I know my monthly update letter is going to come out at in a week or so, but I really want to share something with you and just don’t want to wait! Plus this is so important that it deserves it’s own letter.
I normally do not talk about financial things with people, mainly I just ask you all to pray that the Lord will provide for me. I do this, for a couple of reasons, but mainly because I want to be sure that it is the Lord who is providing for me to live here in Romania.
I want to share something with you, in order to give God the glory for how awesome He is. These past couple of months have been a little tight for me financially speaking, as the cost of living here in Brasov is double what it was in Oradea, and when I moved here to Brasov I had lost some of my support from home. June has been the most tight month out of all of them. I owed my taxes for all of 2008 this month, plus my quarterly tax for 2009 plus the money for my year long visa for Romania and then just daily things like rent, utilities and food. I honestly started the month with no clue how I would be able to pay for all of these things and still have enough money left over at the end of the month to pay my rent for July!
I knew that none of my financial issues were a surprise to the Lord and that He is in control. I wanted to trust Him to take care of me. So I asked some of you to pray for me, not saying why, just trusting the Lord.
Then the Lord gave me these verses to meditate on:
"Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you. Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. To Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen."
1 Peter 5:6-11
"Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
Matthew 11:28-30
"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, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, 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
So I prayed and you prayed and I really trusted the Lord that His Word is true and that He would provide even though I had no clue where the money would come from.
Then things started happening. I had some guests come to visit for a day and they left me some money, I have some new people who have signed up to sponsor me on a monthly basis, I had some friends who wanted to give me money towards my lost camera, but because I had enough, they told me to use the money for my taxes, and I even had friends here in Romania bless me with some money. The Lord just kept opening up doors and the money came in just in time to pay off my taxes, then came the Romania visa situation and Rent for July, all of which I need before I receive my monthly support from America (I receive one check for all my support at the very end of each month), so once again, I asked the Lord to provide, and He did, I have some friends in Europe who sent me money directly to my Romanian bank account, and my aunt randomly blessed me with some money, that along with the money from my friends who visited at the beginning of the month is enough to cover rent, pay for my Romanian Visa and to be able to have some money so I can call my parents at home.
This is all truly a miracle. I went from having not even what I needed to cover my taxes to having exactly what I needed for the month. While things were a little tight, I realized that I didn’t need to have extra money for “things”. It was a month of seeing how the Lord provided for everything. Even to the point of having friends invite me over for meals or having my neighbor make me a fabulous meal one day. All of these things contributed to my being able to pay for everything and still eat! Hahah
These verses from Matthew came alive to me this month more than ever before in my past:
“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
Then yesterday I was listening to a Bible study by Pastor Chuck Smith, and he was talking about Gideon and how God wanted Gideon who was already outnumbered with his small army against their enemies, to send even more of his army away. And how God won the battle with so few men, in order that the Israelites would not be able to say they won in their own strength. When I heard this, I was struck with something…this has been my “Gideon month”. I have always made less money as a missionary here in Romania than any of my other missionary friends here, and I have always been ok with this, because I always had enough. Then I move to Brasov, lose some of my support and have even less than I did when I lived in a city half as expensive. BUT, I have still been able to make it. Then June comes along and it was as though the Lord was saying, “No you still have too much, I am going to make it so that it is humanly impossible for you to have enough money to get by this month, and I’m going to do this so that you will know that I am God and that I will take care of you and provide for your needs.”
I will say, that at the beginning of the month a little bit of panic came in (that’s when I sent out the prayer email), so I spent a day with the Lord, just praying and reading the Bible and that’s when I got all those verses I mentioned above. And that is also when the Lord gave me peace about this month. I still had no clue where the money was going to come from and it was a tremendous test of my faith in the Lord. He could have given it to me all at once, but right after one thing was paid for, I didn’t have enough for the next thing, and that is how my month has progressed. But He has provided for me! What a miracle this month has been.
I know that this has been a novel of a letter, but the Lord is real and true and He is not just a story in a book. And He deserves to be praised for who He is. And I just could not help but share with you how He has provided for me this month and to give Him all the glory that is due Him.
Thank you to all of you who support me financially and with your prayers. Both of those things are vital to my ministry and my life here in Romania. Thank you for allowing the Lord to work though you to bless me to continue His work here in Brasov.
I hope you all are blessed by this and that you will join me in praising Him!
Grace and peace,
Rachel
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