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 3^rd grade; Levi started 2^nd 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 10^th 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!  :)

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 45^th 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.

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 2^nd 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 19^th of August 2017 will be our 4^th 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.  :)

Catching you up on the Majcher's in the DR

This is taken on the day off from school for Hurricane Matthew. No crazy weather for us yet.   3 October

On the roof of co-workers Benja and Vierka to celebrate Kikina and Ronal's birthdays and completion of a marriage class.  Chris Buster, our boss is also here from Austin.

School uniforms on the line in Chichigua.  Levi is also in the cherry tree in the background, but I can't find him.

The American Makarios community had a 30/40 Bash.  We all dressed up as families as a different movie.  We were the Avengers.  It was actually Joe who turned 40 on 6 September and he isn't in the picture!!  The '30' part came from Cory Albright who turned 30 in late August. 

First day of school year 2016-2017.  Sam has a swollen face from wasp stings and Sarah took a spill on her tricycle.  Amazingly, the only one with no injuries is Levi--our complete wild man.  :)

The Makarios School staff 2016-2017

Papa and Sarah Bug

My bro, Chris, came to visit alllllll the way from China.  Well, he was in the States and zipped down because that is what you do when you live in China and are in the States.  You go the DR for a long weekend.  :)

I had a chance to zip back to the States in July to take care of our storage unit since we sold our house.  I got to see Kelly Walker, Rachel Lanouette,  Imani Folkes, who came over from Houston and Robin who was back visiting from Russia.  Such sweet timing!!!

Grammy came to visit us in May.  It was her first time out of the country!

All three kids were in a neighbor's wedding.  They looked fantastic.

Joe and the kids!  :)

The fruit of the Spirit are.....

Hola from the DR. I wanted to give a bit of an update in the form of this verse that we have had as our theme for the year at the Makarios School.

Galatians 5:22 'But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, self control. Against such things there is no law.'

But the fruit of the Spirit is LOVE—A while ago I blogged about a little girl who lived in Pancho Mateo. Imani, former Mak staff, introduced me to Luigina after her caregiver at the time told us that she had been abandoned by her parents. Luigina suffered from a condition that made her arm extremely swollen to the point she needed a sling. The condition would eventually take her life and this was the case a few weeks ago. Her caregiver had told us she wanted Luigina in Colegio Makarios because 'it is a place that really loves the students'. May they know we are His by our love.

JOY—Makarios is exploding with new folks committing to serve with Makarios. In the past few months we have welcomed such wonderful additions and continue to add more. We welcomed Adrienne Christian who was already living in the DR until the Lord brought her to Mak. Two fantastic families came in December, the Lehrs and the Albrights. We recently received India Rucker and we will soon be welcoming Kaylee Howard and Christen Jernigan along with Apriel Westermoreland in the near future. It is a joy to serve along such great people.

PEACE—Do we sell our house in Cedar Park? (I think so.) Do we sell our car? (Yes!) Do we get rid of the stuff in our storage? (UGH, what a task!) Will we need these things whenever it is that Lord calls us back to the States? Will that happen? Mercy, Lord, we need your peace. I am having a heart attack just writing all that. (No, seriously, I am. It could also be the Doritos...see SELF CONTROL.) Father, may our hearts not be troubled as we rely on and seek You for peace in these answers.

PATIENCE—The Mak School has needed to gain the recognition by the Dominican Department of Education its entire existence. Two years ago we sat defeated with the superintendent who now has signed all the necessary papers for us to have this recognition. Up until now our students have had to attend the public school as well as the Makarios School in order to be in an accredited school. This is big news for our school. God has given us the patience needed to see this important milestone in the progress of The Makarios School.

KINDNESS—This Dominican recognition becoming a reality at this point has been just something that has happened in the last month. During this time we had two groups—Cedarville University in Ohio and Sagemont Church from Houston ,TX sent a group of youth. Both of these teams stopped me when I was giving the tour of our school and told them about the important meetings. They stopped me to ask if we could pray right then and there for these things. What sweet and simple kindness that encouraged me amazingly! Thank you, groups, your kindness means so much.

GOODNESS—God in His goodness has seen fit to allow our little family to serve here in this country, this corner of the Earth. We are so thankful and love what He is able to take bumpkins like us and bring glory to Himself. Making decisions for the Mak School constantly keeps me in pursuit of what is good. I am thankful that He is a good, good Father and may His goodness follow us all the days of our lives and the lives of our students.

GENTLENESS—As I get older and I learn more about myself I have learned that I do not possess, like, at all, the gift of mercy. If it comes to me at all it does not come naturally. 'Let your gentleness by evident to all. The Lord is near.' This was a verse that the students memorized this year. It is such a great reminder as I deal with students, staff, my family, etc. May I strive to demonstrate the sweet gentleness that the sweet Savior shows to me.

