Rachel's Romania Update - 8.31.2008

"May you be blessed by the LORD,

Who made heaven and earth."
Psalm 115:15"

Hello Everyone,

August has been an eventful month. My “word of the month” for August has to be “blessed”. As I was thinking about what to write today I was almost overwhelmed with how blessed I was this month. The Lord is always so wonderful to take care of me and provide for me. I had found out some really hard news at the beginning of the month and I remember wondering how I was going to “make it through” August…but now that I look back, I can’t believe how much the Lord truly blessed me this month.

The first week of August, I went to Slobozia on the other side of Romania. We had a youth team out from Calvary Chapel WestGrove. The team was wonderful, I was so blessed by each of them. We did a lot of street witnessing, and visited an orphanage for older boys who were mentally handicap. I really enjoyed spending time with the youth from Calvary. Sharing with them what the Lord had been doing in my life and talking to a lot of them about their future and the great things the Lord has planned for them. I was also able to visit my missionary friends, Jenny and Marius who live in Slobozia, as well as fellowship with Pastor John LaBelle, which is always a blessing. I made some great friendships on that trip.

The next week I took a train with my missionary friend Kelly to Austria for the Calvary Chapel Missionary Conference there. What a great week! We had some excellent Calvary speakers, like Brian Broderson, Damian Kyle, Boy Coy and Todd Johnson. I was able to meet a lot of wonderful missionaries from around Europe and make some great connections. This week was also extra special for me, because, 9 years ago, after a trip to Romania I was supposed to go to this conference, but was unable to due to some circumstances at the time, and had always dreamed of being able to attend. While I was at the conference that week, I was reminded of how wonderful the Lord was, 9 years later, to bring me there, with Austria only being 2 countries over, it took less than a day by train to get there. It was truly a blessing.

The next week I spent working in the hospital with my babies. I met with a Calvary missionary from Arizona, her name is Dawn, she is wonderful! Dawn is an Occupational Therapist. She taught me some great exercises to do with the disabled children in the hospital. She was so knowledgeable, she also gave me some great play ideas to do with the children.

This past week, we had a team of 3 from Germany visiting. This was my first team to lead “all by myself”. I set up the week for us, and lead the way. It was so much fun, and the people on the team were total blessings. They brought a lot of great items for the children at the hospital, the orphanage, the gypsy village and the foster families. We had a great time visiting all of these places. We had some clubs for the teen girls from the orphanage. A cooking club where we made apple cinnamon pancakes, an art club where we made candles and an afternoon tea. All had a devotional element to them.

So now I look back at this month and I am truly blessed. I see the Lord’s hand on my life, as He is still helping me get through that difficult news I learned at the beginning of the month, AND blessing me more than I could have imagined.

Oh I have one more piece of good news! I found a really great deal on tickets and will be coming home to visit over the holidays! This will be my first trip back home to California in a over a year! I’m so excited to see everyone! I will let you know more details as the time gets closer, but I truly look forward to my time with my family, friends, and church families.

Thank you all for your prayers and support. I know that your prayers have really been a vital part of my time here in Romania being as wonderful as it is.

“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,
and the love of God,
and the communion of the Holy Spirit
be with you all. Amen.”
2 Corinthians 13:14

Love,
Rachel

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Rachel's Missionary Update - 7.27.2008

The Lord is my strength and my shield;
my heart trusts in Him, and I am helped.
My heart leaps for joy
and I will give thanks to Him in song.
- Psalm 28:7

Hello everyone!

I hope you are all having a wonderful summer. I have had a very busy month!

I helped pick up a team from Indiana at the beginning of the month. It is so fun to be able to be with a group of people who have never been to Romania before. I love being able to share with them all that the Lord is doing here in this country and to be able to share a little about the history of Romania.

I was able to spend time with the 3 interns we have here from the States. This was something I really enjoyed. We reviewed a book together and did some devotionals. It was also great to talk to them about their desires to be full time missionaries and what it is the Lord has been showing them as they have been here.

