December 2012 Update Letter

I'm long overdue for a blog post. What, me? I've NEVER said those words before ;)
To update you on my past few months, here's my most recent update letter:
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This past few months have been a whirlwind! Between the starting of my new position and a tragic flood destroying part of our school.. we have definitely had our hands full!  But God has held us in his hands, and he has been faithful every single day of these last few months. Take a look at my newsletter for detailed stories from our last semester: 

Prayer Requests

- We start a new semester January 9th. Pray everything goes smoothly! 

- For daily opportunities to show Christ to our students and to those in the communities. 

- That my understanding of the gospel would grow deeper & deeper everyday.

If you would like to donate to the work God has been doing through me to serve in the DR, donations can be made online at https://secure.etransfer.com/Makarios/donate.cfm, by choosing "Imani Folkes" in the "Apply my Gift To" drop down menu. 

A huge thank you to everyone who continues to pray & support me. Words can't describe how thankful I am for you all.

'Twas the Summer of Weddings...

'Twas the Summer of 2012, when all through Imani's life, Not a person was left single, not even a..... mouse.Okay, that didn't work as well as I thought it would. But really Summer 2012 was the summer of Weddings. I went to not one, not two.. but THREE weddings this summer. All of them were beautiful, all of them were filled with love, and all of them were within the span of 3 weeks.

Wedding #1: Perla & Jody

Perla and Jody are two of my friends "from" the DR (well really, Perla is from the DR and Jody is from America. But  I met both here, and they both now live here). They got married this past June and it was beautiful! I helped photograph their wedding, and it was a blessing to be apart of such a beautiful day. 

Wedding #2: Odilisia

Odilisia is our beloved school cook. She is sassy, hilarious, has an inspiring faith in the Lord, and has the ability to cook for 100+ people! She was (up until two months ago) a single mom.. and now she's beautifully married! It was a beautiful ceremony, laced with rich Haitian tradition & culture.

The entire church choir marched in front of her as she made the way to the church with the "godfather" of the wedding. (so that man next to her is not her husband, fyi). 
In this culture, there are godfathers and godmothers of weddings, graduations, etc. From what I can tell, they're role is to escort. 

Pictured below: L- Odilsia's niece and son helping hold her dress. R- Odilisia waiting to enter the church.

L: Odilisia laughing during the ceremony. She has a beautiful smile. R: Husband and wife exchanging rings.

L: Odilsia right after the ceremony. R: Odilsia & Monica. (Monica is her sister in law, as well as fell cook at the Makarios school)

Wedding #3: AMANDA & ROB

Amanda is one of my closest friends from college. I first met her (and Rob) in CRU Freshmen bible study August 2007. We were all nervous, most of us were 15 pounds skinnier, and we had no idea where 4 years of college would lead our friendships. Through the years, Amanda became a friend I could always rely on. Whether it was through our 7am "prayer phone calls" in our "hard months" of Sophmore year or dancing to the Macarena in the middle of a Newhouse computer lab during an all nighter or our many movie nights... Amanda was amazing friend within it all. And now she's MARRIED to her soulmate Rob! (Let the surreal-ness set in).

The wedding was B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L and it was such an incredible blessing to be a bridesmaid for the wedding!! Not to mention seeing most of my college friends for the first time in a full YEAR! (Blog post about my two weeks home in the states to come later) 

Here are a few photos from the AMAZING wedding photographers (Jeremy Hess Photographers)

I love weddings. Who's next?
I'm hoping to slowly update my blog with more summer 2012 happenings. So when you see another summer post next time, don't be alarmed.. I planned it that way. 

Today I don't want to forget..

Sometimes God blesses with me with answered prayer, and in my humanness I forget what he did for me 5 minutes later. Today I don't want to forget...

Today I don't want to forget about the faithfulness of our Lord. How he answered my morning prayers, in a way I could have never imagined. How he continually answer my prayers. How he provides everything I need to serve Him well in this country (patience, the ability to speak spanish, love, etc.)

