I am still trying to wrap my mind around how we could possibly already be in our 8th month and how quickly the Race is going by. Europe has been full of surprises and different ministry opportunities than Asia and Bulgaria has continued that trend.
We are partnered with another team this month (Team Uplift) making us a total of 12 women doing life and ministry together. We were a bit confused at first what our role was to be as our host handed us off to the husband and wife who managed this beautiful property we’re living at and said they’re in charge. After a day of super flexibility of our schedule and responsibilities we’ve come to the conclusion that we’re the “serve-team”, the behind the scenes people, at a children’s camp.
We help cook all three meals; we clean the 4 story home and the kitchen; and basically are available to do whatever, whenever in order to support and make the lives of the staff easier. Being at a children’s camp we also get to take advantage of some really awesome things such as: hanging our hammocks up in shady trees for afternoon naps and of course quiet time with God; having the archery coach show us how to use a bow and then encourage us to throw knives at the same target (I hit the bullseye!); playing volleyball with the kids; making friends with people of all different ages; and living in a super awesome treehouse type loft on the top floor of the house (we’re definitely not roughing it this month)!
Bulgaria was a tough start for our team. Our bus ride from Greece was not pleasant; we had a bunch of cranky, aggressive, screaming old women on the 11 hour ride to deal with. Then once we got into Bulgaria it seemed that was just the natural way about the people in the country. We we’re being yelled at for things we didn’t understand and seemed to somehow offend or annoy anyone we spoke to.
Thankfully everyone here at the camp is so sweet and happy to have our help. It’s unbelievable that they manage to do all this work on their own when teams are not here, bless their souls! But it is hard not to notice that we’re still getting yelled at for things we didn’t know we we’re doing wrong. Mikayla (on team Uplift, who was also on my first team Ahava Chara) and I spent an hour and a half peeling and chopping tomatoes. Yes, you read that correctly peeling tomatoes. Not the easy put them near steam or in boiling water and lift the skin off easily way; no, old fashion knife to skin good luck feeling your fingers after peeling 10 kilos of tomatoes way. To say our hands were pruney would be an understatement. It was funny though with the language barrier most things we did we kind of just had to assume it was right and go with it, which was almost immediately followed up with a “No, No, No” and a demonstration of the proper previously not explained way to do the task we were assigned. Like when we were handed a basket of onions and a knife with no further directions we thought we were to chop them. Nope! We were actually to peel them and soak them in water before putting them in the food processor … wouldn’t you have gotten all of that from being handed a basket of onions and a knife?
Overall, it was fun getting to be in the kitchen with them listening to them chat and watching them in their element. There were brief moments of feeling accomplished when one of the women would look over at us to see how we were doing and say “Da” (yes). As crazy as everything going on the kitchen was it was nolstogic for me bringing back beautiful memories of cooking with my Nona, especially since we were making meatballs and tomato sauce from scratch.
I’m looking forward to the unknowns of this month and have big hopes for how the Lord plans to show up. God has his hand on this ministry in a big way and there’s a reason He placed double the reinforcement here on His behalf with Team Warriors and Team Uplift.
