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