"all I have needed thy hand hath provided

great is thy faithfulness, Lord unto me"

Today I don't want to forget how much he loves me. And how he can remind me of that through a quote on a friend's facebook status. And how as my prayer continues to be, "Lord open my eyes to your love" (Ephesians 3:18-19) he will continually to faithfully do so. 

"When I think that the omnipotent God who crafted the stars, comets, galaxies, planets, every atom, molecule, and microbe on earth, the DNA, bones, and flesh of every living creature; the eternal God who forever was, is, and is to come; the majestic God who rules over all principalities, powers, authorities, angels, and demons; the holy God who dwells in unapproachable light and splendor wants to have an intimate relationship with ME. I’m overwhelmed. The thought is awesome beyond all comprehension." -Mary Kassian

Today I don't want to forget that he is with me every single minute of every single day. He is with me. 

"Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go."- Joshua 1:9

Ch-ch- changes.

Lots and lots of changes going on in this part of the world:

New positon:

I have a new position with Makarios! I will be the Sponsorship Coordinator and Resource Teacher for Makarios this school year! As the "Resource Teacher" I will be working with students one on one with the subjects they need extra help with. Alot of our students would greatly benefit with 1 on 1 help in phonics and math to help them excel to where they need to be academically! So as the "resource teacher" I will be working individually with various students throughout the week. As the sponsorship coordinator, I will be the link between Makarios in the DR, and our students' sponsors in the US. That entails writing emails, updating the blog, updating facebook/twitter, with updates on what's going on at our school. I'll basically be using my Public Relations major. (who would have thought?)

I'm so excited about the change! I'm excited to spend quality time with the students I will be tutoring, to be able to love on them, share Christ with them when the opportunity arises, and help them exceed academically. And I'm super excited about the idea of communicating with sponsors. If I were a sponsor in the US, I would love for the distance between me and my sponsored student (although its thousands of miles) to be as "small" as possible. I hope/pray to help do that this year, by updating the sponsors with wonderful stories about our 96 students! Sponsorship and tutoring were both things I was doing at the end of last school year, now I'll just be doing them full time! 

Perla (the 2nd grader I spent time tutoring last year) and I on the last day of school in May.

New apartment: 

WE’VE MOVED! Sarah V. (my roommate for the last year) and I had been praying on & off about moving/ possibly having a third roommate for awhile.. and then we kind of forgot about it.  But a few weeks ago, God just completely worked out the details for Sarah V and I to move into an apartment with our new teammate Sarah H! When I say God worked out the details.. I mean God WORKED OUT THE DETAILS! Seriously, these details are SO unique and SO intricate, that you can only give credit to God for the way everything worked out! This apartment is better for us in so many ways: the rent is cheaper, it’s more comfortable and we’ll also be living next door to two other American girls (Karen & Emily) who are going to work for another missionary organization (Kids Alive) in the area. We’re so excited about the change! I’m especially excited to live next door to fellow missionaries, and grow closer with all of these girls! Pray with us as we continue to make the transition of living in a new place!

New School Year:

Hard to believe that my first year anniversary in the DR has come and gone (a separate blog on how I feel about that later). We’ve been making tons of preparations for the new school year! Painting desks, cleaning classrooms, welcoming new staff members (Sarah H & The Becks), and undergoing a 3 1/2 day teacher training! Bev Sparling (an amazing woman who was a missionary here in the DR for 10 years) came to visit our school to specifically train those of us who work at the school. It was amazing. Beyond amazing. She taught us so many amazing things, (that will continue to challenge us for years and years to come)... but one of the things that challenged me most was her explanation of the "calling" we have as teachers of our Makarios students. Bev greatly emphasized 1 Corinthians 11:1 (“Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.”) to us as teachers. She explained that as a teacher, we have an incredibly high calling on our lives. That God is using us as vessels to shape our students lives. And that as we follow Christ, our students will follow us, which can prayerfully/hopefully lead them to eventually following Christ! With that in mind, we must realize that our personal relationship with Christ and how we follow Christ personally, effects our students.

