getting babies to smile

jacob and isaac are happy, smiley babies. but you put a camera in front of them and they get very serious. what is this thing? what is sharla doing with it in our faces? and more importantly, where's lunch?

A Few of My Favorite Things (at Los Algidones)

The morning of July 12, we went to the village of Los Algadones. About 20 of the kids ran out to greet our vehicles. They were trying to jump into our small pick-up truck as we drove into their village! Some made it into the bed of our pick-up, others lept onto the running boards and held on the outside of the truck. The kids were just so alive and ready to play! Some of the Austin Stone group immediately began playing soccer with a number of kids. Some village girls sat our girls down and began braiding hair. Another group of kids had some of us sit in a circle with them to play Duck, Duck, Goose (Pato, Pato, Ganzo). However, we soon learned that they played by their very own set of rules! I was quickly chosen as the Ganzo, so I jumped up and began chasing the little guy around the circle. All was normal until he passed by my spot, where he should have sat down, and continued running and running! So, I changed directions and almost caught him. Before I gave up, I changed directions a few more times, both of us now laughing hysterically. Another highlight there was holding a child’s hand in mine and saying, “1, 2, 3, JUMP!” and when they jumped, I lifted them way high! They squealed with delight! There were 4 kids wanting to be lifted over and over. Then, I played Ring Around the Rosie with 4 or 5 kids. It was such fun watching them respond as I sang “1, 2, 3 and we all fall down” – considering they didn’t seem to know any English! When we had played that game awhile, one kid didn’t want to let go of my hands. He wanted to be spun around in the air by his hands, so I agreed. However, I felt so faint after all the spinning, that I went to sit on a tire laid against a tree. Two 2 year olds, followed me over and sat on my lap. They had an entire conversation, in Creole, while sitting contentedly! After awhile, I started singing to them as many of the Spanish lyrics to Jesus Loves Me as I could remember. Then, I started playing Patty Cake with the little girl, changing the nursery rhyme lyrics from “mark it with a B” to “mark it with a J for Jesus Christo and me.” They both loved it and others saw us and waited their turn to play. These were a few of my favorite things during my one visit to Los Algidones... Please pray for spiritual growth there!

Cooking 101 with Luz and Doci

Once upon a time, after being here in the Makarios house for a week, I attempted to make scrambled eggs for breakfast. There was no need for cautiousness or concern, as I have frequently made eggs in the states, with no problems. Well, apparently the egg shells here are quite a bit thinner... The first egg I cracked shattered right in my hand and the egg slid through my fingers, onto the counter, then off the counter and onto the floor! Oops! SO, with the next egg, I tapped it more gently on the counter, hoping for better results. But, NO! Again, it shattered, ran through my fingers, onto the counter, and onto the floor - only this time, our "House Helper", Doci, saw it all happen! She quickly helped me wipe the egg goo off the counter, off the side of the counter, and off the floor. Then, with a smile on her face, she demonstrated for me the correct way to crack the egg. Apparently, you need to cradle it in your hand and gently tap it one time with the side of a fork. This opens it enough to then gently pull it appart. Hmmm... So, 3 days later, I again attempted to make eggs for breakfast. This time both "House Helpers", Luz and Doci, stood an arm's length away as I cracked an entire dozen of eggs. It took a few minutes, as this time I was extremely cautious - feeling the pressure of spectators and everything! :) I'm glad to report, every egg was cracked successfully, without any escaping onto the floor! At the end, the 3 of us all cheered and laughed! :) Good times!

posted by Byron, who is sad to be leaving the Dominican Republic soon.

We have been blessed to have the Freeman Family here this week - Matt, Chris, Zach, and Kaili. Having a family in the house rather than a group of young adults provides a different environment, but Zach and Kaili have been seeing and experiencing a different life here through the ministry and it has been awesome to see things from their perspective. The last two afternoons we took kids from chichigua to the beach and to the park. For American kids, even the poor ones, its nothing to be able to go to the park or even the beach if they live nearby. For the kids in chichigua, they were absolutely thrilled just at the mention of it. When we drove back into the village this afternoon to pick up the younger kids to take them to the park, they were all waiting for us. Not only that, but they were all dressed up! Usually, when we see these kids in the village, they are wearing just underwear, sometimes pants, and if you're lucky a shirt. Well all the kids had on all three plus shoes. But even beyond that, the clothes they had on were clean and even in some cases, matching. For them, this was a big deal! Then, the excitment of the kids as we loaded them into the truck and drove out of the village.

I was again humbled by the things I take for granted in life and how something simple like this can truly bless these children.

