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