Finished in Bulgaria

Last Friday and Saturday, we did our last seminar in Bugras, a resort community on the Black Sea. They have a beautiful beach and in the summertime, they are a very busy vacation destination. At this time of year, it is pretty quite. Saturday afternoon, we returned to Plovdiv and went to church with our friends at the Pentecostal church here. It was fun to see them and have a chance to say hello. The church has really grown since last spring and they have been able to purchase a piece of land on a major road where they will eventually build. Today we will fly to London for a couple of days of rest and to begin the process of getting over fatigue and jet lag. London is only 5 hours ahead of Richmond instead of 7 as here in Bulgaria so that will help us start to re-adjust. We have gathered a lot of intelligence this trip as we prepare to launch a major new initiative. We are not quite ready to talk about that yet; we are still researching and working on it. Please pray that we have wisdom. Thank you for following along on our adventure. We hope you have been blessed!!!

Week of October 14 (so far)

It is early Thursday morning, October 17. We are getting ready to travel to Burgas, a town on the Black Sea . That will be the site of our last seminar. On Monday and Tuesday night of this week, I taught church administration to the Gypsy pastors in Perushtitsa, the town not far from Plovdiv. (I always have to ask someone how to spell that one.) Then on Wednesday night, we went back and had church with them. Our good friend, Salcho, the pastor just got out of the hospital after 18 days. He was too weak to come to the service and we really missed him. However, we are thankful that he is getting better and is home now. We will look forward to seeing him next time. Here are a few pictures of the last few nights.

October 13 & 14

On Saturday, October 12 we finished our seminar for pastors in Sofia and then drove to Plovdiv with Lilly and her parents. They had been at the seminar so it was nice to have more time with them on the way to Plovdiv. The next day, Sunday, Pat with out to the Gypsy church in the neighboring town where we go so often. Many of you have seen pictures from there before. We have been going there for years and have a very close relationship with the people there. This time, Pat was teaching the women on how to find God's purpose for their lives. That is quite a new idea for many of those women because Gypsy culture is very male dominated. Since Pat was gone, I took the opportunity to go to 's church and visit. They are a small church and I felt like they all knew all about Pat and I; Lilly can talk!!!! It was really a lot of fun and they are very nice people. After church a bunch of us went to lunch and made an afternoon out of it. It was great! On Monday evening I went out to the Gypsy church and did almost three hours on church administration. That is an area that the Gypsy pastors have had virtually no training at all. Most of them do pretty well by just using common sense but there are areas where they could improve a lot. Hopefully, I gave them a lot of food for thought. I will be going back tonight and give them more. This is all pretty basic stuff like how to build an effective plan, how to hold an effective meeting, how to organize, how to build effective processes in the church, etc; all very practical things that they need to know how to do better. Here are a few pictures from the last couple of days.

Sliven

Yesterday afternoon, we traveled to the town of Sliven, which is about an hour from Stara Zagora. There is a large gypsy area on the edge of town. In the large cities, the gypsies live in what I would describe as ghettos. In the smaller towns, they live on the edge of town; what we might call the wrong side of the tracks. There is very little integration in Bulgaria. This is a congregation lead by a pastor which whom we have a lot of history. Last summer (2012) he and his son and our Bulgarian partner, Dinko and his father all stayed at our house for three days when they came through on a tour of the U.S. Prior to that, we had been to this church and taught here many times. So we always feel very welcome here. When we entered the sanctuary, there was a huge picture of us being projected on the back wall, welcoming us back! Most of the time, Pat and I team-teach. But this time, we split up. For three hours, I taught the men, which included about 15 pastors, on tithing. Upstairs, Pat taught the women on the subject of finding our purpose in life. Both of these topics are rarely discussed in gypsy churches and they are big problems for these people. Most of what they get is very spiritual but they don't really understand how to apply the lessons of scripture to their daily lives. Also, as is true at home, many of these pastors are reluctant to teach on the subject of money and giving and so they don't hear that much. After the teaching sessions, we had church for a couple of hours. When they have church, it is more like a big party with some preaching thrown in; it is SO much fun. The gypsy people really know how to make fabulous music and how to worship with abandon! It is unlike any worship experience I have ever had and every time it is just amazing. I can't really do it justice; you just have to experience it. Here are some pictures of Pat in action and the church service. I still don't have my camera yet.

