A Bulgarian Experience This Sunday

This Sunday (April 10), Pastor Chuck and Lynda will be joining us in our church service at Calvary Chapel BHC to share their experiences from their current trip to Bulgaria. Wait, they're back?! No, they'll still be in BG this weekend, but will join us via Skype over the Internet. 10am for us is 8pm for them, so they'll be wrapping up their Sunday with our church body after beginning it in a Bulgarian church. What a great day!

Aafter church, we will be serving up some traditional Bulgarian food to the church body. We want our church family to experience a bit of the culture we love so much, and we'll be raising funds for our upcoming trip.

On the menu, we'll start things off with a grilled kebapche dog. The seasoned blend of ground pork and beef will be grilled and served up with a traditional garnish, lyutenitsa, on a hot dog bun. The bun isn't traditional, but for the more timid eaters, you can imagine you're eating a hot dog!

Each year we typically enjoy a cookout with our friends from the church in Elin Pelin. Along with kufte, another meat sausage, this is one of the things they feed us... and feed us, and feed us!

We'll add a splash of color to the plate with a side of shopska. This refreshing salad combines chopped tomatoes and cucumber with oil and vinegar. The whole dish is topped with sirene, Bulgaria's famous feta cheese made from sheep's milk. Not only do we eat this with the Elin Pelin church, but we typically make a big bowl of this in our living quarters to go with our other meals.

Speaking of sirene, we'll also be sprinkling some atop french fries, a snack we enjoy often while we're there. The sharp, tangy cheese perfectly complements the salty fries.

Finally, we'll sweeten your palate with a tasty bit of pumpkin banitsa.  Traditional banitsa is a light puff pastry and egg concoction filled with more of the sirene cheese. We'll be serving a variation filled with pumpkin instead.

Here in America, this would be considered more of a breakfast food, but in BG, every time is banitsa time! We often buy banitsa in downtown Sofia from sidewalk vendors or small cafes.


Bring your appetites and whatever donation the Lord puts on your heart to give. We're excited about this opportunity to share a taste of Bulgaria with you!

Speaking of food, don't forget to grab a flyer for the Rutherford Family Restaurant from one of our team members when you see them. Roy's mother is an owner of the restaurant and they have generously agreed to give 10% of the ticket price to our team's travel fund when you dine there and give them the flyer. The food is great and you can help our team meet our financial need while you enjoy it!

By the way, we've added one more team member... Todd Miller has joined our group and we're so excited to have him on the team! Keep him in prayer and look for God to do great things in his life through this experience.

God bless all of you for your prayer and support!

Ние ви обичаме!
(We love you!)