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

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