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I'm light years behind on updating this blog. (What's new?) According to my past few posts, I did little to nothing this summer. Not true at all. So hopefully in the next few days, I will post post various blogs with short stories/few photos to give a full recap of Summer 2012! Yay! One day I'll stop playing the catch up game.. but for now, check back tomorrow! ALSO, the 2012-2013 school year starts this WEDNESDAY. Raise your hand if you're as shocked as I am?

And because every blog post needs plenty o' pictures.  Here are a few from our amazing End of Summer Carnival:

(Clockwise: Perla, her mom and I, Carlos Miguel, Son)

*Special note about the title. Apparently its a David Bowie song? Just found that out. To me its always been from an episode of 7th Heaven, when Ruthie continually says "Ch-ch-changes" over an over again throughout the episode. I guess she got it from David Bowie...

May & June

Dear World, How is that I'm behind on blogging again? Better question- how many more times do you think I'll talk about how behind I am on blogging throughout the course of my time in the DR?
Oh well. C'est La Vie. Does anyone else that song?

A few blog posts ago I was catching up on April.
Two months later, I'm updating you all on May & June.
To update you on these past two months, I'm going to repost my update letter that I sent out to my supporters!




Other May & June happenings not mentioned in the letter:
-Final ESL classes in Chichigua & Tamarindo. We played Jeopardy, ate cookies and took pictures!
- Weddings, weddings and more weddings! (Separate blog post about that later)
- Two short term mission groups!

[the people in my life] Dena

Continuing my new blog series thing from yesterday... here's DENA!


Dena is one of my lovely teammates, and today's her BIRTHDAY! Dena is a Kindergarten teacher to 16 adorable students at the Makarios school. She has an INCREDIBLE heart for the Lord, her students and the people she loves.


*Photo on the left taken by Bridget Daehler! 

That's the factual stuff. What the world should also know about Dena is that she is naturally HILARIOUS. She never tries to "intentionally" make you laugh, but you always end up doing so! Sitting by her during bible study, meetings, or in public transportiation guarantees that you will end up in a fit full of giggles. At least for me.

Here are a few of my favorite Dena-isms of the past 10 months (intertwined with a few photos of our favorite photos together)

Conversation after Bible Study
Imani: You were a heartbreaker in high school, weren't you?
Dena: Yes. I still am.




Another conversation after bible study. 
Background: We were talking about a specific scene in Breaking Dawn
Sarah: What was it that you didn’t like about the scene? 
Dena: It was lame. 
Sarah: I know, but what specifically didn’t you like? 
Dena: It was a waste of my existence. 
Sarah: But what specifically? 
Dena: I could have been doing anything better during those 10 minutes.
(maybe you had to be there, but we were all cracking up with laughter during this conversation)





Six Degrees of Separation. Between Dena & Pirates.
Fact. Dena is obsessed with Pirates. She can be in a conversation that has absolutely nothing at all to do with Pirates, and Dena will find a way to work a Pirate comment in. I call this the 6 degrees of Separation between Dena & Pirates.

Example:

Paige: We used to scuba dive all the time. I love it.
Dena: Oh my goodness, I would love to go scuba diving and look for sunken pirate ships.

Another example:
(Said as we were on a boat heading whale watching and getting a bit sea sick)
Dena: I guess I can't be a pirate anymore





And last, but not least. If life was a musical, Dena would be the director, choreographer and star! Here she is in a picture where we all decided to do a hand on hip/leg type of pose. Right before the photo is taken, Dena turns to me and says "I'm going to do jazz hands" Naturally I cracked up.





And these are just a few of the things I love about my dear friend Dena. There are tons more, she's a pretty awesome girl!


HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEENZ! Love you! Wish I were there to celebrate with you!

