This month we are in Dobromirka, Bulgaria! Dobromirka means “good peace” and man have we felt the peace this month! This month we are partnering with mission possible, which is an international mission organization. The organization has a conference/retreat center here in Dobromirka. Bulgarian churches, pastors, and leaders can use the retreat center to come stay and host a conference or a camp here. They also have church youth camps that use the facility in the summers.
While we are here, we are serving alongside our hosts, Emy and Val, preparing the building and retreat grounds for the conferences that they will have throughout the month. There has been one conference since we arrived and there will be another at the end of the month. During the conference we serve the guests by preparing the meals and cleaning.
This month has been so restful, rejuvenating, and truly a breath of fresh air so far! Emy and Val, our Bulgarian parents are absolutely wonderful. They have taken us in with open arms, loved us so well, and given us so many wonderful opportunities… like milking a cow and riding in the back of a horse drawn carriage!!
About the cow milking: At the beginning of the month Emy and Val told us they get fresh cow milk to drink, I then proceeded to ask if we could go milk the cow. They made our dreams come true by taking us to Babadonka’s house, the local milk lady. Babadonka, lives up the road, with her two cows, Ana and Pena. We have had the opportunity to visit Babadonka a few times, helping her milk her cows, picking her home grown strawberries, and sitting around the table as we listen to her share a life time of stories. Babadonka has become a special part of our time here in Dobromirka. A few years ago her husband passed away, which has left her alone, devoting most of her time to taking care of her cows. She feels there is not much left for her here, but we have reminded her that there is so much left for her on Earth. We have offered to pray for her every time we have gone to her house, but she consistently says no. Please pray that Babadonka would be open to receive prayer before we leave Bulgaria and that the Holy Spirit would move through that.
I made a short little video below of one of our days here in Dobromirka. We helped plant grass and clean the bedrooms before the conference started. We ended our day in Veliko Tarnovo, a larger town about twenty minutes away, for dinner and some ice cream!
Hope you enjoy!! 🙂
Prayer Requests: Pray that our service here would glorify the Lord, pray for Emy and Val, our hosts, that we would be able to best serve and honor them, pray for Babadonka, that she would have a real encounter with the Holy Spirit before we leave, pray that our eyes would be open to anyone else in Dobromirka that the Lord wants us to have an encounter with, pray for our team as we approach the end of this month and will have team changes again, and pray for our squad as we approach the last three months in Africa.
