Hello to all! We are so thankful by those of you who are supporting us in words and deeds! We give thanks to God for each one of you! We are consistently humbled by the ways you have blessed us.
After serving here in the Dominican Republic for a year and a half (yes, we have been here that long!), our normal day here looks much different than our normal day in the US looked like. Here is a glimpse of what a "normal" day might look like for Darren.
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| Darren in his office. |
Get up at 6:20am to exercise and get ready for work. Head to work at 7:30 on his motorcycle (which is an adventure in defensive driving every day!). Staff devotions at 7:45 and school starts at 8am. During the school day, Darren will see and treat students, staff and people from the local community. The patients' complaints vary with anything from head aches and stomach aches to broken bones, abscesses, cuts needing sutures, removal of foreign bodies, high blood pressure, high blood sugars and much more. Although the majority of his patients are students from the school, he sees patients ranging from newborn to 90 years old. His daily patient load can be anywhere from 10 patients to 30 patients . He has many over-the-counter medications that have been donated to the clinic on hand that he can give as needed. Any medication that he needs but does not have in the clinic, he can go to the local pharmacy and buy (such as antibiotics). He can also send his patients to the local hospital/clinic to get lab tests or xrays done. Any time one of our students or staff is in the hospital, Darren will visit them at the hospital and help in anyway he can to facilitate their medical care. He is also still involved with other ministries in the area that provide medical care here in the DR as well as in Haiti. He also oversees several of our students that have chronic medical conditions and will coordinate doctors visits and medications as needed. The students are done with school at 1:15, but that is not when Darren is done. He is also responsible for training and educating the staff on medical care and emergency preparedness. In addition he has been doing financial training for the staff. Around 3pm, he leaves the school and heads to Spanish class (again on his motorcycle). He has 2 hours of Spanish class 3 days a week. He arrives home around 6pm for dinner and time with the family. His evening hours vary from more Spanish classes, bible study with other local missionaries, family time, and time to rest.
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| Getting lots of hugs from some of our students! |
Here is a post from his facebook, just sharing how somedays feel crazy, but God is good…all the time!
Recap of my day yesterday: spent over 3 hours trying to buy a filing cabinet for the clinic office for charts, at our village visit we saw a previous MAK student and found out he was working from 5pm to 10pm every night at a Colmado (small local store) and he's 10 years old, a guy right behind me wrecked on his moto (I think we was ok), got rained on going to Bible Study, and 4 MAK students decided to accept Christ. Another day in the DR. Thank You Jesus.
(The 4 students that accepted Christ are friends of Jenna's in the fifth grade class. This life changing decision is why we are here, serving with Makarios! We praise God for these girls and pray over them as they walk in the light.)
What we are describing above, is a normal day. But we all know that most days do not seem "normal". Many times it takes much longer to get things accomplished and can be very frustrating. Other days things seem to go very smoothly and not as complicated. Darren works daily to serve people by meeting their physical needs and showing God's love by doing that. Darren is serving in the capacity that God placed him in by doing "whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."
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| Watching the Kentucky Derby DR style! |
Blessings and hugs being sent to all of our friends and family!! Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers!