[the people in my life] Perla

            I've decided to start a mini "blog series." No, not like all the blog series that I said I would start way back in the beginning of my time here in the DR.. because we all know how well those worked out (hear my sarcasm). But this time a blog series that I think will better introduce everyone to the life I live here, as well as a blog series I feel in many ways that the Lord is leading me to. (How many times can I say, "blog series" in one post).
            It was through various conversations and prayer that I've realized the great importance of... relationships. Pretty simple revelation, right? It is so easy to get bogged down in the details of ministry/the job, and forget how amazingly glorified God can be through the relationships we're forming/cultivating in our time here.   I therefore want to start introducing the various people the Lord has placed in my life, here in the DR. The posts will be random and they will be great. Just you wait and see.

With all of that being said, I want everyone to meet Perla.

Perla is in the 2nd grade at our Makarios school, has a super sweet personality and is crazy eager to learn! Perla is behind most of her classmates when it comes to reading, so in the last few months of the school year I began to work with Perla one on one. Three times a week I would pull her out of her phonics lessons, so that we could privately work on her letters and sounds. 

As Summer School continues, I plan to continue spending time with Perla to continue to advance her reading level. Not only do I hope Perla will continue to grow as a reader, But I pray our time can be filled with moments where I can minister to her heart with the gospel!

Other random things about Perla:

-Every time we start our lessons together, I ask her to pray. Hearing a 7 year old prayer is one of the sweetest things ever!
- Perla is one of the shyer students in a class full of 15 other energetic kids. She's also one of 7 children. I love being able to give her one on one attention!

-We had a week off from school, and during that week I heard that Perla was asking for me to come visit. #meltmyheart

- Her teacher this past year, (Johan) is also her Uncle. 

April. In photos

April recapped in Photos.
Photos include: Me & Bekah's amazing spring break trip in the capitol, pictures from the school, pictures from village visit and a few pictures from one of my ESL classes.
If you haven't yet, be sure to check out March, February and January as well!

my happy list this week (May 28-June 1)

As a missionary, I have found it incredibly easy to "focus" on the bad, and almost never on the good. Who am I kidding, this was my tendency in the states as well. Life is "hard" at times, and  Life is "good" at other times. Life is a paradox all the time. Whenever someone (from home) asks me the simple question of "how are you?"... the first thing that always comes to mind is the bad. Why? Why do I only ever want to complain and not rejoice? I dont know exactly where I'm going with my little speech, so I'm just going to stop and introduce where I wanted it to end up. Introducing.."My Happy List this week." Inspired by this blog, I hopefully will begin to blog (with frequency), the various blessings throughout my week, to remind myself about all the "good" in this paradoxical life. 

My Happy List This Week
(May 27-June 1)

1. Chopping down a dead tree in the Makarios school yard.
 The guys were the ones really chopping, but us girls wanted to take a few whacks ourselves. It was hilarious, especially to the neighbors that began to watch us.

2. Finishing "The Help" 
Saw the movie last year, and I was finally able to read the book! I'll be honest and say I appreciated the movie a little bit more, because it was a bit funnier... but Kathryn Lockett: kudos for writing such an amazing story!

3. Finishing the entire series of Felicity.  
Few things about this:
#1. This TV show was amazing. Like seriously, amazing. #2. This show is over 10 years old, and I just watched it now for the first time. #3. Thank you Dena for owning  all the seasons on DVD.  #4. Watching TV show series on DVD (or Netflix) has become my new favorite post-college hobby.  #5. Next series I'm going to watch = Friday Night Lights! (But I'm not letting myself start it until GRE studying is over.)

4. Receiving not one, not two, but THREE items in the mail on Tuesday. 
An amazing package from Emily, a sweet card from Carissa and the wedding invitation for Amanda & Rob's wedding! Made my entire day!

5. Laughing hysterically during lunch with my coworkers. 
Seriously, you can give us ANY topic of conversation and 5 minutes later, you will find us all in tears from hysterically laughing. I love them so much.

