Bar Graphs

Ashley’s class has been learning about graphs. We are so proud of the progress that they have made! Ashley introduced small bar graphs and the kids seemed to understand. We continually express how incredible the learning of her class has been.

Most of these kids have been with us for at least 2, if not 3 years. And to think back to where the have come from makes Ashley and I smile from ear to ear. As cliché as it sounds, we know that our kids could not have gotten here if the Lord had not been the one working. There are hard days when we don’t want to go back. And there are discouraging days when we think that there has been no change in our kids. But God is showing us that He is the one working and that He is causing change in their lives. We are humbled to think that the Lord has used us to love and teach our kids.

Here are some photos:

Ashley showing the objects to be filled in on the graph

Her example on the board

Bernito working hard

Nathalia filling out her bar graph

Gustavo working on his

Way to go, clase de la Profe Ashely!!

Some fun fotos

Elijio singing in the morning

Bernadeta, Memo’s mom, is 8 months pregnant

Ernesto’s hand. I don’t know why but I like this photo

Ambiolix’s nose! He’s so presh.

Kendall with some of our crazy Chichiguan kids.

Ambiolix playing in Chichigua

Franchesca eating a guava

Bernito…looks like he’s thinking but he’s really looking at Kendall and Memo

Kendall tickling Memo.

Emilio’s hand

Wilton

Alturo, he’s so happy!

¡El Primer Día de la Escuela!

Our first day of school was yesterday! It was an exciting day that had a few bumps along the way. Here are the stats:

48 students showed up

15 cried

5 cried all day

2 kids bit

1 kid tried to escape

13 staff members made it to the end of the day

1 million (roughly) mini prayers were said all day

We are so joyful for the kids that the Lord has given us. It’s a huge job and, at times, a scary one. But we know that we have been placed here and that our students have been handpicked to be taught by us. Continue to pray for us as we teach rules, give hugs, discipline in love, and persevere through the beginning of this new school year.

Just before the madness began

This is how super excited the teachers are!! Hooray!

Our wonderfully amazing new cook: Odilsia!!  She is an amazing person!

“Ok, everyone get in line. We’re going to start singing. Now, you go over there. Wait, you’re line is that way. Oh, don’t cry…” etc.

First time to get in their classrooms! Look at that lovely line!

A lot of parents wanted to stay and watch the beginning of the day

Franchesca, Jeson, and Bernito praying before entering Profe Ashley’s room

Profe Lorena’s (Lauren) and Profe Ashley’s classes

Walking into their new classroom!

Ambiolix and the rest of Profe Kim’s class singing

Yunairi and Bianca Nicol

Wili and Raidi are new friends

The End! Por fin. It was a great/crazy/hard/full/fun day.

Looking forward to day 2 after 10 hours of sleep tonight!

Back in the D.R.

This was quite the welcome home for me.  We missed our boys…my how they’ve grown in only one short month of us being in the states.  I felt that this was one of those photos that you couldn’t keep to yourself; it makes me smile every time.

The Chichigua boys {bernito, emilio, jeson, memo, estiven & ambiorix}

Literacy Camp Video!

Click on the link below to watch the video!!!

Finding myself with so much adorable & inspiring videos of our students during the 1st week of our Spanish Literacy Camp, I decided to make a little montage for all to enjoy.  Tomorrow we will begin our 3rd week of camp, learning the next group of letters in the alphabet.  Our kids are still doing great and are really enjoying the creative activities that our teachers created for them.  For example…for the letter K during week #2, Cristina’s activity was Karaoke!!!  They loved it and we even had Robin’s group come to watch them and learn to listen & applaud.  Good times.  So please keep the last 2 weeks of camp in your prayers as we continue to build these kids up to soon be able to read about Christ’s love for them.

