Rachel's Missionary Update - April 2009

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 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.
Jeremiah 17:7-8



Hello!

I hope you are all doing well and that you all had a wonderful Easter and April! Spring has finally made it to Brasov!

Things have been very busy here in Brasov. I was completely blessed this month. The Lord has been opening so many doors for me here. I am loving my work with HFTN, my work at the hospital and my time with my older neighbor and the gypsy teen girls.

Romania celebrates Easter according to the Orthodox calendar. So our Easter was on April 19th. That morning the girls from HFTN and I delivered baskets of goodies for the staff and bags of gifts we had made the day before, to children who had to be in the hospital on Easter Day. The children’s gifts were made up of a toy or two, a stuffed animal and some candy. The toys and animals were donations we had received and it was wonderful to be able to bless the children with something to brighten their day as Easter is a really big deal here in Romania. We had enough gifts to be able to give out to all the children, not just the abandoned ones, but even ones with moms. Which was a small blessing to the moms who were in the hospital on Easter too!



Right when we were done with that, I rushed off to church for our Easter service. Then after church we shared in an Easter meal together as a church body. It was wonderful!




Then when I got home from church, around 8:30 at night, my sweet little neighbor, brought me over a full Romanian Easter meal! Complete with a candle and sweets! I was so shocked! And totally blessed. I am really thankful that the Lord has been opening that door for me to be able to spend more time with her. She is all alone and her daughter and grandchild don’t really ever visit. I actually even found out after the fact that her daughter didn’t visit on Easter! I was so sad!



So, the day after Easter, as I was walking home from my time at the hospital, my neighbor was sitting outside on the porch of the apartment building. She and I talked a bit and she invited me out for a walk to sort of “give me a tour” of our city! So we met up an hour later and walked around Brasov together for 2.5 hours! It was so wonderful! We talked, we stopped and sat a few times, and she gave me some really good info about the city. She only speaks Romanian which is really helping me learn more. I am so excited about this relationship, I have been praying for so long to be able to do something with the elderly and the Lord has really opened up this opportunity!

Things are going amazing at the hospital as well. My time with the Play Therapist, Cami and the children has been great. Cami is always telling EVERYONE how much she appreciates having me! It is wonderful. I could not be more blessed to be working with her and those dear children and teens.

HFTN had our monthly meeting with our teen girls from the local gypsy village as well. We dyed Easter eggs together and went out to eat at McDonald’s. After we walked around the city. Some of the girls had not been actually out around our city, since their village is about 20 mins by car away from us and they don’t have a car. So it was fun for them to do just “normal teen” stuff with us. Our relationships with them are growing slowly. It’s hard not knowing more Romanian, but I have really been learning a lot more lately between my time with my neighbor and my time at the hospital.





I have also been really blessed by the weekly prayer meeting some of us in HFTN have together. We have a short time of worship and then we pray together. It really is a great time of fellowship and unity.



Overall I would say this month was so amazing! More than I had ever hoped for. The Lord really knew what He was doing by sending me here to work in Brasov and I’m thankful that He allowed the chain of events that led me here. I have made some wonderful friends and feel as though I have been here for years.

A group of us had a lovely picnic up in the Transylvanian Mountains overlooking Brasov for our friend Mary’s Birthday. The scenery here in Romania is truly amazing! What a creative God we serve to have made such a beautiful place!



Please keep the month of May in your prayers. It will be busy as well! And I’m very excited because my sister and brother-in-law will be visiting me for a week! My first guests at my new apartment! It will be great to have them here.

Speaking of my new apartment, I have promised photos and I finally have them! My new apartment address is:

Str. Bisericii Romane Nr. 111
Bl. 1, Sc. B, Et. 1, Ap. 5
Brasov, 500068
Romania

I live on Romanian Churches Street, isn’t that cool?!





Well I hope and pray you all had an amazing month as well!

