Dear friends,
I don’t know how the last year has been for you, but for me it has flown by at break-neck speed! Last summer the Lord blessed me incredibly in so many ways. He sent me once again to Romania, where I was able to see old friends and observe how their ministries had grown. I was also privileged to spend a week with a Romanian family who have started two church plants in two Gypsy villages. The Lord did some amazing things while I was there as Gypsies came to a saving knowledge of Christ.
Not only did God provide for me to go to Romania but he made a way for me to begin my bachelor’s degree in International Missions at Boyce College. I was able to spend a few weeks with extended family before moving to Kentucky, and have been learning lots not only in the classroom but through dorm life, finding a church, the church-panting praxis, and the job God blessed me with on-campus. The story of how God brought me here is amazing, as it is only through His provision and the generosity of others that I’m here.
The head of the Missions department, Dr. Carlton, spent twenty years in Asia as a missionary, and started a huge church planting movement in Cambodia just after the Khmer Rouge officially fell from power. He also helped church planting movements in India and China. He has taught me a lot about using the culture to reach the culture, utilizing anthropological studies to help make one’s ministry more effective, and how to grow healthy church plants. While I’m learning a lot in the classroom, I’ve really wanted an opportunity to actually utilize what I’ve learned while still at college so that it solidifies in my mind for when I go on the mission field full-time.
An exciting opportunity to do this is available for me to take advantage of. Nicu and Silvana Hagiu, the missionaries I visited last summer for a week, have invited me to go back this summer and work with them during the summer with their church plants amongst the Gypsies. It is a mutually beneficial and educational situation. Silvana has some Bible college training, but neither ever planned on being missionaries to the Gypsies, the Lord simply opened the doors two years back and they have been faithful in what He has asked them to do. However, I have learned a lot in the classroom about studying a people group with anthropological and analytical tools which would greatly help the Hagiu’s learn how to use the Gypsy culture to reach them better.
The Romanian and Gypsy cultures are completely different, and the Hagiu’s consider themselves to be ‘foreign missionaries’ as much as I do with the Gypsies. In turn, they teach me what they’ve learned through living amongst the Gypsies for two years and what day-to-day living on the foreign mission field as a family is like.
It is also unique in that the Hagiu’s have established a trusting relationship with these Gypsies, making it easy for me to learn directly from this people group about their values, worldview, lifestyle, language and history. Many of you know that I have done a lot of independent study on Gypsies through books and online resources, but I’ve learned about as much as I can from a book or piece of paper. It is also nearly impossible to learn the Gypsy language – Roma – apart from having a Gypsy tutor as the language is mostly unwritten and not many resources are available to learn it.
One thing I have noticed during my time at Boyce is how aware people are becoming about the needs in Romania. It is exciting to see ministries starting and thriving in what used to be the worst communist country on the European Continent. However, other countries such as Serbia and Bulgaria are becoming overlooked, and the harvest is just as great there with the native people, Gypsies, Hungarians and other minority groups. The Southern Baptist International Mission Board lists these countries as virtually unreached with the Gospel with hardly any Christian resources for the few believers there. When the Lord takes me oversees long-term, I may be going to an unreached place such as Bulgaria where the Gypsies do not immediately trust me, making it that much harder to learn the Roma language and culture. The Hagiu ministry however is an open door for me to from Gypsies about how to reach other Gypsies, and this kind of knowledge will prove invaluable later in life.
I hope to spend a month with the Hagiu’s, starting the last week in May and returning in late June. The cost for the trip will be about $1,700. This will cover my plane tickets to Romania, in-country travel and food, and monetary support I plan to leave with the Hagiu’s. Their ministry is also faith-based, so whatever extra I leave is always a huge blessing.
I need the first $1,000 by April 25 and the other $700 by May 11. I also need lots of prayer support, as I will not only be working hard with the Hagiu’s but after I return home for a few weeks I’ll be going back to Louisville to start work again and to start my sophomore year on August 10.
Many of you have generously partnered in prayer and financial support and once again I thank you enormously for that.
I don’t know how the last year has been for you, but for me it has flown by at break-neck speed! Last summer the Lord blessed me incredibly in so many ways. He sent me once again to Romania, where I was able to see old friends and observe how their ministries had grown. I was also privileged to spend a week with a Romanian family who have started two church plants in two Gypsy villages. The Lord did some amazing things while I was there as Gypsies came to a saving knowledge of Christ.