6. Having some pretty great skype conversations. 
Sarah Elyse, Emily P and Gabby, you ladies are amazing.

7. Going to pick up our new summer intern from the airport with various members from the staff.
We arrived at the airport and  spent an hour planning (read:hysterically laughing) how we were going to welcome her. Various plans included clicking our heels, screaming "hello my friend" and  a special arm thing (that only Dena could seem to do). In the end our plans fell through, but we still had a great time. I love my staff. And Bienvenidos Paige!

Waiting for Paige to arrive.

8. Josh Turner's "Would You Go With Me"
My friends and I share so much music that I often have songs on my iTunes that I've never listened to. I'm not sure how long I've had "Would You Go With Me" or who gave it to me,  but I just listened to it for the first time on Tuesday and I'm in love.


9. Opening my "membership" at a movie rental store!
A friend/fellow missionary, Rachel, showed me this place about a month ago, and I can't even describe to you how excited I was to realize its existence. Movie watching is one of my favorite past times ever, and the ability to rent current movies in the DR is the bit of "normalcy" I am so incredibly grateful for.

10. Iced Coffee and Air Condition at Casa Colonial
Casa Colonial is a super fancy expensive hotel. We couldn't afford to stay there, but we can afford the coffee in their little lounge area. We bring our laptops (and sometimes our GRE study material) and treat it as if it was an American-like coffee shop.

11. New flavor of Coffee Creamer at La Sirena (our amazing grocery store, and one of my top 5 happy places in the DR)
Vanilla Carmel. I'm drinking it right now. It's divine.

12. Taking our new Makarios summer intern, Paige to our favorite beach (Playa Alicia) and favorite restaurant Gorditos. 

13. Sleeping in until 10am.
I love sleeping in, and the older I've gotten, the harder it's become to sleep in without waking up once or twice. This morning I slept in WITHOUT waking up until 10:12am, and it was grand.

13. Waking up in a grateful mood this morning (Friday, June 1st). I've been making this list all week but these last 5 items were added literally in the last 7 minutes. God is good. 

March. Recapped in photos.

Like January and February, I've recapped March in various photos.


March included: mini moto lessons, a "fancy" dinner at Taste, a visit from our biggest short term mission team: Hill Country High School, handing out sponsor gifts and various moments in Chichigua & Pancho Mateo. Enjoy:

 April tomorrow!

February in Pictures

Continuando with my attempt to make up for lack of blogging, here is the month of February recapped in photos. It's a long scroll to get through all the pictures, but it's worth it! At least I think so :)

February included:
-Our AMAZING staff retreat in Jarabacoa (where we were able to relax in beautiful cabins, receive great teaching from the Word, spend time together, jump off water falls and tour the coffee farm where Dominican Joe purchases its coffee), a Valentines Day dinner, Staff village visits to Chichigua, a Dental team serving our school, My favorite beach, Morning singing & prayer time at the school, Dominican Independence day, A trip to Samana to go whale watching!

*Photos from Chichigua are Andy's
*Last photo of whale is Lauren Ferguson's (she got the best picture out of all of us)

March & April Photo Recaps coming in the next few days.
(And click here for January's)

January. In pictures

I'd like to believe that I'm fairly good at documenting my life. But my half empty journal, and 4 blog posts over the last 5 months would beg to differ. I could go into the million & two details that justify my busyness and therefore lack of time to blog, but I think I'll spare you guys the details.. and just try to start blogging once a week!

I've decided to makeup for the last 4 months of my non-continuos blogging by recapping each month with a few pictures. So here's January, in pictures.

Pictures include: Birthday celebrations*, Austin Stone College Group visiting Makarios, the 2nd grade class celebrating Juan Pablo Duarte Day, various shots of some of the Makarios students  and a full rainbow!

I'll post February's tomorrow! 