Grace and Peace,
Rachel

Prayer Requests:
•Month of May in general
•My sister and brother-in-law visiting
•Time in the hospital
•Getting paperwork together to visit other institutions with abandoned disabled children
•God’s continued protection, provision and guidance
•The Lord would continue to grow the relationships here that have been built
•The gypsy girls we are working with
•The children and staff at the hospital
•For Brasov and the wonderful people of this city

Rache's Missionary Update - March 2009

“…'for I was hungry and you gave Me food;
I was thirsty and you gave Me drink;
I was a stranger and you took Me in;
I was naked and you clothed Me;
I was sick and you visited Me;
I was in prison and you came to Me.’
“Then the righteous will answer Him, saying,
‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You,
or thirsty and give You drink?
When did we see You a stranger and take You in,
or naked and clothe You?
Or when did we see You sick,
or in prison, and come to You?’
And the King will answer and say to them,
‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it
to one of the least of these My brethren,
you did it to Me.’”
-Matthew 25:35 - 40






Greetings from Brasov!

It has been a great month. This was my first month living in Brasov. I feel like I have already been here for a long time, and I mean that in the best way possible. It feels like I am “home”. I am totally surrounded by great people and a beautiful city. I feel totally blessed to be here.

My first month has been full of a lot of snow and getting settled.



I spent a lot of time working in the local hospital. The first week of March is when Romanians celebrate the coming of Spring and Women’s Day. March 1st is known as Martisor and March 8th is Women’s Day. On Martisor women and girls receive gifts with red and white ribbon or string celebrating the end of winter and the beginning of spring. (Although we haven’t really seen much of spring here yet!) And on March 8th gifts are given to women and mom’s to celebrate them! I was able to get a small gift for landlady and the women I work with at Hope for the Nations (HFTN). They sell cute little things for like 25 cents you can buy and wear.

I also have a sweet little neighbor. She is older, and for those of you who have spoken to me, you know my heart for the elderly here in Romania. I am so excited to have an older neighbor. She tells me “Think of me as your mama”. It’s sweet and she is very helpful. She is also very lonely and visits me often! It’s sad and sweet, I think she tries to think up reasons to stop over. Well, I was able to make her a cute little cup of flowers (she LOVES plants) for Women’s Day. She totally loved the gift. When I stopped by her place yesterday she showed me the flowers I had given her and how she had re-potted them. She is difficult to understand and speaks really fast, but I pray that just seeing her for a few minutes, and letting her talk and sharing a smile with her blesses her.



In the hospital I work in the neurological unit with children and teens who are mentally and physically disabled, as well as some who have epilepsy and even some teens with emotional problems who have tried to commit suicide. I work along side of a Romanian Play Therapist named Cami. She is wonderful! I truly enjoy my time with her. I think we are both learning a lot from each other.

I spend most of my time in the play therapy room, where the children come in and we work with them. We do a lot of art projects with those who are able, and motor function skills with those who are more disabled. We work on puzzles, play music and do some exercises with the children. With the older children and teens we play games and talk to them about life. I am amazed, I feel like I know so little Romanian and yet I seem to be able to communicate really well with the kids. Not as well as I would like, I keep praying that I will totally grow in my language skills. I want to be able to have a real “deep conversation” with these kids about the Lord or life in general, but I just don’t know the words yet to do so.



We do have a lovely time with the children. It’s sad for the ones who are old enough to realize that their parents are not with them. The other day I was trying to color with a little girl who just couldn’t focus, she just kept crying for her mom. It broke my heart.

We also work with children who are disabled. Some of them have autism, or other disabilities and can be very aggressive with themselves or with others. It can be challenging, but it is never boring! I am always exhausted when I leave, but I leave with a smile on my face.




It is a little different in the hospital here in Brasov, in that the children I work with don’t live here at the hospital. Although a lot of them are with us for at least a week at a time, and others come in and out often from the institutions they live in. It is always wonderful to see some children, and how their faces light up when they see me walk in. It makes my day.



It is also heartbreaking, to see signs of neglect in so many of the children from institutions that I work with. I am praying about volunteering some of my time in an actual institution where these children live. I have to find out from Social Services if this is possible and how to go about doing it.

A few mornings a week on the floors of the hospital with the babies who don’t have mom’s. They are all abandoned in the sense that they don’t have mothers with them at the hospital but not all of them are without families completely. Some just have too many siblings at home and the mothers can’t take time to stay at the hospital with them. It’s nice having time with the little ones, who just want someone to hold them and love them. We change their diapers and even leave diapers for the nurses to use to change them when we are not there.

