Jun. 1, 2007

June 2007 Prayer Letter

Dear Friends,

I think it's been a while since I talked about my specific responsibilities here in Galati as well as what my life looks like day to day. Let me try to give you a short update.

My main responsibilities haven't changed too much in the last year or two. The majority of my time is still spent with seven children in grades five, six, and seven. I help them with homework, work on life skills with them, pray with them, talk with them about all kinds of good stuff, and try to find new ways to make them laugh. That last part isn't too hard since they seem to like me pretty well.

Every morning we staff members meet together for a time of worship, prayer, reading Scripture, and sharing. That's where you can find me from 9 to 10am. The kids I spend time with start showing up between 10 and 10:30 and I'm with them until around 3:30 in the afternoon. During those hours we have various activities together (mostly those I mentioned above) including eating a healthy lunch together.

After the kids leave for school (yes, their school starts in the late afternoon and they don't finish until 8 or 9pm), I have a couple of hours in which to work on other random stuff. Ok, they actually aren't random. I'm just not super organized sometimes, so what I choose to do when ends up feeling sort of random.

I am currently our field's community care facilitator. This means I'm responsible for making sure all the members of our community are being cared for. It doesn't mean I personally care for everyone (there's no way I could do that). It does mean that I should be aware of how everyone is doing and how we are caring for each other. Helping to organize our morning devotion times also falls under this heading.

I'm also our field administrator. For the most part, this means keeping track of a few administrative-type things. I chart the days folks are away from the community whether on vacation or at a conference or whatever. I also do a few administrative-type things around the center, but those are mostly because I live here. Yes, I'm still living at the center.

Actually, that's a good update to include. Since last year, we've been working on adding a second story to about half of the main building at the center. And it's finally almost done. There's a new computer room. That room is done and we've just started using it this past week. There's a large second room that should be done this week. We don't know for sure what that will be used for, but I'm sure we'll figure it out quickly.

The last room is a bedroom for me. It was also finished just a few days ago. For almost two years now I've been sleeping on a mattress on the floor in the art room (mostly because it's the room that stays the warmest in the winter). Each evening I moved my mattress and bedding into the art room and every morning I put it back into storage. Well, having spent the last few nights in my new room I must say being able to leave my bed in one spot is really nice. It will also be nice to have all of my things in one place as until now I've sort of had things stashed all around wherever we could find some extra room.

I guess that about does it for this month. I'm running late (as always) and I need to get this letter turned in. Thank you for your faithful prayers. As I mentioned last month, please keep the children in your hearts as they finish the school year on the 15th of this month. And pray for us all as we begin making plans for a fun-filled summer program.

Love,
Paul

paul.rase@wordmadeflesh.com