Missionary Update - 12.18.2007

“Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying:

“Glory to God in the highest,

And on earth peace,

goodwill toward men!”

So it was, when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, that the shepherds said to one another, “Let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us.” And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the Babe lying in a manger. Now when they had seen Him, they made widely known the saying which was told them concerning this Child. And all those who heard it marveled at those things which were told them by the shepherds. But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told them.”
Luke 2:8-20

Buna ziua! Hello! And Crăciun Fericit! Merry Christmas! I hope you are all doing well. This is my favorite time of the year. It has been fun here in Romania as well, cause it seems every time I go to the grocery store, they are playing American Christmas music. It is always nice to hear Elvis singing Christmas songs.

I have been in Romania for one month now. I am loving every minute of it. I am really enjoying my language training. My teacher Laura is wonderful. She has also agreed to meet with me during the Christmas break so that I don’t loose so much time, which is an answer to prayer! Areopagus, my training center is closed from Dec. 20th – Jan 7th.

I am very thankful for all the Lord has done, in answering my prayers to learn the language quickly. Romanian is nothing like English, even the way the sentences are constructed is completely different. But I am catching on pretty quickly and I pray that my next month here will be even more fruitful than my first. It is really vital to be able to speak the language, so that I will be able to communicate and be a better witness to the older generation who don’t know English, especially the staff I will be working directly with in the hospitals.

Thank you for your prayers regarding the holiday time. I am not lonely at all here! And I have many options here in Romania of places to visit during Christmas and New Years, so we will see what I will end up doing, but either way, I praise the Lord, for always comforting me and for blessing me with so many wonderful people in my life, both here in Romania and in the US.

I pray you all have a blessed Christmas and Happy New Year! You are in my prayers, and I thank you for your continual prayers. Oh, one more praise! Thank you for all of your many prayers for my knee and back, the Lord has been very good to me. I have only had mild soreness, but absolutely none of the serious problems I was experiencing when I was in the US. All glory to Him!

Please feel free to visit my flickr site to see the pictures of Romania I have taken since I have been here. I will be updating the site often. Romania is so beautiful, I want to share it with you all.
www.flickr.com/pocait

Mulțumesc pentru tot! Thank you for everything!
Love,
Rachel

Rachel's Romania Update - 11.25.2007

" Trust in the LORD, and do good; dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness. Delight yourself also in the LORD, and He shall give you the desires of your heart."
~Psalm 37:3-4

Hello! It has been really wonderful receiving so many emails from so many of you! It is a little lonely here in Timisoara, as all I have to do is study Romanian! There is not a lot to see within walking distance. But this is ok, I am here after all to study Romanian! I have received many of the same questions from a lot of you so I thought I would send out an email and let you all know what a day is like for me...

My day starts with devotional time. I read my Bible and this great devotional book by Jon Courson. I am really being blessed by it right now. I also spend time in prayer...

Monday - Friday I have Romanian training, one on one with my teacher Laura. I like her very much, she is really nice and super smart, and we get along very well. My class is from 9am-11am. I always have at least an hour or so of homework that she assigns me, plus I try to study the words and ideas we have learned during the day.

After class, I usually try to go for a walk. The weather here has been really nice. Sunny, and not too cold, probably in the 60's, maybe the 50's. Who would have thought a southern California girl would be saying the 50's and 60's aren't too cold! But I haven't even needed to wear my beanie yet. :) So anyway, I usually go for a walk around town, Timisoara is huge! I haven't made it to my favorite area yet, the center of town. But I go to the park and to the grocery store a lot! Timisoara is where the revolution that ended communism in Romania began. So it is a very special city. It is also one of the most beautiful cities in Romania, in my opinion. It is very clean and not as crowded as Bucharest. I am happy to be here now. I will try to take some pics for your all to see the city and where I am living soon.

After walking around for an hour or 2 I usually come back home and eat and study. I am finding that there is more that I can eat than just salami and bread! I haven't been feeling too good lately so I have been taking it easy and having soup and other nice things like that.

