Urgent · Dominican Republic · April 2026

The water is still rising.

My family lived in Montellano for two years. The friends we made there — people who fed us, prayed with us, raised their kids alongside ours — are losing everything right now. Here's what's happening, and how you can help.

Josh Menold  ·  Posted April 17, 2026
Give now Two on-the-ground ministries. 100% passes through.
Four photos of community members, Makarios staff, and volunteers pumping water, shoveling mud, and cleaning the Makarios school grounds together after the flood.
Photos · Benjamin Núñez · April 15, 2026 Three days after the water rose: pump trucks, volunteers, mud up to the ankles at the Makarios school in Montellano. Staff, neighbors, and visitors working shoulder to shoulder. This is what's already happening on the ground — and what your dollars go toward.
7
Lives lost
30,000+
People displaced
6,500+
Homes damaged

From 2011 to 2013, my family and I lived in Montellano, Dominican Republic. We were there with Makarios — a ministry that runs a school and family empowerment center for kids growing up in the bateys, the sugarcane worker communities where most families live without running water or electricity on a normal day.

Those two years didn't just change us. They shaped the rest of our lives. The neighbors who shared meals with us. The kids we watched grow up. The friends who became family. That community is part of who we are. (My wife Jen documented much of our family's journey — including our Montellano years — at themenoldminutes.com.)

I'm talking about Lucia, who helped us in our home and let us into hers. Johan, the teacher at the Mak school who became my Spanish tutor and one of my closest friends. Juan, the Makarios driver we shared meals with during his cancer diagnosis. Profesor Belizeur and Profesora Bella, who taught our kids Tate, Aribella, and Ollie in the same classrooms you saw floating in the photos above. And Benjamin Núñez — the face at the top of this page.

When we left in August 2013, our "D.R. family" met us at the Puerto Plata airport — 28 suitcases, 7 backpacks, a cat, kids loaded in a gua gua — and prayed us out with hugs and tears. You don't spend two years somewhere like that without it marking you forever.

And right now, they're underwater.

The night the river broke

On April 12, the rain came harder than anyone in Montellano had ever seen. Margaret Beck — co-founder of Levanta Ministries and a long-time friend — wrote that night: "We had devastating floods last night. The river was out of its banks like NEVER EVER before. Many have lost everything."

A home in Montellano with flood water rising against it at night.
A Montellano street turned into a river at night during the April 12 flood.

Photos · Benjamin Núñez · April 12, 2026 The night the river broke its banks. Water rising against homes. Streets turned to rivers in the dark.

Flood water rushing past a door during the April 12 flood in Montellano.
Photo · Benjamin Núñez · April 12, 2026 Water rushing past a door — the kind of scene that played out across Montellano that night.

Our school is underwater

The Makarios school — the one we served at, the one that's served thousands of kids from the bateys for over 15 years — took the full force of it. When the water finally receded, the classrooms looked like this:

A Makarios classroom with desks floating in muddy floodwater. The word Bienvenidos is visible on the back wall.
Photo · Benjamin Núñez · April 12, 2026 A classroom at the Makarios school. The desks floated. The word on the back wall reads Bienvenidos — Welcome.
The Makarios math classroom flooded, with a sign on the wall reading 'Las matemáticas nos enseñan que todos los problemas tienen solución.'
Photo · Benjamin Núñez · April 12, 2026 The math classroom. The wall reads: "Las matemáticas nos enseñan que todos los problemas tienen solución." Mathematics teaches us that every problem has a solution. Including this one.
A flooded office at the Makarios campus, with debris floating in brown water.
The Makarios school exterior with mud waterline visible on the walls.

Photos · Benjamin Núñez · April 12, 2026 The offices inside the school, and the waterline on the exterior walls. That mud line is about waist-high.

"I don't know what the future holds, but I know who holds the future." No sé qué depara el futuro, pero sé quién sostiene el futuro. — Benjamin Núñez, Makarios Montellano · April 12, 2026
Video · From the ground
Benjamin's reel from Montellano

Having trouble viewing? Watch the reel on Facebook

The whole neighborhood

This isn't one home. It's not one school. It's entire neighborhoods — every street, every yard, every living room the water ran through.

