year is currently in the DR working with Brian and Bethany. They will be there for three weeks total. They're from Taylor University, Ft. Wayne, Indiana. I leave tomorrow for ten days to take them to Santiago for some other ministry and cultural activities. Please pray for our health and safety, for open hearts, and for the Lord's direction in what we do and how we do it.

being from Indiana, this group happens to be Colts fans, and it just so happens that the Colts are playing my Steelers on Sunday in the playoffs. perhaps you should pray for this as well...I'll have to watch the game surrounded by Colts fans!

aaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwww yeah!

posted by sharla

you knew this was coming, right? This is pretty unrelated to Makarios, but this was THE highlight of my life as a sports fan (since the steelers won all 4 of their superbowls before I was 5 years old). And I say "pretty unrelated" because several UT organizations have donated items to makarios' programs. Anyway, what an amazing game!!! if you didn't watch (now that I'm in ohio for a few days I've realized that not everyone did), come over to my place. I tivoed it.

I'd like to specifically thank the aggies who cheered on the horns. I heart all of you. oh and a special shout out to one of my best aggies, chelsea, who said "I'd say good luck against USC but... (ha, ha, ha)" who's laughing now? vince and me. nosotros dos.

I'm just livin' the dream, ya'll. and come on, Vince, let's go for two.