I only have access to the internet from 9am -2pm, Mon-Fri and then on the weekends. So I try to get down here to their computer room everyday, to say hi and keep up with people. It is nice to be able to communicate with friends this way. Unfortunately because I am using their computer room, I can't do Skype right now, but when I go back to Bucharest I will be able to. So hopefully at the end of January I will be able to talk to those of you who have Skype and have been asking me about it! :)

The rest of my day really just entails, eating, showering, playing with pics on my laptop, forcing myself to watch Romanian TV to help me learn the language (it's mainly soccer! AAHH!! I miss my basketball!!!) studying and then my day ends as it began, with devotional time.

I feel very blessed to be here, I am so thankful that the Lord would use me.

I hope you are all doing good, I miss you all, thank you for your prayers and your support!

Love
Rachel

Rachel's Romania Prayer Letter - 11.10.2007

Well, this will be my last email from the US. I leave this Wednesday morning at 6am to begin my journey to Romania. It has been a blessed 6 months as I have been preparing for this trip. It is so great to see how the Lord has been faithful in bringing me to this place, and I know He will continue to be faithful in the time to come.

“For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.”
~Philippians 1:6

I am sad to be leaving so many dear friends and family behind, but I know that we will keep in touch and also knowing that you are here praying for me offers me such peace and joy. I am excited and looking forward to the future and all that God is going to do. I can’t wait for these next 2 months as I will be learning the Romanian language, and then beginning my ministry with the children and babies. This is something the Lord placed on my heart so many years ago, and to finally have the opportunity to be going full time to do this, seems unbelievable. What an awesome God we serve!

Please keep my family and friends in prayer. Please keep me in prayer as well, that I will have a safe journey and that all things will run smoothly. Below is my itinerary:

Wed. November 14
LAX-Frankfurt
Depart LAX:
United Flight #0944 - 6:00am
Arrive Frankfurt:
5:45am

Thursday November 15
Frankfurt - Bucharest
Depart Frankfurt:
United/Lufthansa Flight #9184 - 10:40am
Arrive Bucharest:
2:00pm

I will have internet access once I get settled, so please keep in touch. It is always a blessing to hear from you. La revedere!

With love
Rachel
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Romania Prayer Letter - 10.23.2007

"The LORD will perfect that which concerns me; Your mercy, O LORD, endures forever; do not forsake the works of Your hands."
- Psalm 138:8

Hello everyone!

Well I apologize I am a little past my normal date of writing you all. I had to wait until today to go to my final orthopedic doctor appointment to find out about my knee and back. Basically the doctor said that there is degeneration in my lower spine and that there isn’t really anything to do about it right now, other than to work on strengthening my core muscles. As for my knee, he believes that it is inflamed due to the injury in May and the fact that I am on my feet all day at work. So I am signed up for a couple more weeks of physical therapy before I leave to learn the exercises that I need to keep doing before I leave and while I am in Romania.

And now on to the good exciting news. Because I do not need surgery I will be leaving for Romania in 21 days!!!! I am so happy that this time is finally coming near. It has been a very difficult and yet good month for me, this past month. I have made some dear new friends and some old friends have come back into my life who have been such a blessing and given me such support and encouragement through this time.

I give my official notice at work tomorrow, which means I only have 10 days left to work! Crazy! I am going to miss everyone at my job. It has been wonderful working with all the women and moms at Casa Teresa. I know I will keep in touch with many of them.

As for Romania news, I met with Nann from ROCK Ministries a couple of weeks ago. She gave me an update on some of the children from the hospital. One of the girls, Aristrita who is in desperate need of surgery has been given approval from the Romania Government to come to America for about 9 months to have the surgeries she needs. Praise the Lord! This will make such a difference in her life. Dragos, the little partially blind boy who quickly became my favorite on my last trip has been transferred out of the hospital to a hospital closer to his family. This is very sad for me on a selfish level and it is sad because he was responding very well to the physical therapy he was receiving when he was in the hospital in Bucharest. Please keep him in your prayers.

