Great Bible Study

This is an excellent Bible Study. I listened to it this morning. It's called How to Suffer Successfully. We all have things that cause 'suffering' in our lives. Whether it is physical, mental, emotional or spiritual. This study by Warren Wiersbe, who is one of my favorite Authors and Speakers really touches on how to turn suffering in our lives into something that the Lord wants to use to bring glory to Him.

I hope you will take the hour to listen to it.

Be blessed my sweet friends.

love always
rachel

Rachel's Missionary Update - January 2009

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
Psalm 119:105

Hello everyone!

I am so sorry it has taken me so long to write you all. I have had a wonderful time here in California. I was able to see so many people, and spent a good deal of time with my family. It was nice to have the holidays at home and to see my nieces and nephews as they have all grown so much in the past year.

I leave tomorrow to begin my journey back to Romania. I will be flying through Germany again. I am very excited for my week in Germany. I will be able to spend time with my friend Jennifer, I will be attending a Calvary Chapel while I am there, and Jennifer is helping me sign up to volunteer a couple of days with the wounded US soldiers stationed at the military base where Jennifer works. Please keep this in prayer, as I am really looking forward to seeing the soldiers and I want to be a witness and a blessing to them.

When I return to Romania there will be some exciting things happening. I will be moving to a new city. During my time home, some circumstances occurred that have contributed to my decision to move. I am very excited to be moving to a city called Brasov. For those of you who have supported me through the years, you may remember me mentioning this city. It is one of my favorite places in Romania. Brasov was one of the first cities I visited in Romania in 1997 on my first trip to Romania. Since then I have visited Brasov several times. I will be working in a hospital setting again, with a ministry called Hope for the Nations. I am really excited about this, as there are many children in need in the hospital in Brasov. I have spent some time in Brasov working in the hospital with Hope for the Nations before, and really enjoyed their program and how it was set up. I also have some missionary friends who live in Brasov and a Calvary Chapel church there.

Please keep all the details of my move in your prayers. Brasov is in the middle of the country in the mountains and it is over 5 hours away from Oradea. I will need to move my belongings. Please pray that this will go smoothly. Also please pray that the Lord will provide an apartment for me at a good price. From what I understand and have heard from my friends in Brasov, it is much more expensive to live in Brasov then it is to live in Oradea. But I know that the Lord has always provided me with the money I need to live and that He can even provide a good deal on an apartment. Transitions can always be a little stressful so please just pray that the Lord will guide me and be with me through every step of the move and beginning of the new ministry.

I hope you are all doing great. I will miss you my friends and family. I enjoy receiving your emails so please feel free to write anytime they are always a blessing to me.

Grace and Peace,
Rachel

Rachel's Missionary Update - November 2008

Enter into His gates with thanksgiving,
And into His courts with praise.
Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.
For the LORD is good;
His mercy is everlasting,
And His truth endures to all generations.

Psalm 100:4-5

Dear family and friends

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We have so much to be thankful for. It was really wonderful to spend Thanksgiving with my family this year, as I was in Romania last year on Thanksgiving.

My last few weeks in Romania were wonderful. The relationships that have been built have really been blossoming. I spent a lot of time with my Romanian and Hungarian friends before I left, everyone wanted to have some special time with me, and it was a blessing to see how the Lord has worked to build these friendships.

I was even able to visit my “other family” in Timisoara for a couple of days.

And I spent my last 2 nights with my good friend Kelly, who is also a missionary in Oradea. I miss my kids at the hospital already. But I am keeping in touch with all of my friends from there over the internet, it is so great to be able to still talk with them from here.

I was also blessed to make a short stop in Germany on my way home. I used my frequent flier miles to fly home, and because of this I had to have 2 separate tickets, one from Romania to Germany and one from Germany home. The blessing of this, was that I could take some time off in the middle to visit a friend of mine that I had met at the Missions Conference this past summer. We had a wonderful few days together, it was also a blessing to break up my travel time with this little trip.

My time in California has been a whirlwind so far. Meeting with lots of people, seeing friends and family, church, and a mini vacation for a few days with my mom up the coast of California. It has been a time of refreshment and a time to seek the Lord and what He has for me.

I ask that you all will continue to pray for me, as I am seeking the Him during this furlough. Please also keep my back in your prayers, it has been hurting so much since I have been home. I guess lugging around my suitcases aggravated it again.

I pray you will all be blessed over this holiday season.

Grace and Peace

Rachel

Rachel's Missionary Update - October 2008

But as for me, I trust in You,
O LORD; I say,
“You are my God.”
My times are in Your hand...
Psalm 31:14-15a

Buna Ziua! Well, I cannot believe it, but I have lived in Romania for only a couple weeks short of one whole year now. The time has flown by. I was thinking the other night of all that the Lord has brought me through this year. It has been a year of growth and blessings. Great joy and even sorrow. But I find myself today, as I am looking back on the past year, full of thankfulness. It has been a truly amazing year. I have totally seen how the Lord has been faithful to take care of me and guide me every step.

This past month I finished volunteering for PTJM the ministry here in Oradea I was helping out with. I am very thankful to be moving on to some new things here in the city. I am still in the hospital and loving it there. One of our little ones, Anca, is 2 years old and has lived her whole life in the hospital. She is blind, and was considered hard to place in a foster home because of this. But after much prayer a home was found for her! She spent her first night in a real home for the first time in her life last week. What a miracle!

