Happy December

As I was getting ready to write this I realized they’re pretty formulaic (maybe you’ve noticed too)…trip+work+home.  So, guess what?  This will be more of that because that’s pretty much my life.

My last update was about my trip to Bulgaria (with mp.org), at the same time I was surely quitting my job and coasting, so I lived it up. The end of June I flew up to Calgary where I joined in on about week 4 of my sister’s family’s summer RV trip.  We went to Banff and Jasper, which are surly some of the most strikingly beautiful places in the world. And what’s not to love about being number 7 in an RV for a week.  Here are some pictures (mosquitos not included).

I think I was back about a week and then went with my friend Cathy to Hong Kong and Taiwan (or as I like to call it “china-lite”) for 10 days.  The first 5 days were in HK and we had been encouraged to meet up with some friends of friends and had a wonderful time of fellowship and amazing hospitality being whisked from restaurant to mall to restaurant to mall.  Hong Kong’s amazing skylines and bright lights were quite the interesting contrast to the Canadian Rockies, which are known for their dark skies and low light pollution, but beautiful nonetheless.  

The second half of the trip we spent in Taiwan and after meeting one local friend the first night we were on our own.  We were mostly in Taipei and I loved exploring at bit of a slower pace.  My highlight was going to “fish eat foot” and getting dead skin eaten off  my feet by these little (and not so little) “dr. fish.”  Also I thought their food was amazing, the dumplings and things they can do with bamboo…wow.  And the public transportation was so clean and convenient!! In Hong Kong too.  They had bathrooms at the metro stations with plants in them! I mean really, when was the last time you were impressed by the accessibility and cleanliness of a public restroom. 

Since I didn't take a picture of the bathroom (I was tempted), here's a random picture of me at a night market trying to find money to buy delicious roasted mushrooms. 

On that note…while in Taiwan I got an offer letter for a new position at Clean Harbors.  It was not what I was expecting and put a damper on the last few days. But, I was able to go back to the clarity I had in February, remembering that it was OK with quitting.  Maybe the offer was God’s push, or MAYBE I just expect things to go perfectly THEN I’ll accept them as God’s will – I’m still working on that one.  Anyways we worked it out and I’m still employed and got a new title as of some time in August, I think.  Unfortunately the other part of me quitting…getting out of my current responsibilities…still hasn’t happened. We hired someone…he quit in June and then the next person they picked might start training the week after next. 

To go along with that, I actually have work to do currently too, so that’s been different (I haven’t even put up my office Christmas decorations yet).  So for my new job (Regional Admin Manager, West Coast) I pretty much told my boss I can’t do anything she’s asking of me because I don’t have time…I’m getting off to a great start.  I’m going to Boston on Tuesday so maybe then I’ll find out what the expectations are.  I do know that one of the expectations is to not wear jeans while in the corporate offices and I have a feeling that also means I can’t wear grandpa sweaters or my puffy jacket that has tape on it to keep the stuffing in, so did a little non-thrift or Costco shopping in preparation.

Too much info?  You’re used to it. 

I moved! My parents have a backhouse that my brother’s family was living in and they moved out, leaving their chickens and orange tree, and I moved in, and now own chickens and an orange tree.

You can come visit and I’ll feed you eggs and oranges…and pretty much only eggs and oranges.  You know that scene where person B is at persons A’s house and catches a glimpse of the cupboards and realizes person A is really destitute and person B then intervenes and I don’t know…Santa brings groceries or something.   In this story I’m person A, except not destitute just somehow get away with not prioritizing grocery shopping. 

Some of the food in there, like nuts, don't even belong, my mom just put them in there as filler. 

I can’t even say I don’t have time because, I did have time to get a Christmas tree.  Like I said, priorities. 

But all kidding aside, if you came to visit I would buy groceries.  Or run to my mom’s house and snag some food. And I have a guest room and just bought a new vacuum.

There are other recent things too, lots of constant reminders of God’s love and the peace He’s willing to give if I get over myself and accept it.  I’ve been reflecting some on Psalm 36:7-9 some, “God, Your faithful love is so valuable that your people take refuge in the shadow of Your wings.  They are filled from the abundance of your house; you let them drink from Your refreshing stream, for with You if life’s fountain.  In Your light we will see light.”  May we be those who readily partake of His abundance and see things with the light He gives.

How are you?

Love, joy

A lot about Bulgaria

Finally you’ll get an update that is different. But that’s because it will be less about me and more about Mission Possible’s (MP.org) work in Bulgaria.  So if you have no interest in that, shame on you.  Just kidding, feel free to just look at pictures and an awesome video, or skip this altogether.

