New Update!

Greetings Family and Friends

Time sure does fly these days.  I feel like we just post something and then we blink and it's 6 months later:)  Anyway, we just want to update you with what has been going on in our lives for the past several months.

We left for the states right after school was out at the end of May.  We were able to see family and friends in Wisconsin, Chicago, Michigan, and Indiana which was a great blessing.  Our kids got to reconnect with their cousins and some of their friends.  We then went to Atlanta for my cousin's wedding.  A wonderful time to spend some time with my cousins and aunt.  I wish we could see each other more frequently.   During the summer I (Darren) was able to work in Montana doing short term assignments covering the clinic and ER in small rural hospitals.  I did a 2 week stint in Northeastern Montana and then a 4 week stint in Northern Montana.  This was a great opportunity to work in the US medical system again and keep my skills up to date.  I met some great people and overall it was a very worthwhile adventure and we were able to earn some money to go towards language school.
Becky and the girls were able to spend 2 of the weeks with me in Montana.  During that time, we were able to visit Glacier National Park and Calgary, Canada.  It was a great opportunity for our girls to see a different natural beauty not seen in the DR.  They were also able to learn a little about the area, environment, and the animals (including seeing a Grizzly Bear).  They even became Junior Park Rangers.  We are very thankful we had this time.  After our time there we had a few days in Michigan before we left for Costa Rica for language school.

If you've never been to Glacier it's worth a visit.

Chicago- Hancock Observatory.

Little fisher girl!  

Hiking in Glacier.

Costa Rica was an awesome experience.  We had class 5 days a week 4 hours a day and in the afternoons we had practice time with various activities, tours, classes, homework, etc.  Costa Rica is a great place to study spanish.  Audrey loved learning songs, playing, and getting her face painted while working on her spanish.  Jenna did great as well.  She has been in the Mak school in spanish but it was good to fill in a lot of the gaps and to learn the "why" behind a lot of what she is saying and hearing and to improve on her overall speech.  We got so many compliments from the professors at the school about how the girls were so well behaved, humble, smart, eager to learn and just their overall maturity (Pause, smile, proud parents moment).  Becky and I improved our language as well.  Our goal is to be able to connect on a deeper level with the kids, the families, the community, and everyone we come into contact with through Makarios.  Our doing language school has definitely helped us get closer to our goal.  We also did a week of medical spanish that will help both of us in the Makarios clinic.  We will always need to study and improve our language but we are much better now.

Volcano Arenal - Costa Rica

CPI Spanish School

Cooking class in Monte Verde, Costa Rica.

We arrived back in the DR on the 20th of October and have been working hard at preparing for a group that is coming on November 7.  That group is from our church in Ohio, Faircreek Church.  It is part medical and part work team.  We will be hosting them as well since our normal Makarios host couple are in language school now.  We are especially excited to have our pastor here to see what we do and to have him learn about Makarios.

So, we have had a much needed time of visiting friends and family in Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Georgia.  We had a little time to rest and rejuvenate and be able to refocus our minds on our mission here with Makarios.  Right now we are planning on staying another year and will evaluate as the time comes.  As always we appreciate so much the thoughts and prayers as well as the much needed financial support to be able to accomplish our mission of leading people to a life changing relationship with Jesus Christ.  Please continue to support us with your prayers.

Serving Him,

The Youngs

  So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God.  I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.-  Isaiah 41:10

Our Next Step

Hello from the Youngs serving in the Dominican Republic.  Apologies for the length of time between updates.  Thank you so much for thinking of us, praying for us, and wanting to be involved with our lives!

Many people have asked what we are going to do in June when our time is up.  So…we will try to address that question.

We have been very busy with Makarios.  Becky has been working as the Sponsorship Coordinator and has been doing a great job.  The first annual Makarios Sponsor Trip is scheduled in April.  This trip allows any sponsor of one of the Makarios students to come and visit their student and their families.  It should be a great time and a wonderful start to an annual tradition at Makarios.  Becky has also been busy with keeping our home in line as well as homeschooling Jenna after she gets home from the Mak school.

Jenna and Audrey are doing well also.  They are both attending the Mak school and continue to work on their Spanish language skills.  Jenna is still into horses.  Audrey is into acting like a Dominican:)

We have had a lot of visitors since the first of the year.  One of our friends/supporters came for a visit the first of the year and then some of Becky's family was here.  Shortly after that we had the annual Makarios retreat which was very fun and enriching.  Then after that we had another friend come for a couple of weeks.  The day after she left we had other friends/supporters come for a visit with their family.  So, as you can see it has been a little crazy here.  We love hosting our friends/family/supporters so we can show them what it's like here and how God is working in our lives as well as in Makarios.

Darren have been busy with preaching at different churches, giving financial talks at schools, and doing health talks for the students at Makarios,  as well as seeing medical patients in the clinic (or wherever he is for that matter).  He was able to spend some time with the 3 and 4 year olds to talk to them about the importance of hand washing.  He used glitter on his hand as an example of germs and how easy it is to pass them on to others.  He showed them a spanish song about washing their hands too.  Seems like such a small thing but it can have a huge impact on their lives, especially with the environment that they live in.  Darren is in the clinic every day and sees anywhere from 4-5 patients to 20+ patients depending on the day.  He has some regulars from the community that he sees often as well.  He also continues to serve at the Monkey Jungle Medical Clinic on select Saturdays.

In the fall there was a death of the father of some our students.  He was a good man.  Darren met him on our first trip here in 2007.  Darren connected with this man because he could speak some English.  His daughter came into the medical office sobbing, saying that he had just died.  Several of the Makarios staff and Darren quickly went to the village where he was.  He was lying on his back on the cold concrete floor of his house/shack in their Haitian batey (village).  Darren checked him out and confirmed that he was dead.  His wife was crying and screaming along with the children.  He had a Bible opened near his head.  The wind was blowing the pages as we hugged the mom and children.  As Darren looked down to see what passage the Bible was opened to after the wind had stopped blowing the pages... this is what he found:

Psalm 39:4-7

4 “Show me, Lord, my life’s end

and the number of my days;x

let me know how fleetingy my life is.z

5 You have made my daysa a mere handbreadth;

the span of my years is as nothing before you.

Everyone is but a breath,b

even those who seem secure.b

6 “Surely everyone goes aroundc like a mere phantom;d

in vain they rush about,e heaping up wealthf

without knowing whose it will finally be.g

7 “But now, Lord, what do I look for?

My hope is in you.h

Darren hasn't forgotten that day and the life change that death brought to that family and those kids.  One thing is for sure we are all going to die someday.  What are we going to do in our short amount of time on this earth?  We pray that our family will not be working in vain.  Our prayer and our hope is in the Lord, our Creator, our Savior.

So, with this in mind we have decided to stay another year from this June and then see where the Lord leads us. We have peace about this decision and are excited about the upcoming year.  We will be taking a little break this summer for seeing family/friends/church and also maybe a little work for me to keep my medical skills up (still to be determined).  We also feel very strongly about being able to communicate very well in the spanish language so, we are going to take at least a month to go to language school (most likely Costa Rica) to focus on and improve our spanish.

We are so blessed by all of you who have supported us over the past 2 1/2 years.  We are asking for continued prayer please about our continued time here and our time in the US this summer.  We would also like prayer/support for our continued time here and language school, specifically financially.  If you are someone you know would like to help us out with either a one time gift or monthly support that would be an answer to prayer.
If you would like to give here is the link. https://makarios.webconnex.com/missionary

Until next time!

Our hope is in the Lord,

The YOUNGS