Bulgaria has been a good month so far. We have AMAZING hosts (which I will write blogs about later), our ministry is really neat and different every day, we have a lot of time as a team to spend together before team changes in a week, and more.
Bulgaria is definitely sobering, though. A statistic our host gave us was that 1 in 6 people have mental illness in this city of Vidin. And it is obvious. To be honest, it was a little overwhelming our first few days here because we could see it everywhere.
Also, Bulgaria is still feeling the effects of Communist times. Our host, for part of a ministry day, took us on a tour of Vidin and told us about some of the history on Bulgaria. He says the people still today have a Communist mindset. You can also see the country is a couple decades behind its time (for instance, they still use trains from that period of time).
Although there is religious freedom in Bulgaria, it is definitely harder in some ways. For instance, our host had to fight with the government and took it to court so that his son could be home-schooled. Also, the government wants his church to be registered by the state–our host has stood staunchly and said no. If they do register, the government is able to control them more. Our host has decided to take the harder route and walk by faith.
But the Bulgarian people that we have met have been so sweet. Our fellow believers are like our family already. Our neighbors are so sweet and protective of us; for instance, when we dry our clothes outside in the sun on a rack and an article of clothing falls, they tell us or when Paige goes running a man says “too hot.