Basically I went in thinking it was going to be at least a little hard and gray and and cold because I had all these memories of my brothers’ trip to Russia and Siberia with MP 15 years ago and how they got stranded in a train station in Belarus overnight.  Nothing even remotely dramatic happened on this trip.  Actually, that’s not true, a car we were caravanning with got a flat tire and they don’t have AAA so people had to actually change it.   Maybe you already know this but Bulgaria is part of the EU and it’s also a Baltic nation so they eat Greek food (or, if you ask a Bulgarian, Greeks eat Bulgarian food).  Anyways, there were castles, I had fresh cheese pretty much every meal and slept better at night than I ever do at home so it was a dream missions trip vacation.  

Since I wasn’t there to rough it out or meet any great need I might have just been there so I can remind others about how great Mission Possible is, and how capable others are, even without our “help.”  A good reminder for me. 

Now backing up with some details.  I went with 9 other people, here is our picture from the Colosseum in Rome (where we went at the end). 

Everyone was really nice, like sincerely.  I’ve thought about that a lot since then, because I was the latecomer who messed things up…like landed late, and made their rooms be 3-person instead of 2.  But they were still so kind and genuine and inviting.  Am I like that to others?  Is my aroma of genuine love?  And this was for a whole week, I can feign friendliness and interest and non-annoyance for very short amounts of time, if I have alone time mingled in, and get to sleep in peace.  As I’m writing, I’m thinking about this again and how much I need the Holy Spirit to grow me pretty much all His fruit (preferably before I go back to work tomorrow). 

Wait, this is about MP Bulgaria, not personal revelations.  Mission Possible’s vision is from Ephesians 4:12, to equip the local Christians and Churches to help them reach their people with the gospel.  Hopefully as you’re reading you’ll see how that is woven through everything they do. 

Back on track…10 of us went to Bulgaria.  First we got to see the MP offices in Sofia, they do a ton of work and only have 9 people on staff.  I loved getting to know them over the week and hearing so many personal testimonies.  On a side note, most people could speak English which is good because I didn’t pick up any Bulgarian.   Here’s a picture of their office.

And in that office they do a lot of baby-box prep, if you go to Mission Possible USA’s FB page (@missionpossibleusa) you can see a video of one of the high-school volunteers explaining a little about that project (on location).   They have a room full of donated baby clothes, mostly from other European countries, and also have lots of purchased baby-necessities (like bottles and diapers).  For $60/box they assemble boxes containing anything a new mom would need for the first 2 months, including literature and Christian materials.  When they know of moms in need, especially in the gypsy villages, they invite them to a new mom training at a local church for six sessions and then at the end they provide them with this gift.  Their hope is that these boxes will not just offer practical help to struggling moms but also help them establish relationships with Christians in the community and lead them to the Lord.  Since they started the baby-box project, just over 1 year ago, they’ve already distributed more than 600 boxes.  I actually got to go into two homes to deliver the boxes, but more on that later.  Here’s a picture of some of the supplies.

Another way they’re equipping believers is through a Christian women’s magazine and a lot of literature translation.  From what I gather, Bulgarian isn’t too popular of a language, so not a lot of original material is published in it.   But the MP team has translated many books (even helped with the modern translation of the Bible) and they have a blog for Bulgarian authors and some of that writing gets published in their magazine.

After we left Sofia we headed to Dobromirka where MP owns a retreat center.  The group I went with was helping host a retreat on “caring for others” where Christians from all of the country came together to worship, fellowship and learn.  I didn’t have any responsibility and at the end, after everyone left, we had this little team meeting and were encouraged that even if we weren’t up front we were still valuable assets and we shouldn’t feel less important, or some such pep talk.  I was like, “Are you serious, I’ve been drinking these little magic cappuccino things and talking with people all weekend, it was a total dream – that is my gifting.”  Here are some people I got to know.

From Dobromirka we drove back towards to Sofia and stopped at two different Romani/Roma/Gypsy villages.  Bulgaria has the largest population of Romani people in Europe, between 300-500K, some of them have assimilated and live in towns and others, those we visited, have government granted squatters rights on the outside of towns.  One of the villages, outside of Pevtsite, MP has been working with for 20 years.  It was really encouraging to see the fruit from their diligence to come along side the work God is already doing.    

