Happy New Year!

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December 2009 Update

“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD,
thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.”
Jeremiah 29:11

Happy New Year!

As this year comes to a close I can’t help but look back and think of all that the Lord has done. How He has blessed me, how He has worked in my heart and how He has allowed me to do so much here in Brasov, Romania.

This December was the 20^th anniversary of the fall of communism in Romania. I am honored to have been here for this. Romania has come a long way since 1989, and yet it seems that they haven’t come very far at all. In comparison to other countries which were under communism, Romania seems to be so far behind. This country still needs prayer and people to continue to support the work that is being done here.

This past month was filled with lots of Christmas fun. Cami and I decorated our section of the hospital for Christmas, which was really fun for us and the kids.

I was able to join Cami and her daughter Alexandra at a Romanian Baptist church for a Christmas Concert. It was so beautiful!

I also spent some time with Cami and another Play Therapist, Andrea out in town one night.

We had a Christmas party for our teen Roma (Gypsy) girls groups. Where we were able to bless them with food, games, clothes and fun! We read a devotional about being thankful for what the Lord has done and remembering the true meaning of Christmas. And the girls all filled out little ornaments for our Thankful Tree and wrote down what they were each thankful for. Then they surprised us by singing Romanian Christmas songs for us!

HFTN blessed all the volunteers with a Christmas dinner at a very nice restaurant which was great and full of wonderful food and fellowship!

HFTN also put together gift bags for the children in the hospital on St. Nicholas Day, December 6^th and we all walked around and passed out gifts together, it was really great.

Then I had two young ladies, Marinela (the young lady I used to mentor) and Nadia, from Oradea come up to Brasov to visit me for a week over Christmas. We joined up with the Play Therapists at the hospital on Christmas Eve and were able to sing Christmas songs and pass out shoeboxes from my friends in Germany with them. It was a great time for Marinela and Nadia as well as me! And the kids in the hospital were totally blessed!

I had a great Christmas day with Marinela and Nadia, opening gifts and reading out of Luke 2 together. We decorated my tree together and I had the girls fill out what they were thankful for and hang it on my Thankful Tree as well. They really liked doing that. My neighbor made us some traditional Sarmale which was so good! And I had some gifts for her as well. That night Marinela, Nadia and I went to church at a Romanian church service.

The next day was Nadia’s birthday and we had a lot of fun going up to Poiana Brasov and then pizza followed by bowling! It was a non-stop but fun week!

This month was extremely busy but I felt so blessed to be a part of all things going on here in town. The Lord has given me such great Romanian friends, as well as fellow missionary friends. December was the perfect ending to this year. With all that went on, and all that I was able to be a part of…it was wonderful! Something that was sort of cool, seeing how people’s hearts are changing…my neighbor donated a ton of clothes for the children at the hospital and the teen girls I work with, and Marinela and Nadia both left me with a few really nice items, a pair of boots and some clothes for the teen girls. I think it is so cool that they all want to help others!

Thank you for all of you who have supported me this past year. I am blessed because of each of you. I’m making this letter a little short in order to show you lots of pictures! And a link to a couple of videos on my youtube page from the Christmas Concert with Cami, from when we passed out shoeboxes at the hospital on Christmas Eve and a video I sent out for Christmas with a slide show of this past year.

Click here for my YouTube videos

I don’t know what the future holds for me, only the Lord knows. But I look forward to seeing what He has in store for me, for Romania and for 2010.

“Strength and dignity are her clothing, and she smiles at the future.” - Proverbs 31:25

I pray you are all blessed in 2010! Have a Happy New Year!

Grace and Peace,
Rachel

PUBLISHED!!!

I'm SO excited to finally be able to tell people about this! Over a year ago I was asked if one of my pictures could be used in a book. I didn't want to say anything to anyone until it actually happened. Well finally after a year of waiting the book has been published! woohoo! This picture above is of a Tomb Stone in a cemetery in Oradea, Romania. I'm so happy! I've had several of my photos used in online articles and on blogs, but this is the first time one of my photos has been printed in a book. :)

Just thought I would share the happy news with you my friends!


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Merry Christmas!!!

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Christmas Concert

So tonight I was totally blessed to go with Tim and Liz and to meet up with Cami and her daughter Alexandra at a Baptist Church for a Christmas Concert. I LOVE the Romanian language and loved hearing Christmas songs sung in Romanian. I went to a Christmas concert 2 years ago in Timisoara when I was living there, but it was even cooler tonight to be able to actually understand most of the lyrics and what the Pastor said!

It was a special night with Cami. I'm so blessed by her friendship and it was really neat to be able to spend the evening with her at this concert. Honestly...how am I so totally blessed!?!?! Really...why would anyone want to tell God what THEY WANT...when HE knows so much more what is best for our lives. I'm always in awe of Him and His plans...

Speaking of plans....tomorrow my girls from Oradea arrive to spend Christmas and Nadia's birthday with me! Should be a fun week!

xo



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Craciun Fericit!

I made this video for my sending church at home...but really it applies to all of you out there!

Merry Christmas!!!





(Song: God of this City, Chris Tomlin)
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My Utmost...

from My Utmost for His Highest this morning:
:)

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"Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." 2 Timothy 2:15

If you cannot express yourself on any subject, struggle until you can. If you do not, someone will be the poorer all the days of his life. Struggle to re-express some truth of God to yourself, and God will use that expression to someone else. Go through the winepress of God where the grapes are crushed. You must struggle to get expression experimentally, then there will come a time when that expression will become the very wine of strengthening to someone else; but if you say lazily - "I am not going to struggle to express this thing for myself, I will borrow what I say," the expression will not only be of no use to you, but of no use to anyone. Try to state to yourself what you feel implicitly to be God's truth, and you give God a chance to pass it on to someone else through you.

Always make a practice of provoking your own mind to think out what it accepts easily. Our position is not ours until we make it ours by suffering. The author who benefits you most is not the one who tells you something you did not know before, but the one who gives expression to the truth that has been dumbly struggling in you for utterance.


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Trip to Cali in the Spring!

Hello friends and family!
I am so excited I found a good deal on a ticket home for vacation this coming up spring, so I went ahead and purchased it today!

I will be home in March and April. I hope to see many of you while I am there, while I know that some of you don't live in Cali, I hope to as many of you as possible!

I do also have a prayer request, as I did last year, I would like to work for a couple of weeks while I am home to pay for my ticket and the cost of being in Cali in general, for spending money, etc. If any of you know of a job I might be able to do in March please contact me. I am even open to house cleaning, house sitting, office work, organizing, etc....I would just like to do something to earn some money while I am home. If you know of anything please let me know, otherwise please just keep this in prayer that the Lord will provide something for me!

Ok, that's it for now! See you all in a few months!

Grace and Peace,
Rachel



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