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!