Advent - Day 1 - BY HIS WOUNDS YOU ARE HEALED

I am so excited that Passion City Church is doing their email Christmas Advent again this year
! I am always so blessed by it!

{ November 30 }

BY HIS WOUNDS YOU ARE HEALED

Isaiah 53:3–6 (ESV)

He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. We all like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

REFLECTION

Jesus came to earth on purpose. His arrival wasn’t just for show, and it certainly wasn’t easy. He gave up His rights as God and took on human flesh, to be pierced for our wrongs and to wipe our debt of sin away. His birth and His death were both sacrifices so you might receive His mercy and grace. In Jesus, you are healed. In Him, you are made whole.

Victory over our hurts and pain is not found by delving deeper into our wounds, but by clinging to the wounds of Jesus. Though we caused Jesus’ wounds by our selfish and shameful acts, He was willing to take the blows and bear the scars in His hands, feet, and side that bring us healing, wholeness, and peace with our God. Every wrong you have done and every wrong that has been done to you has been swallowed up in every right that Jesus has done and in every wrong that has been done to Him.

PRAYER

Father, thank You for the gift of your Son, the perfect One giving for an imperfect one like me. Thank you that Jesus died the way He died so I can come to You just as I am. Jesus, give me grace to reach for Your scars, believing that when You suffered and bled for me, my wounds were healed. Let Your peace and power cover and heal my heart. Amen.

This content was excerpted from Waiting Here For You: An Advent Journey of Hope.


 

November Update!

A Month of Thanksgiving

"Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name."  Psalm 100:3
 

What a full month November has been!  I hope you all had a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving!

My month started off celebrating a friend’s birthday with the whole FFR (Firm Foundations Romania) family. Then later that day I was so incredibly blessed to meet up with Christi Fried and Kerri Dunkelberger.  I worked with both Christi and Kerri over a decade ago at Olive Crest.  They were out here in Romania for an Orphan Summit, and just so happened to be in my area!  They were traveling around with Bruce Thomas of Livada Orphan Care and made a stop in Brasov.  I was so blessed to spend the day with them all, being a tourist in my own city and catching up on all that the Lord is doing.  What a treat it was!


Me, Christi and Kerri.  With Bruce being sneaky!

My time in the After School Program is going amazing!!!  I love my kids and Juliana and Ioana my colleagues.  They are such an answer to my prayers for a great team to work with.  I’ve settled into my routine more with my kids.  My classes are all going good as is the Reading Club I’m doing once a week.  We are practicing with each of classes right now for our Christmas Program we will be putting on December 18^th for the families of the children in our program.  It is my first time doing anything like this and I’m really looking forward to it!

 

Singing with the children before we split up into classes.

Some of my sweet children


Most of my first grade class.

One of my goals when I came here was to start a Peer Tutoring program with the kids who attend the program.  We now have teens from Jr. High and High School who come once a week to help tutor the younger children.  In my class I have one specific young lady Elena, who comes and helps me with my 5^th graders.  She has done such an amazing job, that I have begun to prepare mini lesson plans for her to teach the children.  She comes in early and we go over what I want her to teach, then I give her the floor for the first 15 minutes or so to teach the children.  I think she would be an amazing teacher someday.  I hope that this time is not only a time for us to receive extra help from the teens, but a time where we are able to mentor the teens, like Elena, to stay in school, and possibly to encourage them towards a career someday.  The teens really feel special tutoring the younger children, it is teaching them to help others, to have patience and the importance of education.  I’m really proud of this part of our program!


Our Graduate Wall.  It says, "We are proud of our graduates!"  Then we have our only high school graduate, Andreea, "Absolventii Liceului" and all of our 8th grade graduates, "Absolventii Claei a VIII-a".

Another goal I had was to create a wall in our center with the pictures of the children who graduated from 8^th grade and high school.  In the village the children only have school available to them through 8^th grade. After they graduate 8^th grade, they must take a test, sort of like a college entrance exam, to enter high school.  If they pass, they then need to travel to the city where I live, by bus or train in order to attend one of the high schools.  This is actually why FFR has a teen apartment in the city, where 4 girls are currently staying during the week in order to more easily attend high school.  In the village it is a big deal for a child to make it through the 8^th grade as the majority of them do not attend school past elementary school.  I really wanted to give our children a visual of the teens who have graduated.  It is a small community and most of the young children are either related to or know all of the teens who have graduated.  Seeing their pictures on this special wall was really exciting for the kids and has created a goal for them to reach someday!

I also started back one day a week at the Children’s Hospital on the Neurological/Psychiatric ward.  This is where I spent one year working when I lived in Brasov before.  I am working with Cami, who is a Romanian play therapist again.  I love Cami and we have a wonderful relationship.  I enjoy working in the play therapy room with the kids.  Most of our children are alone without parents visiting them and are mentally or physically handicap.  We have fun coloring, doing puzzles and other things to keep their minds off of their surroundings and to show them some love.

