I was hesitant to use today for this blog post, because it wasn’t a normal day on the World Race–but mostly because there is no normal day on the World Race. Instead I’ll just leave you with a disclaimer: this is not every day. Just today. A day the Lord made and walked with us through. A day of wonder and gratitude and so much more…
6:45 a.m. My alarm went off, and I rolled over onto my bed (couch)
6:55 a.m. I reluctantly parted ways with my bed and blankets to get dressed
7:10 a.m. Shelby, Amy and I left for our run. It was much colder than I expected, and my limited wardrobe made me feel a bit unprepared. We ran across an overpass toward where we did Roma kids’ ministry yesterday. Destination: the Shell gas station with cute looking coffee ads. We saw the sun rise first over the train tracks and then over the river.
7:40 a.m. Okay, yeah we didn’t run far, but the incline KILLED. And Shelby and Amy rocked it. After a quick detour to explore what was up some stairs (an unidentified sports field…?), I got a croissant and a coffee at Shell and chugged some water while Shelby ran to the restroom and Amy used the wifi.
7:50 a.m. On our walk back, we saw one of our dog friends (we have many in Vidin), who was a wonderful walking buddy, except when she would chase the cars speeding past and almost get hit. every. single. time. This got our heart rate up higher than the run…
8:15 a.m. We ate breakfast, took turns showering, and got ready for the day.
9:00 a.m. We met our hosts at the bus stop and boarded our (private) bus for the ride to ministry. We really cherish these bus rides/commutes as time to spend with the Lord. Most of the team listened to worship music and/or read their Bibles (car sickness pending) while we prayed. I read through Lamentations and started Ezekiel, and then prayed over our team and the day ahead.
10:00 a.m. We arrived at a nursing home near Belogradchik. We met a ton of wonderful residents and therefore adopted 15 new grandparents. One of the more vocal residents is a spunky grandma called “Poofy.” She has purple hair and sat on her friend’s lap rather than watch us choose to stand in the corner.
As part of our nursing home visit, Pastor sang some worship songs in Bulgarian and played guitar. Then Claire played guitar for our team to worship in English. One of the songs she played was a song from South Africa, which is partially in Zulu, so we got to worship in three languages this morning!
Laiken shared a short testimony of being reminded of God’s goodness through mourning. (I wasn’t crying, YOU were crying.) And Claire shared the Gospel. We answered some questions from the nursing home residents and asked them some questions, also. Polly, our host church’s secretary, also shared a bit. We prayed for the nursing home as a whole, and then for some individuals until it was time to leave.
While we were all communing and hanging out in the common area, some of my teammates heard a voice from inside the next room. They felt led to go talk to whoever was in there, so they went in and sang and prayed with the woman, just being with her even though they had no translator.
11:30 a.m. We were semi-kindly ushered out of the nursing home so that they could have their lunch. We got back in the van and saw some stunning mountain views on the drive that reminded me so much of Nepal. The van stopped in this clearing and we all started walking up the path toward the mini adventure that Pastor Yavor had planned for us. We took some team pics on the way.
When we got to the top of the hill/path, I realized I had left the team money on the bus. Shelby and I ran all the way back down and then ran all the way back up, only to be told that we had to wait 20 more minutes for our tour. Then we took another team picture. I was very sweaty.
12:00 p.m. We explored caves in Venetsa! We got to wear these super rad hard hats and try not to slip on the wet rocks. Usually the tour is very informative and has the potential to be very long, except it is only given in Bulgarian and we know exactly 3 Bulgarian words. Instead, our tour guide shone her flashlight on some of the stalagtites and chuckled at our feeble attempts at Bulgarian.
1:00 p.m. We left the caves and drove another 25 minutes into Belogradchik. Pastor helped us order food at a small casual restaurant and assured us that there was tripe soup available if we wanted it (no thanks). We had some new canine friends hang around with us at lunch time, too. After a quick stop at the grocery store for dessert and an ATM run, we were back on the bus.
2:00 p.m. We saw…wait for it…the BULGARIAN GRAND CANYON. At least, that’s what Pastor called it. Really it was this incredible fortress with huge stunning rock formations around it. There were a lot of stairs, but the view from up top was incredible. We spent time there taking pictures and sitting by ourselves to pray. We met a couple who is traveling around Europe while waiting for a visa to the U.S. to get processed. The husband is from Seattle and his wife is from Turkey.
We got to talk to them about our trip and their travel experiences. Our team sat together and worshiped while watching the clouds move over the town and trees below. Sarah heard some really exciting things from the Lord about her future and what He is calling her to do. So after telling us, she stood up on this high rock and declared it, surrounded by the mountains.
We also met two dutch girls who are biking from Amsterdam to China. Insanely impressive. We asked them questions about their trip and they asked about ours.
4:00 p.m. We headed back to Vidin, all abuzz and yet exhausted from how wonderful our day had been.
4:40 p.m. We arrived back at our apartment building and parted ways with Pastor and Polly. Amy and Shelby went to the grocery store to get some food staples we had run out of, and I headed upstairs with the rest of the team.
5:00 p.m. I started cooking dinner while Facetiming one of my friends in the states! She was one of my trainers at the Grand and recently she got married and moved to Fort Myers, so we had a TON to catch up on. I got to encourage her and pray for her to find a job and community, and for her marriage.
6:00 p.m. Amy joined me in the kitchen to prepare dinner. She was making a coleslaw recipe from a squadmate of ours, but it wasn’t turning out quite right (she forgot to mix in the love, it seems). So she Facetimed our squadmate as a phone-a-friend tactic. I thought it was pretty delicious…
*side note: it did not take 2 hours to cook dinner because it was some gourmet fancy meal. We forgot to take the chicken out of the freezer before leaving in the morning, so I spent most of that time defrosting it. We also only have two burners and really only one deep-ish pan that we can use to cook everything, so it’s a patience-building process.*
7:00 p.m. One of our team goals from the onset was to have family dinner together. The 8 of us gathered around the coffee table in the living room (the kitchen table only seats 2.5 people, realistically), prayed over the food, and dug in. We talked about the day and about how we will get to debrief in a couple weeks, as well as how we might celebrate Amy’s birthday, which is coming up!
7:30 p.m. This week, we are going through the last week of Jesus’ life in Scripture together. A different team member leads each night. Alison took us through Jesus’ authority being challenged and his visit the Mary and Martha, where Mary anoints Jesus with expensive oil and washes his feet with her hair. We had a really good discussion about some of the prophecies Jesus fulfilled, the beauty of God’s creation and the things He delights in, and about the character of Judas Iscariot.
8:00 p.m. We have also been sharing a testimony each night. Amy shared her testimony and let us ask her questions about her life and what the Lord has been teaching her throughout the Race. She also told us about the time she was attacked by a deer and her dog defended her. So many good stories.
9:30 p.m. Alison accompanied me to the store downstairs to buy snacks, while some of the team went to wash dishes from dinner. Others started a round of Monopoly Deal. Then Laiken, Julia and I watched part of Hairspray on my laptop in their room.
10:45 p.m. We were already very sleepy and knew we wouldn’t make it through the movie tonight, so I got ready for bed and then came to type this up for you!
Thanks for reading all about my day! I will try to upload some photos from today and the rest of our time in Bulgaria tomorrow (:
