August Update Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth; Break forth in song, rejoice, and sing praises. - Psalm 98:4 What a month August has been!  Each month I think “my life cannot possibly get any busier” and then it does! But God has been faithful to provide me the energy I need to complete the work that is placed in front of me.  I am always amazed and truly humbled at what He is accomplishing here in Brasov and that I am able to be a part of this work. The first week of August we had a wonderful team of 6 ladies from Kingwood Bible Church in Texas, who came out and hosted a VBS for our 1st-4th graders from the After School Program I work at in the village. It was hot, and there were a lot of kids, but these ladies put together a great program!  The kids loved the Bible stories, singing, crafts and games.  It was a fun week.  During their off time a few of the ladies also helped me as I had only 10 days in August to finish getting the Intern Apartment ready for the arrival of my interns.  They helped me with last minute cleaning and sewing some curtains and pillow cases from old duvet covers we had donated.  One of the ladies even bought some really pretty fabric for us to use as an accent for pillows and part of the curtains!  What a blessing it was!

The curtains with the beautiful accent fabric!

The next week I spent every single moment for almost 10 hours a day and more getting ready for the arrival of Firm Foundations Romania’s first set of Interns!  There was a lot to be done in the apartment and paperwork wise.  I had so much fun with last minute touches to brighten the apartment and make it feel like “home” for our brave ladies.

“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.” Jeremiah 29:11 On Monday, August 10th, my interns, Izzy from Michigan and Sarah from England, arrived! They were so sweet with how excited they were with everything in the apartment.  Their first week was an orientation week and it was filled with information about Firm Foundations Romania and their new “home” city of Brasov!  If you would like to read my FFR blog post about their first week, please click HERE.

Our second week together we all went to the village where the After School Program is and had a week of painting!  The building we use is wonderful, but the walls had become very damaged and the rooms needed some repair, a fresh coat of paint and some new life poured into them.  It was great for team building and such a blessing to us to have their help with the hard work!  If you would like to contribute towards the cost of the paint and supplies we bought you can go to our Gofundme page by clicking HERE.

We have had an amazing first three weeks together. Each week I lead the girls in Romanian language and cultural training, Biblical discipleship, prayer for each other and a different country each week, a time of worship, and Bible Study.  The girls are given homework assignments that we go through together, we have monthly “intern adventures” to areas around Brasov and Romania, and I have monthly individual meetings with the girls.  What an adventure it is to pour into their lives, to watch them be challenged and grow in their relationship with the Lord and for me to be so blessed along the way! It is a lot of work and preparation time each week, but I am so excited for what the Lord has in store for these beautiful ladies, and I would not want to trade this time in my life for anything.

“Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it.” Proverbs 22:6 I have also been preparing for the After School Program which starts back up on Monday, August 31st.  Getting my classroom ready and preparing paperwork.

I would like to start a new program for our kids in the After School Program where we receive postcards from around the world, to begin to make them dream about life outside of their village, and to teach them geography!  I have a nice spot on my wall next to a giant map where I would like to post these post cards.  If you would like to send my kids a post card you can write them a note and send it to: Rachel Titiriga Firm Foundations Romania After School Program Strada Dealul De Jos 18A Brasov 500080 ROMANIA This is also my personal updated mailing address, I didn’t move, but this is a more trustworthy address for me to collect my mail. We had a great meeting this past Friday with the team. Praying together to lift up the new school year, the kids, the village and families there, the local government and schools we work with and to pray for each other as a team. Our meeting was a great one, just talking about our vision for the new school year and how, with the Lord’s help we can accomplish it.  We know that what we do with these children goes so far beyond education, it has the possibility of having long lasting and eternal benefits, as we share with them love and the good news of Jesus Christ!

