May 2010 Romania Update

“The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make His face shine upon you, and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace.”

Numbers 6:24-26

Hello! Well, I have finally made it home after a whirlwind month in Romania. Thank you for your patience with me sending out my May update letter. I literally just arrived back to California the day before yesterday! I spent my last month visiting friends that I have made over these past two and half years across the country and spending some wonderful time and fellowship with them. I was totally blessed to have been able to see almost everyone! The Lord has been so good to me during my time in Romania, blessing me so much, teaching me and helping me to grow. I pray I was equally a blessing to those I met. What a wonderful experience this has been. It still does not feel real to me. Even when I was saying goodbye to friends, it seemed as though it was only for a little while and I would see them all again in a few weeks or something. The reality has not totally set in yet for me, and yet I still have the complete peace that I am doing what the Lord has for me to do right now in my life. It is such a comfort knowing that I am in His will, AND it makes me excited for the next part of my life that I am beginning. Plus, I am sure I will make it back to Romania someday for at the very least a visit! I am also so thankful that He gave me 2.5 years in Romania, which was longer than the two years I originally committed to! That extra bit of time was so special to me!

This past month was filled with so many great memories and sad goodbyes…I had hoped that I would be able to make this letter a short one, but with all the cities I visited and all the people I had to say goodbye to, it just didn’t happen. So I apologize that this is a very long letter…my longest ever actually, but I have also stuffed it full of pictures and short stories. I do hope you enjoy reading about my last month living in Romania. It has been an adventure for me. Seeing how the Lord has worked, seeing Him take care of me and provide for me.

The awesome thing about being a Christian is I know that my adventure isn’t over yet. The Lord has great things planned and I’m so blessed to be a part of whatever it is He has for me next!

I ask that you continue to pray for me, for Romania, for the children in the hospital there, the Roma (gypsy) girls and everyone else I have met while I was there.

To all of you who have supported me financially and/or through prayers, thank you so much! I would never have been able to do any of this without your love and faithfulness. I know that the Lord will bless you for coming alongside of me in His work.

As for what is “next” in my life...for now all I know for sure, is I am starting work on Monday. Working with an organization in a type of transitional living home for women who are pregnant and alone, teaching them how to take care of themselves and their babies. This is actually the job I had right before I moved to Romania and it was by far my most favorite job in the States! I am so blessed that this opportunity has opened up for me to be able to work there again! I can’t wait! Other than work, I have no clue what the future holds. I am taking it one step at a time as I always have, and will see what doors the Lord opens up.

Thank you all again for your love and support these past few years! The ups and downs have all been worth it, lives have been touched and changed, love has been given to the needy and the Lord has certainly done a lot in my life! I hardly recognize the girl I once was, who moved to Romania in November 2007.

Love always,

Rachel

First Stop - Timisoara

My time in Timi (Timisoara) began with my staying with some missionary friends Dawn and Bev (And Amy!). It was really great spending time with them and they were such a blessing to me with their fellowship. They also took really good care of me when I became very sick my first four days there! I was blessed to hear such missionary wisdom, along with testimonies of God’s provision, and to be able to ask a ton of questions to those who have been on the mission’s field for so many years.

I of course spent time with my dear friend Laura and her wonderful family. It was like hanging out with family. I loved my time with them. Laura, her husband Robert and I spent an entire afternoon one day just talking about the Lord and His love and about the truth of the Bible. We talked for hours! It was wonderful and probably one of my favorite memories from Timisoara! They are such dear friends to me. Laura and I spoke about how we know that the Lord brought us together when I first moved to Romania in 2007. That it had to be Him who had her be my amazing Romanian teacher and brought our friendship together. They will always be my “Romanian Family”.

Last time I was in Timi Timi I was I stayed with my friends Anna and Amanda. So it was great to be able to meet up with them again a couple of times while I was in Timi. Amanda and Anna are also both moving back to their homes in New Zealand and Australia to pursue what the Lord has next for them. So it was very special to be able to get together while we were all in Timi!

