We have arrived! It’s going by so fast, and I love every minute. My group and Ihave made it to Bulgaria, and we are being well taken care of by some amazing spirit filled people. Our hosts: Rueman, Alex, and Deeana are some of the most hospitablewonderful people I have ever met. Rueman is a Pastor first, and a jokester the rest of the time. He is great. Alex is the nicest most loving man person I have ever come across (besides for my Pop’s of course), and he has a wealth of knowledge in the Word, which has become such a blessing to our team. He is also our interpreterduring our stay here, which makes all the difference. Deeana has been making us meals and keeping us alive and healthy in a major way. She is another great gentile soul that makes the most amazing meals, which I am going to have to get the recipesbefore we leave at the end of the month. I also found it interesting that we have watermelon at the end of almost every meal, I think they really like it over here, but I’mallergic, so none of the good stuff for me). There are more people involved in the process, but this isn't a genealogy passage or an introduction blog; it's one about this amazing time my team and I have been having since we have arrived.
I knew God had a plan by putting me in all these manual labor jobs, because manual labor is exactly what it is (and I have really enjoyed it). No electric tools here, I have seen more than one carriage with a donkey towing it, running up the street with its owner and his goods on their way from the store. We are in a beautiful remote town about 120 miles out of Sofia where Rueman's headquarters are stationed. He runs a church, a social outreach facility, a publishing company, and a training facility to teach pastors and Sunday school teachers. We however, are helping convert an old beautiful government building into a refuge for abused and battered children and women. This place is so great! It is huge and already looks amazing. We (The guys I mean) have been helping build a fence around the perimeter, by digging postholes, clearing trees and bushes, and cleaning the pathways to make the place look cleaner. The women have been turning the inside into a great place, by making the kitchen fully functional, and cleaning the place from top to bottom. My team is a great bunch of folks and I have adopted them as my second family. Yesterday we went to an underground church that by no exaggeration was in a 15×20 ft. building that was ridiculously hot, everyone was shoulder to shoulder, and I have to say It was so great. These people accepted us with open arms and were nice enough to invite us back. A few of us went in front and read some scripture and told them a little about our mission, which was a little nerve racking for me a first but after much prayer I got my nerves contained and the Lord gave me the calmness to deliver His message. I am so blessed to be here in Bulgaria and can't believe it still. Every morning I wake up, and I stare out off my balcony at the most beautiful countryside covered in sunflowers and thank God he made all this possible.
(picture of the team walking the streets of Bucharest)
(on our way back from church in Bulgaria, with our American friend kip in the and alex on the right)