(Anca and Mia right before Anca left for her new foster home!)

I am now also helping out with another ministry in town that works with young adults who are physically and mentally disabled. It’s like a day center for them. I have really enjoyed getting to know the people there, and look forward to working more with them.

Marinela, the young girl I mentor, is doing great. We have started English lessons, and she is doing really well. I always enjoy my time with her.

(Marinela and I)

Today, Marinela, Ana (another young lady who works with us at the hospital) and I all went to the local zoo. We had such a wonderful time together today, the weather was warm and beautiful! Totally different from the weather we’ve been having.

(Marinela, Me, Ana at the zoo!)

My prayer meeting is going great too. Not necessarily in numbers, it is generally just my missionary friend Kelly and I, but the Lord has really been answering specific prayers we have been having. We are thankful to have the time each week to lift each other up in prayer and to fellowship.

Well with my first year here in Romania coming to an end I will be leaving for California in 17 days! I am so excited to be home to see my family, friends and church. It should be wonderful. I will be home for 2 months and already have a packed schedule. I will be working for a couple of weeks while I am home at Casa Teresa where I was working before I left for Romania, to basically pay for my trip home. I’m looking forward to a time of refreshment and time with the Lord to seek His will for what is to come in 2009.

Thank you all so much for your prayers, I hope to see many of you while I am home. I will continue to write my updates while I am in California. Please keep the next 2 weeks in your prayers. I have to move out of my apartment before I leave, as there are some pretty serious problems with the place that are not able to be fixed. So I will be moving my stuff (AGAIN!) to my friend Ibi’s house while I am gone.

(Ibi and I)

There is a lot going on as always, and I am so excited for the holidays at home! Thank you all for your prayers about my back, it is doing much better, I am still not 100% but I am getting there and am very thankful to be back out working with the kids in the hospital!

May the Lord bless you and keep you.

Grace and Peace,
Rachel

Rachel's Missionary Update - October 2, 2008

You open Your hand and satisfy the desire
of every living thing. The LORD is righteous
in all His ways, gracious in all His works.
The LORD is near to all who call upon Him
to all who call upon Him in truth.
- Psalm 145:16-18

Hello everyone! Happy Fall Time!! I love this time of the year! As the leaves begin to change and I can pull out my sweaters and scarves and hats! It makes me so very happy!

I hope you are all doing good. It has been a rather quiet month for me. This past year has had so much traveling and running around, that it has been nice to have a somewhat calmer month.

About 2 weeks ago, I hurt my back. It goes back to the back problem I was in therapy for right before I moved to Romania. I had to stay home for a week and just rest, and then this past week I have only been able to go work in the office with the local ministry I volunteer my time with (PTJM). I have not been able to work with my kids at the hospital in 2 weeks! You can imagine how much I miss them.

But I have been productive in helping them still. I have been working with PTJM to encourage them in finding a foster home for one of the little girls at the hospital. Her name is Anca. She is 2 years old and blind, but she is so smart and can walk around all on her own. She loves to sing and dance. We just received word today that Anca has been approved to go into a foster home, and that we have a Christian family who want to take her! This is a miracle! So now, we are just waiting on the paperwork. Prayerfully, by my next update to you, she will be in her foster home! Anca will really flourish in a home setting. She is so inquisitive and smart. But she really needs parents and a home. I’m so happy for her.

I am preparing for a team that will come out here in October from the States. They seem like a great group of people. I have been setting up the ministry work we will be doing and am working on some missionary packets for short term missionaries. I’m excited about the packets because I think this is something that will be useful to not only PTJM missionaries, but to missionaries from Calvary.

I started a home Bible study this past month as well. We are going through the book of James. I personally am getting a lot out of my time of preparation. I’m learning a lot through the Word, and I’m learning a lot about how to put a Bible Study together. It’s been years since I’ve led a study.

My missionary friend Kelly and I are still meeting on a weekly basis for prayer, and another American missionary was able to join us once as well. Kelly and I have both personally been seeing the Lord answer our prayers that we have been lifting up to Him during our prayer meetings. It’s really encouraging!

I’ve also gotten in touch with some old friends who I know from over 10 years ago when I did my missions internship in Albuquerque, New Mexico! It has been such a blessing to see many of them on the mission field or in some sort of ministry work. Also I have been blessed to get in touch with some family members I haven’t spoken to in years! I seem to talk to more people from America now that I live in Romania than I did when I lived in the States! The good news is, I will be home over the holidays and hope to get in contact with many of my friends and family members.

Well I realized that I had not attached pics of my studio apartment yet. They call it a Garsoniera here in Romania. So I made a little collage for you to be able to see it.

Prayer Requests:

1. Anca and her foster placement
2. My back
3. My Bible Study
4. The next month and half as I prepare to go home for a visit for the first time in a year!
5. That I will continue to seek the Lord and be obedient to the things He has called me to do

“Grace to you and peace from God the Father
and our Lord Jesus Christ,
who gave Himself for our sins”
- Galatians 1:3-4a

Grace and Peace,
Rachel