Dear Friends and Family,
I hope you are joining me in happily welcoming autumn this year. It is such a beautiful time of year, full of harvest’s bounty, cool weather, football games – if you live in America – and homemade pots of (vegetarian!) chili. We are enjoying the transition from 90 degree weather, slowly through the 80’s and praying for quite a bit of 70 and 60 degree weather – here’s hoping! It’s 86 degrees as I write this, and it’s mid-September…
John and I have enjoyed taking turns writing you each month, and as I look back at all of the communication, I want to make sure we provide a thorough update. In my June letter I mentioned that I am in a time of discernment about whether or not I will join staff with Word Made Flesh as I am currently serving in an internship role. There are two times a year that one can be commissioned to join WMF staff, one being in October and the other in May. To apply for the October commissioning, my application would have been due July 31st, just three and a half months after arriving in Moldova. I felt this was too soon to make a three-year commitment to serving with WMF here in Chişinău. I had just made the decision to commit my life to John and the next year and a half of my life to living in Chişinău, and that just seemed like enough for the time being. But in all seriousness, we did pray, talk with our counselor, our wise parents and friends, and our lovely support staff with WMF in the States, and we decided that it would be best to extend my internship to allow for more time of discernment. My time has been FULL, with less praying and reflecting that I would have liked and a lot more of just getting done what needs to be done and adjusting to my brand new life. After my experiences this past spring and summer, I have been purposeful to create a fall schedule with more room for this pursuit.
With all of that being said, I am still in a time of discernment: reading, learning language and culture, and getting used to my life here. My six-month internship has been extended to ten months. I will then make the decision about whether or not I will go on staff, which would require me to make a three-year commitment this coming spring. Right now John is committed here through January of 2013, and my decision to come on staff would add an additional two and a half years to our stay, or more if we decide. All of this “me” and “he” decision-making clearly includes each other in the process, but I’m just trying to make it clear who has and has not committed to what… Even if we decide that I will not go on staff this coming spring, John and I will complete his January 2013 commitment. We covet your prayers as we pursue where God is calling us.
Another decision we made is to stay on this side of the Atlantic for our first Christmas as a married couple, although we do hope to visit friends in a somewhat closer country. We are also planning our first trip back to the States since our arrival in April for this coming spring to meet and welcome our first nephew into to the family who will arrive in January. John’s sister Mary and her husband Matt are expecting; we appreciate your prayers for them. We look forward to this time to return to our home culture and to soak up our family and friends in and around the Columbus area. This will not be a time of traveling for us, so let us know if you want to visit and we’ll alert our mothers of the coming house guests!
All our love,
Rachel + John
Some updates from La VIA:
- We organized two weeks of camp for children from the boarding school during the month of August. We enjoyed spending intentional time with them which included bowling, Capture the Flag and the film Freedom Writers.
- The first day of school in Moldova was September 1. We attended the opening day ceremony at the boarding school and loved seeing the kids dressed in their best.
- We officially began our after-school program on Monday, September 5. We currently have 30 children enrolled from 3rd to 6th grade and are hoping to begin working with the 1st grade class as well.
- Something new this year is that we will begin pulling children who are behind in reading and writing out of their morning classes in order to help get them caught up on basic alphabet and phonetic skills.
- We had our first local board of directors meeting on Tuesday, September 13. I (John) was accepted as a member on the board along with Adriana and two other members, and the rest of our staff were accepted as members (with voting privileges) into our association.
- We currently have two Moldovan interns volunteering with us on a regular basis. They are both interested in coming on staff with us as early as January 2012. For this, we need to begin raising funds for their salaries. If you are interested in finding out more about how you can support them, please contact me by email (john.koon@wordmadeflesh.org). One of them is especially interested in working with us because she also grew up in an institution and wants to serve Jesus among children who come from a similar background.
- Our fall servant team arrived on September 13, but this time around has only one member. Kyle is from California and will be with us until late December. Please pray for his time with us as he learns language and culture, volunteers at the after-school program and discerns a potential future involvement in cross-cultural work.