The Makarios School Christmas Program never disappoints. Cute kids, singing, dancing and the Gospel. Thank you, Jesus, for humbling Yourself to come to Earth as a Baby.
Tuesday, December 19, 2017
Some pix to enjoy
Six months in one post. Taaa daaa
Happiest of holidays to you!
What a joy to be able to celebrate the
birth of our Lord and Savior. What humility was demonstrated as He
got demoted to BABY!! Why? So that He could find the lost, know us,
sacrifice Himself for us and demonstrate His unfailing love. May
this Christmas be awe-filled at what the Lord has done for us!
Speaking of being awe-filled by what
the Lord has done........let me TRY to catch you up with Makarios and
our family.
Let me start with July which took me
back to the States to help my Mom as she tended to my Dad who was
battling cancer. It has been a bewildering road for my Mom and she's
been nothing short of a champ. The treatment was very rough on my
Dad, but the report back has been excellent. He is cancer-free and
we are praising our Awesome God for such healing.
In August our family celebrated our
fourth year anniversary serving with Makarios. I NEVER excepted to
ever say those words. As we think about our commitment through
Summer 2019 we are prayerfully considering what the Lord may have
next for us. Some of you may be skeptical of our leaving date, but
this just may be real this time. (But, we'll see! :) ) In August
also my replacement arrived with his family. Ryan is in language
training now and is progressing nicely.
In August the Makarios School started
its first school year of having the recognition by the Dominican
Ministry of Education to have our students at our school registered
in our official name. This is a huge step and was no small task.
In August Sam started 3rd
grade; Levi started 2nd grade; and Sarah started
Kindergarten. All three kids very much enjoy school, their teachers
and their friends. Joe teaches the kids Bible—they have
verse-by-verse gone through much of the Old Testament. Joe has
taught the boys to read in English and is working with Sarah. He
leads a Bible Study on Saturdays through our church. I am still
doing my best to run the Makarios School which is so close to my
heart.
September marked the 10th
anniversary of giving class at the school's location—as opposed to
in the individual communities. This is such a great milestone.
Sharla Megilligan, the founder, was present for the celebration which
was planned, moved, planned, and moved due to two hurricanes the DR
faced this hurricane season. Makarios had much to celebrate this
September—minimal damage in our area from those hurricanes and 10
years of class!
September also marked the start of
construction that, once completed, will be the rooms needed to
complete our whole school-- preschool through graduating seniors.
This is big and super exciting. This is an amazing endeavor and
God's carried us through the plans, the purchasing of land, the first
phase of the drainage and wall. It makes for a noisy classroom
environment, but once it is completed it will be truly incredible.
October and November were filled with
teacher trainings, the medical team that comes every year, making a
promotional video for Makarios, visits from the Austin office and
just all the 'normal' (HA HA) days of class at the Mak School, The
school where I taught for 9 years comes at Thanksgiving and throws
the American staff an amazing spread of all the smells and tastes of
Thanksgiving, It is an amazing labor of love.
The blur of this fall has transitioned
to winter which brought a trip to Santo Domingo so Joe could take
Sarah to Disney on Ice. Sarah, obviously, LOVED it. The boys and I
stayed back at the hotel and swam in the pool, which we LOVED as
well. All the craziness of December has quieted now. The exams are
completed, turned in, graded, put into extremely detailed grade
books. The Christmas presentation has been presented, all the
classroom parties are completed and now we are on Christmas break.
Ahhhhhh.
Christmas break for the Majcher Family
will consist of traveling to Indiana where we will spend time with
family while freezing our hindquarters off. :) It really will be a
wonderful time. The kids and Joe haven't left the Dominican Republic
in almost three years. Sarah turned two the last time she was there!
I anticipate a lot of questions from the kids. I've tried to prep
them on the fact that everyone speaks English so everyone will
understand what they are saying, so, please, don't say anything
weird!! :)
God's sweetness and goodness are ever
present. They've been most apparent in this past year. As I hear my
boys speak so conversationally about the Bible it brings me such joy
they have such deep knowledge of the Word. They are memorizing The
Romans Road so they can share the Gospel with Scripture easily. Such
richness in those Scriptures about God's amazing gift to us in His
Son. I am memorizing Psalm 40 with good friend, Robin Inks. I'm so
thankful for His listening, lifting us up from where we are and the
fact that His blessings to us are without number. What an amazing
God we serve.
Grace and much peace this holiday
season,
Joe, Laurie, Sam, Levi and Sarah
PS If you are interested in supporting Makarios by supporting our family, please visit https://www.aplos.com/aws/give/Makarios/missionaries. We would love to have you join our team! :)
Sunday, June 25, 2017
An Update on the Majcher Fam
As many of you may have noticed, I am
terrible at writing blogs. Turns out that all the best intentions
and plans still doesn't create blogs. It's weird. But, I have had a
little more time lately as I sit in an Indiana hospital room with my
Dad. He is battling a survivable cancer, but is struggling with the
radiation/chemo cocktail that has landed him in the hospital for
dangerously low white blood cell count levels. So, as I update and
pray about his condition and try to be encouraging to my sweet Mama,
I also have had some quiet moments to update y'all on what cool stuff
we get to be a part of in the Dominican Republic with Makarios.
