Back Home But Still Much To Do

The team has now been home for a week and as everyone's jet lag winds down, the question is often asked... "What now?" Good question. I'm glad you asked!

We have always approached our ministry to Bulgaria, and now Macedonia, as a relationship-based ministry of encouragement and support to the Body of Christ there. Furthermore, we view that ministry as a 52-week ministry, not two weeks. We do a lot of work while we are in Bulgaria. We get our hands dirty in construction, we help with a kids' camp, we teach in churches, we share Christ out in public... but let's be honest, the work that we do is minor in the big scheme of things. We are not going to impact a nation in only two weeks a year. And we don't need to. That's why God has raised up His Church there. We have Christian brothers and sisters in Bulgaria and Macedonia who God is working through to establish His kingdom in those countries. Unless the Lord sends me to live and serve there full-time, I will never be able to serve the way that my family there does.

However, God has called us to serve those who are building the Kingdom there. The most important thing we do in our time overseas is to build and strengthen the relationships that we have with our Church family there. We meet people, we pray together, we share our lives, and we serve side-by-side for the short time that we have together. Then, we go back home and spend the rest of the year building on those relationships. Much has been said about the negative impact of Facebook and other social networking media on this generation's ability to build real relationships. However, I want to note that when a real relationship has already been established, the internet can be a powerful tool to maintain that relationship over long distances. I am able to stay in regular contact with the Body of Christ overseas, praying for the needs that arise, offering support when needed, even sharing God's word and wise counsel for situations that a brother may be facing.

I can genuinely say that not a day goes by all year when I am not thinking and praying about Bulgaria and my friends and family there. The heart God has given to me and others on the team is a genuine burden that cannot be laid down when I desire. It weighs upon me and demands my constant attention. Even if I were unable to travel to Bulgaria every summer, my heart and service to that country would remain untouched.

I am blessed that the Lord has expanded our reach this year. Our time spent in Fakulteta was not about construction or kids ministry, but about beginning to build a new relationship with a part of the Body that was previously unknown to us. Our visit to Macedonia opened our eyes to a great need in the Body of Christ for encouragement in a nation where the Church is small and struggling, but filled with the Lord's grace and love. We look forward to building on these new relationships in the coming years and seeing how the Lord will use us to support His work in these places.

And, of course, we are already looking ahead to next summer. If anyone is interested in traveling with us next year as a part of our team, please get ahold of me soon. I don't need a commitment at this stage, I just want to know who's interested so I can begin to pray for direction. We'll also start fundraising soon for next year. We'll hold our first yard sale in September with four more every two months after. Anyone that wants to donate or has ideas for fundraising should contact me as well.

Above all else, we will be praying... praying... and praying! God is doing a good thing in Bulgaria and Macedonia and the prayers of the saints around the world are needed to come alongside what He is doing. God is good!

The Camp Experience

Now that we are here at the Black Sea for a weeklong kids camp, I thought I'd take just a minute to share with you what our daily schedule looks like. :-)
 6:30am Wake up and grab a quick cup of coffee
6:45am Meet with Bulgarian leaders to discuss the day
7:30am Wake up all the kids
7:45am Physical fitness with Brittany and Raya
8:00am Breakfast
9:00am Small group prayer
9:15am Beach time (3 hours)... We watch out for the children's safety and play with them.
1:00pm Lunch
2:00pm Naptime (1 hr & 45 min!) But... not for us. We take this time to plan our afternoon and visit town for supplies.
4:00pm Daily bible lessons... Our group is responsible for 2 days of teaching.
4:45pm Group projects
5:30pm Game / craft rotation (30 min. each and switch)... Our group is responsible for this.
6:30pm Daily recap... using dramas and group discussion to go over bible lesson of the day. I lead this discussion.
7:30pm Dinner
8:15pm Evening service... Our group is responsible for 3 nights of teaching.

 After 9:00pm, we stay up for a few hours with the teenagers, then put everyone to bed. Afterward, we hide toys all over the camp for the morning and handle any last minute crafts, etc. We usually get to bed after midnight, sometimes much later! So that's our schedule. Its exhausting but fulfilling... God is doing mighty things! Keep us in prayer...

Pictures from Macedonia

Back at the Black Sea

After a 6 hour drive across the country today, the team has arrived at the Black Sea for a week long kids camp. We are working with the Blaga Vest church from Sofia to hold the camp for about 60 kids from ages 5 to 18 in the town of Chernomoretz near Burgas.

The theme of the camp is "Go Tell It On The Mountain," and uses five mountaintop experiences to relate spiritual truths.

1. Mount Sinai - God is with his people.
2. Mount Carmel - The Lord shows that He is the One True God.
3. Mount of Transfiguration - Jesus is God's Son.
4. Golgotha - Jesus Saves Us All.
5. (Unnamed Mountain) - Jesus says, "Go to all!"

We will be relating these spiritual truths through teaching lessons, games and crafts, activities and nightly messages. We spend several hours a day with the kids in the Black sea in addition to plenty of other opportunities to hang out and fellowship. Each of the team members will have ministry responsibilities throughout the week so keep us all in prayer.

Also, we're running a little low on energy right now and a few have been fighting off colds. Please pray for our strength and health. We know that when we are weak, He is strong! God is good and we look forward to sharing the amazing things He is going to do this week at camp. In the meantime, here's a link to some pictures of our time in Macedonia over the weekend.


Pictures of Macedonia

Answering the Macedonian Call

Mite & Krasimira Goshevi

Greetings to our family and friends from Skopje, the capital of Macedonia. We arrived here yesterday afternoon after driving across the border from Sofia, Bulgaria. We are here as guests of Pastor Mite Goshev and his family. His daughters, Lydia and Ani, have attended summer camps at the Black Sea with us for years and, through them, we began to develop an interest to visit the Church here. The Goshevi family have been gracious hosts and Mite's wife, Krasimira, prepared a wonderful Macedonian meal for us yesterday evening!