FAITH—A very present reminder of faith is when our students place their faith in Jesus Christ and that is extremely exciting. Another example of faith to us is the faith steps taken by each of our supporters to commit to giving to our family. This is an incredible sacrifice on their part and we are humbled, encouraged, refreshed, blessed, and spurred on by it. We couldn't be here without our beautifully faithful supporters. If you are interested in joining our team we would be incredibly appreciative. https://www.aplos.com/aws/give/Makarios/missionaries

SELF CONTROL—Well, if you have read this far then you should get a prize. This, like mercy, this isn't my strong suit as I munch Doritos at 3:15AM. Honestly, God is working here, too. I have learned much about not saying every thought that comes to my head and letting it pass through a filter of Christ first. (Sometimes. I said it was a work-in-progress!)

Being reminded of what we can be through Christ is always good and how He calls us into community to live these things is out is good as well. Thank you for your very faithful support of prayer and finances. We are blessed.

Much grace and peace to you, Joe, Laurie, Sam, Levi and Sarah

 Sam was Moses in his class' chapel

 Levi's class with their 'bubbles' in their mouths as they pass from lunch back to class.

 I wish our teachers loved our kids!  Especially mine. :)  Profe Yomo showing her love for the kids!

 Sam, Levi and Sarah doing our daily routine--riding to bikes and saying HOLA to our friends.

Sarah, Levi, Ollie Albright, Henry Albright and Sam taking in the view on the mountain road to Santiago.

A different kind of Makarios student sponsorship

The sponsorship money for each student goes to pay for the needs of the school. This is includes, but isn't limited to, teacher salaries, the food the students eat including while on school breaks, the uniform shirts, the electricity bill, gas for the generator when the lights are out (which is a daily occurrence), etc. The American staff here with Makarios is encouraged to send their students to the Makarios school. Sam and Levi have already been attending for the past two years and are sponsored by a very nice lady.  (Thanks, Sharla!!) When the American students become a part of the school there is the same financial need as the other students. When the American students are sponsored that is $100/monthly that the missionary family isn't shelling out. There is then an investment in the ministry of Makarios through sponsorship, but also to our family specifically. If you are interested in sponsoring Sarah or knowing more about sponsorship in general, please let me know.

I will tell you a little bit about Sarah. Sarah moved to the DR when she was 6 months old. She hangs out with Joe during the day and when the boys come home from school they all play together if Sarah isn't napping. Sarah has a very good handle on her letters, shapes, colors, and she is working on her numbers. She holds a pencil well and traces letters with accuracy. Sarah enjoys singing, reading/being read to, painting, being the one to pray for our food and taking baths. She speaks full English sentences, but does some sign language as well.   She is so excited about going to 'kool with the boys and Mama. She will enter in the 3-year old class even though her third birthday is at the end of February. We will assess if she will stay in the 3-year old class next school year or if she will go on with the 4-year olds. She is learning Spanish and that will be the main purpose of her starting school so early. 

Thank you for taking an interest in our family by reading this.  If you are interested in sponsoring Sarah, please email me at lauriemajcher@gmail.com and I will connect you to the sponsorship coordinator.  If you are interested in sending some end of the year giving or in joining our monthly support team to help close the $1, 000 deficient in monthly giving we would be very thankful!  Please visit:  https://makarios.webconnex.com/missionary for end of the year giving or joining our monthly support team. 

Que Dios les bendiga/May the Lord bless you all!!

A few pictures from the past few months! Is it really almost December!!??

 This is the Hill Country Christian School of Austin team leading chapel for the Mak kids.  This is where I spent 9 years teaching!  I love the trip is still going strong!  What a blessing.  November 2015

 Sarah is practicing tracing her letters.  She is a smart girl who will be starting at the Mak School in January!!! Watch out, Profe Gloria and Profe Marnelia!  October 2015

 The Makarios Staff in Austin and the DR prayed at the same time the whole month before the Makarios Gala which was 21 November.  It was a wonderful fundraising event that the Lord blessed.  October 2015

 Our family headed to Jarabacoa, DR for a weekend with a few other Mak folks.  It was a great, chilly weekend, like 65 degrees.  Downright freezing!  October 2015

 The American Mak Staff had a Fall Party and Sarah went as Frida Kahlo.  October 2015

 Okay, so this is a First Day of School pic.  A little late.  That 'one to go' will be heading to school in January.  :)

 Levi's first day of Kindergarten.  He loves his teachers, Profe Yomo and Profe Jenna.  He loves to play and be with his classmates.  He enjoys riding his bike to school and loves Odilcia's cooking.  He recently told me that he wants to be either a doctor or a clown.  :)  September 2015

Sam's first day of First Grade.  Sam loves his teachers, Profe Perla and Profe Katherine. Profe Katherine just had a baby boy last week!  Sam is a sharp student who loves to answer ALL questions and help his classmates.  He also likes to ride his bike to school.  Sam would like to be a teacher when he grows up....or maybe run a school.  Hmmm, wonder where he gets that!! September 2015