Bulgaria and Back! This is a very long post...

Oh my goodness it's been over a week since I blogged. Unfortunately, I'll be attempting to skim over details in order to get it all in in a timely manner... but we all know I'm not very good at that. :)

Buna!

So Thursday we drove for 2.5 hours (through some of the most beautiful countryside I have ever seen in my life. wow. God's creation is unbelievable- pictures to follow.) to Razgrad, Bulgaria. There is a Nazarene Church there. They had grown too big for their current building, and have been working on a new church. They built it themselves, from the ground up. They have been carefully and lovingly building this new church for 12 YEARS. This weekend was the opening ceremony- what a blessing to be a part of this amazing time!!!!

They said we were going to help them get ready for the GIANT celebration on Sunday, and for a little bit we did. We cleaned two rooms, moved some furniture, mopped some floors. But when you've been working on something for 12 years, you're really not likely to just hand over the big tasks that are left to the next strangers who walk through the door with smiles on their faces- haha. So we really had a lot of relaxing time... I felt bad, but at the same time it was awesome, because we were definitely struggling with jet lag. Bad. haha we took naps every day, and one night three of us were awake until 5 a.m.! yuck! And at one point, one of the girls slept like, 16 hours straight. haha we're a mess. :) We helped as much as we could, but we spent a lot of our time just building relationships with the people there, and playing games with the kids.
--On Friday (I think they wanted to get us out of the way- haha ;D ) Pastor Nikolay took our team, along with Joshua (a student from Trevecca Nazarene who is spending 7 weeks here) out to this long road, with beautiful trees growing on both sides, for a long way. He pulled over on the side of the road, and do you know what? They were cherry trees!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We climbed those trees and picked big, almost black, juicy cherries for the next two hours!!!!! It was marvelous! We had sooo much fun! :D How amazing. At one point, I got up in this tree, and found some branches in the shape of a recliner (nice), leaned back with a perfect view of the countryside in front of me (there seem to be wildflowers everywhere!!!!), felt the breeze in my hair and ate cherries straight off the tree. I don't know of a better way to truly appreciate and enjoy God's creation. It will forever be one of the happiest, most peaceful memories of my life. I fell in love with Bulgaria in that tree. :)

However, the day gets better. After cherry picking (with a GIANT bucket of cherries to take back!) we drove to the house of a lovely older couple. I don't know who they are, or their names, but never have I been in a more lovely garden. It was full of fruits and plants, and gorgeous flowers! It looked like a small section of Eden to me. :) Anyway, the best part is that they let us pick ripe strawberries straight off the vine! I literally picked a sun-warmed strawberry, washed it off and ate it. Hands-down, the best strawberry I have ever had in my life. And we could have as many as we wanted! Not to mention the air was filled with strawberry smell, mixed with the perfume of flowers. A small haven- I could live in a place like that. It was wonderful! We didn't stay long, but it was awesome.

One of the funniest memories of the trip so far was when, in the car, Debi was in the back holding a bouquet of flowers (that the older couple sent with us, of course haha) and when we turned and asked her to move the flowers so we could take a picture, she pops out from behind them and the entire car burst into laughter. She had giant tiger lilies, and she had been smelling them... hahaha... and there was bright orange pollen ALL OVER her face. I took a picture, but it was already after she had wiped some of it off. Still good though. :)  LOL it still makes me laugh so hard- it's an ongoing joke with our team. haha so good!

When we got back, Nikolay's son Simon took us on a two hour tour of the city of Razgrad. It was lovely, and we saw lots of awesome places. We ended the tour on a large hill overlooking the entire city, as well as the countryside surrounding it, and it was fantastic! There are tons of beautiful wildflowers in Bulgaria just growing everywhere. Rachel and I enjoyed creating a bouquet on our walk, and one Romanian woman who was just on the street when we passed even picked flowers out of her own garden to add to our collection!

I feel the need here to mention my special friend Lubomir (Lupcho was his nickname!). Joshua was living with him, and Lupcho was the only person that the church people trusted to sand the inside of their building. So, by himself, he sanded the ENTIRE building. BY. HIMSELF. This is a BIG building. And he worked day in and day out, sometimes not sleeping for days. It took him two months! When I commented on how impressed I was, and how wonderful it was that he had done that, do you know what his answer was? He simply stated:
"I love my church. :)" wow. He was awesome, and he made our weekend a lot more fun.