I also had my 29^th birthday this month, but unfortunately I was sick with tonsillitis that week, so I spent my birthday in bed on lots of antibiotics. Part of the fun of working in the hospital is catching all the fun things the little guys have.

I am also spending more time with Marinela, the young woman I told you about last month, who “adopted me”. We have gone to church and to the movies as well as spending time together at the hospital. Marinela works on one of the other floors there.

I started a prayer meeting once a week with another missionary girl here, Kelly. It is a blessing to have another American in which to fellowship and come together to pray with.

I love working in the hospital with the orphaned and abandoned babies. I have been working on the floor that has the children with mental and physical disabilities. I absolutely love working with them.

This weekend I am getting ready to go to the other side of the country to Slobozia to work with a team of high school kids from Calvary Chapel WestGrove, in California. I am very excited to go see them and visit with one of my Pastors, Pastor John LaBelle, and the missionary family working in Slobozia. Jenny and Marius. It should be a great time of ministry and fellowship.

I have been so incredibly busy lately that I am not yet settled into my studio apartment. But I am getting there. August promises to be another busy month, so hopefully by September I will be able to settle in!

Prayer Requests:
1. The ministry work I am doing in the hospital not only with the babies, but with the staff.
2. Marinela
3. Laura and her family in Timisoara
4. Please continue to pray for the Lord’s peace in my life
5. My time with the high school team from Cali.

Thank you for your continued prayers, support and encouragement. It is always a blessing to hear from you.

By His Grace
Rachel

Interns and Ministry Staff

Anca, a blind little girl at the hospital

Rachel's Romania Update - July 6, 2008

A father of the fatherless and a judge and protector of the widows is God in His holy habitation. God places the solitary in families and gives the desolate a home in which to dwell…
Psalm 68:5-6a

Buna Ziua!

Hello everyone, I hope you are all doing good. I have had another blessed month here in Romania. A lot has gone on as usual.

I visited a Romanian friend of mine in Targoviste. Some of you who have been supporting me through the years may remember my good friend Ramona. She got married last weekend and I was blessed to attend her wedding. It was my first Romanian wedding and let me tell you it was an adventure! I have also visited the hospital here in Oradea and helped the missionary family I was staying with get organized! My missionary friend Kelly from the US also moved to Oradea this month, it is nice to have another American friend to pray with and to hang out with.

I made my decision after much prayer and seeking the Lord as to where I should stay. I am now living in Oradea, Romania working with a ministry out of Calvary Chapel Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, called Pathway to Joy Ministries. I will be working in the hospital here in Oradea 3 days a week and helping out in the office with various projects 2 days a week. This of course all changes when we have teams. When teams come out to visit I will be able to join them in their ministry, working in gypsy villages, the hospital and the local orphanage. What a blessing for me! If any of you are interested in sending out a team to work with us please let me know! There is much to do here, and certainly not enough people to do it!

In June I was able to attend the Calvary Chapel Eastern European Conference in Vajta, Hungary. Hungary is only about 20 minutes from where I live in Romania. It was such a blessing, my missions pastor from Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa, Phil Twente, came out for the conference. As always I am blessed to see a friendly face from home. The conference was also a blessing because I was able to spend a week getting to know all the Romanian and Hungarian staff I will be working with. It really gave us a chance to bond and to get to know each other. It is such a blessing to have Romanian and Hungarian brothers and sisters in Christ that I love to spend time with and am blessed to be able to serve along side of. I also made a special friend, Marinela, an orphan girl, who has sort of “adopted” me, I pray that the Lord will use me in her life.

This past week I finally got my own place! I will have to take pics and send them next month. But I am SO very excited to have my own little studio apartment. It’s nothing too big, but really I don’t need much, I just love having my quiet place to come home to at the end of the day. Currently I am sleeping on an air mattress but I hope to buy a bed or a futon or something next month.