I moved into my new home for the next few months on November 20th. On my last Sunday night staying with Ioana she made me a delicious dinner.  She was trying to make me some spicy pasta, but nothing seems to be spicy enough for me here in Romania!  Either way it was delicious and very sweet of her to bless me.


Ioana and I, and the yummy dinner she made me!

My new is so beautiful!  I am thankful and trusting the Lord for His guidance and faithfulness to always provide for my needs.  I will have to show you pictures from inside the house next month.  I did take a few outside however.


The back wall of my house with the Synagogue next door.


The view I see when I step our my door and look to the left towards the garden and Mt. Tampa.


My bedroom is where the window is above the arch.


The beautiful gate to the garden


The garden.  The Synagogue is to the left and Mt. Tampa is straight ahead.

To see more pictures of the garden and Brasov click here!

I also am turning in my paperwork for my 1 year humanitarian visa this week.  I ran into a little glitch when I began doing my paperwork because I am staying in this beautiful house, I do not have a one year rental contract, and I was not able to get one from Rinda because it would cause her to have to pay very high taxes to have me stay here.  But as the Lord would provide, there was a way to just have a notary create a paper saying I am staying here rent free and only paying utilities, which means Rinda does not have to pay taxes and I can apply for my visa!  It was really kind of her during her last week here in Brasov to take time out of her busy schedule to run to the Notary twice with me to do this.  I knew the Lord had led me to stay here, and so I knew He would provide a way for it to work out.  Thank you to everyone who prayed for this.  I love asking for prayers for things, even though I know the Lord will provide, because it gives us the opportunity to be a part of what He is doing!  He loves it when we go to Him with our needs and requests, and it makes it so clear for us to see His answers when we specifically pray for things.

Last week I began my Romanian language lessons.  I will be tutored once a week for 2 hours.  It amazes me, for how much Romanian I know, I feel like there is so much I don’t know.  It is especially obvious when I am in my classes teaching the children.  I’m looking forward to learning more of this beautiful language and being able to communicate more efficiently.  Everyone teases me here, because I speak “Romenglish” very fluently.  In other words, when speaking Romanian if I don’t know a word, I just insert the English word, and when speaking English, I am constantly inserting Romanian words.  I find it hard now to only speak one language either way!  But I think this is a good thing, at the very least I am always entertaining my Romanian and English speaking friends.

Finally Thanksgiving!  What a great day that was.  I spent the entire day with my FFR family.  We were together from 1 until after 9pm.  We had a great time of good food and just hanging out together.  I had brought a box of yellow cake mix and a can of pumpkin from the States just for this holiday. I made a pumpkin spice cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.  We all have so much to be thankful for.



The last time I celebrated Thanksgiving in Romania was 5 years ago, with many of the same ladies who were gathered together this year.  What a blessing to be able to celebrate with them all again this year.


Alisha and I, five years ago, and us this past Thanksgiving. 

Well I think that is enough for now!  I know that this is long, but there was so much going on November!  I am extremely busy and my days are usually over 10 hours, but I am loving every minute of it.  I am constantly amazed at how the Lord works, at His faithfulness, and His goodness.  And I am blessed every day to be back in Romania.

Grace and Peace,
Rachel

Prayer Requests:/ -For the After School Program and all the children who attend -For the Christmas Program with the After School kids -For my time in the children's hospital -For my continued health -For the Lord to provide for all my needs -For continued team unity -For my Romanian language studies -That I would be a good "hostess" to everyone who comes to Rinda's Room

October Update!

(view from the After School Program building in the village)

Jesus said to them again, ’. . . As the Father has sent Me, I also send you’ —John 20:21

Can you believe it is November?!  Where has this year gone?  I have only been in Romania for a little less than 3 weeks, and yet it feels like I have been here for months….in a good way.  I know I would never have imagined that I would be spending my last few months of 2014 in Romania, what a blessing to be calling this beautiful country home once again.  Truly when we trust in the Lord and let Him lead us, our lives can be such adventures!

My first few weeks teaching my own children in the village has been amazing.  We always start off in one big group with all the kids where we sing Christian songs and then have a Bible story.  It makes my heart so happy to hear these children sing.  We have no music so it’s just our voices, and they sing so loud, they are not ashamed of their voices and you can hear how much they love the songs.

Then we break up into 3 classrooms.  I have 6 children at a time, and 12-18 kids a day, because they are the ones who are the furthest behind the other children in their classes and need the most attention and focus.  I would say that at least 70% of the kids I am working with have learning disabilities or are ADHD.  I have my 2 hour class broken up into several parts in order to help manage their short attention spans, while making the most of being able to help them with their individual needs.  I have a second grader for example who does not even understand the concept of “plus” as in what is 2 + 2.  I spent 20 minutes with him just trying to help him understand simple addition, he couldn’t even show me on his fingers what 2 + 2 meant.  My poor kids.  I love them so much already.  I am so blessed, they came into my class super rowdy and now are really well behaved in such a short time, I’m praying this continues.  I start each class reminding them how special our class is and that it is a class for good, clean, nice, beautiful children.  We listen to classical music while they eat their snack, and they know that if they want to help me pass anything out, they have to be the ones sitting the quietest at their desk.  I can see that sometimes they are about ready to jump out of their skins but they are trying so hard to be good, so I always reward the effort.  After snack we work on homework and I have made up several “games” for them to practice math once they are done with their homework. 