*

First two pictures are from Dena & Andy's camera- respectively. 

a moment of vulnerability

Before I post my picture filled blog post summarizing the various events that have taken place in our ministry/my life during the last 3 months (as I've been promising)... I must share this. Because without sharing what was going on in my heart during those 3 months, I feel as if I'm lying to my blog and to those who read it. 

I sent this update to my supporters about a month and a half ago- and it's pretty amazing to see how the Lord works and is continuing to work. It's a little long, but I promise it's worth the read. At least I think so ;)

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(Originally written February 16th)

It's been almost two whole months since I've arrived back in the DR after my two week stateside Winter break.
And alot has happened ministry wise in those 2 months:
•a short term team of college students served alongside Makarios for one week
•our elementary students began their second semester of the school year
•relationships continued to grow through my ESL classes and village visits to the point where I am beginning to be able to share truths from God's word
•I continued to work on  social work "projects" to help our Makarios families.
•Our entire staff (including our executive director, Sharla, and Director of Development, Chuck) plus two trainers from our Mission Training (Robin & Heather) went away to the DR mountains for a staff retreat. 

While my mission work is going strong, I'd like to use this letter to update you all on what the Lord has been doing in my heart. 

       During our mission training we learned that when you move to a new country you go through the following transition process: Settled, Unsettled, Chaos, Re-settled, Newly settled. When you're settled you're still in your home country. Then you move the new country and go through an unsettling process as you get adjusted And then just as you think things seem "okay".. you go through a Chaos stage. That is exactly where I was my first month back. And to say that my first month back was hard, would be an extreme understatement.
           For me, my chaos stage consisted of my emotions being completely haywire, serious doubts as to why I was here, an extreme (and unwarranted) dislike for being here, and many many MANY tears. Literally, the only thing I was able to ask the Lord at this point was for him to simply help me. It's the shortest & yet hardest prayer I've ever had to pray in my entire life. "Lord, help." I had never felt so helpless over my situation/circumstances. Never had such an utter reliance on the Lord. And I've never pleaded so strongly with the Lord for his words in Psalm 40:1-3 (I waited patiently for the LORD; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God.) to become my reality.  

       These past couple months of chaos haven't easy, and to be honest it still isn't easy. But I cannot even begin to describe to you the joy I have when I plead to the Lord and he answers my request. I've asked him to help me love others, have pleaded with him to redeem & change my negative feelings, and have requested that he would help me realize that my ultimate joy, peace and satisfaction is found in HIM, and not the circumstances right in front of me. And he has answered every single one of those prayer requests, and is still answering them. 

       So why share this, instead of expanding upon the tangible ways I've been serving these past few months? Because more than anything I wanted to be vulnerable with you guys as my supporters. I wanted to share with you all what the Lord has been doing in my heart, because through his teaching and discipline he's shaping me into the servant he wants me to continue to be while I live here in the Dominican Republic for the next year & a half. If I could sum up the lessons I've been learning these past 3 months it is that-- there is beauty in the brokenness. There is beauty in the fact that he is pruning, cleaning, and burning away everything that he doesn't want me to be. And that when he is done I will be a better servant of his kingdom. Has it been hard? More than I could ever imagine. But it is beautiful? Incredibly, and amazingly beautiful.
      I close with asking for your prayer.. that as I slowly move out of this chaos stage, that I would simply learn what it means for me to live, be, and serve here to the fullest. After 6 full months of being in the country, I feel as though I am finally learning what it means to live here in this country. (On the transition scale I'm moving into my newly settled stage). It's hard, (really really hard) but as I've seen in the past 3 months the Lord does pretty amazingly with "hard."

Thanks for letting me be vulnerable. Next update will be back to "normal"... filled with pictures and stories of the people Makarios serves! 

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If you made it through this entire post, THANK YOU! I know it was long and without photos, but something about me didn't feel right to just post photos and stories about my past few months in the DR without sharing what was truly going on in my heart. 

Next blog post: Pictures of the last 3 months! (I know I've been promising this for awhile, it's coming!)

conversations with a 3 year old

(fyi. conversation below. But first, a little background.)

