improvements

Our food program has been growing too. Thanks to the support of many, we are now able to provide milk, eggs, bread, bananas, and vitamins to the kids. And they love it! Woo-hoo!

Sidenote- Today in my class of 3-5 year olds. I noticed how all of them were eying the bananas, you know, that look with eyes wide open and mouth particially open. When I asked who was hungry before passing everything out, all the kiddos raised their hands. Sometimes I forget how big the little things in life really are.

Wisly and his family

Here is a picture of Wisly, his wife Fracesse, and their kids. This is the family that moved out of Chichigua and is now living across from Ruben on the Makarios farm.

Westlake Bible Church

a group from Westlake Bible Church has been helping out the MAKARiOS team this week. after some bad weather delays, the finally arrived in the country, and joined our staff on Sunday for church in Chichigua.

on Monday we were blessed with more rain. while most of the group searched for kids to partcipate in the activities, a few others joined Ruben and I to take a Haitian girl, Kati, to the hospital. Kati is the little girl we blogged about in January whose stomach is full of parasites. these Westlake group members made it possible for us to brighten Kati's day by getting her the help she needs and filling her belly with lots of food. they also did a wonderful job playing with her and putting a smile on her face. it was unfortunate that they were unable to spend the afternoon in the Pancho Mateo as planned. yet they continued to serve us by organizing and labeling everything in the house.

after taking the kids from Chichigua to the beach on Tuesday morning, they came back to finish all of their household tasks. we now have doors that open smoothly, a logically organized and labeled (in English AND Spanish!) kitchen, consolidated school supplies in easy to find locations, and many new household items that we were needing.

after enjoying 27 Waterfalls this morning, the group headed to Santiago to help Ruben on the farm, where I'm sure they'll continue to be a blessing.

thank you, WBC, for your involvement with MAKARiOS!

update from Royce, fearless intern

I have had a lot of new experiences since arriving here, including but not limited to: eating food that I don't really like, traveling through the country alone, dealing with a Dominican mechanic in Spanish (that's something I never thought I'd do), and saying Bible verses in Creole. I have also been learning some Creole, as most of the kids speak both Spanish and Creole.

I have seen the Lord do a lot of cool things here!!! One day he provided us with a free ride after someone I was with prayed for one. I have also met a lot of people. Today I was talking with a guy, and I found out that he played drums and that turned into us having a Dominican jam session!!

The Lord has given me opportunities to minister to people as well. I think that just loving on these kids has been a big ministry, but also I have had the chance to lead worship a few times. Yesterday a group of guys was here helping and I led the worship and devotion time. The Lord is growing me in so many different ways!

There are a few things you can be praying for. I am trying to organize a "concert" for the kids that would happen before I leave. Pray that I would be able to trust the Lord with that and get the kids organized. I just started teaching a guitar class, praying the guys would learn and in turn be able to minister to others. And finally, that I would run the race set before me with endurance and with all my heart. Thank you so much for praying. I believe it is making a difference in the Dominican and for the Kingdom!

they won't appreciate this when they're older

isaac and jacob at bathtime

NOT your average day

posted by sharla

Last Saturday I had the chance to do something that now stands out in my mind as one of the most significant moments in my life.

Makarios has purchased six acres of land for a small farm. There is a small pink house on this land. It's very basic, but it's a good house. The land needs a lot of work - it is overgrown and has just a few mango trees growing on it. We need to clear the land, we need to plant trees and other produce, dig trenches, put up a fence.

Once we received the check from the Great Society Fund (from the LBJ School at UT), we were able to begin this process. We had already hired Ruben to oversee the project, a man who has already been working with us on a number of projects. Now we were ready to bring a family out of the squalor of the bateyes (villages for Haitian sugar cane cutters) and into this little pink house. We were ready to offer this family a job and vocational training.

We had come to an quick decision about who we should hire. Wisley is Haitian man in his thirtees. He is married and has twin six month old babies. He is a hard worker, but is only able to make $5 a day doing yard work at an upscale housing development. This is the going wage for Haitian workers in the Dominican Republic. He had to take out several loans to support his family, and there was barely enough food for him and his wife and formula for the twins (his wife had been sick for a while and was unable to nurse the babies).

I left the Makarios house on Saturday morning with a list of things I needed to do. Talking to Wisley was one of them. I knew he would be excited about the new job, but I wasn't prepared for just how life changing this would be for him and his family. He couldn't believe that we were offering him a chance to get his family out of the batey, to have a job that would allow him to support his family, and to receive training in farming skills that will give him the potential to farm his own land in the future. He will be able to send his kids to school, something he wouldn't be able to do if they stayed in the village. This job will literally change the lives of the four members of this family. Hopefully this is the first of many jobs that that we will be able to provide on the farm.