March Update!

Hello friends and family! But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed. All we 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. Isaiah 53:5-6 Happy late Easter!  I had planned on getting this letter out this past weekend but I just was not able to.  I hope you all had a blessed Easter celebrating with your loved ones.  As a Christian, I celebrate the resurrection of my Savior Jesus every day!  He is the reason I am so blessed to live the life I live.  His death on the cross and resurrection from the dead, paid the price for my sins, so that I can live a life that abundant in Him! Romania will actually celebrate Easter on May 1st, so those of us "westerners" get 2 Easters! I love it! This past month....as is usual was very busy.  So I’ll try to be brief. After School Program Things are going great with my kids.  We had a moment with one of my favorites, Vasi, where we found out she had been missing school.  To be a part of the Program, the children must go to school.  As we are not a school, but a place to continue the education they are receiving from their school, to help them with homework, and to love on them and share the love of Jesus with them through Bible stories and singing.  So when we found out that Vasi was not going to school we had to find out why.  My Romanian colleague Lidia and I went to Vasi’s school one afternoon with her to talk with her teacher.  We walked with her from our Program to the school. All our kids were SO excited to see us at there school.  While we were there we stopped in and visited with the teacher who has all 6 of my afternoon kids and introduced ourselves (Lidia shares this class with me 2 days a week).  She was so nice!  We are trying to build more bridges with the school. But anyway, back to Vasi, so we met with Vasi’s teacher.  She explained that Vasi has not been coming to school and will probably have to repeat the 2nd grade because of the days she has missed and because she does not participate in class.  She went on to say that Vasi has no friends, she doesn’t talk at all in class, she doesn’t do her classwork and she is always in the back of the class with her head down.  My heart broke!  This is NOT the Vasi I know in my class!  In my class she sits in the front, in the middle, she is always answering ALL the questions, even the ones for that are for my 3rd graders, she does all the work I assign, she is always the one wanting to be at the front writing things on the board and she always has a smile on her face.  Sometimes she talks too much!  I don’t know what it is about this class or teacher that causes Vasi to be so sad and withdrawn.  We spoke with the teacher for probably 20 minutes, letting her know that we are here to support her and what she is teaching the kids and to let her know that we care about Vasi.  We explained a bit about Vasi’s background and how she is the only one of 11 children who goes to school.  How does a 2nd grader decide that she needs to go to school and then make sure that she does it?  The talk went well and I have seen Vasi showing up with more homework lately, so I can only hope this means she is attending school more regularly again.  One of her main problems was her younger siblings kept stealing her papers, notebooks, school books, school supplies and even her backpack and destroying them.  So we also spoke with the Town Hall to see if Vasi could leave her backpack there after school and pick it up each morning.  The reality is, Vasi wouldn’t be able to do homework at home anyway, and this ensures that her items are kept safe.  She does her homework with me every day and has not had anything else turn up destroyed or missing since she began leaving her backpack at the Town Hall. This is the second year Vasi has been with me in my class, I love her, and I have such high hopes for her little life!  Please keep her in your prayers, that she will continue to grow and learn and that she will continue to have a desire to go to school and to learn! Internship This past month we memorized some verses in the Internship that are so fitting for the Easter season. "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” Romans 3:23 “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Romans 6:23 "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:8 "that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved." Romans 10:9 My times of Bible Study and meetings with the Interns are in general highlights of my week.  We are almost done with our reading through On Being A Servant of God by Warren Wiersbe, and our talks have been going great regarding this amazing book.  We are also going through a series online by Tim Chaddick through Romans 12.  It has been so good!  There is just so much "gold" in that chapter of the Bible. Please keep the Internship Program in your prayers as we are going through some changes. I know God has a plan through this all and I'm excited to see how the next 3 months are going to play out! LIFE! Well, I had to make a quick trip out of the country for my Romanian Visa.  So the cheapest and fastest way out, turned out to be Rome, Italy!  I found round trip tickets for under $30!  And Rome is less than a 2 hour flight from me!  I couldn’t leave the country by train for less than 12 hours and $60!  Sarah and Izzy decided to join me.  I actually have been to Rome before and don’t really like the city that much, but the girls really wanted to go there, so I said I would take them.  (I had found tickets for the same price to Bologna, which was going to be my choice).  It was fun to show them around the city and to teach them a bit about the history there.  They went and did all the touristy stuff.  I didn’t have the money for any of that and had done some of it already before, so I would drop them off at the entrances to all of those places, like the Colosseum or the Vatican Museum and then I would go and just wander the city.  Going up to the parks and walking around and just taking pictures and enjoying my alone time.  We went away for a weekend and honestly, I was happy to be back. I now have all of my international paperwork complete!  I have my US Passport, my Dutch Passport and a Romanian Residency for FIVE years!!!!  I no longer need to have a Romanian Visa anymore.  To be able to not worry about having to leave the country ever year at a specific date anymore is wonderful, PLUS this 5 years Residency saves me from having to renew a 1 year visa each year, which saves me about $300-$400 a year, depending on the exchange rate at the time!  Amazing!  God has been so good and so faithful during this time.  I received my Romanian Residency, which I was able to get due to my Dutch Citizenship, almost one year exactly after I began the process to apply for my Dutch Citizenship.  I feel so international!  This past month all of us here have really dealt with bad health.  From the volunteers, to the missionaries, to the kids!  But the sun is starting to shine and spring is trying so hard to break through the winter!  Praying that this change of the seasons brings about better health for all of us! Prayer “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood…” Ephesians 6:12         Please keep me and my ministry here in Romania in your prayers!  The longer I am here the more I realize how much prayer is needed! If you would like more info on how you can support my ministry through prayer, please send me an email!   Thank you so much for all of your prayers and support over this past month.  Your notes of encouragement do not go unnoticed! grace and peace, Rachel