“Moreover it is required in stewards that one be found faithful” – 1 Corinthians 4:2 Finally this past week, I took the advice of my leadership here and took a few days away in Sibiu, a city about 3 hours from where I live.  I was once again blessed to find an apartment to rent for the time for under $20 a day!  I did spend some time wandering the city which was lovely, but also really used the time to spend in prayer and listening to some great Bible studies.  I wanted to really seek the Lord for His wisdom which I know I so desperately need to lead the Internship and After School Programs this year. The theme the Lord kept bringing to me during my time in Sibiu was “stewardship”.  It was all about being a good and faithful steward of my time, gifts and abilities, and the Gospel and grace of God.  Living a life that is purposeful in what I do, intentional in what I say, and a good steward of what I have been given by God. I was thankful for my leadership encouraging me to take the time to do this.  It was much needed for my mental, spiritual and physical health, especially before the new school year begins!

“Every Christian at home should have some missionaries in the field for whom he is praying definitely, constantly, persistently, and intensely. The man or woman at home who prays often has as much to do with the effectiveness of the missionary on the field, and consequently with the results of his labors, as the missionary himself.”
-RA Torrey

Prayer Requests:

• To be healthy
• My Romanian language (I so want to be fluent!)
• Wisdom for managing the Internship and After School Programs
• My interns, Sarah and Izzy
• The staff and volunteers in the After School Program, Steffi, Lidia, Juliana and Silvana
• As always that the Lord would continue to provide for my needs

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

One MONTH!!!

"Behold, I will do a new thing,
Now it shall spring forth;
Shall you not know it?
I will even make a road in the wilderness
And rivers in the desert."
Isaiah 43:19

Well I absolutely cannot believe it.  I fly out for Romania one month from today!

This has really been a completely different journey than the last time I was preparing to move to Romania.  Maybe it is because I have less time to prepare, or maybe it is just because my life is in such a different spot than where I was in 2007.  Along with the excitement of moving back to a place I love, comes a lot more sadness than what I was expecting.  Sadness for leaving behind my job at Casa Teresa and the women there that I love, and sadness for saying good bye to friends and family out here.  I find so much comfort in knowing that I am going where the Lord is sending me!  And that I am blessed to be going to a country that I love.

I feel like I am stepping out in faith this time much more than I ever have before.  It has been an interesting road that the Lord is leading me down.  I constantly am reminded of the devotional that the Lord gave me in the beginning when He confirmed that it was His will for me to move… 

“We say – ‘If I really could believe!’
The point is – If I really will believe…
If we really believed that God meant what He said –
what should we be like!
Dare I really let God be to me
all that He says He will be?”
(Oswald Chambers)

With every doubt or feeling of uncertainty, I keep asking myself, “do I really believe that God is who He says He is?”  Isn’t that the ultimate bottom line of a life lived in faith?

I know my journey of faith will never end, and I am thankful for all that the Lord has allowed me to go through to strengthen my faith in Him.  Each instance has been an opportunity for Him to show Himself faithful.

Please keep me in your prayers as I am on countdown now for so many things, and yet there is so much to be done.  I only have 11 working days left at Casa.  I have a ton of doctor and dentist appointments left.  I also have my packing left and I am still in the process of looking for an apartment.  I know everything will fall into place, but I still want to be sure to include the Lord in all that I am doing.

Please also keep my parents in your prayers, as I know that it is not easy on them to have me moving to the other side of the world.

I hope to talk to 2 of my colleagues for the After School Program via Skype sometime before I leave.  Their names are Juliana and Carmen, please keep these ladies in your prayers as well.  I have not met either of them before, so please pray that the Lord will bless our working relationship and that He will use us to make a huge impact in the lives of the kids we will be working with!

If you are interested in financially supporting me with a one-time donation or on a monthly basis you can do so by clicking HERE for more information.  There are currently 4 different ways you can do so!

Also I have printed up some little Missionary Cards to remind you to pray for me, they are business card size.  If you would like one, please email me your mailing address and I will be more than happy to send you one!

Thank you all for your prayers and support and encouragement!  I am so excited to see what all the Lord will be doing in the weeks and months to come!

Grace and peace,
Rachel