The first thing I heard when I woke up this morning was my squadmate Jami talking about the tap water: “Well, it’s not Evian…”
The last 40 hours came rushing back, including the part where I wasn’t in America anymore.
Today is officially my first day of the World Race.
Anne and I keep looking at each other and saying, “We’re in Bulgaria right now. This is real.” This is real, and until a couple of hours ago it was very stressful.
My team is doing Unsung Heroes this month, which means we will be searching for new ministry contacts for AIM to send future World Race teams. This also means we came into our first month with no place to live and no contacts (and not for lack of trying). We have been scrambling to find cheap lodging and ministry contacts in Pleven, a province in the northern part of Bulgaria, and finding pretty much nothing.
In between internet sessions today, my team and I walked around Sofia. We were stressed about our current lack of living situation, but we were also eating the most heavenly pastries I have ever tasted, so it was hard to be that stressed (The Lord moves in mysterious ways, y’all, and one of them is in Bulgarian pastries).Sofia is old, one of the oldest cities in one of the oldest countries in Europe. It has narrow, winding roads and people selling fresh flowers and old books on street corners. It also has ancient, beautiful churches.
I love old churches, but the oldest they get in Texas is the early 1800’s. The Cathedral Church Seta Nedelya was built in the 10th century A.D. Inside it is dim and cool, lit with jewel-like stained glass windows and prayer candles reflecting off gold-edged portraits of saints. Just walking in felt peaceful. As if the Lord has dwelled there for generations.
Later, my team took a break from Google-searching to pray for guidance about Unsung Heroes. I kept thinking about how stressful this was, to be in a new country with no set place to stay and no guarantee we will find ministries to talk with. Anxiety has been a constant pulse in the last few days, and as I prayed I remembered one of those Christian cliches that no one ever fact-checks: the Bible says “do not fear” 365 times, one for every day of the year.
It seems like once you hear something enough it loses its meaning, which is maybe why I don’t always take the “do not fear” statement at face value. Or I just think its kind of cheesy, since on the grandest scale our sense of time is arbitrary and meaningless and God saying “do not fear” 367 or 359 times would be just as important.
But maybe God is in the cliche like he is in the old churches I love so much. Maybe he works just as powerfully in a Pinterest quote as he does in a Cathedral. He has just dwelled in the cathedral longer, but he is still there. In the silence, in what is not said: the world is bursting at the seams with brokenness, my heart is dry, we have nowhere to stay. But “do not fear.” Say a prayer. Light a candle.
I felt so much peace when I was done praying. We are still looking for a place to stay, but for the first time in a very long time, I believe unconditionally that the Lord will provide for us. We are still jumping out into the unknown, but I believe that God will dwell there, too.
Tomorrow we head to Lovech to start our month. Please pray for us, and if you have any contacts in the Pleven/Lovech area, please send me an email at [email protected].
