Grace upon grace.

I WILL SING TO THE LORD, BECAUSE HE HAS DEALT

BOUNTIFULLY WITH ME- PSALM 13:6

These past 60 days have been filled with change upon change, 
and I have absolutely blown away by God's grace throughout it all. 

Change #1 It all started with Him leading me to STAY in the DR past my original leave date (December 2013). That's right. I'm extending my time in the DR once again! Let me tell you, that was a whirlwind of a decision. Including but not limited to: struggling with pride in terms of "holding on to" my original decision, learning an immensely great lesson on God's guidance of his people, experiencing the power of prayer, and lastly: joy and closeness to the Lord. I'm thrilled that the Lord has led me to stay, and grateful for the lesson he taught me through the decision making process. 

Change #2  So I was under the pretense that I would stay in the DR serving as our school's full time "Resource Teacher"- tutoring our students that need extra help. THEN, I found out that I was needed instead as a full time teacher in the classroom. So hear it here first folks... I am going to be co-teaching our 2nd grade class in a mere TWO weeks. Teaching full time in a classroom for Makarios has been my prayer/desire for the last year and a half, and I could have NEVER imagined it would happen so fast. But God is gracious, and He's entrusting me & my co-teacher, Marnelia with 17 beautiful students, to love, educate and share the gospel with. More to come on this soon. I am BEYOND excited. 

Change #3 The Makarios school is in the process of becoming "accredited," meaning we will be officially "recognized" by the government. When this happens it will allow our students to only attend our school, not requiring them to also attend public school (what they currently do). The next step in this process calls us to switch to the Dominican Ministry of Education's curriculum (we were previously using American curriculum before) and also re-organize our current classes/teachers. (Hence- how the opportunity opened up for me to be a teacher). If it sounds complicated, it's because it is! But hey, our God does great with complicated, Amen?

So why have I been so blown away by God's grace throughout all of these changes? Because in these past 2 months, I have dealt so greatly with the enemy whispering his lies to me. These daily lies centered around the common theme of: "You're not good/holy enough to serve the Lord as a missionary." But every single lie from the enemy has been answered ABUNDANTLY with our God's grace. Through various ways He has told me, - "No, you're technically not 'good enough.' But my grace isn't dependent on your performance. You're my daughter. I chose you before the foundation of the world. And I appointed you to do good works. I gave you grace then and I give you grace now. You're not perfect, but I am. And I will work through you to advance my kingdom on this island. Oh, and by the way....  have your dream job, have the job you've been praying about for the last 1 1/2 years and use it for my glory." Can you imagine?! I'm feeling low and unworthy... and in response God gives me an opportunity that I feel a person "like me", couldn't possibly deserve. In that moment He effectively reminded me of what his grace is- undeserved blessings, undeserved love.

I WILL SING TO THE LORD, BECAUSE HE HAS DEALT BOUNTIFULLY WITH ME. (PSALM 13:6)

So this is me "singing", Lord. Singing your greatness. Singing because you have and will always deal bountifully with me. Singing because of your grace. Singing because of your grace UPON grace. Singing because you answer prayer. Singing because you've chosen me to minister to these students. And singing because it will be you that gives me the ability to do just that. 

Merili, Elianny, Emeli and Taisha
4 of the girls that will be in my 2nd grade class. 

Will you pray for us? Pray for our school: That God will continue to bless us as we make these big adjustments. Pray for me: That the  the transition from my old position (Sponsorship Coordinator) to my new position of 2nd grade teacher would go as smooth as possible. Pray for my co-teacher, Marnelia & I:  That God would do an amazing work as we love, educate and witness to our 17 students hearts. Lastly pray for our students: that God would reveal himself to them.  

FROM THE DR, WITH LOVE
Imani

The Summer I Fell in Love with Sunsets

A photographic journey of Summer 2013. The summer I fell in love with love sunsets. The summer I co-taught my own classroom. The summer that went by too quickly. 



June

Our dear Sarah's going away party

Eating on the beach with our new interns


First day of teaching! Yay!


Seriously. I cannot speak enough words to express my love of pink/golden/bright sunsets.

Jesus.. keep on, keeping on with these beautiful sunsets

The beautiful Mari Leydy posing with her class "passport." The students drew a picture of every country they learned about that summer.


Mari Leydy once again. That day she brought my co-teacher Bella and I 2 huge bags of mangos for us to enjoy. The mangoes came from her tree in her yard, and she had her dad get them for us as a gift. She's the sweetest.


Dominican tradition! Getting water thrown on you on your birthday. Happy Birthday Bella, Genesis and Odilsia! (The best part about this is that Odilsia didn't realize Johan had tricked her into coming outside so that he could get her wet)


Weekend trip to Santo Domingo with our lovely interns. 


