The school courtyard covered in mud and debris the morning after the flood.
A Montellano neighborhood street covered in thick river mud after the flood.

Photos · Benjamin Núñez · April 12, 2026 The morning after. The school courtyard, and a residential street — both buried under the river's mud.

They're already at work

The morning after the flood, Makarios and Levanta staff were already on the ground — pumping water, shoveling mud, checking on families. Nobody waited for permission. Nobody waited for outside help.

Benjamin Núñez smiling, covered in mud, outside the Makarios school in Montellano after a day of cleanup.
Photo · Benjamin Núñez · April 15, 2026 Meet Benjamin. Makarios staff, local to Montellano, and the photographer behind most of what you've seen on this page — muddy and smiling after another day cleaning up the school. This is the face of hope in the middle of it.
Two Levanta Ministries team members carrying a community member through the mud in front of a home.
Photo · Levanta Ministries · April 16, 2026 Levanta staff carrying a community member through the mud. Their post: "Levanta Ministries is active in our community, assessing needs and offering immediate support."

And then the rain came back

April 16. Benjamin wrote on Facebook: "Urgent Prayer Request: The Rain Has Returned. We have made so much progress, but today the heavy rains have returned to Montellano."

A boy stands on the Makarios porch watching heavy rain fall, boards propped up around him.
Rain pouring onto the Makarios school grounds, water jugs stored for drinking because the aqueducts failed again.

Photos · Benjamin Núñez · April 16, 2026 A boy watching the rain come back through the Makarios porch. Drinking water stored in jugs because the aqueducts failed again. This is happening right now.

In Margaret's own words

Margaret Denman Beck is the co-founder of Levanta Ministries. She and her husband Doug have been in Montellano for years. This is what she posted on April 12:

A Facebook post from Margaret Denman Beck showing the post text and multiple photos of flood damage to homes in Montellano.
Source · Margaret Denman Beck / Levanta Ministries · April 12, 2026 Margaret's post, in her own words, with photos from Levanta staff's homes. "The needs are great."

Follow along from here

These friends and ministries will keep posting. Updates, needs, specific asks. Follow them — and share their posts in your own feed. Every share multiplies the help.

Why these two ministries

I could point you at big international relief orgs. But big orgs take overhead, take time, and don't know the names of the people in Montellano. These two do. Both are 501(c)(3) ministries I know personally, with people on the ground right now.

100% of what I'm asking you to give goes to them. I'm not touching a dollar. I'm just the guy pointing.

Two ways to help, today

Both are 501(c)(3). Both are already working in the affected communities. Give to one, or split it between them.

Ministry 1
Makarios International
Montellano, DR  ·  501(c)(3)

Makarios runs a Christ-centered school and family empowerment center in Montellano, serving Haitian and Dominican families in the bateys. They've been on the ground there for more than 15 years and know every family by name. Benjamin Núñez — the face of hope at the top of this page — is one of theirs.

"This is the organization we served with for two years. These are the people who taught our kids Spanish, who showed us what the Gospel looks like when there's no safety net underneath it. I'd trust them with any dollar I had." — Josh
Give to Makarios Learn about Makarios
Ministry 2
Levanta Ministries
Dominican Republic  ·  501(c)(3)  ·  EIN 83-4059489

Levanta ("Rise Up") works directly with Dominican families — community outreach, basic necessities, education, and employment through local trade programs. Margaret & Doug Beck lead the work. Their community outreach arm provides food, medicine, and emergency supplies when disasters hit. That's now.

"Levanta does the work most people never see — they invest relationally, year after year, and when a crisis hits they already have the trust and relationships to move fast. Your dollar goes further with them than almost anywhere else." — Josh
Give to Levanta Learn about Levanta

Sources & Verification

Because you should trust what you're sharing. Here's where the numbers — and the story — come from: