| Hello friends and family!
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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
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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.
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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!
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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! |
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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.
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| 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!
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| 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!
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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!
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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
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