When we showed up in this village I got to dig deep for low language children’s games, it was that or awkwardly stand around.  We played some Ring Around the Rosie and London Bridges, then worked our way up to Da/Ne (Red Light Green Light, but in Bulgarian).  As my dad told me last summer, I might not like kids that much but they like me and I don’t fail with them.  These girls then hung on to me for the rest of the visit, and I loved it.

 Then we went into the church building 

and a few of us shared with women (many who aren’t believers yet) about Jesus being the Good Shepherd.  We were told to speak for about 40 minutes (with translation), but should have spoken for about 10 minutes.  Ivo (MP’s director) did talk to me about that later, the challenge to recognize that even what we consider simple principles might be too “Christian-y” so the teaching needs to be very foundational.  But also we were too boring.  After we sat down the kids from the church had prepared something for us.  Evidently some of the kids had gone up to MP’s summer kids camp (in Dobromirka) and came back and started a whole kids program in the village.  They ran a VBS, and started Sunday school and even a dance group.   When we were there the did 3 dances for us to praise music, two in English and one in Bulgarian and it was the best thing ever.  

MP is thinking they can sponsor these kids to go visit other Romani villages to share the gospel and in return give them some money towards school.  Again, just coming along side encouraging and equipping where people are already working.

This whole talk and performance was an outreach and the mom’s from the Baby Box project so after we wrapped up we went to some homes to distribute boxes.  Here is a picture of a mother I went to visit; she’s pregnant with her third.

It was a little awkward going into the homes and not my favorite, especially with my complete lack of Bulgarian but Iva (the blond in the picture) translated and the mother seemed appreciative and again it was great to see MP first hand.  There’s a video on MP’s Facebook page of us walking through the village towards some of the homes, you can see a real classy cameo of me and an apple.

Although we did deliver Baby Boxes MP has very strict rules about handouts, we couldn’t even leave soccer balls with the kids.  They’re very conscientious of not becoming a crutch or creating a relationship where the Romani are dependent on them for monetary support. Frequently Romani living in villages are illiterate, have seasonable employment, and survive off of government support, given when they have children.  However, it is a constant prayer of MPs to know how they can help equip, empower and give practical training so these individuals can support themselves in a healthy, God-honoring way.

OK…this is getting long, or maybe it’s been long for a while…just a little more. 

The best thing about visiting this village was seeing the church in action.  All this stuff is normally going on without MPs daily presence or outsiders.  But when we pulled up, there was an older foreign looking couple there, who I assumed were some other missionaries working in the village.  But no, they were from England, I think, and retired to Bulgaria to the town adjacent to the Romani village.  They heard Christian music one day and asked around until they found the church, and have been going ever since.  The husband evidently wasn’t even a believer but was going to the church anyways then got saved and the Romani pastor even baptized him.  Talk about 1 Corinthians 1:27, the foolish things putting the wise to shame. 

A different day we went to a different Romani village that MP just started working with.  It was much less organized than Pevtsite but maybe next time I go back the kids from there will be putting on praise dance performances. 

That sums up Bulgaria, then we roamed around Rome 2 days, there’s lots of old things there.  My brain does not retain historical facts very well so a lot was lost on me.  But it did reinforce some of the lessons I’ve been learning studying Romans this year in BSF, so much worldly influence.

Switch gears.  I’ve been back over a month and still don’t know what’s going on with my job.  We hired my replacement so my current strategy is just to go less and less and maybe no one will notice that I’m still on salary.  Other option would be talking to my boss; we might talk tomorrow (since it didn’t happen today, or yesterday or the day before).  For sure something will need to change before I go to Canada on the 21^st or Hong Kong on July 5^th, but I’ve given a lot of hard deadlines that have meant nothing so who knows  (wait, God does).

Happy Summer!

Sorry this is so long, if you read it all I’ll give you a prize,

joy

new update, same joy

Hi!

As I was thinking about what to write, I realized that these are pretty much all some variation of the same thing.  Now, on the other hand, the months I don’t write you could hear about the regular monotony of my life, which still is too busy to accommodate things like cooking or grocery shopping at regular intervals.  

So get ready some more stories about my job, day trips, further travels and the Lord’s faithfulness (not particularly in that order). Sorry, no pictures – just 1000 words.

Next week I’m going to Bulgaria.  Do you know anything about Bulgaria? I didn’t but now I know that it’s between Greece and Romania and there are at least 5 ways (according to YouTube) to say “hi,” two of them starting with the “zd” sound.  So I’ll be saying “bye” more than “hi” because for that I can say “ciao.”