This month I also was able to participate with HFTN, in having a craft day with some young teens from the local gypsy village. It was so much fun! I guess we work with them once a month, so this was my first time joining in! It was great, and another fun way for me to use and grow in my “language skills”.





I have been talking with a local missionary about going out to the women’s prison right outside of town. She goes there once a week for a Bible study. I hope to be able to join her as soon as we get the paperwork done. I think it will be a great experience!

I have also been attending the local Calvary Chapel here on Sunday’s and on Thursday nights some of us from HFTN get together for prayer and worship. It’s been so refreshing to be among such a good group of people.

I feel like I could write on and on about how blessed I am to be living and working here. I can see how working in Bucharest and Oradea and my language training in Timisoara have all led to my being here and the work I’m doing now. The Lord is so good at guiding us. I’m reminded of a verse that the Lord gave me when I first moved to Romania.

“A man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.” Proverbs 16:9

The Lord truly has guided me. It’s funny to look back at my time here and to see how the Lord has guided me. I have to admit His plans are so much better than my own and I’m just thankful to be obedient to Him.

I hope you all are doing great!

Grace and Peace,
Rachel




PS – I know I said I would include pictures of my apartment in this letter, but I only got around to taking pictures of my living room. I will send some new pics soon! Sorry about that!

Happy Easter! Paste Fericit!

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again
to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead."
-1 Peter 1:3


I hope you all have a very blessed Easter!

Isus a Inviat! Jesus has Risen!

Grace and Peace,
Rachel

This is the perfect song for Easter! Enjoy!

YAHWEH Yireh

YAHWEH Yireh means: The-LORD-will-provide in Hebrew.

I know that many of us go through times in our lives where we need the Lord to provide for us. Whether we need for Him to provide for us physically, spiritually, mentally, or financially. Many of us have at one time or another come to Him asking for Him to provide.

We are told in Genesis that the Lord is the Lord who will provide. How great is that! I have been pretty sick this past week, and finally today was feeling up to spending some time really in the Word and studying. I have found myself in a place today where I am in need, of many things actually, and I was coming to the Lord asking Him to provide for me.

I came across some wonderful verses that remind us of how the Lord wants to take care of us, how He DOES take care of us, and how we need to trust Him. I'm sure you've read many of the verses below, but do you really believe them? When it comes down to that need that you are asking the Lord to provide for, do you have faith that He will provide?

My prayer for me today, is that I truly have faith in Him, that it is more than just words, but that my actions and heart will follow my words and that I will truly believe and trust in Him to be
YAHWEH Yireh in my life.
************************************************

"And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong."
- 2 Corinthians 12:9-10

"And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus."
-Philippians 4:19

“Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?

So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble."
-Matthew 6:25-34

"Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, gaccording to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all enerations, forever and ever. Amen."
-Ephesians 3:20-21

"Our fathers trusted in You; they trusted, and You delivered them. They cried to You, and were delivered; they trusted in You, and were not ashamed."
-Psalm 22:4-5

Rachel's Missionary Update - February 2009

“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”
-Philippians 4:6-7

Hello everyone! Well with the end of February comes the end of my first month back in Romania, and the end of my time in Oradea. I actually am leaving for Brasov this evening. This month has been a time of goodbyes and a time of fellowship with my dear friends here. I visited the hospital and say goodbye to my little ones and give some gifts for them I had bought when I was in the states. It has also been a time of watching the Lord work and prepare the way for me to move to Brasov.

I want to share a little story with you, to give God the glory for what He has done this past month. In Romania it can be difficult to find an apartment because of the way things are set up here. Basically, if you find a place that you like, you need to write up a contract right away or it will be snatched up by someone else. Landlords don’t wait until the 1st or the 15th of the month, they expect you to take it right then and there. This has proved a little difficult for me this past month, in that Oradea is 10 hours by train from Brasov. The other “difficult” part in this situation was that Brasov is so much more expensive than Oradea. My friend Sarah who I will be working with in Brasov, did not think that I would be able to find a place for under 300 euro even for a studio! (I was paying 140 euro here in Oradea for my studio.) The entire month we spent calling agencies and looking for a place, only to find the places either more than I could afford, they were already taken, or they were so far away I would have to travel by bus over 40 minutes to get to the hospital. I told Sarah that 300 euro was just too much and that the Lord would have to provide something for less than that.

