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 18th
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 5th 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 8th grade and high school. In the village the children only have school available to them through 8th grade. After they graduate 8th
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 8th 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
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| 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 |
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