Due to some position changes in Makarios, I have begun to take on part of the responsibility of "Sponsorship Coordinator." Each of our 80 students has a Sponsor (s). Through this sponsor's donation, the students are able to receive their education, medical care, two meals per day, clean water, school uniform, school materials, and transportation for those who need it. Sponsorship money also goes to our Dominican/Haitian staff salaries, as well as helping out with school maintenance & utilities.  My role in helping with sponsorship coordinating is keeping everyone in the states in touch with what is going on with Makarios. This includes blogging, Facebook-ing, and tweeting. In this new year, I have also been slowly collecting biographies on the families of each student, so that US sponsors can have a full picture of their sponsored student's life. 

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We've been fairly busy at Makarios (with 4 visiting teams over the last 3 months) so we're a bit behind on handing out Christmas gifts from sponsors. Yesterday as I was giving the adorable 3-year-old Katy her Christmas gift from her sponsor, I had the following conversation with her:

Imani: Katy! Look! You have this gift from your sponsor!

Katy: You gave me all these gifts?

Imani: No, it's from your sponsor! Do you know what a sponsor is?

Katy: Yes

Imani: Explain to me what it is.

*Silence. Katy continues to pull out things from her gift bag completely mesmerized by the clothes, markers, stickers, etc.*

Imani: A sponsor is someone who is helping you attend this school! Your sponsor lives in the United States and is praying for you! Every student in the school has a sponsor that is helping them. Look, here are your sponsors in this picture

*Katy continues to pull out her gifts, not really listening to Imani.

Imani:  So Katy, tell me again.. who gave you these gifts?

Katy: YOU!

Imani: Nope

Katy: La doctora?

Imani: Nope, remember what I said before? Every student in this school has a.. what?

Katy: A brother!

Imani: Not quite, Katy. Every student has a sponsor! Do you remember what a sponsor is?

Katy: No

Oh conversations with a 3 year old, gotta love them!

Katy's only in our Pre-K 3 class. As she continues through our school, I'm positive she will one day understand what a sponsor is ;)

Here she is, posing with her presents!

PS- That blog post(s) summarizing the last 3 months.. coming up soon!

He forgives AND cleanses

"I am truly thankful that I serve a God that not only forgives, but cleanses. " 

This is the statement that I almost tweeted/put as my facebook status. But before I clicked the "submit" button, I began to backspace the letters.  I don't know if it's because I've known the Lord since I was a little girl, and have therefore heard countless amounts of "one line"/summary statements in church-- to the point that I often become "numb" to such statements. (Numb as in, I can hear it, but in reality not truly KNOW what means). Or maybe it's  because it seems to have become the trendy thing to show your faith on facebook with these kind of one lined statements (no judgement, because I do the same thing), and today I didn't want to join the trend.  Whatever the reason, I felt the sudden need to explain this sentence I was about to tweet/facebook. Here's the thing, God has been so amazingly & patiently teaching me these basic truths & basic foundations of the faith. And I personally think he knows me well enough (Psalm 139) to know that I sometimes don't learn from reading a simple "one line statement." Instead, he pursues my heart on the subject, speaks to me through various people, has me listen to a particular sermon at JUST the right time, and opens my eyes to his specific areas of his Word so that I can truly understand.
This is why I'm writing this blog, to explain my one liner. Here it goes:

Let's back up a little bit. This morning Sarah & I went on the pursuit of visiting a new church. (I'm still church shopping, and Sarah, even though already feeling at home in a church, graciously accompanied me). When we arrived in Sousa, we quickly found out that the church is actually in Puerto Plata (the complete opposite direction).   It was already 10am (the hour this mystery church began), and if we head to to where it was actually located, we would have been 40 minutes late. So, we collectively decided to head home and separately listen to Sermons online.
I began the Austin Stone's sermon series on Idolatry/Counterfeit Love almost a month ago, and just haven't had the time to listen to the next part of the series. And today, because of of pure location ignorance, I had the time! So I hunkered down (how many times in your life do you get to use that word?) and prepared to listen to this sermon. About an hour and half later*, I find in huge tears as Matt Carter prays to close the sermon and as I journal through all that the Lord taught me. Tears because idolatry is so prevalent in my life, and tears because of these words he specifically prayed: "If the spirit has revealed to you that there is some person, desire, or thing that you have let take the place of God in your heart, don't sit there and think, 'alright I'm going to do better.' You just come to Jesus tonight. That's all you do. You come to him and you just confess it to him, and you ask him, 'Jesus will you change my heart, will you point me to you, will you draw me to yourself, will you show me the folly of going after this stuff. Jesus will you do what you promised you'd do in my life. Will you fulfill the longing that you placed in my heart for eternity, so that I'll be satisfied.'" 

Let me tell you why the tears flowed, because in this prayer, in this sermon, in many other things leading up to this particular day in my life.. the Lord is showing me that the only thing I can do is come to him BROKEN, ask him to forgive me, and then ask him to heal me. Sounds simple, right? If you knew the amount of times I have subconsciously (and consciously) tried to heal myself, it all of a sudden wouldn't sound so simple. I am beyond broken and I need the Lord's forgiveness and healing. In that prayer I realized that is exactly what Jesus has promised to do. "You come to him and just confess it to him and ask him to change your heart." I prayed, journaled, cried and opened my laptop to begin a day of going through my to do list. Before I started the list, I opened up BibleGateway.com to read a quick psalm before I began. Before I was even able to type in the Psalm I saw that their verse of the day was this:

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9

Simple, right? This is the gospel, this is what I've known since I was 8. 

Not exactly. Yes I know this, but how often do I INTERNALIZE it? That not only is the Lord going to forgive me of my sin, but he is going to CLEANSE me from it. He's going to gradually remove it from my life,  and I need only to come to him broken, and follow his spirit on the journey of the cleansing. 

So, my "one liner" for the day is this- I am thankful that I serve a God that not only forgives my sin, but also cleanses. Just like the Lord has been teaching me through various and just like the Lord showed me through today's sermon. 

How I was able to truly come to this one liner, was a much longer, deeper process, then reading a website's verse of the day. Thank you Lord for being patient enough to continually teach me your amazing truths. 

Okay dokes, I'm off to make a spinach-pineapple-parsley smoothie, play some inspiring music to finish to do list and enjoy the rest of this day that the Lord has made. Adios!

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*Sidenote- sermons are definitely not this long. The speck of journalism in me obsessively tries to transcribe word for word when I listen to anything of importance. Gracias a Dios for the ability to rewind. 
PS- For those of you wondering:  "Is she ever going to write on her blog what has been going on the last 3 months in the DR?" I'm working on a blog post (s) to hopefully summarize it all, and will sometime post this week!

"blessed are the poor in spirit"

This past weekend was our staff retreat, and we were blessed to have a couple (Robin & Heather) that helped led our mission training program come to the DR & encourage our team. They shared an amazing bible study from Matthew 5 when Jesus is preaching the beatitudes. For those of you who don't know Makarios means blessed in Greek, so their whole intent behind this bible study was to challenge us to see if we are living up to our name: Makarios. 

The entire bible study was extremely convicting and motivating.. but I want to share this specific part with you:

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven"- Matthew 5:3

-Blessed (MAKARIOS) is the poor in spirit who realizes their utter helplessness without God. They humbly realize that they have nothing at all, that knowledge, training, skills and experience means nothing and God means everything. They realize their help and strength is found only in God, they have learned there is no other way but to trust and obey God.

This is me.  I am blessed because of my utter helplessness & therefore great reliance on the Lord. And the process that the Lord is bringing me through to realize this is incredibly hard, yet amazingly beautiful. 

I know I'm two months behind on blogging. A lot has happened in these two months.. therefore, I promise to write more soon!