The Body of Christ here needs our prayers. The Orthodox Church is the dominant presence in this country but, while it offers a strong moral and cultural presence, it lacks spiritual force among the people. National identity is closely linked to Orthodox membership so many are Orthodox Christians simply because they are Macedonians and that's what Macedonians do. At the same time, the other ethnic groups have led to a strong Islamic presence. Mosques are everywhere! As we drove down into Skopje, the first thing that caught our eye was a HUGE mosque with a gold dome and towering minarets. We viewed the scene with a heaviness on our hearts until we lifted up our eyes and looked across the city. There, high on a mountain, was a giant cross overlooking the valley. We learned later that the Millennium Cross was placed there to celebrate two thousand years of Christianity in the region and stands over 200 feet high!

The non-Orthodox evangelical church here, though, is quite small. In a nation of about 2 million people, the Protestant church is estimated to be around 2,000 people. Pastor Mite shared with me that in Skopje, a city of over 700,000, when all the churches get together for an event, there are about 500 people. Small does not mean weak, however. We spent yesterday evening with a group of young people from several churches in the city and were touched by their love for the Lord and genuine desire to live for Him. As God continues to raise up believers like them, the Church has a bright future. Relationship and discipleship will be the key to building the Kingdom in Macedonia. People's hearts are hardened toward the Lord in this post-Communist culture, and they do not respond well to traditional evangelism. The walls must be torn down through personal relationship in order to pave the way for the gospel to do its work.

Please be praying for God's work here. The body of Christ in Macedonia faces numerous obstacles, but with God all things are possible! We can offer our love and support, and they can offer us an example of how to serve the Lord with grace and persistence. God bless!

Pics and Videos - 1st two days

DAY ONE
Fakulteta - The "Revelation" Church

Wednesday Service - "Blaga Vest"

Pastor Mike teaches in Blaga Vest

Worship in Blaga Vest Church

DAY TWO
Stolnik

Our First Day

Greetings to our family and friends back in America! We are wrapping up our first day here in the beautiful land of Bulgaria and there is so much to share.

We had a few hiccups getting here. We were delayed over an hour in boarding our flight in Chicago because of an instrument malfunction. Once we got on, we taxied to the runway, then rode back to the gate because of an engine problem. We had to leave the plane and wait two more hours for a replacement! Of course, that made us late arriving in Frankfurt, Germany so we had to catch an alternate flight to Vienna, Austria and from there into Sofia. For all that, we were only about 5 hours later than originally planned!

After a good night's rest, we woke this morning and ventured into Fakulteta. This area is the country's second largest mahala or Romani (gypsy) community. Over 40,000 people live in a couple of square miles. We returned to a church that we visited last year... the Revelation Church pastored by Naiden Borisov. The church building was damaged by heavy snow 2 winters ago and, in the process of repairing, the Lord spoke to them about expanding. They have added a courtyard to the front of the church and are building a kitchen and dining area for their food ministry in which they feed approximately 50 kids daily. Today, we invested in some supplies for the construction and spent the afternoon digging footers for the two walls of the new kitchen.

In the meantime, the ladies on our team spent the day ministering to the children of the church. They acted out bible stories, did crafts and games, and painted faces. Morgan Crampton, the only new member of our team, felt right at home surrounded by loving children! Everyone on the team pitched in and worked hard today and the Roma congregation was truly blessed by our visit.

However, I'd have to say we were just as ministered to as they were. We were warmly embraced and accepted, and the people of the church went out of their way to help us and get to know us in spite of the language barrier. English-speaking Romani are somewhat rare and none were present today. I want to give a shout-out to our girl Simona, one of the Bulgarian young people we have known for years who came along today to serve with us and translate. Her language skills really helped to break down barriers and establish meaningful relationship.

The last hour of the day was spent in fellowship with the church members and their leaders. Pastor Borisov discussed his vision for reaching the Romani people in Bulgaria. He has divided the nation into twelve regions and has begun sending out teams to minister in each region and work with other churches. In the past couple of years, he has planted six of these works and continues to raise up others to send. We were blown away by their heart for their people and their vision for sharing God's word and discipling followers of Christ. For many of us, the highlight of the experience was spending time in prayer with these brothers and sisters in the Lord who were so passionate about Him. We prayed for them and they laid hands on each of our team and lifted us up. Several people ministered with various gifts of the Spirit to the edification of all in a beautiful way.

In the evening, we joined the Blaga Vest congregation downstairs in their new sanctuary for the evening service. What a joy for us to be a part of our first service ever in the new space! Its always a blessing to sing along with songs that we know well, even if the words are completely different. I was given the privilege of teaching the message and shared with the body from Luke 15 (the parable of the Lost Sheep and Coin). Afterwards, we listened and prayed along as members of the congregation voiced their requests to the Lord in a time of prayer.

Finally, we capped off the evening with a sweet time of fellowship with another group of young people from America. A missions group of teens from the Dove Church in Pennsylvania stayed here tonight before flying home tomorrow after a week of ministry here in the country. We shared stories and prayer into the wee hours before kicking everybody off to bed!

Today was an incredible and Spirit-led day of fellowship and ministry and its only the first day. I can't wait to see what else God has in store! Tomorrow, we're going to spend some time in the word as the various team members finish up the lessons they'll be teaching at the Black Sea camp next week. Then we're off to Stolnik, a Roma village, for their evening church service.

Keep us in prayer and stay tuned for more! Слава на Бога (Glory to God)!