Also, since this is my very first Makarios blog, I should probably introduce myself.  I began my full-time work here with Makarios on June 1st and I will be here serving for atleast 1 year, or as long as God wills.  He has provided me with such an amazing task & opportunity to pour into the lives of our students, as I will be creating and coordinating a new Bible Curriculum for the school.  I’ve been working through that this summer and Jesus has opened up my eyes to so many new things; especially rediscovering the basics of the Gospel through the eyes & faith of a child.  It is such a blessing just to be a part of this amazing work being done here!  In addition, I will also be the Short-Term Missions Liaison as soon as the school year begins.  I will be helping to set up and guide the ministry projects that each of our groups from the states will be doing during their week here with us in the DR.  So if you’re coming down anytime soon…get excited!  🙂  So, it’s nice to meet you!

Hope you enjoy the video.  Thank you for all your support and prayers.

ropa rapido

we’re doing a unit on health and hygiene at the school.  each of the preschool classes have been talking about the necessity to wash their hands, bathe and drink clean water, brush their teeth, and wear clothes.  if you have ever come down to the DR with MAKARiOS in a group then you probably saw a little nudity.  so we’re trying to make sure the kids know why and how to wear clothes 🙂

here’s a few pictures of how the activity went.

jeson and wilcency

bernito and luis fernando

franchesca and marileiny

rebeka and regina (this one is my favorite!)

A December trip to the beach

It’s been awhile since I last did a blog. I took a break over Christmas, but now I’m back and have some updating to do.

On December 11th, the last day of class, we took our preschoolers to the beach. It was a Christmas present from Anne’s mom and the kids LOVED it! Here are some pictures from our trip:

It was a perfectly sunny day

and we piled the kids into a guagua (15 passenger van), headed for Long Beach in Puerto Plata.

Once we got there we sat all the kids down to explain the rules and do one last head count.

Then the clothes came off (except the underwear, of course!) and we headed for the beach!

There was much rolling in the sand…

and playing in the water!

After about an hour and a half we washed the kids off as best we could and brought them away from the shore for lunch. Thanks to the Westlake Bible Church’s men’s group, we had plenty of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. They got an apple (a real treat here), a juice box, a sandwich, grapes (another treat) and some cookies.

The kids loved our trip to the beach and have been asking daily when we are going back! Thanks, Sherry!!

merry christmas!

here’s our christmas card photo – SO cute.  thanks to ashley for taking the pictures and shallan for making the letters!  (and I’m sure everyone else for getting the kids to cooperate!)

play-doh goooopiness

this semester one thing we have been working on in preschool is learning our letters. i will forever sing “A es por agua-a,a,a. E elefante- e,e,e. I es por isla- i,i,i..” ..and hopefully they will too. i mean, i still remember how mom helped me with my letters: “A is for apple- a,a,a..” yep, got the song from you, momma, and made it all spanish-like.

to keep letters exciting, we’ve paraded around in E-elefante masks, painted A’s with agua, gone on letter hunts around the room, hopped like rabbits and ran like horses for C (conejos and caballos), eaten cookies (galletas) in the shape of G, etc. did i mention i LOVE preschool?

what could be more fun than play-doh letters for practice? slimy, gooey, melted play-doh from being in the heat so long. imagine play-doh. then multiply the stickiness by 5 and add 10 points to the level of difficulty it is to get it off your hands. then you have our play-doh. FUN.

this is how it went (ish..):

1. get to work making those letters- yeah little ashley! (really. she’s only 3 here and she is rockin’ that play-doh E)

2. get a little dirty in the process maybe..

3. wah-la!! here we have it, ladies and gentlemen! (amauri was super proud of his A 🙂

and that’s how it goes. in my head of course.. you know, sitting around coming up with lesson plans for the day, this is more or less what it looked like. you always have to expect, though, that nothing will turn out like you expect it to. aaand that is another reason i love preschool. check marileidi out with her letter ?? in play-doh:

maybe she is an artist. no need to make a letter.. thinking outside of the box? maybe??

toothbrushing!

Here’s a picture of our preschoolers brushing their teeth.  This is how we do it in the DR!