July

The day most of the staff wore red t-shirts.


Happy 32nd Birthday, Dena! Celebrating at Gorditos


The ladies at Dena's rooftop birthday party





















We had a SUPER rough week the 1st week of July. This photo was taken after all the students had a full day of good behavior. Thank you Jesus!























August

That week our class was learning about Italy. We taught them how the famous Italian artist, Michaelangelo painted the majority of The Sistine Chapel while lying on his back. Afterwards the kids imitated Michael Angelo by lying under their chair and drawing a picture.


In this week we were learning about Mexico. Ricardo, a native Mexican living in the DR, just so happened to be doing a construction project on the school grounds. He took a break to talk to the students about his home country.

Last day of our summer program! Celebrated with a picnic of tacos outside!

#NofilterjustJesus





























Dena was pleasantly surprised to find out her goodbye party was Pirate themed!


























The day Dena moved back to the states. Miss this girls TONS. But know God is doing great things through and in her back in the states.

 

Menold's goodbye party. Finley and Caktio watching a slideshow of photos of the Menold's time here. Miss this great family!


With many "goodbyes", came many "hellos." We welcomed Kelly, Martha and the Majcher family to the DR in August. Here I am pictured with the youngest Majcher: sweet/adorable Sarah. 


























The last week of August, my dad gifted me with an early birthday present: he had his timeshare traded to a beautiful condo in the DR!

 As we were checking in, we noticed there was a grill and immediately decided we had to take advantage of it. None of us girls had ever grilled before, but we went for it...and the food turned out AMAZING. Definitely a highlight of the week.


Poolside reading. One of my favorite pastimes. 




















What an incredible week of relaxation we had. We woke up everyday without an alarm, had breakfast, read our bibles, made our way out to the pool, swam/read, came inside when the sun set, watched cable television (an incredibly luxury, we don't have in our apartments), ate dinner and then finished the day off by watching tons of episodes of Lost. AND our condo was air condition. Cable TV, air condition and a pool is all I need for great relaxation here in the DR. Definitely one of my favorite memories from 2013!

























September

My 24th Birthday, celebrated in Santiago. A day filled with friends, good conversation, laughter, FROZEN YOGURT, mall fun and great Italian food. I love you Santiago. 

A Photo Album of the 2012-2013 school year.

Hard as it is for me to believe.. we're already entering our third week of the 2013-2014 Makarios school year.
In honor of the new school year, here's a look back into LAST school year. Aka this post was written because I realized I barely blogged throughout last school year. (who's surprised?) So here it is: a photo album of the 2012-2013 school year. 


 September 

Celebrated my 23rd Birthday with these lovely ladies in Santiago.


Started off the Makarios school year with a great day of school!



October

Began tutoring/pulling out students to help them with phonics and math!


Yiskeiry and I during a village visit to Pancho Mateo



November

Our school and community suffered from a terrible flood. It destroyed almost our entire bottom floor, and several homes of our staff members & students. But God was incredibly faithful in restoring everything.
 

The first day of classes after the flood. (We closed school for 3 days)



Post flood, celebrating Thanksgiving at the Makarios house with Narolin.



Bella, Cita and I after a delicious Thanksgiving dinner. SO thankful to be able to celebrate this holiday with my Domincan family.
 























And bonus: Mari Leydy performing after one of our tutor sessions

December

Fani, Anita and Ismael showing off their pearly whites




















Profe Marnelia reading a bible story during chapel. 



















My family came to visit over Christmas!!

























January

Soda floats with Nicole


Back to school. Eduardo & Nikauri


Juan Carlos & Escarlet showing off their birthday gifts. 




















February

The amazing Makarios staff in the mountains of Jarabacoa for our annual staff retreat. 

Celebrating Valentine's Day AND Yiskeiry's birthday!


























March

We found these 4 girls praying for our staff prayer requests on their own accord. Such a beautiful thing to experience.


At the beach with two of our students: Rachel & Franchesca


























Spent a week in March serving alongside Hill Country School as they ran VBS programs in the Los Ciruelos community. These two sisters were two of the girls that were in my ESL class my first year here. Love them!


April

Village Visit in Chichigua, playing baseball!





















Rachel!


While some played baseball-- others played Dominoes.
















May

I missed the last day of school because I was in the states for my sister's graduation. But I heard the last was super great!



Home for the littler sister's graduation.



While home I was able to visit these 3 lovely ladies in Boston!
And I had the true Boston experience by getting to see the Red Sox play in Fenway!


My dear grandma and I during my sister's family graduation party.


And there you have it. The 2012-2013 school year in a nutshell.
See my next blog post with hilights of Summer 2013.