Well this past Sunday came, and knowing that I would be moving today, I was starting to say to the Lord, “Ok Lord, I leave in a week and I don’t have anything yet!” He reminded me of the verse above and that He has taken care of me thus far. So I did my best to not be anxious and to trust in Him. On Monday afternoon Sarah calls me all excited that she has found the perfect place for me, that it is everything I wrote I wanted and that it is 280 euro. This seemed like a bit much for a studio, even though she said it was really large and only a 5 minute walk to the hospital and a 20 minute walk to the center of town (PERFECT LOCATION!), so she sent me some pictures and I realized that it wasn’t a studio apartment at all but a 1 bedroom! The Landlord was so nice and agreed to not show the place to anyone else until I saw it the next morning. So I took a night train out to Brasov that night to go see the apartment. The place is beautiful and big enough for me to have guests come over and even stay over (You’re all invited!). It is a great ministry apartment. I spoke with the Landlord to see if she would come down in price (knowing that 1 bedroom apartments like this, in this area can go for 400 euro!) and she said she would take it down to 270 euro, and I wouldn’t have to pay for my gas until May! Which is perfect cause Brasov is in the mountains and by May it will be warmer and my heating will be significantly less! The apartment is also fully furnished!

The next testament to the fact that this apartment was a gift from the Lord came when the Landlord asked me if I was ok with her writing a different amount on the lease for rent than what I was actually paying. You see in Romania, pretty much everyone who rents writes a different amount on their lease because taxes for the landlords are 60% of the rent. So they will for instance write 100 euro rent when you are really paying 300 euro. Well I believe that we are supposed to be above reproach and to obey the laws of the land, and so I told her that I was not comfortable doing this, knowing very well that she may decide to not give me the place, she made a couple of comments and huffed and puffed and then said OK! This was truly a miracle and another confirmation that the Lord was in control.

Even though my rent is now almost double what I was paying Oradea, I know that the Lord will provide. He already provided the ‘impossible’ by giving me such a great apartment in the perfect location at an unbelievable price in that city! It has been great to see Him work. I know that sometimes we don’t really ‘feel’ God in our lives or we wonder if He cares about the little things in life, but I want to assure all of you that He does! That He loves us, and even cares about where we will live!

“Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”
-Matthew 6:25-33

So I leave tonight for Brasov. I’m so excited and blessed. The Lord’s hand has been on this move every step of the way. I was able to visit the hospital I will be working at when I took my trip out to get the apartment, and I met a lot of wonderful missionaries and volunteers I will be working with. Sarah also let me know about other organizations in town I can volunteer with if I wanted to. It is so great to know that Sarah was encouraging me to work with other organizations and that she just wanted me to do the Lord’s will. What a blessing!

I know this update has been a bit longer than I usually write, but I was so excited to share with you all how the Lord has provided for me.

Prayer Requests:
1. That the Lord will go before me in the work He has for me to be a part of in Brasov
2. That the Lord will continue to provide for all my needs
3. That I will be a light and an example to everyone I come in contact with
4. For the work in the hospital and the dear little ones I will be working with

I will send pics of my apartment next month! May the Lord bless you all!

Grace and Peace,
Rachel



Mia, Maria and Marinela. The girls I used to work with at the hospital. I will miss them!

Kevin and I


Levi and I


Ioana and I


Kevin and I


The “Missionettes” Sue, Kelly and I in Budapest, Hungary. We had to make a trip there to get pages in our passports at the US Embassy for our Romanian Visas. It’s only 4 hours away! We also were able to go to Calvary Chapel Budapest while we were there, it was amazing!


Kelly and I. I was so blessed to be able to stay with Kelly this month while I was in Oradea. She was a great hostess, and is a good friend here. I’ll miss her a lot!