Rachel’s Bridge {Be Real with Jessica}
I want to introduce you to my friend, Rachel. Rachel is one of the sweetest people I have ever met, and has such a huge and amazing heart for Jesus. God gave her a huge dream, building a bridge and she had the courage to pursue that dream! Her story is a beautiful testimony to the verse Philippians 4:13
” I can do all this through him who gives me strength.”
She is such an awesome person, and I am so excited to share a bit of her story with you!
Enjoy!
“My name is Rachael Schultz. I am 16 years old. and I attend CS Lewis academy. My family adopted me when I was 11 months old from Vietnam. In the Summer of 2009, my family and I had the opportunity to find my birth parents, so we traveled to Vietnam for a visit.
The project that I started is called Rachel’s Bridge project, and I started it after my visit. The bridge will be built in a tributary, close to the village my parents live in.
The reason why we wanted to raise money for the bridge was because the people I saw who are living in Vietnam are so poor and don’t get paid very much. We felt that building this bridge was the best thing we could do to help the people living there.
Ever since we went to cross, what they called a “bridge”, my family and I just could not forget it. This ‘bridge’ was basically just 2 rods, a rod to walk on and a rod for a handle. Traveling across something like that is hard to forget.
My family couldn’t bring themselves to cross it; it was that scary. Thankfully though, my biological uncle motioned me to get up on his back, making it possible for me to cross it and be on my way to meet my birth parents. Imagining having to cross that ‘bridge’ made us realize that these people could benefit from a safe way to travel across. The way they were crossing now could lead to devastating accident, like the one that happened fairly recently, when a little boy was crossing the ‘bridge’, slipped and drowned. This tragedy just motivated us even more to raise money.
This project means a lot to me because it is going to help. It allows me to make traveling not only safer for my birth parents, but also their whole village. It will allow me to protect these people, and help stop horrible accidents from happening again, like the one with the little boy. God has been such an amazing part of this journey, and my family and I feel blessed that He provided a way for us to build a reliable bridge in less than a year. Our dream now is to send a missionary back to the village so they can learn about God! It is important to me that the people back in Vietnam are safe, and building this bridge helps reassure me of that. This bridge will be for everyone, young and old, making traveling safe for every generation. This bridge will help save so many lives, and I’m very happy that God has helped us raise the money we needed, and that He has sent us the right people to help us reach this goal. “
On the left: Rachel being carried across the monkey bridge by her uncle
On the right: Rachel’s birth mom washing her feet after arriving at the house
Rachel meeting her birth father for the first time
Rachel with her parents and little sister saying final good byes
Rachel and her birth mom and sister saying final good byes