Please also keep me in your prayers. I will be working out to stay healthy but would love it if the Lord would just totally heal me! I know He is able to do this, but if not, pray that I will not be hindered by the pain I experience in my knee and back. These next 3 weeks will go by quickly; I would love to see so many of you before I leave. I will do my best! Please also, if you can, respond with a mailing address, as I may want to send out written notes when I am gone in case it takes a while to get set up with internet.

Lots of love and blessings
Rachel

Romania Prayer Letter - 9.16.07

Hello everyone,
I hope you are all doing really good. Things are going pretty good here. A little crazy, but good. This month I am moving out of my apartment as I prepare for my move to Romania. I don’t have any updates right now, Nann the woman I will be working with in Romania is actually here in the US taking some leave and getting rest.

“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”
Romans 8:28

I do have a prayer request and praise. They are really one in the same. I have been attending physical therapy twice a week, and this past week had some more issues with my knee and back and so my physical therapist has sent me back to my orthopedic surgeon to have an MRI done. I injured my knee originally back in May, and it is taking longer to heal than my physical therapist would like. So now I will go and get an MRI. Please just keep me in your prayers, I want the Lord’s will in my life and I want to get this situation taken care of soon as possible. The praise out of all of this is that what I have been learning at my physical therapy I will be able to continue to do even while in Romania. And because I hurt my knee and have had to meet with the doctors, they have come to realize that left untreated the issues I have with my knee and back would have progressed to serious back problems. So as always the Lord works everything together for good, even things that we don’t understand at the time.

Sorry this email is so short this time, please keep my health in your prayers! Thank you!

Rachel
www.rachelsromania.blogspot.com

Romania Prayer Letter - 7.14.2007

"He will bring justice to the poor of the people; He will save the children of the needy, and will break in pieces the oppressor."
~Psalm 72:4

Buna Ziua! Good Day! Hello everyone, it is so good to be writing you all again. Another month has come and gone and I am one month closer to my big move. The Lord as always has been faithful and good to me. I have 2 options right now for learning Romanian when I first arrive in Romania. Nann Gonzales will be here in America when I first arrive so I am going to use that time to do some intensive language training. I am very excited about this. Please pray that the Lord will show me which option to take when it comes to my language training. I want the time I spend doing this to be very productive. I am trying to learn bits and pieces here at home and to keep in my memory those things I have already learned. But I am really looking forward to actually studying the language properly.

I had my birthday this past Monday, the big 28. It is incredible to me to think that 10 years ago I was in Romania on my first mission trip turning 18! How time has flown by. The Lord has blessed me with so many great experiences these 10 years and I feel that He has used this time to prepare me for living in Romania and working in the Hospitals with those precious children.

I have not bought my plane ticket yet, but have been carefully watching the prices. Please keep this in prayer too. I always want to be a good steward of my money and I would love to be able to buy my ticket at the lowest price possible.

I have also set up a blog page online (www.RachelsRomania.blogspot.com/ ) so you can view past emails and get updates that I might have when I am actually living in Romania. It will also eventually be a place where I will post more pictures when I finally start working with the children.

Well that is all for today. I hope you all are well. Thank you for your prayers, your emails and your encouragement. It has been so amazing to see how the Lord keeps opening doors for me and the people He has brought in my life that have blessed me so much.

Talk to you soon.

La revedere!
Rachel

Happy 4th of July!!!

“O Eternal god, through Whose mighty power our fathers won their liberties of old; Grant, we beseech Thee, that we and all the people of this land may have grace to maintain these liberties in righteousness and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen”
~ Book of Common Prayer

“Open the gates, that the righteous nation which keeps the truth may enter in.”
~ Isaiah 26:2

“Our father’s God, to Thee
Author of liberty,
To Thee we sing;
Long may our land be bright
With freedom’s holy light;
Protect us by Thy might,
Great God, our King.”
~ My Country, ‘Tis of Thee, verse 4

I know that I am moving to another country, but I am very proud and blessed to be an American. We should all be thankful for what the Lord has blessed us with. Please remember to pray for our nation and our troops!