Not only did God provide for me to go to Romania but he made a way for me to begin my bachelor’s degree in International Missions at Boyce College. I was able to spend a few weeks with extended family before moving to Kentucky, and have been learning lots not only in the classroom but through dorm life, finding a church, the church-panting praxis, and the job God blessed me with on-campus. The story of how God brought me here is amazing, as it is only through His provision and the generosity of others that I’m here.
The head of the Missions department, Dr. Carlton, spent twenty years in Asia as a missionary, and started a huge church planting movement in Cambodia just after the Khmer Rouge officially fell from power. He also helped church planting movements in India and China. He has taught me a lot about using the culture to reach the culture, utilizing anthropological studies to help make one’s ministry more effective, and how to grow healthy church plants. While I’m learning a lot in the classroom, I’ve really wanted an opportunity to actually utilize what I’ve learned while still at college so that it solidifies in my mind for when I go on the mission field full-time.
An exciting opportunity to do this is available for me to take advantage of. Nicu and Silvana Hagiu, the missionaries I visited last summer for a week, have invited me to go back this summer and work with them during the summer with their church plants amongst the Gypsies. It is a mutually beneficial and educational situation. Silvana has some Bible college training, but neither ever planned on being missionaries to the Gypsies, the Lord simply opened the doors two years back and they have been faithful in what He has asked them to do. However, I have learned a lot in the classroom about studying a people group with anthropological and analytical tools which would greatly help the Hagiu’s learn how to use the Gypsy culture to reach them better.
The Romanian and Gypsy cultures are completely different, and the Hagiu’s consider themselves to be ‘foreign missionaries’ as much as I do with the Gypsies. In turn, they teach me what they’ve learned through living amongst the Gypsies for two years and what day-to-day living on the foreign mission field as a family is like.It is also unique in that the Hagiu’s have established a trusting relationship with these Gypsies, making it easy for me to learn directly from this people group about their values, worldview, lifestyle, language and history. Many of you know that I have done a lot of independent study on Gypsies through books and online resources, but I’ve learned about as much as I can from a book or piece of paper. It is also nearly impossible to learn the Gypsy language – Roma – apart from having a Gypsy tutor as the language is mostly unwritten and not many resources are available to learn it.
One thing I have noticed during my time at Boyce is how aware people are becoming about the needs in Romania. It is exciting to see ministries starting and thriving in what used to be the worst communist country on the European Continent. However, other countries such as Serbia and Bulgaria are becoming overlooked, and the harvest is just as great there with the native people, Gypsies, Hungarians and other minority groups. The Southern Baptist International Mission Board lists these countries as virtually unreached with the Gospel with hardly any Christian resources for the few believers there. When the Lord takes me oversees long-term, I may be going to an unreached place such as Bulgaria where the Gypsies do not immediately trust me, making it that much harder to learn the Roma language and culture. The Hagiu ministry however is an open door for me to from Gypsies about how to reach other Gypsies, and this kind of knowledge will prove invaluable later in life.
I hope to spend a month with the Hagiu’s, starting the last week in May and returning in late June. The cost for the trip will be about $1,700. This will cover my plane tickets to Romania, in-country travel and food, and monetary support I plan to leave with the Hagiu’s. Their ministry is also faith-based, so whatever extra I leave is always a huge blessing.
I need the first $1,000 by April 25 and the other $700 by May 11. I also need lots of prayer support, as I will not only be working hard with the Hagiu’s but after I return home for a few weeks I’ll be going back to Louisville to start work again and to start my sophomore year on August 10.
Many of you have generously partnered in prayer and financial support and once again I thank you enormously for that.
If you feel led to financially support me, you can send a tax-deductable check to:
Church at the Gate
6820 W. 26th st
Sioux Falls, SD 57106
Be sure to mark that it’s for me on the memo line.
Will you pray about once again helping me reach out and learn about God’s people in Romania?
God bless and keep you always,
Church at the Gate
6820 W. 26th st
Sioux Falls, SD 57106
Be sure to mark that it’s for me on the memo line.
Will you pray about once again helping me reach out and learn about God’s people in Romania?
God bless and keep you always,
Rachel
