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.

Estiven, Ambiolix, Fransisco

I think I’ve already published a post about each of them, but when they come this cute, who can help but post about them more than once!

Oh Estiven and your big ears! He tucked them in to themselves yesterday, again!

Ambiolix….so cute! Missing a few teeth that don’t seem to want to grow back and with a new scar on his forehead from a fall and 5 stitches, but still the same precious little guy

Fransisco (or Franchicho, as they all say). He really enjoyed playing with Cara’s sunglasses (as all of our do). Sadly he had them upside down!

Look at that cute little face!

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!)

Ambiolix and Estiven

Ambiolix is one of our preschool students. He’s so little! His mom is Evelina; a wonderful, hardworking single mom (her husband died suddenly about 14 months ago) who wants to learn English and always has a sweet smile on her face. Ambiolix doesn’t talk too often. He’s missing his front 2 teeth (pulled by dentist because they were rotting) and has about 4 other rotting teeth in his mouth. He calls me Lubi (Robin here sounds like Row-been and is sometimes shorten to Rubi because Robin is too difficult) because he is Haitian and therefore switches the ‘l’ and the ‘r’ sound…I think it’s precious! Today Cara and I went to spend some time in Chichigua, just sitting around, hanging out. After about 45 minutes, Ambiolix come running out of his house with the most precious hat on! Here are some pictures of my little Ambiolix:

Estiven has huge ears, a wide nose, and a big smile! He recently has a little accident with a bicycle and has a wound on his foot. Cara Jane has been trying to help it heal but it’s difficult. She’s cleans it and wraps it but an hour or 2 after arriving back to Chichigua, the bandage has fallen off and the wound is full of dirt! Today when we arrived the bandage was still on but fell off about half an hour later. He then began hopping on one foot to keep the wound off the dirt. Cara decided to look for a walking stick for him to help him keep his foot off the ground. Here’s the result:

Estiven already looks like an old man and with the walking stick he looks even more so! I know that his right ear looks strange, but fear not! His ears are so big that he can tuck them in. He gets a kick out of tucking in his ears!