Dear Friends and Family,
We hope you had a very happy new year celebration. We rung in the new year with
college friends in North Carolina and ate a delicious cake after the clock struck midnight to
celebrate our one year wedding anniversary.
As I write this, it’s the 12th of January and we’ve been back in Columbus for three weeks
and have less than two weeks left before we head to Denver on the 25th to meet Robert
Caleb Read, our nephew born happy and healthy on January 2nd. Our transition back here
has gone really smoothly, we’ve had little difficulty with reverse culture shock, by the
grace of God, and we had a warm and joyful Christmas with our families.
Our event on January 7th went really well. Thank you to all of you who came out to see
us, support us and hear about the past 8 months in Moldova. We felt really loved and
supported and are grateful for your presence in our lives. This time was a great
encouragement to both John and me as we were reminded, once again, why we live in
Moldova, what God has done in the past year in our lives and how God has orchestrated
everything so perfectly with the children, our program and our team. Hearing John tell the
story of C., the 5th grade boy he tutors, seeing his joy and remembering C.’s progress
was such a confirmation of all of these things. We’re so grateful for what God is doing,
how the kids are growing and healing and what we’re learning in and through our life in
Moldova.
We also want to thank you for the financial commitment you made to our work in Moldova
for the next two calendar years. We are awaiting some more financial commitments and
this time next month should have an update of what we have received and how much we
still need to raise over the next two years, which we will share with you at that time.
On January 15th our team celebrates two years in Moldova, and for the second year in a
row we will not be with them to celebrate. We appreciate your continued prayers for
strength, unity and peace for our community as we head into the 2nd semester of school
with the kids. Pray that our team would have the resources they need in the next couple
of weeks without us at the after-school program because four fewer hands makes
everything a bit more work for them! Please also pray that the rest of our time here
would be both productive and restful and that we will be prepared to make a healthy
transition back to Moldova.
We’ve included a picture from our gathering on the reverse side of this letter. Enjoy!
With love,
Rachel & John