--On Saturday, a group of students and professors from Trevecca Nazarene University in Tennessee arrived- they are taking some classes in Bulgaria, Romania, and Kosova (its only a few days), and they were also lucky enough to come to Razgrad for this celebration! So we went sight-seeing with their group, and visited some fantastic ruins, as well as the Bulgarian History Museum. It was lots of fun, but no pictures allowed in the museum. Got lots at the ruins, though. When we got back from that, we just played out in the yard with all the kids- it was funny because we had soccer, frisbee, catch, football and tag all going on at the same time, in the same yard. I got nailed in the face with a frisbee by a little Bulgarian girl whose only English words were "I'm sorry" and "Thank you" haha she was sooo precious- I think she was between 6 and 8 years. I couldn't make her understand that it was ok, so I leaned down to her and pointed to my forehead, and made kissing noises with my lips. She kissed my forehead, and I smiled and threw my hands in the air like life was wonderful, which made her laugh. Honestly, it hurt like the dickens for five days afterwards, but her smile was worth a little bluff. :)

I learned a few Bulgarian phrases, but they are even more difficult than Romanian, and I certainly will not attempt to spell them. It's a Slavic language, not a Romance language, so its VERY different from Romanian. lol. I made one funny mistake- I was trying to learn to say the equivalent of "I'm happy to meet you" and in my efforts, managed to say "I'm taking drugs". haha! That was a good laugh for my new friend Annie (the pastor's daughter) woops!

p.s. I have never met a people who can eat as many times in a day as the Bulgarian people! We had breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner, and sometimes second dinner! And it was like they did not know the words no thank you! It is just not acceptable to not eat when offered food- its like they do not believe you are not hungry. We ate until we were about to pop, every day! Most of our meals were bread, cheese or tomato paste, and meat. Every meal, every day. lol but I also think that this was because everything else was being used in preparation for Sunday, so our meals were sort of an afterthought. The hospitality here was amazing. These people were sooo kind and considerate, making sure we always had what we needed, keeping us entertained, understanding when we slept at odd times, and being open and friendly, treating us like family,even at this busy and stressful time. It was wonderful.

So Sunday. wow. hours and hours of preparation all come to this! Our job was to watch the kids for an hour during the service... haha not so much. It's very difficult to exercise any amount of control over small children when they don't speak your language, and you don't speak theirs. And on top of that, apparently a nursery is not a familiar concept in Bulgaria. The parents would NOT leave their children with us! Most of them just... stayed. So we had 20 kids, and maybe 8-10 parents watching them, which completely eliminated our job. That was slightly frustrating. However, it did mean that we could just go and watch the celebration service instead, which was nice. There were many many speakers, pastors from other churches in the area who brought gifts for the opening, and lots of choirs, bands, and singing groups. Also, our Romanian friends drove the 2.5 hours to come and celebrate with our Bulgarian brothers and sisters! So great to see them! World missions director Louie Bustle (sp?) was in attendance, and gave a speech too. AND a Bulgarian folk performance group performed,  played and danced for us! All dressed up in historical outfits- it was cool. After that, there was a GIANT lunch. I don't know when I've ever seen so much food in one place. There were lots of unique foods that I tried, I won't even try to type up the names. I will say that my absolute favorite was this wonderful mixture called Russian Salad. It had peas, carrots, and lots of other things in it, mixed up in a creamy yellow sauce, and you spread it on bread and eat it. YUM.

 This is only one table out of like, 7...
oh, cool bit of trivia. The Bulgarian word for eat? Yum. seriously. haha awesome!


After a very very long day, my team and I took a nap (ha naznaps in other countries, too!) and then helped with clean up, then had dinner, then had second dinner. lol. What an amazing day- I can't imagine the happiness after such a long wait for this day. haha we were taking pictures that night and Pastor Nikolay said "I'm all out of smiles! I can't smile even once more! My cheeks hurt!" but we protested, claiming what an awesome day it had been for him and his family and church, and in the next second he was laughing and smiling and we got a great picture. He joked, saying "Fine! But that was the LAST one!!!!" of course, it wasn't true.

Monday we left for Romania again! When we got back, Micheal and his girls took us to what's called the Village Museum. They took houses from different eras in Romanian history, in different areas of the country, and brought them all to one spot. So you walk through a neighborhood of various housing styles, to see how people lived. Very fun, very interesting. And there was honeysuckle! yum!

--Tuesday was a day of rest, but we went on a very long walk through Bucharest, admiring the architecture and exploring the city (we took Micheal's daughters Emily and Julia with us as tour guides) and it was SO FUN!!! We had a fantastic time! First, we took a taxi- now that was fun. I told you already about the driving here... yikes! There were 6 of us so we had to split up into two taxis, but we made it safely to our destination (Praise Him!!) and began our walk. We found this amazing little boutique in a hole in the wall, and wow they had some AMAZING jewelry!!! I shopped to my heart's content, buying souvenirs! Earrings and a couple necklaces. It was great! And they were not expensive, either. I truly enjoyed myself, and I am still SO excited about the things I bought. The earrings here are way better than anything at home, in my opinion. :D We also stopped at a booth out on the street, where I bought another souvenir, that was fun too. My favorite thing though about this day, was that after all that walking, we sat in the shade at a European Cafe, relaxing and watching life happen around us. Now THAT is a way to spend the afternoon. We had cold cokes, were sitting in comfy outdoor furniture under giant umbrellas, in the middle of several beautiful buildings, in Europe. WE. ARE. IN. ROMANIA. Whaaat? haha it just hits me every once in a while. This is awesome. :D