1 baby, 2 baby, 3 baby, 4

posted by sharla, getting ready to go to her favorite country

the Lord has opened the door for us to partner with a missionary couple in the DR and start a foster care ministry. just as we were emailing about it, I got a call from a woman in the DR who is taking care of two adandoned Haitian kids - a 2 and a half year old girl and a 15 month old boy. she will be moving back to Canada soon as has asked us to take Zoe and Ian. we love babies, so of course we have no choice! actually, it was a confirmation of God's plan for us to start this ministry. I leave for the DR this evening and will pick up the kids on Saturday. Fortunately, we have a lot of baby supplies from the collections we've held for Isaac and Jacob, so we're all set!

We will have all 4 babies this week, so I'll post some pictures soon.

Please pray for these babies and for their future!

Photos from the Austin Stone

Water for Chichigua

Fruit for Negro Melo

"Walking A Mile In Their Shoes..."

I know there have already been 2 other blogs posted that have mentioned this incident; however, I have been wanting to write up an "eyewitness account" as I know the story will touch your heart. Please take the time to read this and be blessed! So, Monday, July 10th, we were driving to the village of Chichigua with the Austin Stone group. As we drove, we recognized a family, from that village, walking down the road with armfuls of empty jugs. Realizing they were going for water, a few of us immediately thought out loud that we should go back for them. We dropped off the group to begin their ministries, and 3 of us headed back down the road. The family of a Mommy, 4 girls, and a boy, was so excited when we picked them up! It should be mentioned here that for us to drive from the village to the main road is a 10 minute drive. We expected the water source to be somewhere between where we picked the family up and the entrance to the main road. However, when we got to the main road, the Mother told us to turn left. As we drove down the main road, and continued driving, I found myself repeating, "I can't believe they walk this far for water! This must take them most of their day!" Eventually, we turned off the main road, onto another dirt road, and followed this down to a river. Here, we unloaded the 15 water bottles from the van. There were five 3-gallon size bottles with caps, ten 1-gallon vegetable oil containers without lids, and a 5-gallon water bottle we had in the van. Each person took a bottle or 2 and began crossing the shallow river. I noticed 2 girls were picking up rocks and putting them in a line across the riverbed. I found out later, that they were doing that for Ruby (the Austin Stoner who was with us) so that her shoes wouldn’t get wet. When she realized this, she immediately took off her shoes and just waded through. I was the last one to walk across, and began hesitantly, as many rocks were covered with moss. The oldest daughter put down her water jugs and came back to hold my hand steady as I crossed! After crossing, we went through a small clearing to the back of a one-room house. Here we found an elderly gentleman sitting in the shade, reading a Bible on his lap, and listening to a Christian radio program. After a brief conversation, the Mother began filling the water jugs, one at a time using this gentleman’s garden hose. As soon as one was filled, a daughter fastened the lid and hurried to carry it to the waiting van. When the next one was filled, another child did the same. Soon, every child had taken a water bottle back, and had returned with a smile on their face, ready to carry more. (Each time they returned, they were a little more wet than the trip before.) Ruby and I had been taking turns holding the toddler girl all this time. Now, we sat her down and each picked up a bottle to take across. It was definitely more challenging crossing the flowing water and its slimy rocks with a jug of water in your arms! Once back across, we realized that we couldn’t load the jugs on the van at the river’s edge because if we drove away down the rock path, the water would splash all over. So, Jill drove the van about 100 yards down the path to where it was more of a dirt road than a rocky path. Then, as the family enjoyed playing in the river, Jill, Ruby, and I carried each of the jugs down that rocky path to the waiting van. My body was exhausted after the 2nd or 3rd trip down that brief 100 yard path! I just could not believe this family would regularly take this trip on foot! Once in the van, Jill asked the Mother how often they came for water. She said every day. (For this village, sugar cane cutting season began this week and will continue for 3 months. During this season, the sugar cane company provides water in a cistern for their workers. According to this mother, during the other 9 months, she and her family walk daily for water.) Tears immediately came to my eyes as I imagined this family undertaking such a feat! As we pulled away, the 3 of us were talking about driving carefully so that we would loose the least amount of water possible from the 10 jugs without lids. Periodically, throughout the drive back Jill would ask Ruby, “How are the jugs?” EVERY TIME Ruby would respond that they hadn’t lost any water yet! We just couldn’t believe it! After about 10 minutes, I came to the conclusion that God must have sealed those jugs so that none of that precious water would be lost. Sure enough, at the end of the drive, not one drop of water had spilled from those jugs! This was just physically unexplainable considering the extremely bumpy roads we had to travel! Our bodies were jolted around every which way, yet no water was lost! Absolutely amazing – must have been God! By the way, the other group members were wondering where we were as the entire trip for water had taken us an hour and a half! We unloaded the van, and each of us carried numerous bottles up to the family’s tin house. They were so appreciative, hugging each of us over and over… After experiencing just a tiny bit of what this family goes through for useable water, we felt so burdened to help more. As we began sharing our experience with the group members, others became burdened to help as well. The Austin Stone group decided that very night to begin an ongoing project fund to bring usable water to the village of Chichigua in trucks during those 9 off-season months. Having only walked a few hundred yards with arms filled with water jugs, I can’t even say I’ve walked a mile in their shoes. But, oh my goodness gracious, what an impact that experience has had on my life! I feel so blessed to have been a tiny part of helping that family! I am so excited for the water that will arrive due to the generosity of the Austin Stone group who had willing hearts to make a world of difference to a little sugar cane village in the Dominican Republic! I pray that as this water comes to the village, that each villager will come to a saving knowledge of the One who provides Living Water! John 4:13-14 says: Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (Some of you, who have read previous posts about digging a well in this village may be wondering, “What happened to the well?” Yes, much effort went into digging a well. However, that groundwater has still not been tested for usability. Then, if the water is approved, the materials need to be purchased to pump up the water. Please continue to pray for this project!)

