Greetings,

Hello again from the Dominican Republic!  We have been busy the last couple of months here at Makarios.  Here's what's been happening.

Since our last post we had our annual staff retreat.  This was a time to get away as a staff to be refreshed and energized.  We had a great speaker from the US and we had a wonderful time of praise and worship together.  This is something we, as a staff, always look forward to every year.

Darren is still seeing a lot of patients in the clinic.  From the kids at the school and their parents, to people in the community, there is always a medical need here.  He has been able to do some minor surgical procedures to help some of the staff and parents out.  It is a real blessing to be able to help them and be there when they need medical assistance.

Darren checking out our friends knee after he had surgery on it.

In addition to his normal "doctor duties",  Darren has been doing several other things.  He started doing a medical workshop for the teachers on Friday mornings after Bible study.  During this time, he has been educating the staff on topics like:  healthy diet, good sleep habits, exercise, and Zika virus, to name a few.  The staff has been very receptive and are grateful to be able to discuss and get answers to their questions about specific topics.  Makarios has also been doing outreach meetings with the parents of our students.  Darren has had the opportunity to discuss medical topics with them as well.  This has been well received by the parents in the communities that we serve and they are well attended.  In addition to these other things mentioned above, he has been invited to preach on occasion at our local church, Templo Biblico.  He also continues to do financial talks and financial counseling.  He also stays busy as a member of the leadership team of Makarios.

Becky has also been busy with her role as Sponsorship Coordinator.  A few weeks ago, she helped lead a group of sponsors that came to Makarios with the sole purpose of developing relationships with their sponsor student.  This is a special time for both the sponsor and the student.  It was a lot of fun to see our Mak students playing one on one with their sponsor.  It is a special relationship that we hope will last a lifetime.

Our Dominican family!  We love this special family so much.

In addition to being the Sponsorship Coordinator, Becky enjoys being at the school spending time with the staff and students.  She often helps Darren in the clinic in various ways.  When she is not at the school, she is busy homeschooling Jenna and Audrey and taking care of normal household chores.

Jenna getting some love during recess!

Jenna is finishing up with the 7th grade.  She is not attending Makarios this year, but loves to go to the school to play with the younger kids during their recess.  She has some very special relationships with a few of the students.  But all of the kids love her and are always asking her to play with them.  She has been taking horse riding lessons and for those of you that know her, this is her passion!  She is in a group lesson with about 5 other girls her age and is learning a lot.  Her riding lessons are the highlight of her week.  She has also been learning Haitian Creole (the language that the Haitians speak).  This is a valuable tool to communicate with the Haitians that we serve.  She enjoys learning new languages and hopes to continue and maybe move to another language next year.

Jenna riding with her friends.

Hanging out at the beach!

Audrey is finishing another year at Makarios.  She has had a great year with two amazing teachers.  Her Spanish is now almost as good as her English!  It's really fun to hear her talking in class or even leading her class in prayer...in Spanish.  She has started taking Bujutsu class, which is a form of marital arts.  She loves it and enjoys practicing what she has learned with Daddy at home.  She likes to show people what she has learned and they are often surprised how strong she punches and kicks.

Audrey raising the Dominican Flag during the morning  National Anthem.

We have decided to stay serving at Makarios for another school year (2016-2017) and then we will need to decide again what we are going to do.  Our family really likes it here and we definitely know this is where God wants us right now.  We appreciate the continued support and prayer.

Prayer requests
1.  We are in need of one time donors right now (any amount).  We are still currently short about $400 per month and any one time financial gifts can help us meet our monthly living needs.  If you would like to give monthly that would help out too.
2.  For continued guidance and strength in serving the people here at Makarios and show God's love and forgiveness to all.
3.  For our family to consistently grow closer to each other and serve in a way that is glorifying to God.