August 2024
Dear friends and prayer partners,
We serve the only TRUE and LIVING GOD and the most exciting thing is that HE cares about us! I am saying all this to share with you the answer to my prayers, in His time He makes all things beautiful (Ecclesiastes 3:11).
First of all, let me give you some information about the Dominican Immigration Department:
When I first arrived here in 1995, I could leave the Dominican Republic at any time to go at any part of the world. In fact, I took two trips to Africa without any problem. At the Dominican airport, as soon I showed my Missionary Identification Card, all the doors were open—meaning I could go back and forth from the Dominican Republic to the USA without any problem.
Suddenly in 2015, the Dominican Immigration Department decided that every foreigner should have a Dominican Visa in order to go back and forth from here, so this is when the situation got complicated. Because the immigration laws declared every foreigner should have a Temporary Visa for three years—meaning we needed to renew the Visa every third year. When my fourth year arrived to get my Permanent Visa, the laws were changed from three years to five years. Then, when my fifth year arrived, they changed it to ten years. Of course, every year of renewal we have to pay a fee. In other words, no one understands this law! The one thing I know is that I just paid over $600 dollars for another Temporary Visa and I am no longer illegal here. GLORY BE TO GOD!
Summer Mission Activities: Camps for our children have been a blessed time, especially because the heat in July and August in this country is tough. To add to it the prolonged blackout (electricity is turned off) does not help! So the children going to go to the rivers or the pools is always a great treat. Next week, nineteen girls will celebrate their fifteenth birthday—Las Quinceaneras—which is always a good time for the girls and their parents, who can’t afford a party for them.
Talking about birthdays, I never thought I would spend my 80th birthday in Barahona, but Our LORD Who knows how to bless me, put in the hearts of my students, the mission staff and many friends to honor me with a big party. So this is the hot news in the church and the mission. This big celebration will be on Saturday, September the 14th in Casa Bethesda from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The program includes food and a video talking about my career as a missionary in Barahona and the Bateys since I started in Algodon in 1995. That same day I will publish my book translated into Spanish!
Many of my friends in the USA can’t come to share this moment with me, so I am asking anyone of you reading this newsletter—anyone of you who have supported me all those years with your prayers and encouraging letters—if you want to send a short video wishing me a blessed birthday, you can do so by sending a short video via WhatsApp to Pablo Garcia at 1-849-214-9698. GOD IS GOOD ALL THE TIME!
Also if you would like to give a love offering for my 80th birthday, please contact me directly at 849-457-6738 for more details. Your kindness is GREATLY appreciated
PLEASE ADD YOUR PRAYERS TO MINE
1- We give THANKS TO GOD for the graduation party our kids and our high school boys and girls had the
past July 2024.
2- A THANKSGIVING prayer for another Temporary Visa. May His will be done in the matter.
3- Knowing that I am loved by my Heavenly Father is a tremendous blessing but to know that I am loved
and respected by so many people of Barahona is humbling. There is no doubt that ALL THE GLORY
GOES TO CHRIST Who sent me here 29 years ago and Who keeps me and this mission firm, serving
the most needy people of Barahona.
I am grateful to our Lord for every one of you. May His Presence be with you and your loved ones in these difficult days we are living, as we hold onto His Promise to never to forsake us and never to leave us.
THANK YOU SO MUCH for your love and your faithful support during my thirty two years serving our Lord in the mission field.
Love and blessings from
Malou Faublas your missionary friend in Barahona Dominican Rep
(To view my book: go to Amazon.com/books and type in Malou Faublas in the search)
Dancing in the Fire: The true story of Malou Faublas, a single woman missionary in Haiti & Dominican Republic
https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B08QWSDNHD/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_PD9B3ABK0JH4MYXRAFYQ
Published Fri, Sep 03, 21. Written by Kelly Flannery.
When the COVID-19 pandemic threw the world into chaos, many governments tried to provide aid and relief to their citizens. But what if you weren’t a citizen of any country?
Many of the children we serve in the Dominican Republic would have been left to face the pandemic alone. They are stateless.
These individuals were born in the Dominican Republic (DR), but because their parents, grandparents, or even great-grandparents are from Haiti, they aren’t recognized as citizens.
In the eyes of many in the Dominican government, they do not exist.
That means more than 133,000 people in the DR don’t have access to any public services like education, medical care, clean water, or government aid. They can’t vote. They have no rights.
This keeps them in a vicious cycle of poverty that is nearly impossible to escape.
Imagine being told you don’t belong in the only home you’ve ever known. That you also don’t belong in the country your ancestors are from. That you aren’t worthy of the care and compassion the other people around you are shown. What would that tell you about your worth? How could you feel any sense of dignity?
In the DR, one of the most dire secondhand effects of the pandemic has been the food and hunger crisis. While Dominican citizens received food from the government, children and families who are stateless have not.
This affects many of the children that Children of the Nations (COTN) serves in the DR. About 50% of them are stateless.
COTN usually receives funding and meals to feed these children through the school system. But this support went away when schools closed during the pandemic.
Francisco, our country director in the DR, says that during the pandemic many of the parents weren’t able to leave their homes to find work—it seemed that there would be no way for them to feed their families. But “Thanks to [Children of the Nations], during the pandemic the children had food on their tables every day.”
Thanks to your generosity, not one child in the communities we serve has gone hungry during the pandemic. You helped feed 1,451 children and their families throughout 2020.
You also provided clean water, hygiene kits, medical distributions, health checkups, and more to keep children and their families safe during the pandemic. Without your help, the children would have no access to these resources.
The problems Haitian-Dominicans face are a big part of why Children of the Nations came to the Dominican Republic. Now, you are changing the lives of thousands of these children—children like Luisa.
Luisa grew up without any basic services. She could not dream of attending school—her community had none. “In the past,” she shares, “it was very difficult to study because we did not have a school and we were discouraged to study.” But that changed when COTN came to her community and built a school. Finally, Luisa could get an education and dream of a better future.
Now, she works as a teacher for COTN and is an inspiration to the children in her community. “Many children say they want to be like me in the future, a teacher,” says Luisa.
COTN also serves Haitian-Dominicans through our medical clinic. Because of this clinic, children and their families who can’t afford medical care are able to receive the life-saving surgeries, medicines, and treatments they need. Hundreds of surgeries are performed there each year through the help of visiting surgical teams.
Because of you, lives and communities have been transformed. But there is still much more work to be done.
The DR has been hard hit by the pandemic, and they had another severe spike of cases in June. During this spike, schools had to return to virtual learning, ICU capacity filled up, food prices skyrocketed, and some of the children and staff were infected. The challenges of this pandemic aren’t over yet.
But with you by their side, these children will have the physical, educational, social, and spiritual care they need to become the next generation of leaders. These children will know they matter, they are worthy of care, and they belong right where they are.
P.S. To help children in the Dominican Republic, donate to the Dominican Republic - Most Urgent Funding Needs fund.
