Hello family and friends!  We pray that you are all doing well.

We wanted to update you all on some changes that are coming to our family.  As most of you know, we initially planned on working with Makarios in the Dominican Republic for 2 years.  God has graciously  allowed our family to continue working here past those first 2 years and we completed our 5th year in December 2017!  We have been blessed to work with many wonderful people during our time with Makarios.  

After much prayer and counsel, our family will be beginning a new adventure in April of this year.  We will be moving back to the United States.  We are so very grateful for your constant support and love for us over the past 5 years.  We would not have been able to serve with Makarios without all of your prayers and support for our family.  We feel so blessed to have been a part of this ministry with you all as a part of our team.  We are sad to be leaving our friends and "family" in the DR, but we are excited to see what God has planned for us.  

We would greatly appreciate your prayers as we make this big transition.  We want to finish strong here and transition out well.  And please pray for our girls as this is a big change for both of them.
We will be moving to Montana and Darren will be working at a rural hospital.  The start date is May 7 so we will need to purchase a vehicle and make our way out the first week of May.

We would love to visit with each of you when we return in April to reconnect and personally thank you.  I hope we can get our schedules to cooperate. We will be making our schedule soon and let you know when and where we will be.

Thank you for all of the prayers and support over the past 5 years.
- Darren, Becky, Jenna, and Audrey

Happy New Year from the Youngs in the DR.  Hope you all had a blessed Christmas and wonderful start to 2018.

We have been doing well here.  Our fall and first semester at school were full of blessings and changes.  Makarios was able to start construction on the land that will be for our new buildings.  We have a new entrance, drainage system, a wall around the property as well as having the land prepared for the new buildings.  This new land will be very beneficial in the coming years at Makarios and allow us to grow!  Getting this stage completed has been a lot of work and planning for Darren and several other Mak staff.  It has been great to see things come together and are excited about the growth of Makarios.  Makarios is continuing to fundraise so we can start the first building.

In October, we had a great week with a team from Faircreek Church (our home church in Ohio).  They brought a medical and work team.  It was wonderful to be able to spend time with them and work alongside of our friends.  About 400 patients were treated during this week!  And numerous work projects were completed.  It was nice to have people that we know be here and hang out with us for the week.

Darren with Wilner

Beginning of school parade.

Merry Christmas from the Youngs

We had a quiet and blessed Christmas as a family here in the DR.  We spent a few days in Santo Domingo, the capital city, with some friends/co-workers.  It was a fun time and got to get a little taste of Christmas from the big city.

We are excited about a new year and a chance to start fresh.  There is a lot of work to be done still and are trusting God for His guidance in our lives.

We definitely want to say a HUGE THANK YOU to all of you for your prayer and financial support!  We appreciate you and the sacrifices you make that provide for and empower us to do what we do here, which is to further HIS kingdom.  Thank you!!!  To God be the glory!

Prayer requests...
1.  God's strength to persevere through the many challenges we face here.
2.  God's continued guidance in our lives and work.
3.  Continued financial support.