“Shhh, she’s coming!”
“Alright everyone places, places!”
“Shhh, get ready”
“Ohhh…”
“Shhh…”
The door swings open, and light slowly fills the room, confetti glistens as it falls to the floor, and a crowd erupts, “SURPRISE!”.
Yesterday (Saturday, July 23rd) the team and I enjoyed hosting a surprise party for our translator, Sarah. She turned 16 years old. She’s the daughter of Pastor Kustov Yavor, our ministry partner for the month. We’ve been spending lots of time with her this past week, and she’s done so much for us, so when we heard it was her birthday we jumped at the opportunity to throw her a party. We invited a few people from the community, her family and some people employed by the youth club that we’re working with. Steve (from the team) made burgers, (Sarah’s favorite) and we had ice cream cake, chips, and a whole bunch of deserts, squares and treats. The party was a huge success and Sarah enjoyed herself very much.
Now to tell you a little bit about our work in Vidin, Bulgaria this past week:
The team has been staying in an apartment owned by the church, where 2 young men, from and orphanage pastor Yavor was involved in, live. Each morning we meet up to discuss the days goals and pray. We then visit members from the church, or people who have partnered with the church or know someone from the church, who need encouragement/ prayer. This is usually from 9:00am-11:30am. We’ve visited so many incredible people and have been so blessed. Probably more so than the people we’re visiting. We walk to the Church, or “Youth Club” where we cook lunch, and meet with pastor Yavor to talk about our morning, and plan our our afternoon. Between 3:00pm-6:00pm we do outreach. This means visiting orphanages, evangelizing to Gypsy communities, or visiting disabled homes. Then we return to the youth club for dinner and do team evaluation/feed back, and team activities. We walk back to the apartment around 10:30pm.
This week has been really hard, because the team is still discovering each others strengths and weaknesses, trying to communicate to another culture that is quite different from our own, and giving, giving, giving. It’s been a joy and a blessing, but it’s also ben quite taxing. Prayer fro team unity and understanding, unity and strength are needed this week.
Vidin is a small city but is rich in history, with a castle that dates before the first century! It’s quite modern, including a mall with escalators, grocery and clothing stores, and fast food stops. It’s such a blessing to have our first month in a place that has most amenities that the team and I are used to: running water, a kitchen to cook in, sleeping arrangements indoors, hot showers, and electricity/internet. It’s a long way away from what we will be experiencing this year! I can’t wait to see what’s in store!
Thanks for reading!