--Wednesday. Chill at Micheal's. Debi and I had our friend Chris (Pastor Cristi and Monica's son) show us how to ride the bus from Nana's to Micheal's so Micheal won't have to drive over and pick us up all the time. Long walk, 25 minute bus ride, short walk, and we're there. :) I felt accomplished! haha. We planned our first VBS session today, because we begin our first VBS on Friday! We're doing Friday, Saturday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday with the kids here. It's a struggle to put all our ideas into concrete plans, especially since this is our first go-round. But we can do it!
Prayer meeting at the church tonight- it was a good message about the different names of God and what they mean, and how they apply to our lives today. Then an excellent time of prayer and sharing with the women. I love Wednesday nights!
Another amazing home-cooked Romanian meal tonight from Monica! Corba, and stuffed cabbage leaves (full of ground beef, dill pickle relish, onions, and lots of good stuff) with sour cream and cornmeal! mmm... so delicious. oh man. Really good. :)

--Thursday. Today was awesome! We went to the water park with some of the youth group kids!!!!! :D (No pictures, though, because I didn't want to get my camera wet...) super fun! We spent the whole day there! There were 27 slides, and although the rides are a bit "rougher" than the ones at home (when you go down a slide, you leave with scratches on your back), it was very fun. ha there was one slide that was REALLY fast, and several of us lost our tubes in the middle of it, which really hurts. Me included. I got flipped over inside the tube, and rode tubeless on my stomach for a bit. Not very fun. lol but I came out ok! haha my tube however, got stuck in the slide, and the poor person behind me had to push it out on their way down. woops!
Sadly, I was the only member of my team who left the park uninjured today. I had a few scratches, but everyone else actually, legitimately got hurt. Rachel also flipped and lost her tube in that slide, but she landed on her head. ouch! It took her out of business for several hours. Bailey banged her foot on one, and it's swollen and bruised, but ok. Debi hit the back of her head and still has a headache. Please pray for our physical health, as tomorrow we will be dealing with lots of little kids and we need our energy!

On another note... lots of topless bathers today. That was a bit of a shock. I expected it for later when we go to Varna (the Black Sea, we'll be visiting the beach!), but not at this family water park. It's a very normal thing here, though. haha lots of thongs, topless females, and men in speedo's. It's certainly something to get used to. At first I was very surprised, but when none of the youth kids reacted, I quickly recovered and moved on. However I couldn't quite get used to it, and was surprised again and again. haha oh dear...

All in all, in spite of the injuries, we had an AMAZING day. We really bonded with the youth group kids, and we had a blast.
Tonight we were all invited to dinner with Bailey's host family, Carmen and Cornell. Wow, this was an amazing meal! Meatballs with this great mixture of I don't even know what, and bread and salami and cheese, and cookies for dessert! My favorite cookies are these ones that are just like Milano's, from home, but they're even better because they are bigger, with more chocolate! :) My favorite meat here is salami- its basically just uncooked pepperoni's, which I sometimes buy in packs at wal-mart at home just to eat (Tiffany Hursh, thanks to you! lol) so I'm very happy that it is a staple in the menu here. OH! And Carmen has these beautiful cacti plants, whose flowers (some may know this, most probably don't) only bloom once a year, and for only 24 hours. Now, if you can believe this, when we sat down to dinner in her garden the blooms were closed, and she pointed them out to us, saying "I think tomorrow they are going to bloom!" About 15 minutes into dinner, I looked up and said "you know, I'm pretty sure those flowers are blooming?" Guys, by the end of dinner, the flowers had fully bloomed. It was incredible! Who knew such a beautiful thing could unfold so quickly? Literally 45 minutes from closed buds to gorgeous flowers. It was awesome to see something so special! And Cornell picked them off and gave us each one, saying we should enjoy them for the 24 hours they will be alive. It made my day. :) So now I'm back at Nana's, and its very late. I have to be up bright and early tomorrow because it's our first day of VBS and we still have lots to do! Please pray for us as we begin our ministry. Also, Tamara (Micheal's wife) comes home to join us on Saturday- we have been looking forward to her return, and she will be the key that really gets the ball going on our ministry. yay! Sorry for how long this blog has been- I'll try to do it more often so that they are shorter! :)

Here are my prayer requests:

-Irena and her baby and family
-Carmen's daughter and Parents- they are not christians and this is very difficult for Carmen and family
-The progress of the Romanian church- they are expanding their building and its taking longer than expected
-My new very good friend Betti- she's one of the youth group. Her parents are not Christians, and times are tough in her home. Also, her cousin who was only 22 died last week because of a simple medical mistake. Such a tragedy, and her family needs prayer and support. Ask God to be with her especially. She's an incredible young woman.
-Monica's job is very tough lately, she needs wisdom and guidance, and patience
-Several unspokens
-Our children's ministry is beginning this weekend

-Any previously listed requests in other posts.

Well, I think that is everything. Now I am going to post a few pictures and collapse into bed. It is miserably hot here, and there is no air conditioning- it's very hard to fall asleep. But I love this place. :) Noapte buna! (Finally... ;D haha)