Rachel

Romania Prayer Letter - 6.16.2007

“And the LORD, He is the One who goes before you. He will be with you, He will not leave you nor forsake you; do not fear nor be dismayed.”
-Deuteronomy 31:8

Hello everyone! I hope you are all doing well. These past few weeks have gone by so quickly. The Lord as always has been faithful. As of right now I am planning my move for around November 14th. Part of why I am planning to move at that time instead of sooner, is to celebrate ROCK Ministries 10th anniversary here in Montebello , California on November 10th. I am committing 2 years to living in Romania , but I am wanting to be open to what the Lord has for me to do. If that means the rest of my life will be spent there, I will certainly not argue with that!

Everyone has been very supportive and encouraging of my move to Romania . Anyone who knows me knows my love for that country and the people there. Everyday seems so exciting to me, as I am preparing and speaking to different people about what is to come. I met with a couple, Brent and Nancy, who founded an organization called Promise Child the other night. I was so blessed to spend the evening with them and share my heart for missions and Romania . They shared their heart for ministry and we spoke about the possibility of working together in the future in Romania . It is so exciting to see how God is opening doors for me and bringing other people in my life that also have a passion for reaching out to the world. I was so encouraged after meeting with Brent and Nancy, it was another confirmation to me that God is “the One who goes before” me and that He is with me.

I also wanted to introduce you to ROCK Ministries a little more. I have attached their most recent newsletter for you to read. ROCK Ministries was co-founded by Nannette Gonzales in 1997. I will be working with Nann in the hospitals of Bucharest with the orphaned and abandoned children. ROCK also has an excellent foster care program, helping abandoned children who would otherwise spend their lives in an institution, become a part of a loving and nurturing family. There is a great need for people to love these abandoned children. Foreign adoptions have been closed in Romania for many years now, and it is socially and legally acceptable for parents to abandon their children to orphanages and hospitals. Parents will not lose their “parental rights” as long as they visit their children once every 6 months. Many times a parent will come in and not even know which child is theirs. Unfortunately for that poor child, they have no hope of being adopted because they legally still belong to their parents and so many will spend their entire life in an institution, with little contact from people. This can lead to many developmental delays in these poor children who just want love. Through ROCK Ministries I will be able to be a part of making a difference in the lives of some of these children. The numbers of abandoned children are overwhelming, but I know that the children I will be able to interact with and love will be changed. Love is so vital to their emotional, physical and mental well being.

If you have any questions please feel free to contact me. I love hearing from all of you. Please also keep me in your prayers as I prepare for this journey. Pray that the Lord will provide, that He will continue to go before me and open doors for what all He has for me to do. Thank you for all your prayers!

With love,
Rachel

Romania Prayer Letter - 5.27.2007

Hello everyone! I wanted to thank each one of you who through the years has been praying for me as I have gone to Romania on missions trips. You know that I have such a special place in my heart for that country and the people there. Well after much prayer, I finally went and spoke to our Missions pastor (Pastor Phil) at church this morning about moving to Romania full time. It was sort of funny to me, he began speaking to me as though, this was of course what I am supposed to do. He didn't act surprised, he didn't question anything, he just said here's what you do...I am so excited! I told Pastor Phil I would like to be able to move out there at the end of the year and he suggested that I start sending out an email once a month to people to make you all aware of this, and to ask that you begin praying for me as well. Prayer is such a vital part of being a missionary and it is so important to have other people praying for me! Please pray that the Lord will open the doors for me to move out there, that He will provide for me, and that He would go before me and prepare the way.

It looks as of right now I would be moving to Bucharest, Romania to work with ROCK Ministries. That is one of the places I went to this past March. The Lord has also given me a desire to work with the elderly although I have no clue what all that entails as of yet.

I don't have much else to say right now. I will fill you in monthly as new things develop. Please keep me in your prayers! Thank you again!

"Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying,
' Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?'
Then I said, 'Here am I. Send me!' "
~ Isaiah 6:8

with love,
rachel