I was also able to see other friends in Timi, like my friend Jill from Ireland and Amy (unfortunately not pictured) and my old friend Dorina, of whom I have not seen in over a year! I’m thankful to have had the time to say goodbye to everyone who has played a part in my life in Timi. I’m sure I’ll see many of these people again someday!

Oradea

While in Oradea I was blessed to be able to stay once again with my friend Ibi and her cousin Rebeka. We had a lot of fun together and great talks about life and the Lord and how He takes care of us and loves us. My last night with the girls I treated them out for a fruit smoothie and then to the movies. The movie was a bummer, but our time of laughing and hanging out together was great. Ibi has always been such a blessing to me since I first moved to Oradea in 2008. She helped me find my first apartment there and has always been so generous with her time and her home when I come to visit. I’m happy I was able to spend a week at Ibi’s this time, since my last trip through Oradea was so rushed we had very little time together, it was important for both of us that we had the time to hang out. It was sad of course to say goodbye, but the Lord is so good and we know that as Christians we will for sure see each other again someday!


Since I had spent 6 months living in Oradea, I had a lot of people I needed to say goodbye to! It was important for me to be able to get together with everyone who was a part of my life there. But with only a week I didn’t really know how to fit everyone in! So I treated the whole gang out for pizza! We had a blast together. Everyone left with their stomachs stuffed and their hearts happy. The girls I used to work with at the hospital all grew up together in the orphanage in Oradea and most of them still live together. It was so much fun taking pictures together and talking and catching up on our lives since we last met. This is a very special group of people for me. I will thankfully be able to keep in touch with most of them over Facebook or through email.

No trip to Oradea would be complete without spending most of my time with Marinela. My relationship with Marinela began my first month in Oradea in 2008. We were placed in the same room together at a conference in Hungary and immediately I knew that the Lord had brought us together. I spent the time I lived in Oradea mentoring her and teaching her English. She is so special to me, like a little sister.

I wrote a while back how Marinela had been fired from the job she worked at for 11 years and had asked prayer that the Lord would take care of her and that she would know it was He who loved her and would watch over her. Well, I do have some good news to report and an answer to much prayer! Marinela has been doing some part time work lately for another ministry, which is a HUGE blessing and this ministry is talking about hiring her on full time. Please keep her in prayer that the Lord would work all of this out according to His will. It would be great for her to be able to work full time again.

It was so sad when I first told Marinela I would be moving back to the States. She started to cry and was so afraid I would forget about her. I told her that there was no way I could forget about her and promised to keep in touch with her through Facebook and even by writing her letters. It would be impossible to forget my dear Marinela! The Lord has totally blessed me by having her in my life.

I tried to really have fun with Marinela the time we had together. So I took her to the Zoo, which is one of her favorite places to go! We went out to eat and played on the swings together. Playing on the swings is something Marinela does all the time, she told me she doesn’t care if people laugh at her, she loves it. I think it is partly because she had such a hard life growing up in the orphanage that it is NOW that she can act like a kid and have fun and play. We also walked around the city and in the mall, talking, laughing, eating together and just having fun. It was a great way for us to spend our last time hanging out together.

Arad

I was completely blessed to have the chance to go and spend the weekend with my Romanian cousin, Julia, that I met when I first moved to Romania. She is the only actual relative I know of living in Romania. (For those who don’t know, my dad’s parents are from Romania.) We had some pretty bad weather while I was visiting but it was great to have the chance to see Julia again before I moved back to Cali. She taught me how to make Romanian Mamaliga (polenta) and we looked at all the amazing things she and her husband collect. We spoke completely in Romanian for the weekend, it was so fun! It was just great to see this part of my family again, to eat together and talk and to see the city where my Titiriga family is from! This was a special treat for me and I hope it was a blessing for my cousins as well!

