February Update

Hello my friends and family! I wanted to write you this month specifically about the Internship/Discipleship Program (FFRDP) that I started and manage here in Romania.  We are 6 months into the program for this year and it is so incredibly amazing to see how God is working in lives of my interns Izzy and Sarah.  They have truly grown so much in their relationship with God and have matured as young women.  Seeing their giving hearts as they work in the hospital with the sick babies and in the orphanage for disabled children is amazing.  They work very hard managing our volunteer apartment and our donations program.  Both of which are a lot of hard, tedious work, that is not as much fun as working with the kids, and yet they do it with a smile on their faces. I wanted to share a bit about what we do in the FFRDP because I am currently accepting applications for the 2016-2017 Program.  The program is for young ladies, between 18 and 27 who are really interested in being stretched and growing in their relationship with the Lord.  It is a time of being able to be involved in ministry about 30 hours a week while having accountability, discipleship and mentorship.  It’s not for everyone, but for the young lady who is ready to really grow in her walk with the Lord it is an amazing opportunity! "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations..." Matthew 28:19 Discipleship is the most important part of the program for me.  Seeing these young ladies grow in their relationship with God is what this year is all about.  This is done in a couple of ways.  Each week we meet for a time of Bible study, prayer and worship.  It is our ‘church’ time together, but it is also our prayer time where we are able to lift up each other and our needs.  We also pray for a different country around the world during this time that the name of Jesus would be known there and that hearts and lives would be transformed.  We usually watch a video from www.prayercast.com to help guide us in what to pray for.  Our Bible studies are watched online and are from teachers such Louie Giglio or Tim Chaddick.  The interns are required to take notes and at the end we discuss what stuck out to us. There is also homework!  The interns are reading through 3 books this year.  The Knowledge of the Holy by AW Tozer, On Being a Servant of God by Warrant W. Wiersbe and The Autobiography of George Muller.  Each week a certain number of chapters are assigned and homework in some form regarding the reading of those chapters is given.  Once a week we meet to go over our homework and discuss what we have read.  The books have really challenged the interns (and myself) to grow so much in our spiritual lives. On top of the book reading, we are on a schedule to read through the Bible in a year.  So each day we have a portion of Bible reading to do and devotional reading.  The idea of the Bible and devotional reading is not to have the “accomplishment” of reading through the Bible in a year, but to get the interns in the habit of daily Bible reading, of daily spending time with the Lord, seeking Him, and having a real relationship with Him.  In order to have a relationship with someone you need to spend time with them and that is the goal of this portion of the program. We also have a Friday Intern Day.  We spend all of Friday meeting together.  We begin our day with “checking the pulse” to see how everyone is doing personally and how things are going in the various programs the girls work in.  We go on to our Romanian lesson that I lead and then break for lunch.  After lunch we begin with a devotional that we take turns leading and a prayer.  This shifts us into the Discipleship and Mentorship part of the day.  During this time we review our homework and book reading, talk about anything that we have been learning in our Bible and devotional reading time during the week and go over any mentorship items that will encourage the girls in becoming mature young women in Christ.   An individual meeting with each intern takes place one time a month to check in on them on a personal level, offer specific mentorship and discipleship for what they are personally going through and to challenge them in how they can grow more.  This is a time of accountability and encouragement that can be offered only in this time of meeting one on one. The next main part of the program is ministry!  The girls spend about 30 hours, Monday - Thursday involved in various ministries with Firm Foundations Romania.  Izzy primarily spends half of her time at the orphanage for disabled children, while Sarah spends half of her time at the hospital with the sick babies.  They both manage our donations program, which helps sort the loads of donations we receive so they can be distributed for our various programs, and they also help manage our Volunteer Apartment.  Once a week they plan a gathering for our short term volunteers, and they do a monthly meeting with our teens!  They help from time to time in our Kids Club and After School Program in the village as well! This allows the girls to see what it is really like to live day to day as a missionary on the misson field.  They are a huge support and help to our ministries here! This month the girls came out to the Village with me where they helped with preparing the snacks and we washed the hands and feet of my kids.  It was a very dirty but fun experience for the kids! Some of the kids were a little shy and didn't want their feet cleaned so we washed their hands and cut their nails.  There was lots of laughing and we were blessed to help love on these kids in such a practical way. Once a month we do have a craft time just to be creative, and we have a monthly Internship Adventure, that allows us to explore our city and other parts of Romania.  I want the girls to have fun in the program and to fall in love more with the culture and people of this beautiful country.  These adventures (including my costs) are budgeted into the Program Fee the girls pay when they are accepted into the program.  We have had a lot of fun in our various adventures.  This month, the girls got all dressed up for Valentine’s Day and went to the Ballet! (I was unfortunately too sick and couldn’t make it.) The program is amazing, and the results are truly from the Lord!  Each month when we meet individually the interns and I just sit there in awe at what God has done in the last month and how much they are growing.  They are getting out what they are putting in and God is blessing their desire to take a year and truly focus on Him. If you know a young lady who might be interested in this program or would be a good fit for it, please forward on this email and the link to our website:  FFR Discipleship Program After School Program Of course I have to tell one quick story about my kids in the Village. This month the kids had a week off as it was the end of their semester. So I wanted to do some fun stuff with them.  We learned about continents which was sort of fun, but the most fun part was COCONUTS!  The kids had never seen a real coconut in person before and we have been talking about it since the beginning of the school year.  So finally the grocery store had some coconuts and what perfect timing with it being their week off and me not having to worry about homework! We began by reading a very short version of The Jungle Book (anytime I can read to them I do!)  I was joined my second class by my Romanian friend Lidia who read the story during this class, it's so nice to have a real Romanian read the story! I brought a coconut into my 2 classes.  I first had them feel in a bag without looking at it to describe what they felt.  I teased by boys that it was the head of a monkey. HA! It was pretty funny.  Then we took it out and looked at it, smelled it, described what we saw and felt.  We shook it so they could heard the water inside and then we poked a hole to drain out the water.  We first tasted the water and described that.  I was so impressed with how fearless most of my kids were to try it.  Even the couple that were timid at first, jumped in once everyone else had tried it.  Then I hammered it open and we described what we saw on the inside, the color and the smell.  I cut it up and everyone tried it.  They loved it!  We colored a picture of a coconut tree and wrote the different things we felt, saw and tasted underneath.  It was such a fun lesson, probably one of the most fun times I have had thus far with my kids.  I love sharing new experiences with them, letting them know there is a world out there of new exciting things they can explore someday! Prayer Please keep my health in your prayer, this has been a rough month for me, I have been pretty sick for at least half the month and am still not 100% better. I am applying for my residency visa this week, so prayers that it all goes smoothly. Prayers for the Lord to bring along the right young lady (ladies) for the Internship/Discipleship Program. My lease for my apartment is up at the end of March so I need to see if I will be staying in this apartment or moving…. Wisdom, as always!  And for everything! Much love, Rachel