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.

Feelings post decision.

I wrote the below words right after I made my decision to stay in the DR through December/pursue grad school to study education. I re-read this now, reflect on the INTENSE amount of worrying I've done over the past 3 weeks, and think "where is the girl who originally wrote these words?"
Praying the Lord refills me with an overwhelming sense of peace & about the future, like he did when I first made my decision. Praying I will be the essence of Proverbs 31:25, a person that can "laugh at the future" knowing that there's nothing for me to figure out/worry over because my God has it totally under control. I'm praying for peace (the peace God gave me 3 months ago), while experiencing anxiety. 

(Written 3 months ago)

I'm not completely sure what my life will bring come January 2014, and instead of bringing me anxiety… that brings me joy. Why? Because when I'm in a place of true understanding who the Lord is.. that he called me before the foundation of the earth to be his daughter, to be holy and blameless before him, to do the works he has prepared for me, and to spend eternity with him…. how could I not be joyful? He has an amazing plan for my life. There's no need for me to be anxious, there's no need for me to fret. He has already planned it all out. He loved me, called me to himself, and planned out my life until I can be with Him in eternity. 

These moments of peace/understanding come & go. And when these moments aren't "around" they are often replaced with anxiety, worry, stress, apathy, etc. etc. So I ask you to pray. I ask that you pray that God would continue to remind me in a strong way, that I am his beloved daughter (Ephesians 5:1), that he has written the plan for my life (Ephesians 2:10, Psalm 139) and that he is my shepherd that will continue to faithfully lead me to live out that plan (Psalm 23, John 10). 

"To be certain of God means that we are uncertain in all our ways; we do not know what a day may bring forth. This is generally said with a sigh of sadness; it should rather be an expression of breathless expectation." - Oswald Chambers

Strength and dignity are her clothing, And she smiles at the future.- Proverbs 31: 25

Sunset at Playa Sosua. A few months after I moved to the island.

 (No, this picture has nothing to do with the blog post. But whats a blog post without a picture?)

The Decision. The big one.

I am overjoyed to announce that after much prayer, the Lord has called me to extend my contract (that was originally over in July 2013) with Makarios & stay in the DR until December 2013. A HUGE/GRANDE thank you to all of my loved ones who have spent the last 21 months praying for me, keeping up with my life, "liking" photos of our beautiful students, and much more. 
And now I humbly ask for prayers as I enter my last 7 months on the island (AH!).

Another 7 months of loving on these beautiful students.

Read on for a glimpse into how the Lord brought me to this decision, and the beautiful way he opened my eyes to him being my Shepherd. 

Around December of their 2nd year is when all the Makarios missionaries begin their "Oh my word, I have to tell the Austin office in 3 months whether I'm leaving at the end of July or extending my contract" freaking out process. So I freaked out, and prayed a bit. Then I freaked out a bit more, and then prayed some more..and this process continued until mid February, a mere few weeks before I had to make my decision. I knew I wasn't because of my busy schedule I wasn't spending an ample amount of time praying about it,  so I intentionally went "away" for a weekend with the Lord (unplugged, free of distractions). I stayed in a hotel I was familiar with in Cabarete (an hour away) and there had one of the most beautiful times I've ever had with the Lord. Per Margaret's encouragement, I didn't pray specifically about the big decision. Instead I prayed overall regarding my time here, for the Lord to lead me as he always has,  listened to s a great sermon series and just read whatever scripture the Holy Spirit prompted me to read. It's always the most beautiful thing when the Lord orchestrates different things to display one beautiful solitary concept. That concept was simple: The Lord is my shepherd. Those 5 words encompassed a lot for me that weekend in February. He was my shepherd when I was once a lost sheep-- calling me to first come to know him as my Lord & Savior in my 2nd grade Sunday school class, he was my shepherd when he prompted my 16-year-old self  to "rededicate" my faith and start actually living for him, he was my shepherd when I made the decision to attend Syracuse University (thereby causing me to get involved in CRU, strengthen my faith, meet amazing friends and continue my love for missions), and he was my shepherd when he led me in the most crazy way possible to be a missionary with Makarios. He loves me. He loves me as His daughter, even though I did nothing to deserve it (Ephesians 1:5). His grace is overwhelming. Even though I am imperfect and fall WAY below his standard of Holy, he called before the foundation of the world me to know him (Ephesians 1:4), and not only know him... but to SERVE him. He's already planned in advance how I am exactly going to serve him (Ephesians 2:10). Wait, so his is a God who loves me more than I can imagine and already knows how I will serve Him? Why in the WORLD am I freaking out about a mere decision. He already has it figured it out.  My role is to continually seek him, and wait patiently as he reveals his will to me. He is my shepherd. He always has and always will lead me. And he already knows whether or not I'm going to extend my contract.

(Picture taken during my weekend away with the Lord. Sitting in the sand, listening to worship music & enjoying the sunset.)

The Monday after my weekend I made a decision about my future with Makarios- to extend my contract and stay through December. Also per Margaret's encouragement, I didn't tell anyone about that decision for about two weeks. Instead, I sat with the decision.. praying that the Lord would give me peace if it was his will, or speak to me if it wasn't. Throughout those two weeks I felt a continuous growing peace about my decision. More than that, I felt led to make the official final decision to pursue a Master's of Education, to "officially" learn how to teach students. I had been toying with the idea for that past year, but it was during those two weeks of prayer that it became a reality. The grad school decision also fit in perfectly with my other decision to leave the DR in December.
After I leave the DR in December I will have 6 months to transition back to life in America and Lord willing, I will start grad school in June 2014 (or August, pending the program). After completion of my program I will continue to serve His kingdom by loving/educating/teaching the gospel to the children that need it most!

Why We Do, What We Do

Everyday our staff begins the day with a short group devotional. Wednesdays is our day to mention specific prayer requests. Today 4 of the third grade girls saw our board of prayer requests and on their own decided to pray for each request. They spent their entire recess (30 minutes) praying.

This is why we do what we do. Apart from their academic subjects, we teach these kids about the Lord and the gospel story he has orchestrated for the world. We are discipling their hearts, with the hope & prayer that they can one day come to know the Lord as their Savior.

We work day in and day out to trying to raise up future Christian leaders of these communities. And honestly, it's hard work. Sometimes the only thing that keeps us going is knowledge that we are planting seeds that will (prayerfully) bear fruit in the future. But sometimes, on days like today, God allows us to see fruit. Tomorrow we continue to plant seeds, today we thank God for this blessing. 

Thank you Lord for these girls. Thank you for the truth that has been poured into their life (both from the Makarios staff and from their respective churches). We pray to you for their salvation. And we pray to you for the power to continue planting seeds. 

Valentina, Neifi, Scarlett, Yulena (The 4 girls who were praying)

Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. - 1 Corinthians 15:58