30 Days of Thanks - November 30

And the twenty-four elders who sat before God on their thrones

fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying:
“We give You thanks, O Lord God Almighty,
The One who is and who was and who is to come,
Because You have taken Your great power and reigned.”
-Revelation 11:16-17

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30 Days of Thanks - November 29

But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin,
you became obedient from the heart
to that form of teaching to which you were committed,
and having been freed from sin,
you became slaves of righteousness.
-Romans 6:17-18

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Rachel's Romania Update - November 2009

You have turned my mourning into dancing for me;

You have put off my sackcloth and girded me with gladness,
To the end that my tongue and my heart and everything glorious within me

may sing praise to You and not be silent.

O Lord my God, I will give thanks to You forever.

-Psalm 30:11-12

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I know I am a couple days late, but that is ok, there is always much to be thankful for! This month has been so packed with amazing things that I think it would take a novel to tell you all about it. So I am going to have to just give you little pieces of my month, with lots of pics…sorry about that! Remember you can always follow me on my blog (www.rachelsromania.blogspot.com) or on facebook if you want to know details!

Well, let’s see here, in general it was a very busy month, I think maybe the busiest month since I moved to Brasov, but it was a blessed one. The weather was actually really wonderful considering we received our first snow in October, the first week into November the weather warmed up a bit and it was a lovely month. The kids at the hospital were full of a lot of energy this month! It was pretty exhausting, but those children are always worth the energy!

Probably the biggest thing for me this month, was on November 15^th I celebrated 2 years since I moved to Romania! It was such a huge blessing and a time of reflection, for all that the Lord has done for me and blessed me with. I was overwhelmed with thankfulness when I thought of all that the Lord has brought me through. It has been a great 2 years, but there have been some really hard times, some sad times, some times of hurt and some times great joy! It’s funny, I seem to mainly only remember all the good that the Lord has done, and that is a blessing, those times that have been difficult seem so far away, but I can see how the Lord used each of those times to help me to grow and to guide me. I would not trade a single day over the past 2 years for anything!

November 1^st was my friend Sarah’s birthday and we had a fun party for her. We celebrated my friend Liz’s birthday this month as well!

Steffi, Sarah and I on her Birthday! (it was a "pig tail" b-day)

Liz and I

The first week of November my dear friends from England, Rebekka and Stephen came out. They brought their 2 children and 2 friends, Matt and Eva. We had a great week. We went shopping for the gypsy families that Rebekka and Stephen sponsor, then were able to drop the food off in the village the next day. They visited the hospital (unfortunately this was cut a little short due to the swine flu drama here in Romania), hung out with one of our gypsy teen groups, we also made packages of warm clothes out of donations for families in the gypsy village and had a great time of fellowship together, walking around and just spending time together. They were here for a whole week and while it was not nearly long enough (too short for me!) we had such a blessed time.

Stephen, Rebekka and I

Sarah, Steffi and I in the village when we passed out the food we bought

Cute little girl in the village

Then one Saturday Steffi, her kids and I got together and made sugar cookies, LOTS of sugar cookies for our second gypsy teen group to decorate. We had a great meeting a few days later with the girls. It was lots of fun to see them decorating the cookies. Then we had pizza together and asked them some questions to get to know them a little more. This was our newest group of girls and so we have spent a few months getting to know them and then in December we will begin a Bible devotional and memory verse with them.

Steffi her kids and I making cookies!

The girls decorating their cookies

The group of us! (Minus Sarah and Mary who were in the States on vacation)

Then one weekend my friends from Germany, Cees and Anne came out! They brought lots of donations and Christmas Shoeboxes for our children at the hospital, the gypsy families we support, and the teen girls we work with. Cees’s wife Andrea, along with Anne worked so hard to go through every single shoebox to make sure there was not anything in it that should not be there, and to put in a scripture verse in Romanian. They gave so much it is an incredible blessing! Aside from the great donations, Andrea sent Christmas gifts for me and some decorations for my home! It’s amazing to have such good friends from all over the world. It was so much fun to have them out those 2 days. We went out to eat and walked around, and then Anne treated us to bowling and my friend Alisha joined us. This was my first time bowling in Romania and my first time bowling in years for that matter…it was so fun, just to do something “fun”. Their last night with me we stayed up late talking and praying together. It was really a wonderful time of the Lord blessing the 3 of us.

Cees, Anne and I loading the Christmas shoeboxes into my closet

My closet full of shoeboxes!

We had a wonderful International Thanksgiving here in Brasov on Thursday. People from all over the US, Canada, Germany and Romania were there. It was a blast! Everyone brought some food, and the wonderful ladies from the states volunteering with us this week brought STUFFING and CRANBERRY SAUCE! Yum!!! We had turkey and I made mashed potatoes, a pumpkin pie (wasn’t too good) with fresh whipped cream and some fabulous pumpkin spice cupcakes with homemade cream cheese frosting. It was a good time to get together and eat and celebrate all that we are thankful for. We really do have so much that the Lord has blessed us with and provided us with, there is truly no end to the reasons we are thankful.

