I just realized I have never explained what exactly we are doing here in Bulgaria. Well, now is the time.
We arrived here July 16th by two long train rides from Romania followed by a ride across the river on a cargo ferry taking us the the shores of Bulgaria. After an exhausting day of travel with 80 lbs of gear (50 for most, but I – rather mother – like to pack heavy) we finally set all our stuff down and waited under a sketchy street light right outside the ferry customs. A station wagon speed to a stop (stopping all of our hearts as well) as a long haird man with a beard stepped out and asked, "Jill?". To our relief it was our contact here in Vidin, Bulgaria.
We loaded our gear into two station wagons and drove 10 minutes before getting to the apartment where we were to stay. We slept and woke the next morning to go to church – a joint service with another chruch in Vidin because their pastor was gone.
In summary, this is how the past couple of weeks have looked for our ministry:
Week 1
In the a.m. we meet with members of the church – encouraging them in faith, sharing stories, and praying for them. At noon we meet with pastor Yavor for briefing, then in the afternoon went to villages surrounding Vidin to evangelize and visit orphanages.
Day 1: Marianka and her mother run a small bookshop in a run down shopping strip. They are having a hard time financially with it and think about shutting it down. They sell childrens games, books, and Christian kid's books. We saw Max Lucado and Franklin books in Bulgarian. Marianka has a daughter with newborn baby. The daughter is 19 and newly married.
In the afternoon we went to a local village – Torlachne. Our team split up in the small village that resembled more of a scrap yard than neighborhood. This is where I meet my old grandpa-like atheist artist friend. We talked to him for 2-3 hours where he shared his views on Nature being divine, his dream to visit Multa where his daughter lives, drawings of his children, grandchildren, father (the greatest man who ever lived in his words), various Bulgarian politicians, artists, poets, and of course famous communist leaders. He also showed us the book he'd written about the history of Vidin. The man had a sarcastic and cynical sense of humor. Needless to say, I loved it. After we came across a family of believers who lived in an open concrete shell (it had no glass windows or doors, just openings in the walls). The family was not doing well – unemployed. Everyone seemed to be unclean and flies swarmed around the house. We prayed for prosperity and health over the house.
Day 2: Silvia and Valeri live in a well furnished apartment with their 3 kids. During our visit Silvia told us how its been financially hard due to her husband being recently unemployed. The family has a turtle that has no name.
After briefing, Pastor Yavor took us around the city showing us all the sights as well as a little of its history. Bulgaria used to be under Soviet authority until the end of the 1980's. The atmosphere of post communistic Bulgaria hasn't changed much – the learned helplessness persists in the city. We ended the day with a potluck dinner from the church. Bulgarians know how to cook.
Day 3: Madlen is a single educated middle age woman who had a hard time chasing a career after becoming a believer. Recently she's been at home taking care of her very ill and dieing mother. Its been very hard on her – especially since her mother has been so sick for so long – she could pass away any day. We had a breakfast with Madlen in a park (some sort of egg pastry with delicious cheesy bread) where she asked us all about our dreams. She took a deep interest in us and from then on started coming to briefings just to be with us.
We loaded into a car and drove to a nearby village (Bekovets). It was a gypsy village that seemed out in the country – horse and buggy outnumbered cars on the street and goats are tied to trees near the street. We stopped and prayed over two old women sitting on a bench. Pastor Yavor was very persistant on salvation for one of the women. We then walked down the street and stopped at a house with an old couple living with their 2 grown daughters. They invited us to sit inside their fence – which served as a patio as well as kitchen (they were making bean soup). Here is where we learned how believers witness to gypsies – they are very blunt and seemingly forceful. This is what we witnessed as Pastor Yavor had a lively conversation with the old man about what he thought of Jesus. The reason, Pastor Yavor explained later, was that the gypsy people get caught up in a "poverty mindset" that puts them in an alternate reality. The reason for the abruptness is to make the gypsies face reality – get them out of their egocentric defeatist mindset.
marieta, kalin, poli – prego, mimi john – kid disabled orphanage free will talk
Day 4 – The morning was spent having coffee and cookies (with the always present Bulgarian coke) at the villa (I call it a villa because it was a beautiful hidden harden complete with grape vine shade) behind a fence off a busy street in Vidin. The villa belonged to Marieta who told us the story of how when she and her husband were younger and having a hard time finding a place to live, the villa was gifted to them by the old woman they were looking after (upon her death). Since then she has been living there with her two daughters – Rosie and Poli. Poli and her husband Kalin have a 5 year old son, John, and are expecting another very soon. Kalin plays a mean guitar in the church band (and looks the part with darkly shaded glasses, a bald head and a long gotee). We ate some deliciously home grown apples to compliment the coffe/coke as we spoke about why we came on the race.
In the afternoon we visited the disabled orphanage for the first time. This was the first time I had ever experienced mentally disabled children at such a low functioning level. There is another blog coming about my experience, but to sum up, the children are not in very good shape – they are not bathed as frequently as they should be and are not operating at the functionability like they could – all products of the staff who needs to be updated on education of special needs children (this is the opinion of my sister Kelly who is trained and has much experience in working with people with special needs).
Day 5
We walked quite a ways to the top level apartment of Tetska – Acho's mother. The first thing we noticed when entering her victorianistic living room were the two life size dolls each sitting in their own chairs. Tetska took a liking to Blake right away – telling him how adorable and cute he was. Several times during the conversation, she called Blake "little chicken" (a term of endearment in Bulgaria) and "sunshine". Tetska shared with us her tragic love story and how her first marriage ended. She still suffers from her first born daughter's passing.
After lunch, the team followed Pastor Yavor as we walked to an orphanage called Mother Child Orphanage for little tikes. We had an absolute blast playing with a parachute as Pastor Yavor played "Da Da Da" in the background. At one point, the little ones over ran me and tore the leg off of a poor bird puppet. I left with a tug on the ole heart knowing these kids didn't have families.
Day 6 – Sabbath. Pretty uneventful and lazy day. Blake and I went with Bisser (still not sure exactly how to say his name) to swim in the lake. It was disgusting. Floating nasty stuff everywhere. But it was an experience nonetheless.
Day 7 – Uneventful Church service
