As month one of the world race comes to an end, I think back on all the wonderful things that God has blessed my team with. When we arrived to the church early in the morning on July 5th, we were welcomed to a two bedroom apartment complete with furnishings that had beds made up with sheets and towels on each. Each room had air conditioning, and we soon discovered that the room I was in had a small private balcony. We had a small kitchen with a microwave,fridge, and sink. We took the time to sleep the morning away, and then explored the local area. We found a small pastry shop across the street where we were able to get some delicious pastries. We then met Alexander, a wonderful Bulgarian man from our host church. He brought us to a local market place where we bought fresh fruit and veggies, along with bread, cheese and nuts. We soon discovered the beach that was within a 10 minute walk. The church we went to on Sundays was a beautiful spirit led church with worship music we would typically sing in my church back home. The problem was I couldn’t remember the words in English! We also were given headphones for translation purposes.
Our first week of ministry was in a gypsy village in this ministry working mostly with children ( see other blog posts for more on this ministry) our driver was named peter. He brought with him his two children, Mira and Peter jr. Both children are a delight and I especially enjoyed Mira. Peter and his wife, Mirianna, invited us over for dinner and to do our laundry for us. There we learned how to say “I am hungry” in Bulgarian. They also invited us to there house later in the week for breakfast and to do more laundry for us. It was such a pleasure getting to know these wonderful people.
our second week we met a couple that are working as international workers from the UK. Their names are Steve and Andrea ( detailed blog coming soon.) site we helped with clearing weeds from the back yard of the church, so children could play. We also did a little bit of street evangelism and children’s ministry. We also met a man named Charles who is from the UK but has a Nigerian heritage. Slovtco and Evie were a couple who helped with translation and we were invited to Evies parents house for a traditional Bulgarian meal. It was delicious but much food.
Our last week in Bulgaria we travelled to a summer camp called New Wave. It is a week long event that the churches of Bulgaria come together to share the love of God. We slept in tents and ate food mostly from the cafe that was located within the gated area we were in. There we were introduced to princess bread. It is a bread that has meat spread on top then grilled. It is named after a Bulgarian princess when she died, the king gave bread and meat paste to all the kingdom as a remembrance to her. We met some wonderful people there and made some more great connections. Our duties while there were to walk the camp for security, helped in the children’s ministry tent and watch the phones in the charging station. We worked in pairs for each duty and were able to get to know each other one on one.
When our time there ended, we took a train ride to the capital of Sophia. We stayed in our first hostel as a team. We took the morning to go on a free tour in which we learned more about the history of Bulgaria and were able to see some wonderful old buildings with great stories. The next day we travelled by bus to Macedonia. The bus we took was more like a van with seats like in a bus. When we stopped at the border we had to take out all our baggage to be checked. By the time they got to me, he didnt bother to check my bag. When we arrived in Skopje, Macedonia we made our way to our second hostel. We rested all day and then went out to dinner at a local Macedonian restaurant. There I was able to try the most delicious bread ever. It was fresh homemade bread with seasoning on it. The next day we checked out of the hostel and made a day of touring the area. We found enormous and numerous statues. We ate lunch at another restaurant were I had even more delicious homemade bread along with some fresh mozzarella cheese! Oh yeah, it was good! We then made our way to the bus station where we waited to load the bus. As we waited we saw some familiar people! They were another team from our squad! We were so excited and they were able to ride the same bus with us! So this ends my first month in Bulgaria. My team mate is working on a video for the month and I will post as soon as it is done.
Thank you for following my journey and please continue to pray for the next ten months on the race. I am still in need of funds so I can continue the great things God is doing in me, so please check our he support me! Link to the left of this post. I will be posting more detailed posts of things God has debentures doing, so keep watching for these posts! 