Some big things have been happening at
Makarios School. The Makarios School received a very important
number—a code—that makes us officially recognized by the
Dominican Ministry of Education. WE ARE A REAL SCHOOL. The most
beautiful number to me now is: 15757!! :) This effort has been
years in the making as we tried to follow all the steps required in
order to gain this recognition. Obtaining our Dominican recognition
become quickly one of the top priorities upon my arrival almost four
years ago. That number is the result of sweat and tears, for sure!
This news was the best birthday present as we found out one day
before my 45th birthday in February! (YES, I AM that
old!)
God is certainly working in Makarios.
As we strive for excellence, we know that the battle is real, but we
know our God is stronger and has already won! Makarios strives to
make an impact for Christ here in the DR and we are growing
throughout the ministry which this is extremely exciting to see. Our
Hosting Ministry is branching out and we have a Family Empowerment
branch of Makarios now which serves the families of our students.
The Family Empowerment Ministry is a wonderful addition to the work
Makarios is already doing.
Jeremiah 17:7-8 New King James Version (NKJV)
“Blessed is the
man who trusts in the Lord,
And whose hope is the Lord. For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters,
Which spreads out its roots by the river,
And will not fear[a] when heat comes;
But its leaf will be green,
And will not be anxious in the year of drought,
Nor will cease from yielding fruit.
And whose hope is the Lord. For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters,
Which spreads out its roots by the river,
And will not fear[a] when heat comes;
But its leaf will be green,
And will not be anxious in the year of drought,
Nor will cease from yielding fruit.
These verses have come up a couple
different times this year. One in a book that my friend and I were
studying. Kikina struggles daily to bear fruit in a joy drought and
a flood of tears. These verses have also been chosen to go along
with Makarios' mission and vision. This is what we want for our
students. This is what I want for Makarios. This is what I want for
the Majcher Family.
Here are some highlights ministry-wise
and specific to the Majcher Family--
--The rising fifth grade class had been
studying Romans and the class had been touched by the Holy Spirit and
have made commitments to follow Christ! Pray for Tomy and Sarah,
their teachers next year, as they lead these students in their new
walk with the Lord !!!!
--The Lord has blessed the Makarios
School with a woman who is passionate about literacy. Adrienne
Christian has been able to lead Makarios teachers in obtaining tools
in order to achieve higher levels of literacy and we are seeing the
benefits! Our school will continue to flourish as we become more
skilled in working with varied kinds of learning as our students, who
come from poverty, arrive at school with significant developmental
challenges. An exciting step in becoming more skilled is that we
anticipate a team of teachers from Logos Prep located in Sugar Land,
TX in October to partner with us in training.
--A praise is that the Lord has blessed
our efforts in fundraising where we are not in the critical spot as
we were before. We do lack a few monthly donors which means that we
are reliant on one time gifts. God has always been faithful to
provide, but it is ideal to have our salary fully covered in monthly
commitments. Please pray that we would be able to close that gap.
If anyone is inspired this moment—here is the giving link. :)
https://www.aplos.com/aws/give/Makarios/missionaries
--Our kids continue to do well in
school and very much enjoy school. They adore their teachers and
(generally) strive to do their best. :) Sam will be entering 3rd
grade. Levi will be entering 2nd grade and Sarah is
entering Kindergarten. They enjoy riding bikes, playing with the
neighborhood kids, hanging out with their friends in the communities
and other Makarios missionary kids. Sam and Levi have tried their
hand at surfing with pretty decent success. All three kids are
soaring in Spanish and feel very comfortable using it.
So, how long are we staying in the
Dominican Republic? That's what everyone wants to know. Well, we
are a bit off from our one year commitment. :) The 19th
of August 2017 will be our 4th year anniversary of
arriving on Dominican soil. We have made a commitment to stay for
another two school years to help be a part of securing that the
Makarios School has leadership in place. This would take us to
Somewhere in the summer of 2019. As of right now, there isn't a
leading or a plan or a this-is-what-we-will-do-next, but we will rely
on the Lord to lead our family as He SO faithfully to do. Who knows?
We could move by YOU....some of you are in Russia (Highly doubt we
are going there!!), Bangkok (maybe), China (hmmmm), Texas (perhaps),
Indiana (oh, goodness, that winter!!!!). Some of you are right here
in the DR.....so, we will just have to patiently wait on the Lord.
It is a wonderful blessing to have the
world made a little smaller by way of Facebook. It is fun to know so
many people are able to be more connected to our family and our work
through social media. We so highly value your prayers for Makarios'
work and for my Dad. The outpouring has been so encouraging. Also,
it is a fact that we simply can't stay doing what we are doing
without our faithful financial support team!! Y'all are incredible
and we are so thankful for each of you!
Grace and much peace,
Joe, Laurie, Sam, Levi and Sarah
P.S. I'll post some pictures in a bit. :)
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