news from Kim Smith

here's an update from the Austin Stone's group leader, Kim Smith:

Well it's day five and we have much to report:

• One of us has ring worm (get excited!) - I'll leave it a mystery as to who - parents, don't worry we've got the best goo in the world on it & they will certainly live to tell about it ;)
• After picking up our last group member at the Puerto Plata International Airport, we headed to the beach & saw the most beautiful display of fury the ocean has to offer! It was just after sunset & the high tide was coming in with a vengence. I have never seen so many people be held captive by such a sight for so long - we'd have stayed all night if we could have!
• Today we went to two villages: Chichigua & Negro Melo. We gave out toothbrushes & toothpaste at both villages and did our VBS and sports ministry. We demonstrated how to brush your teeth & boy did they love it! Don't worry - we got picks to send to Colgate to secure future donations :) We thankfully have collected over 700 toothbrushes to give to the people in the villages & began that gift giving today & will continue with our time here.
• In Negro Melo - a few of us had the opportunity to pray over a woman who has been confined to her bed for 2 years. She lives in a concrete rectangle 8ft. by 12 ft. in size. She has not moved from her bed in 2 years as the pain in her legs is more than she can bare. Her husband leaves every day to cut sugar cane - earning $1/ton a day with even the best cutters only able to cut 2 tons a day. He is her only care provider. Language was a huge barrier but we trusted in the Spirit's presence during that sweet time & were honored & humbled to be used in such a way. It's a small thing, but we look forward to giving her clean sheets on Thursday as hers are riddled with feces & urine. We earnestly prayed for salvation, healing, & most of all hope in her life. After we were finally able to get her name: Esperanza, which means 'Hope'. Keep her in your prayers.
• We did the girls nails in Negro Melo & had a dance party after! Salsa! Let me tell you, you haven't danced till you danced Salsa with the cutest 3 yr. old Hatian boy in the entire world!
• PRAISE! We have enough project money to supply the entire village of Negro Melo - 35 families, ~150 people with food for a week! They are literally starving & have little to no means of accessing any nourishment. Grown men are brought to tears requesting any food we may have. We are so excited to go to the market for them on Wednesday and load up on rice, beans, & fruit.
• Today in Chichigua we learned that a family has to walk 1.5-2 hours a day with random bottles & jugs to get water from a man with a hose along a not-so-safe route. We also learned that it costs $400 pesos to fill up their resevior for the entire village to use. So....we found a water truck & got that baby filled! Amazing what smiles $12 ($400 pesos) can put on the face of over a hundred people.
• Tomorrow we will be visiting Poncho Mateo - a village with a strong presence of a witch doctor. We will be loving on the children of that village & prayer walking. Pray for safety & that His presence be made known in the hearts of those villagers.

That's all for now. Thank you for your prayers & endless support.

Village quote for the day: "Don't drink the village Tang."

by His mighty hand & tender grace,

the 'stoners'

Austin Stone

Makarios is blessed to have an amazing group of 13 from the Austin Stone church ministering in the villages over the next week. They arrived on Thursday the 6th and leave on Monday the 17th. While afew made the trip last summer, they all have hearts to serve and hearts to love on these kids. The first picture sums up a lot of what has happened in the village of Chichigua thus far, the group loving on the kids. They've also done some VBS work and played lots of soccer and other games. While driving into the village today, we saw a family walking down the road with empty water jugs. At present, there is no water source in Chichigua (a well project has been started). Families either buy water, or walk miles to get it. Some of the summer staff and group drove back, picked up the family, and took them to the watersource. This took them over an hour round-trip, imagine what it would have been walking the entire trip! Ruben was telling Katie, another of the Austin Stone team members, about how they have a cistern that can be filled for only 400 pesos, and she suggested the group use some of their team money to give the town water. 400 pesos ($12) a week can water a village. We can all spend $12 a week on our morning coffee (unless you are going to be buying it at Dominican Joe!)

