First Day at the Black Sea Camp

Our car getting repaired on the way to camp

We got up early and drove across Bulgaria today to the town of Chernomorets on the coast of the Black Sea. Most of our team rode on the charter bus with all of the kids from Sofia, while Joey, Vernon and I drove across with Niki Draganov, a good friend from the Blaga Vest church. We had quite the adventure! Along the way, we began to smell a burning odor and stopped to investigate. We found our muffler with a huge hole in it and the hot gases escaping from it had burned a bunch of plastic inside the bumper. We ended up in a small muffler shop in Stara Zagora (about halfway across Bulgaria) waiting for a new (to us) muffler to be welded in. In the meantime, Niki found himself in deep conversation with a man who claimed to have spiritual healing powers who was deeply involved in New Age religion. Niki had plenty of time to share Christ and point the man to the word of God while we waited on our repairs. Definitely a God-ordained detour!

Mina waves to the camera

We are attending and helping with a kids camp with about 50 children from several churches in Bulgaria (and a few from Macedonia). We will be helping with teaching, crafts and games, and watching and playing with kids every day at the beach. Tonight, I got the opportunity to share the word in the evening service. I taught from Acts 9, Saul's Damascus Road experience, on the subject of conversion.

We're getting settled into our bungalows which are, who shall we put it... rustic. We're gonna put together a little video tour in the next day or two to share with you all so you can see for yourself. In the meantime, keep praying. The schedule is pretty tiring here, so we need the Lord's strength and encouragement as the week gets longer. God is so good though, and has always been faithful to sustain us. We look forward to seeing what He has planned for us this week.