Our Thanksgiving Feast!

Then on Friday, Cami and I had the day off from the hospital so we met up in the city and had a great time together, walking around, looking in stores, talking, and then a great lunch together. I am very thankful for Cami and her friendship and her heart for the children at the hospital as well as her fellow Romanians in general.

Cami and I in the center of town

Tomorrow (Sunday) we will be meeting together to put together Christmas gifts for the children in the hospital. I will post pics of that next month.

As I said it has been a very busy November, but one of totally giving thanks to the Lord for all He has done. I know I left out some things from this month, like my craft night with my friend Alisha and our Mexican Fiesta Night with my friends where we watched The Sound of Music together, or the couple of times I baby sat for a friend, and cat sat for another friend.…..and I’m sure there is more. But all in all it was such a good month. I feel like I need to sleep like a month to get my energy back, but that will have to wait until January because December is promising to be just as eventful!

Thank you all for your prayers and support. Nothing that I do here in Romania could be done without the way the Lord uses each of you to encourage me, bless me, support me and pray for me! I am thankful for each one of you!

Please keep December in your prayers, I will have some guests staying with me the week of Christmas, I am very excited about this and we will be doing lots of things for the kids at the hospital and in the gypsy village as well as a Christmas Concert at a teen orphanage and lots of other things! Please keep all of our health here in your prayers, as the flu season is in full swing here and we are all working very hard, long hours. Please also keep all the missionaries here in your prayers as none of us will be returning to the States for Christmas or New Years and that can be hard.

Sorry this turned out to be a novel anyway! But at least it was full of photos!

Grace and Peace,

Rachel

30 Days of Thanks - November 28

Sing to the LORD with thanksgiving;
Sing praises on the harp to our God,
Who covers the heavens with clouds,
Who prepares rain for the earth,
Who makes grass to grow on the mountains.
-Psalm 147:7-8

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30 Days of Thanks - November 27

A sensible thanksgiving for mercies received
is a mighty prayer in the Spirit of God.
It prevails with Him unspeakably.
-John Bunyan

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Happy Thanksgiving!

It seems more true this year than ever before that I am truly blessed and have so much to be thankful for. The Lord has kept me from harm, He has guided me on the path that He has for me, He has blessed me beyond belief with this life here in Romania.

Tonight we had such a great time, it was a big group of us from America, Germany, Canada and Romania.

We had such a wonderful turkey dinner, the food and dessert were fabulous! The time spent talking and hanging out were great. The community of friends here in Brasov is such a blessing. Everyone is such a servant here. Sure we are all human and no one is perfect, but honestly I can’t believe how great the atmosphere is here. It’s great to be surrounded by good friends who want to serve the Lord and the kids here in Romania and who give so much to make Brasov feel like a Home and like family.

It’s always a little sad to be away from friends and family back in the States on holidays, but today was truly blessed for me, and I am thankful to my Lord and Savior for all He has done to bring me to this place and to this point in my life.

Truthfully I almost feel most thankful for the fact that He has not left me alone, that He did not allow me to settle for a different life in Cali, but that He drew me here, that He kept prompting me back to Romania, and that He has provided for me all the way, and has shown me the goodness of who He is….such a loving Father we serve!

Anyway friends, just really resting in how great our God is tonight…

I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving as well!!

Grace and Peace,
Rachel






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30 Days of Thanks - Happy Thanksgiving!

And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.
But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God
-Ephesians 2:1-8


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30 Days of Thanks - November 25

Let us thank God heartily as often as we pray that we have His Spirit in us to teach us to pray. Thanksgiving will draw our hearts out to God and keep us engaged with Him; it will take our attention from ourselves and give the Spirit room in our hearts.
- Andrew Murray


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30 Days of Thanks - November 24

O come, let us sing for joy to the LORD,

Let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation.
Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving,
Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms.
For the LORD is a great God
And a great King above all gods
-Psalm 95:1-3

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30 Days of Thanks - November 23

Peace, peace, to him who is far off both Jew and Gentile
and to him who is near! says the Lord; I create the fruit of his lips,
and I will heal him make his lips blossom anew with speech in thankful praise.
-Isaiah 57:19

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30 Days of Thanks - November 22

For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.
-Colossians 1:9-14


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30 Days of Thanks - November 21

O LORD, thou hast brought up my soul from the grave:
thou hast kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.
Sing unto the LORD, O ye saints of His,
and give thanks at the remembrance of His holiness.
For His anger endureth but a moment; in His favour is life:
weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.
-Psalm 30:3-5

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30 Days of Thanks - November 20

Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken,
let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe,
for our "God is a consuming fire."
-Hebrews 12:28-29

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30 Days of Thanks - November 19

All the angels stood around the throne
and the elders and the four living creatures,
and fell on their faces before the throne
and worshiped God, saying:
“Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom,
Thanksgiving and honor and power and might,
Be to our God forever and ever. Amen.”
-Revelation 7:11-13

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30 Days of Thanks - November 18

"We would worry less if we praised more.

Thanksgiving is the enemy of discontent and dissatisfaction."

- Harry A. Ironside

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