Brasov

I was totally blessed to have had John and Bethany Miller from Calvary Chapel WestGrove along with our Romanian friend, Marian, come to Brasov for a visit. I was able to show them the beautiful Transylvanian Mountains of Romanians and how different this part of Romania is from other places they have visited in the past. We were able to visit the hospital and play with the kids on my floor and to visit the babies on the other floors. Marian did an amazing job hanging out with the young Roma (Gypsy) children. It was really cool to be able to show people from my sending church where I work everyday and for them to see the ministry.

One night on the way home I invited a young boy begging on the street to come and eat McDonalds. He was so sweet! His name is Robert and his face had the biggest smile on it when I asked him to come and eat. I spoke to him in Romanian asking him all sorts of questions. Marian also spoke to him a lot in their Gypsy language which is very different from Romanian. They sang songs together and we all laughed. Then (at 10pm!) we went inside and let him play in the children’s area. It was a chance for him to just be a kid and not worry about life or begging. Even Marian joined him in playing! It was a sweet experience, one I will never forget.

Please keep little Robert in your prayers that he will be safe and come to know the unconditional love that Jesus has for him!

I was able to attend two Wednesday night studies while in Brasov. One week I brought John, Bethany and Marian. They LOVED the study and were super blessed by it. The next week was my last Wednesday in Brasov. This study which is led by my missionary friends Tim and Liz has been such a blessing to me. A time for us to really get into the Word and to study the scriptures verse by verse. To be able to talk about it and grow together. I think sometimes people here in the States don’t realize how hard it can be to find a Bible teaching church when you are on the missions field. This home study was not only a support through being able to fellowship with other believers but it was a support spiritually through what we were learning. Tim is definitely an anointed teacher and I am blessed to have been a part of his group.


I was able to spend two afternoons with my neighbor Nutsy. It was like we picked up right where we left off. She was so sweet and curious about my trip to the States. She asked lots of questions and told me all about her life since I have been gone. There are some things going on in the government in Romania and people on retirement have had their pay cut almost in half. It is difficult for her to live on, especially with all her medicine. I ended up buying some doilies she had made to help her out, as she would never just take money from me for nothing. Please continue to keep Nutsy in your prayers as she is so alone and with the financial situation being difficult in Romania. Please pray that the Lord will take care of her. If any of you are interested in buying a hand made doily from Nutsy let me know and I can arrange that!


For sure one of the hardest goodbyes I had to say was to my dear Cami. The Lord definitely brought our friendship together when I began working with her at the hospital. Our friendship has really grown this past year. My remaining time at the hospital these past couple of weeks, was a time of fellowship and sadness as we knew my time working with her was coming to an end.

Cami invited my friend Jules and I over for a barbecue at her house one day. We had a great time eating and talking. Then we went for a walk to a nearby lake. It was fun to just sit in the sun and take pictures and laugh.

I will never forget my time with Cami, her friendship is still very important to me, I pray that the Lord has used me in her life to be a blessing and to encourage her in her walk with Him. My last two weeks at the hospital were very busy! With the visit from John, Bethany and Marian, as well as a “project” that Cami and I really wanted to do before I left. We made a poster for our section of the hospital displaying all the staff who work on our floor. We spent a couple of days working on this and finished it on my last day. Everyone was really pleased with how the poster turned out! It is a cheerful way to introduce the children and parents to the staff of our unit.

While at the hospital I was able to see many of the children I had worked with in the past. It was a blessing to be able to say goodbye to them. One little girl who is especially attached to me, made me so many pictures and drawings! It was very sweet and special and I have them all saved with me.

Saying goodbye to the other staff was also sad too. They told me “you are our girl” and they gave me antique items from Romania, all of which had been in their families. They told me I had to come back to at least visit, and that they would miss me.

Cami and Andreea made me a special Certificate for working with them and put down that I was “the best volunteer they had ever had”. They said they have made many certificates for volunteers in the past, but had never put that before! I don’t think it has really set in for me that I will not be returning to the hospital everyday to see my kids and friends. But I am so thankful for the year that I had working with each of them and will never forget the experience.

