Enter: month 8!
😀
Before I tell you a little about ministry this month in BULGARIA, let me recap last month for you.
Our month 7 was been an ATL month (ATL = Ask The Lord), and we spent the whole month in Thessaloniki, Greece. So we went into Greece without a place to stay, a scheduled ministry, or any idea of what we would be doing for the entire month.
Each morning we met together for team time, to check in with each other on what the Lord was teaching us, how we were doing on multiple fronts (emotionally, physically, spiritually, etc.), and things we needed to pray about with the team. We also would spend time in prayer asking the Lord what He wanted us to do each day.
At the beginning of the month, a lot of ideas for outreach came out of asking the Lord what we should do. We then planned some of those outreaches throughout the week, leaving several hours free per day to build relationships with people in places we felt the Lord drawing us to invest in.
Some of the team outreaches we got the chance to do in Thessaloniki were:
-handing out flowers to women in the city with a note attached to the flower saying: “This flower is from Jesus. He sees you and He loves you.”
-handing out sandwiches to homeless people
-handing out free waters on a hot day
-worship in the main city square
-prayer walks (and prayer “sits” as we prayed for the people sitting around us in coffee shops) through the city
-a few occasions of holding up blank signs in the city square with the space on a poster board for people to write to answer those questions. We asked: “What is one thing you are grateful for today?” and “What is one word that describes your life right now?”
As far as individual ministry time, on the Race we call this finding a “one,” or someone we intentionally seek out and spend time with. It is such a practical way to make friendships and bear witness to Jesus as we get to know a person’s story and are able to share ours as well.
In this more flexible ministry time, a few of my teammates felt a pull to a certain coffee shop, I and another teammate felt a pull toward another coffee shop, and some other teammates felt drawn to an equestrian center, another coffee shop (think we like our coffee?), and various places we kept going consistently. At the end of the month, we compiled a list of names of the people we were able to interact with and some whom we were able to build deeper friendships with:
-Alex
-Vida [stay tuned for an AMAZING story in an upcoming blog of what the Lord did in Vida’s life AND in ours while we were in Thessaloniki!!! :D]
-Konstantina
-Christos
-Giannis
-Gabriel
-Sofia
-Elanora
-Katerina
-Stef
-Vangelis
-Yoanna
-Niki
-George #1, George #2, George #3
-Frosida
-Jimmy
-Viki
-Mia
-Costas
-Elasbena
-Kelly
-Natasha
-Alin
-a refugee family of 5 whom we couldn’t get the names of because they didn’t speak English
This list is LONG!
Because we had the free time during this ATL month, we were able to love so many people and had the time to better get to know a select few whom the Lord was pursuing! Often times during last month, we felt like we weren’t “doing” many BIG things in the way of ministry or that we weren’t DOING enough. But the Lord knew better and wanted to teach us a lot in that uncertainty. We met all these amazing people, people with different stories and backgrounds and hopes and dreams; hopefully we showed them what it means to have hope in Christ, to glorify Him and live for something much more than ourselves. We also had the time to BE with the Lord a lot more and let Him help us work through a lot of things as individuals, which was SUCH a gift, because ministry can be very busy at times. We also got the time to meet all these people and walk in more of what it means to live with the intent to SEE people and look beyond our own agendas of the day; we were uncomfortable and pressed to rely upon hearing the Lord’s voice more, learning to trust that we are His sheep and do hear from Him.
In hindsight, there were definitely tough and “shambley” moments last month, but I learned SO much from the Lord and grew in my understanding of BEING with Him and engaging with individuals for their sake of their truest joy in knowing Christ.
THIS MONTH: Month 8
City and country: Pomorie, Bulgaria
(It is SO beautiful here on the Black Sea!!)
Ministry: working with “Peace of God Church,” Pastor Angel and our host Daniela
Dates we’re here: July 30 – August 23
PRAYER:
-We’re doing some more ATL ministry this month with more free time we have, so pray we are bold in asking the Lord to lead us and that we walk in fearless obedience even if it’s uncomfortable.
-We’ll be working with the AWESOME youth group of the church and helping out at a youth camp they’re going to, so pray we can invest in them well and encourage them in their faith! They are so kind and interested in us and our stories and walks with the Lord. Pray they are strengthened to be bold in their faith here and bear witness to Jesus as they treasure Him more and more.
-Pray as we’re working with the church and sharing testimonies/messages that the congregations are also built up in their faith in hearing about all God has done and orchestrated during our time in these nations we’ve been to. Pray they are encouraged to seek to know God more and find their sole joy and satisfaction in Him and are then living their whole lives to honor, love, and glorify Him!
Thank you for reading my always-long blog posts and for caring to be invested in what’s happening in me and in my team through the work of the Lord’s gracious hands! We couldn’t do this without your prayers and encouragement!!
😀