Our interns arrived this week as well. Pathway to Joy will have 3 intern girls this summer. It has been a really fun week getting to know them and working with them. There is a lot going on here, and I am so very blessed and excited to be a part of it.

Please continue to keep me in your prayers, these next two months are going to be very busy, with helping create a few videos for Pathway to Joy, our interns, 2 teams coming to Oradea, my traveling to Slobozia to be with Calvary Chapel WestGrove’s High School Team and another conference!

I pray you are all doing good!

Love
Rachel

Ramona, Mihai and I after their Civil Ceremony

Ramona and I before her Church Wedding

Marinela and I

Some of the Pathway to Joy Team

Romania Update - 6.3.2008

“Mercy, peace and love be yours in abundance.” -Jude 1:2

Hello everyone! Well this month has been an adventure to say the least!

I appreciate your prayers. As many of you know, I am praying about moving to a new city to continue my ministry work. I have been so blessed to be able to visit a few cities this month working along side Calvary Chapel missionaries.

I was blessed to be able to attend the Calvary Chapel Romania Conference. Three of my pastors from home actually came out for the conference, Pastor Brian Broderson and Pastor Ken Sutton from CC Costa Mesa and Pastor John LaBelle from CC WestGrove. It was a blessed time of refreshment and fellowship.

I traveled with Pastor John LaBelle and a missionary couple, Jenny and Marius to a city called Slobozia to see the work that they are doing there. We had a great time, and I was able to spend some time with the youth in the city at a Bible study, they were full of so many questions about the Lord and His Word. We also spent some time with them in the city another night just fellowshipping. Jenny and I also visited the orphanage in the city to inquire about working there as there are no ministries working in that orphanage at this time. Slobozia is one of the cities I am praying about moving to.

The other city I am praying about moving to is Oradea. There is a Calvary ministry here called Pathway to Joy. They are a great ministry and are working in the hospital with the abandoned babies, in an orphanage with kids 5-20 and in a few gypsy villages in the area. I have been so blessed to work alongside a team that came here to Oradea from Tennessee. We had a VBS in one of the gypsy villages, helped work in a church they are building in another gypsy village, worked in the hospital, visited the orphanage a few times and participated in a mentoring program that Pathway to Joy has for the children from the orphanage. This week I have been helping Karen the missionary I am staying with organize her office and parts of her home. The administrative part in me has loved being able to do this!

I hope to make my decision this month where I will be moving to. I will let you all know as soon as I do.

Prayer requests:
1. Which city to move to
2. An apartment when I do decide where I will be living
3. The youth of Slobozia
4. Jenny and Marius – Missionaries in Slobozia
5. Pathway to Joy Ministries in Oradea (Karen and Cornel Bucur and their family)
6. The orphans here in Oradea
7. The hospital work with the abandoned children here in Oradea
8. The work with the gypsies in the area.
9. As always, that the Lord will continue to guide me and use me for His work and that I would be a blessing to all I come into contact with.

I hope you are all blessed. Thank you for your encouragement and prayers this past month.

Love,
Rachel

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The Lord blessed me the other day with these verses that I wanted to share:

"Is this not the fast that I have chosen:
To loose the bonds of wickedness,
To undo the heavy burdens,
To let the oppressed go free,
And that you break every yoke?
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
And that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out;
When you see the naked, that you cover him,
And not hide yourself from your own flesh?
Then your light shall break forth like the morning,
Your healing shall spring forth speedily,
And your righteousness shall go before you;
The glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard.
Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer;
You shall cry, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’
If you take away the yoke from your midst,
The pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness,
If you extend your soul to the hungry
And satisfy the afflicted soul,
Then your light shall dawn in the darkness,
And your darkness shall be as the noonday.
The LORD will guide you continually,
And satisfy your soul in drought,
And strengthen your bones;
You shall be like a watered garden,
And like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.”