One of my roles as the Project Coordinator for the After School Program is to plan out the Monthly Calendar.  I decided we should do a Word of the Month that we will give the definition to and any synonyms.  This word will be our “theme” for the month.  November is going to be “Thankfulness/Recunoștință”.    I plan 1 Bible memory verse a week and 2 Bible lessons a week for the month that revolve around this theme.  Then for the end of the month, I plan out the craft that also reflects the word of the month and a Life Skill lesson for the kids.  I really enjoyed using the planning/organizing part of me on this.  With the November calendar down, we will begin planning our Christmas program for December!

One of my biggest prayer requests before I left and while I have been here is for an apartment.  It’s so interesting how the Lord has different plans than what we have.  I have not found a permanent place to stay but the Lord has blessed me with the opportunity to stay for a few months in a 400 year old house in the old city center.  The house has been renovated and it is beautiful.  I will be staying while the owner will be in the States.  It really was completely the Lord.  I have been having friends call at least 5 places a day and there has not been one place that is still available by the time we called.  Then out of nowhere, another friend called and told me that they suggested me to their friend Rinda, who had been looking for someone to stay in her place while she is gone and manage “Rinda’s Room” the little apartment/room she rents out.  I met with Rinda the other night and everything went great.  I am so excited to be staying and to be the hostess for her place while she is away.  I will not have to pay rent, but I will have to pay utilities in the winter, which, could end up being as much as I would pay for rent as the house is large and heating is really expensive here, so prayerfully it won’t be too expensive.  I am looking forward to living so close to the main square of the city over Christmas as it is decorated so beautifully, and I am happy to have this opportunity to live in this area for a short time as it’s not where I want to permanently live.  It will be fun for the few months though!  Plus it is RIGH NEXT to a Synagogue, and if you know anything about you know that I love Jewish people and Synagogues!  Every country I go to, I try to visit the Synagogues in the cities I’m in.  So… if you ever want to visit beautiful Romania you should look up Rinda’s Room, by clicking HERE.  Her room is so beautiful and to have the opportunity to stay in a 400 year old home is such a treat!  Plus the price is great, it is usually only $30/night!  Plus if you come between the end of November and the end of February I will be your hostess!  What could be better than that!?!?! 

Anyway, I am still in limbo for housing right now.  I just moved out of the first temporary place I have been staying in, as there were some new girls arriving and I would have had to move out onto the couch in the living room, and I go to sleep earlier than the other 5 girls who are there, and I didn’t want to make it uncomfortable for them.  So I came here to Ioana’s place, she is my colleague in the After School Program’s apartment.  I really love Ioana and am really looking forward to spending the next 20 days with her until Rinda leaves and then I move again to her place.  It is getting a little tiring living out of a suitcase, but I’m trying to stay up beat!  It will be 3 months of living out of a suitcase by the time I get to Rinda’s place, and then I’ll have another 3 months at her place before I can finally fully unpack in my own apartment.  Like I said, sometimes the Lord has totally different plans than we do, but His plans are always the best!  I love following Him on this adventure He is leading me on!

Thank you for your prayers for my driving, I did practice and the Lord brought it all back to me!  I still do not like driving here, it like driving with LA drivers, no patience at all, and everyone is in a hurry when they are in their cars.  Also the little things, like the traffic circle and their stop lights are in a really strange place all the way on the side, I have a hard time seeing them.  Prayerfully I will not have to drive too much if at all.

PRAYER REQUESTS!

Please continue to keep the After School Program in your prayers and my two wonderful colleagues Juliana and Ioana, as well as all 117 of our kids!  My prayer is for their hearts to be changed by the Lord, and for this change to trickle out into their homes and families.  I will start my time in the children’s hospital again on Friday mornings, on the neurological/psychiatric floor with Cami in the play therapy room where I worked before when I lived here.  Please keep Cami and all of the children I will come into contact with in your prayers.  Please pray for the Firm Foundations team I work with, for unity and love and grace and wisdom in all that we do.  And just for the usual stuff, for the Lord to continue to provide for me, for me to have my heart and eyes open to His will, for wisdom for me, and for me to be a good Hostess for Rinda’s Room, I want to meet and exceed what Rinda is expecting from me.  Finally, my tooth doesn’t hurt anymore which is a huge praise, but I would like prayers that eventually I won’t even notice that it is there, in the sense that it will just feel normal, it sort of drives me crazy that I still “notice” it in my mouth as being different or foreign or something.  Hope that makes sense!

I miss you all, thank you for your prayers and support!  I love hearing from you!

  (view the other direction from the After School Program building looking away from the village)

                                                                                           

Grace and Peace,

Rachel (or as my Romanians call me…Rahela)

If you are interested in supporting me and my work in Romania financially, please click HERE.