Katie has turned into the trip's doctor and has helped to mend many scrapes, bumps, bruises in the kids, and help with some other, more serious issues, helping to get antibiotics and other important medicines to sick kids and adults.

The group has also visited Negro Melo a couple of times, where they did a toothcare program seen in the photo. This village is set pretty far off the main roads and is isolated. The kids who attend school have to walk about an hour each way. The sugar cane around the village has not been cut in the past two years, so money is not to be found in a lot of the village, therefore they do not have much of anything, including food. The team wants to leave a lot of their donated supplies here for the kids and also wants to buy food for the families in need, which we will hopefully do and be able to bring them when we return on Thursday.

I have been amazed at how this group not only jumps into ministry, but tries to find solutions where possible to problems and issues facing the villages or individuals. They have prayed for people, been invited into homes, played lots of games, ridden horses, and otherwise experienced a fullness in life and ministry here.

Kim, their amazing team leader, said that she hopes that they will all move beyond the "Junior High Camp High" and have their lives changed rather than just a temporary high from this experience. I think they will all leave a piece of their heart here and carry a piece with them, and be reminded of this time.

baby isaac

this is what happens when you leave babies in the hands of interns. here's isaac with an ipod and some cool gafas.

meanwhile, back at the ranch...

posted by sharla

all kinds of exciting stuff is happening in the DR, and here I am in austin. now austin is a great place to be, but let's be honest - the summer staffers are having more fun than all of us. i'll get down there for a week at the end of the month, so they'll have to save some excitement for me.

we're in the process of opening up a coffee shop in austin that will help support makarios. it's called dominican joe and it should be about the coolest coffee shop ever. the plan is to open in mid-august, but you know how construction goes. never on schedule. our guys say they're on schedule, but frankly, I don't believe them and I don't think you should either. there's a very good chance that we won't even have a front door in time to open. we consider that an important part of any functioning coffee shop.

i've also been working with an agency in Haiti on the adoption of jacob and isaac. the boys are doing well, and will probably have to be in our "foster care" for about a year until the adoption is complete. here's a picture of the first day that jacob came on the scene. can someone please tell me what he's wearing as a diaper? i know he's crying but he looks so cute and you should know that brian is very good with babies. 5 pesos says he and bethany will end up adopting a whole bunch of haitian kids.

Summer Staff

The summer staff took a field trip yesterday to Dajabon, a town on the Dominican border with Haiti. Every Monday and Friday, thousands of Haitians come across the border to shop in the market that encompasses the town. At least 20 square blocks of the town are shut down and filled with people selling their wares - mostly every goods from clothing and shoes to housewares, fruits, vegetables, and a never-ending supply of underwear. In this photo, from left to right, are Mike, Jill, Byron, Jenn, Chris, and our new friend Jose. Ok, Jose isn't really a new staff member, he just joined in our fun.

You'll notice that Chris and I are wearing the traditional shopping day mesh shirts that will soon be all the rave worldwide.

Sadness

We returned from church today in Monte Llano to find the Makarios house empty of Brian and Bethany. We know they finished packing and were off to Santo Domingo this morning. We had a summer staff meeting last night and discussed how blessed we were to see their interactions with everyone in the villages, especially the kids. They've been building relationships here for two years and lots of people were sad to see them go. We were sad to see them go.

The group from Bethany's Church, Lombard Chapel, had a great trip. I came down in the middle, but the high school girls were really enjoying their time in the villages and seemed to be having a great time ministering together. They did puppet shows, played games with the kids, and distributed school supplies. Some of them left inspirational messages in the Makarios Journal in the house that we might quote here for everyone to see.

As for my arrival, my plane from Miami to Puerto Rico on Tuesday was delayed and I missed my flight and had to spend the night in San Juan. Sharla put me in contact with the nephew of one of her friends in Austin who picked me up and I stayed at his place. Not only did we have a great meal together while watching Seinfeld, but he had me edit a job application for him. I got to Puerta Plata the next day and was met by Rueben (who had a very nice sign for me) but my luggage did not arrive until Thursday. So I spent two days in the same pair of clothes and the third in some of Brian's. I guess it was a good adjustment to life here.