~Isaiah 58:6-11

Too many good pics to use just a couple! What a blessing this past month has been.

Pics 1-4: Tinca Gypsy Village, playing with the kids and helping work in the new church building
Pics 5-8: Sabolciu Gypsy Village, VBS
Pics 9-13: Working with CC Team from Tennessee in Oradea in the orphanage, hospital and mentoring group.
Pics 14-17: Slobozia with Pastor John LaBelle, and missionaries Jenny and Marius. Spending time with the youth.
Pics 18-23: Calvary Chapel Romania Conference
Pic 19: Pastor John and Jenny in Slobozia
Pic 20: Orphan Mentoring Group in Oradea

Rachel's Romania Update - 4.27.2008

“Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.”
~ 1 Corinthians 15:58

Paște Fericit!

Happy Easter! Today is Easter Sunday in Romania. Romania goes by the Orthodox Calendar so they have a different Easter than we do in the States. It has been a beautiful warm day here in Romania. I wanted to write you today, to wish you a happy Easter and because the first week in May I will be attending a conference here in Romania for Calvary Chapels. I am really looking forward to this time, two of my pastors, Pastor Ken Sutton from Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa, and Pastor John LaBelle from Calvary Chapel WestGrove are going to be flying out. It should be a good time of fellowship and refreshment.

This past month has been busy! It has been full of joys and some hardship. After much prayer and talking with my Pastors at home and with my accountability partner, I feel the Lord is going to be moving me out of Bucharest. This decision comes with some sadness as I have developed some wonderful relationships here in Bucharest, and love the babies at the hospital as well as Florinel who I have been teaching English to. But there have been some circumstances here that I do not feel I should continue to be involved with.

There are 3 ministries here in Romania who would like me to come and work with them. I have worked with 2 of them in the past and the third would actually be to pioneer a ministry. I am praying that the Lord will lead me to where He has for me to go next. I will meet even more ministries at the conference next week. I am really looking forward to the future with hope and excitement. I have a wonderful support system of pastors at home who have really encouraged me to make this move and I feel the peace of the Lord in this decision. I will let you all know where I will be moving to prayerfully in the next few weeks. I do not plan on making a decision until after the conference.

I do want to share with you the wonderful times I did have this past month. My work in the hospital, was great. I have really enjoyed being able to talk to some of the mothers who are in the hospital staying with their children while I am working with the abandoned children. It is refreshing to meet some who have such compassion for the abandoned babies. One mother spent over a half an hour crying with me about little Florica. She couldn’t believe that anyone could abandon her, and her heart broke that Florica is basically living in the hospital alone. The mothers are always amazed that someone from America would come to Romania just to love these abandoned babies…it really gave me an opportunity to share practically the love of Christ and to be a light.

I have also enjoyed the relationships I have made with some of ROCK’s staff. Especially the three woman who work in the hospital with me, Laura, Lily and Martha. Their love for the Lord and for the babies is an inspiration to me. We have spent time in prayer for one another and in fellowship together. They are some of the hardest working women I have ever met in my life!

I was also able to develop a relationship with a young lady, Karla who came to live with us. She is 23, single and pregnant. I have to admit I am thankful she decided to keep her baby. There are many, many women here in Romania who have abortions, many are encouraged to do so by their doctors. Please keep Karla in your prayers, as she is unsure how she will be able to care for a child and work. Pray that she will make Jesus the Lord of her life and that He will guide her and provide for her so that she will be able to be a good mom.

Please keep me in your prayers especially over this next month as I will be moving to a new ministry. Pray that the Lord will lead me and guide me as He has been so faithful to do in the past. I also ask that you pray that my time with my Pastors will be fruitful and refreshing. Thank you all for your continued support and prayers over the past few months. I know that the difficult times I went through this past month would have been very hard for me had I not had your prayers to support me. The Lord is so good!

“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.”
- 2 Corinthians 13:14

In His love,
Rachel