¡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!

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.

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!!