December (Christmas and New Years)
Hi All!
It is now 2018! Happy New Year from Bulgaria!! This last month of 2017 has been busy and fun. We started it out in the same manner each month has gone; but on the 9th of December a group from the USA came over to team up with us and do a week medical outreach in some smaller cities in Bulgaria. We travelled to three different places, met many elderly patients who needed better information on what health issues they have and better teaching on how to deal with these issues appropriately. The people we met were so kind and really appreciated the time and help we could give. Had many times I was able to pray with a patient and just spent time talking with them. I really enjoyed hearing their stories and seeing how we could help. One of the days we were able to have a clinic in a gypsy village and met many people who do not have the social insurance for healthcare or have very little health education.
After getting back from the medical trip we put together an English Club Christmas party and then later a Christmas Dinner with those who go to the club. It was great getting to realize how many of the people who are in these clubs have become good friends and how they have shared how their lives have changed. I remember one person commenting on how she felt loved by us and she was very thankful. We had fun during the Christmas dinner talking about the story of Jesus coming as a baby and some people had never heard the full meaning of the story. Specifically that God came as a human to be with us, instead of what they had been previously taught which is that Jesus was just a prophet who came. Hoping and praying for good outcomes with these new experiences.
Christmas here was good. We had a brunch which we had expected to share with some of the women from our Rose Garden Project but they weren’t able to make it. But as we were getting ready to eat brunch together as a team, one of the guys from our English Club came in the door. He had thought we were having an English Club event on Christmas Day, yet this event we were hosting had originally been private. We weren’t expecting him or anyone else at that moment but we were so glad that he joined us. Later in the day the MTW team gathered and spent the afternoon together. It was a good relaxing time with friends.
My roommates and I felt we needed a small break from the normal week here. So the day after Christmas we took a train to Bucharest, Romania. We spent a couple days there and enjoyed seeing the Old Town part of the city and then traveled up to Brasov and stayed there a couple days as well. Both towns are beautiful and I really enjoyed the Romanian country. The language is nothing like Bulgarian, which I had not expected. It is actually a Romance language. So many of the people we met were kind and fun to talk with, the type that you want to be friends with right when you meet them. When walking through parts of Sinaia I felt like I had been transported to a town the Grimm brothers might have written about in one of their fairytales.
The New Year was relaxing for me. After being busy the week before it was nice to kind of lay low. But when midnight struck in Sofia, Bulgaria, fireworks went off all over the city. People here often shoot off fireworks randomly at night throughout the year but this night fireworks were going off all across the city all at once creating a sparkling sky. It was beautiful and impressive.
Prayer Requests:
- For Dal and Beth Stanton (our country MTW lead couple) as they finish their time in the States. (They plan to come back to Bulgaria in February).
- For the Daughters of Bulgaria program here. As we are hoping more women will take part with us in this program.
- For the growth of God’s love in people’s hearts to replace the loneliness that is so prevalent here.
- More people to know Christ
- For the Holy Spirit to work in great ways here (freedom, joy, peace, power of Christ, salvation)
- Unity among us as a team
- For us to be aware of the needs around us and have the strength, ingenuity, and resources to meet those needs.
- Wisdom and provision for what God desires me to do after this eleven month commitment has been completed.
Here are some pictures from 2017.
It is now 2018! Happy New Year from Bulgaria!! This last month of 2017 has been busy and fun. We started it out in the same manner each month has gone; but on the 9th of December a group from the USA came over to team up with us and do a week medical outreach in some smaller cities in Bulgaria. We travelled to three different places, met many elderly patients who needed better information on what health issues they have and better teaching on how to deal with these issues appropriately. The people we met were so kind and really appreciated the time and help we could give. Had many times I was able to pray with a patient and just spent time talking with them. I really enjoyed hearing their stories and seeing how we could help. One of the days we were able to have a clinic in a gypsy village and met many people who do not have the social insurance for healthcare or have very little health education.
After getting back from the medical trip we put together an English Club Christmas party and then later a Christmas Dinner with those who go to the club. It was great getting to realize how many of the people who are in these clubs have become good friends and how they have shared how their lives have changed. I remember one person commenting on how she felt loved by us and she was very thankful. We had fun during the Christmas dinner talking about the story of Jesus coming as a baby and some people had never heard the full meaning of the story. Specifically that God came as a human to be with us, instead of what they had been previously taught which is that Jesus was just a prophet who came. Hoping and praying for good outcomes with these new experiences.
Christmas here was good. We had a brunch which we had expected to share with some of the women from our Rose Garden Project but they weren’t able to make it. But as we were getting ready to eat brunch together as a team, one of the guys from our English Club came in the door. He had thought we were having an English Club event on Christmas Day, yet this event we were hosting had originally been private. We weren’t expecting him or anyone else at that moment but we were so glad that he joined us. Later in the day the MTW team gathered and spent the afternoon together. It was a good relaxing time with friends.
My roommates and I felt we needed a small break from the normal week here. So the day after Christmas we took a train to Bucharest, Romania. We spent a couple days there and enjoyed seeing the Old Town part of the city and then traveled up to Brasov and stayed there a couple days as well. Both towns are beautiful and I really enjoyed the Romanian country. The language is nothing like Bulgarian, which I had not expected. It is actually a Romance language. So many of the people we met were kind and fun to talk with, the type that you want to be friends with right when you meet them. When walking through parts of Sinaia I felt like I had been transported to a town the Grimm brothers might have written about in one of their fairytales.
The New Year was relaxing for me. After being busy the week before it was nice to kind of lay low. But when midnight struck in Sofia, Bulgaria, fireworks went off all over the city. People here often shoot off fireworks randomly at night throughout the year but this night fireworks were going off all across the city all at once creating a sparkling sky. It was beautiful and impressive.
Prayer Requests:
- For Dal and Beth Stanton (our country MTW lead couple) as they finish their time in the States. (They plan to come back to Bulgaria in February).
- For the Daughters of Bulgaria program here. As we are hoping more women will take part with us in this program.
- For the growth of God’s love in people’s hearts to replace the loneliness that is so prevalent here.
- More people to know Christ
- For the Holy Spirit to work in great ways here (freedom, joy, peace, power of Christ, salvation)
- Unity among us as a team
- For us to be aware of the needs around us and have the strength, ingenuity, and resources to meet those needs.
- Wisdom and provision for what God desires me to do after this eleven month commitment has been completed.
Here are some pictures from 2017.
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