So why Bulgaria, this country I can’t find on a map and am already prepared to say bye to? For years our church has supported this organization Mission Possible (mp.org) that serves in Eastern Europe.  They’re really cool.  Back in the day (when it was needed) they used to do a lot of Bible smuggling, then when communism fell they helped translate the Bible into modern Bulgarian and now their mission comes from Ephesians 4:12, equipping the local believers for God’s service.

The organization is pretty much ran by Eastern Europeans but a few times a year they’ll have small groups from other places come visit too.  In February the directors, Ivo & Mirjami, were visiting and invited me to go with a group from a church near Chicago.  I contacted the coordinator, prayed about it a few days, and now, here I am, staring at a suitcase that isn’t packing itself.   

Ten of us are going, I don’t know any of them but I’ll get to know them on the 18^th at the Bulgarian airport (I don’t think it’s too big).  We’ll be spending a few days hosting a retreat at the MP retreat center in Dobromirka (I just put that in there because it sounds so Bulgarian).  I hear my role will be just chatting with people about what they’re learning and how it can play out in their daily lives, plus we may play Bunco.  I don’t speak Bulgarian but I’m pretty sure my charm breaks down language barriers (and there will be translators).  The rest of the time we’ll be visiting the Roma (gypsy) villages and doing kids activities and helping with the feeding program, and getting to see the MP Baby Box program for new moms.  We’ll be there until the 25^th.  On the 25^th we’re going to Rome for 2 days, I don’t know why but…when in Rome… eat gelato, visit old places, whatever.  Side note I have been studying Romans in BSF this year so that’s a cool tie in.  I fly home from there on the 27^th.   And sometime after the 27^th I’ll let you know how closely my expectations matched my experiences.

Now you may be thinking, “But Joy, can you take 2 weeks off of your job?”  And you’d be right to question that because currently I can’t even take 1 day off.  So…I QUIT!  Or at least I tried to L.   My job has never been a good fit for my skills, personality or, more recently, priorities, but God told me I needed to put my hope in Him and be happy about it.  But also, “Are you a slave?  Don’t let that worry you—but if you get a chance to be free, take it.” (1 Corinthians 7:21NLT).  This Bulgaria trip was a push, with a firm deadline, to get free my job so I let my boss know.  I was quite proud of my grown up decision, but all that started being challenged about an hour and a half later when my boss responded.  He wanted to let me know that he understands that this is the Bay Area and I’m looking for an exciting career path(not really), and I don’t have one (that’s true) but he thinks he can find something in the company that would be a better fit for me (I’m skeptical) and asked to have until the end of May to come up with a proposal.  I told him I’d wait it out, but no matter what I’m not staying with my current job.  He has some ideas and I’m continuing to pray that I won’t be tempted, on either side, to step out of God’s perfect will.  Unfortunately, since I didn’t quit, I’ve been spending all my time training a temp and delegating.  I did tell the bosses that by the time I get back they should have my replacement ready for me to start training.  This will be like the time I came back from a different trip and my desk was relocated. 

When I switched into my current position I really liked my boss (a different one, the one who always sang Joy to the World to me) and assumed he had my best interest in mind and would make decisions that were good for me, recently I realized he didn’t.  So I was angry and felt cheated and overwhelmed that my new boss also wasn’t going to be looking out for me, that I have to figure it out all on my own.  Then it hit me…God does have my best interest in mind and He’s ultimately in control.  He knew exactly what I needed these past three years and He knows exactly what I need going forward and will make sure I am provided for.  This may seem like some obvious trite Christianeese, but NO it hit me practically and applied to this situation in my life directly, like a lightning bolt.   I need to stay under His protection and not be concerned about whether or not my replacement is going to get paid substantially more than me, or all these other thoughts of discontentment.  He knows what I need and I’ll get it, no regrets.

Enough about work, Friday I’m going to New York.  I, I justified the trip because it will make the flight to Bulgaria shorter.  Also my sister, Julie, is coming with me, with none of her kids.  So we’ll do New York things, or sleep and drink coffee. If you’re in town we should hang out. 

Other trips this season include going down HWY 1 when my friend Heather came to visit and Yosemite when my friends from Albuquerque came. I’ve been really appreciating getting to spend time in Northern California; it’s really pretty and diverse.  And visitors are great.  But obviously I’m OK with leaving too, actually I just got my hotel confirmation for Hong Kong, I’m going there and Taiwan in July for 10 days.  See why the job is cramping my style. 

Maybe on one of these journeys I’ll see you, or you can visit me.

Love,

joy