New Team! And a different country!
But first, I arrived in Romania! So far I've successfully fought dozing off to sleep throughout the day in order to go to sleep at normal nighttime hours around here…only a few more minutes until sleep time (gonna make it, gonna make it…). So far this trip could be described using a wide-range of adjectives, but overall it still seems rather dream-like. Or maybe like some sort of rather short-term missions trip? Reality will probably set in once month 4 or 5 rolls around without the end or home drawing near. We'll see.
Anyways, since Training Camp ended, a few members of the squad decided not to go on the July 2 route for one reason or another; as a result, our squad leaders did some praying & re-adjusted some teams accordingly. Hence, I am now on Team Wonder! I know God's got a plan for this team to be together, so I'm very excited to get going!
Check out their blogs to get to know them a bit, and please keep us in your prayers!
Logan Brock, Mallory Martin, Logan Brendel, Savannah Rowland, and Kate Hughes
Also, as a result of team changes, I will no longer be headed to Moldova at the end of the week. Instead, I will be spending Month #1 with my team in Bulgaria! We will be in the village of German, which is a suburb of the capital. The ministry we will partner with is called Mission Possible, which provides programs to train Sunday school teachers, organizes feeding & literacy programs for needy children in Gypsy communities, and engages in a variety of other outreaches as well. Although we are not certain what are specific ministries will be, I'm very excited for this opportunity to be part of God's work in Bulgaria!
Bulgaria
This southern-central European country is the 16th largest in Europe. Its geography is varied with mountain ranges, plains and a coastline along the 
Black Sea. Its economy is growing, but among all the European Union members it ranks lowest in terms of income. Organized crime is an issue as is human trafficking. Bulgaria is mainly a source of trafficking in persons yet also, to a lesser extent, a transit point and destination of trafficking. Here, about half the population claims to be orthodox and over 10% are Muslim. You can bring light and hope to this nation caught between "developed" and "developing."