Stara Zagora

On Sunday we came to Stara Zagora, a town we have visited many times. It is about 100 miles from Sofia on the way to the Black Sea. We arrived about 5:00 pm and went to our hotel. On Monday, I gave a three hour lecture to students at Trakia University in their department of economics. I talked about John Maxwell because the professor had read some of his books and wanted to know more about him. I then covered a few of the 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership from his book of the same title. Afterwards, I met with the dean who presented me with a nice gift and, after hearing the professor's report, invited me back to speak again in March. We will see what develops with this. It was a start. Sorry, only one picture. My camera suddenly decided to go on the fritz in Sofia so I left it with Ludmil to see if he could fix it. Ludmil is an engineer by training and enjoys tinkering with electronics. He e-mailed me that it is fixed so when I get back to Sofia, I will start shooting again. David Leistrum took this one.

Sofia, Round One

Last Saturday, we had the first of our seminars for Gypsy Pastors and one for ladies. I did the one for Pastors and Pat did the one for ladies. Both were relatively lightly attended because the government had declared Saturday to be a work day. This happens fairly often and always on short notice. Most of the Gypsys who do work, work for the government at rather menial jobs because that is the only work they can get. Many are not qualified to do much because of their lack of education. The other problem they face is prejudice. Between the two, they have a tough time finding work. So, when a Saturday work day is declared, they don't dare miss work or they could get fired. As a result, our seminars were light this time. We have learned to adjust to these unexpected changes as they happen all of the time. It is just part of working in this culture which is still relatively chaotic compared to ours. This is part of the legacy of communism that still has not been overcome. Here are some pictures of the seminars.

We Have Arrived!

We left at 6:30 pm on Tuesday. After about a 6 hour flight to London on British Airways, we had just enough time to rush through terminal 5 at Heathrow and get to our flight to Sofia. That took another 2 1/2 hours and we finally arrived about 1:30 pm Sofia time. The flights were both good. BA has improved since the last time we flew on them. It's a good thing because we have been avoiding them for several years and just decided to give them a try one more time. Now we can have that alternative and it's good. Aside from the fact that we love a day or two in London on the way home, BA gives us a few perks that the other's don't. Our good friend, Ludmil Mandichev picked us up at the airport and took us to his B&B. Pat was the second person to stay there years ago when he opened it and we have been staying there for several days on every trip since. He and Mariana and their two girls Eva and Mila have become very good friends. Eva is a college freshman this year so their life is now changing. Here is a picture of them and a couple of their B&B. As you can see, it is very nice!

After we arrived, we unpacked a little and then took about a 2 hour nap. We didn't want to sleep too much so we could sleep well when it came time to go to bed, but we needed at least a nap. After that we went for a short walk and then to the pizza restaurant down the street. We have been going there too ever since we started coming to Bulgaria. The whole staff and the owner always greet us with big smiles because they all know us now. It always reminds me that being faithful at something (just about anything) makes a big impression on people. Most people in Bulgaria don't see that many Americans; this is not exactly a popular tourist destination. So, we tend to stand out, even though we try to stay under the radar. So people really do notice when we keep coming back year after year. Tomorrow is a day for a couple of meetings with our partners and a long walk! We will probably spend about 4 hours and walk 6 or 8 miles. That's about all we do for exercise over here so we try to do a lot of it. Saturday we go to work with all day seminars. Pat will do a conference for gypsy women with the theme of, "A Woman After God's Own Heart" . I will be teaching an all day class on church administration to gypsy Pastors, a subject on which they have had no training at all. I will try to post again on Saturday evening or maybe Sunday. Here are a few pictures of Sofia for those of you who haven't seen any before.

Getting Ready

We are preparing for our next Bulgarian adventure. This one will be very busy (aren't they all). One added plus is that we will see Lilly in her home town just three weeks after she goes home and we are planning a program with her parents. As always, this should be a fun trip! We work hard (as most of you know) but we do have fun and enjoy reconnecting with our many Bulgaria friends. So we hope you will follow along on our great adventure!!!!