As the sun sets on another beautiful day in Bulgaria, the team heads back to the youth centre to catch some dinner, and pack er' in for the night. We had just returned from visiting three gypsy churches in Sofia (Bulgaria's capitol) about 5 hours away. Unfortunately this 5 hour trip took more like 7 hours to complete, but it was so worth it! We were constantly fed enormous portions of food, laughing, dancing, worshiping, praying and playing many games to pass the time. 
The journey was planned to take four days, one day for travel and three days at separate gypsy churches. The first night we arrived in one of the largest gypsy neighborhoods in Sofia, home to 60,000 gypsies. We spoke in a church of about 80 people, and prayed for many. When the service concluded, we were told to walk as a group, closely together, as we were whisked into the dark night, venturing into a maze of homes and alleyways. We were then stuffed with so much food; “shopska salada” which is tomatoes and cucumbers with cheese, bread, cookies, pop and sausages. We were then divided up to go to our contacts where we would sleep for the night.The men walked for about 10 minutes and we came to the house where we would stay, but before we could sleep, another feast was put in front of us, and we were expected to eat again! Let's just say I thought I was going to BLOW UP!
After waking up the next morning after having one of the most uncomfortable sleeps ever and having food coma, where we could hardly function, we walked though the village to pray over people from the church. We also had one of the most interesting breakfasts I've ever had. A sour cream/milk/yogurt beverage of sorts. We then packed up our things and headed out to our second gypsy church about 45 mins away. 
We arrived in a new city, that had many sites to see. Here, we visited a museum, old castle ruins, went for icecream, and tried tripe soup… (a soup made of cow stomach and who knows what else…)That night was spent in a much smaller church, and we were fed more of the same thing, the service was great, and I can honestly say that this was one of the most spirit led times on the race so far! I’ve never had such impulse to pray for people, and I really didn’t know what I was going to say when I was asked to pray for people but words just seemed to flow: so cool! We spent the night as a group in an apartment of one of the members from the church. 
The next morning we drove back to the first gypsy village and spoke in a different church. This church was much better off with very wealthy members. We were warned before we got there to be aware of the emotions and attitudes in the church. Apparently many of the wealthier Gypsies attended this church not out of a longing for Christ, but out of duty. If you were a Gypsy and had wealth, it was easily assumed by everyone that you attained your wealth by un-honest means, involved in “dirty work” as it was described to me. And unfortunately, the assumptions were often all too true. This night was special, because as a team, we spoke real, meaningful, strong messages that weren’t surface level. We tried to go deeper, and challenged while encouraging the churches we visited with messages of truth, and love.
After church we taught children's songs to our hosts, like the hokey pokey, baby shark, boom chick-a-boom, and red wagon. They loved it, and thought it was quite hilarious. We went to bed once again with full bellies of, you guessed it, “shopska salada” and awoke the next morning with an agenda: Macdonalds. Our ministry contacts wanted to treat us to something american, and I enjoyed a McChicken burger, a KitKat Mcflurry, and french-fries for breakfast… I mean why not indulge? I had been eating the same thing all week!
All three churches had strict rules on head coverings, worship, and not allowing women to preach. But they were all very embracing of us as Westerners and were fairly inquisitive of what we had to offer them. 
So until next time Sofia, chow for now.
Thanks for reading.
