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