Caraiman Peak

One weekend a group of us girls took a hike up a mountain to the top, where there is a cross I have seen for years as I have traveled by train. The hike from the top of the lift took over an hour. It was a really hard hike that I would not have been able to do without the help of my friends. When we finally made it to the top it was such a sense of accomplishment! I do not think I will ever be able to forget the journey we took together that day! It is so special that I was able to do this with my friends and it was so exciting after so many years of seeing that cross on the mountain to have finally made it to the top!

Iasi

Iasi, pronounced Yawsh, is a city I had actually never been to before. It is in the top north-east corner of the country. This city has been on my heart for a while now. It is the capital of one of the poorest counties in the country, and it is has the second largest population in Romania. It is a city of universities and churches. With much history and yet, moving forward with many modern buildings and young students. I was totally blessed to have been able to take a weekend trip to Iasi with my friend Jules. It was a time of getting away for my

last weekend to see a part of Romania I had never been to, and a time to check out a possible ministry area in the future…who knows! It was also a great way to have a fun weekend with my dear friend Jules, who had been such a blessing to me while I was in Brasov! We had a great time, the city is beautiful. It made me feel as though I was in a different country altogether. The main areas we were in did not show many signs of poverty, but it was only a small ride on the tram to see the shacks that make up some of the homes for the cities poorer residents. There is something very special about Iasi, after only a weekend I don’t know that I could put my finger on it, but it is a city that has made it’s way into my heart and won’t let go! I do pray I will be able to visit it again someday!

We had a great time, the city is beautiful. It made me feel as though I was in a different country altogether. The main areas we were in did not show many signs of poverty, but it was only a small ride on the tram to see the shacks that make up some of the homes for the cities poorer residents. There is something very special about Iasi, after only a weekend I don’t know that I could put my finger on it, but it is a city that has made it’s way into my heart and won’t let go! I do pray I will be able to visit it again someday!

On our way to Iasi on the train we ended up in a compartment with a young lady named Mihaela. She was so nice, she was on her way to Iasi to give a presentation about Social Work. Then surprisingly enough, we ended up in the same exact compartment with her on the way back! None of us knew that we were leaving back for Brasov on the same day or that we would end up in the same place again! We had a lot of fun on the ride back talking to each other mainly in Romanian but also teaching Mihaela some more English. We talked about why Jules and I are in Romania and what we are doing in Brasov. We took lots of pictures and laughed, and exchanged emails. I hope we will keep in touch. When the Lord brings someone into my life I hope that I am able to be an example and to share His love with them!

I can’t think of a better way to have spent my last weekend in Romania!

As you can imagine there were a lot of goodbyes to be said in Brasov. I was treated to a great lunch by my friends with HFTN who I have been working with. Cami and Andreea took me out to lunch, and my friend Liz took me out to tea! On my last night in the city a group of my girlfriends took me out to a very nice dinner. I received the nicest photo album/book from the girls with memories from my time in Brasov at the hospital, working with the teen Roma girls, and hanging out. It definitely brought tears to my eyes remembering all the things the Lord has blessed me with this past year and seeing the pictures. They also gave me a certificate for my time that I worked with them.

My flight was smooth and I had no problems with my luggage, which was a just tad bit over weight home. Thanks to John and Bethany who took home my heavy books when they returned to the States I was able to bring home a lot of memories with me, and only left behind those things that can be bought and replaced here in Cali.

I begin my new job on Monday and am really looking forward to what the Lord has in store for me. It still does not seem real that I will not be walking the streets of Romania everyday anymore. Like I am just on vacation and next week I’ll return or something. I know it will eventually hit me that this is real, but I am so thankful that the Lord has lead me on this path, and that I have His peace for being back in Cali.

Thank you for joining me on this adventure that I have been on!

Grace and Peace