After a restless sleep on the train from Bucharest to Sofia, Bulgaria, we woke up at about 6:30 a.m. and walked out into the station half asleep.
We’d arrived at our destination, but what was to come was still up in the air. We knew SOMEone was going to meet us at the station, but didn’t know who or if this person even spoke English.
Our last day of Romania, my team leader Melanie had googled missionaries in Bulgaria. She only found one person. His name was Al. Kendra, from Proclaim I61, the team we’re working with this month, also had a contact. His name was Al and had a connection to the last person they had worked with in Romania. Turns out it was the same Al.
So they got in touch with him and he was willing to help us out and send the person to the train station to pick all 14 of us up. We were pleasantly surprised to find Kalina, a 17-year-old girl who attends a church in Sofia and speaks English. She kindly accepted being our guide that morning. She took us to a McDonald’s where we were able to get coffee or soda (that’s all we could afford and even that was a stretch!) and Wi-fi!
At some point in the conversation she told us she was going to be in a wedding that day–actually, just three hours later. We were shocked and of course thankful to her for taking time out of a crazy day to help us out.
So she took us to her church, where they introduced us during the welcome portion and gave us all bottled water because they said they knew we were tired.
A couple of worship songs later we heard the wedding march and everyone stood up.
Yup, the wedding was in the middle of the church service and we were there.
In the front.
With our eyes semi-crusty and our clothes and hair a wreck, we witnessed a Bulgarian wedding.
All of this to say that so far everyone we have met has been very giving, selfless and kind. How many American weddings have you been to where the guests up front were the ones who looked homeless? I don’t know if I’d allow that, to be honest.
We still are trying to figure out what our ministry will be here this month, but know that our lodging has been taken care of. We are all sleeping well, have had great food and are staying with families in places where we can be clean and have the things I had missed the most–beds, pillows, sheets and blankets.
God is good.
