Month 9 is over wow I cannot believe it. This month was unlike any other. It felt so real, genuine, and free. We didn’t have a host telling us what our schedule looked like. We literally had to seek out ministry opportunities ourselves.
So fun fact about the world race is that you never really know when the next time you will have the opportunity to wash your clothes and usually you rewear the same clothes that you have been carrying for months until…well it REALLY smells. One of the first things I wanted to do was wash my clothes, our air b&b host told us about a laundry mat that had recently opened. We said perfect, let’s go!
Turns out the Bulgarian language is very different from the English alphabet and well we got a little turned around. This very kind man helped us find the right street and thankfully we found it. There was not only a washing machine but also a dryer. This is a luxury on the race. I have only had a washing machine five months and a dryer once on the race. So we were pretty pumped. The man that owned the laundry mat was from France and had been living in Burgas for a month.
I absolutely love French. I took French throughout school and always have thought the language was so beautiful. I thought hmm okay God. I’ll brush up on my French and then he can brush up on his English, we can be friends. I could tell that he was a little lonely coming into a new country and I’m glad we were able to spend so much time with him. We introduced him to country music and some pop artists. He showed us some french artists he enjoyed.
We would meet with him most every day and just talk. He shared his story with us. He opened up about his family, his wives, his children and his life back in France. He shared how he lived such a busy life back in France and that he wanted a change of pace, a slower and more chill lifestyle. He still owns his pizza shops back in France and travels back and forth from Burgas. He also road trips to Africa, and the Middle East whenever he feels like it he just goes.
Also we shared our stories with him. He would make me talk in French, mostly every time, which was quite challenging. Google translate was our friend a lot of the time because English was hard for him at times and same with french and me. Anyways we were able to share how God had brought us on this crazy adventure called the world race and how God wants a relationship with each of us.
He said that he agreed with Christianity as a religion and living by the principles but how he didn’t feel close to God all the time. Which hello that’s what everyone’s relationships with God looks like. They are messy, there are highs and lows. We don’t always feel super close to him. We were able to encourage him and tell him about how it’s not about going to church it’s about spending time with God and following His ways. We don’t ever have to earn God’s love for us, he freely gives it to us through Jesus. It’s crazy, it makes no sense. It’s beautiful.
During the course of our month we got connected with a local church and spent a lot of time with the teenagers. On one of our last days we were able to host a Good Friday service with a few, 20ish, of the people we were able to meet. One of the women told us that she hadn’t worshipped like that in a while and that it was encouraging and refreshing and intimate for her and God. That was so sweet and good to hear. Jesus calls us to not only go and talk to people who don’t know him but also to encourage those that do. This month I think was a good mixture of those things. We went shopping, to lunches, on coffee dates with teenagers from the church. We shared our testimonies and played games with them.
Another cool thing we prayed about and decided to do was bar ministry. The night life in Burgas was bumping. We discovered that a lot of teenagers go out to the bars and smoke hookah. We made friends one night and were invited to their swim meet the next morning. Just sitting and talking with the girls was so fun and real.
When I get back home you best believe I will be meeting up with girls and telling them about Jesus. Whether that’s simply though serving them or coffee/ ice cream dates where we just talk about life whatever that looks like. Ministry can look so many different ways and I really got a taste of that this month.
So we decided to save our rest/ adventure days and take a trip to Greece and let me tell you it has been a dream come true. From growing up and watching Mama Mia and Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, I couldn’t believe that I was actually going. Paros, Greece is incredible. Everywhere I look I am absolutely blown away and I cannot believe that it’s real life and that people actually live here.
