What is a miracle?

The Roma people in eastern Europe are treated like outcasts.  In Bulgaria they are hated for just being in their country.  Bulgarians think of the Roma as thieves, beggars, and anything else negative you can think of about people in general.
Yesterday we helped one of the local Roma pastors load up toys and some of his congregation in our van. We made a couple of trips, some 10 km away, to a  nearby village.  This pastor decided to give some of the toys he receives for Christmas to an orphanage in this nearby village.  The pastor could give these toys to other Roma churches in his area to make himself popular with his fellow Roma pastors, but he gives them to the local orphanage.  In this orphanage there are Bulgarian and Roma children that have been given over by their parents.
Yesterday we got to see the heart of God.  A Roma pastor with little or nothing to give (a widow's mite) and persecuted in his own country, gave to a group less fortunate than himself...now that's a miracle.
As our family comes against mindsets that have been formed over hundreds of years, pray for us to be a part in starting some bridge building.  We truly believe that the seeds and giving spirit of this selfless pastor are why God guided our path to live in the city of Kyustendil.
So in conclusion, it's a miracle that the Roma are sewing into those less fortunate, it's a miracle we are here in Bulgaria, and it is a miracle that we got to go and witness this in person.  This is the miracle season...go out and love someone less fortunate than yourself...spread the miracle.

Amazing Grace

Everyday is a new day to learn about the world God has created.  We are having to learn about food, culture, climate, and language.  Each day we have Bulgarian language class with an instructor from Kyustendil.  He teaches us a language that over 300 million people already know (Russian, Poland, Ukraine, Czech Republic, Bosnia, Estonia, Lithuania, Belarus, Latvia, Serbian, Croatia, Bulgarian, Slovenia, Macedonia) which are those that speak Slavic languages.  As our instructor said this morning,  "You are learning how to communicate to a whole new group of people."  Wow!  Isn't that amazing!

I am watching my daughters working in a teen conference in Samokov, and also connecting with many teens in different parts of Bulgaria.  I see Mitch connecting with basketball players and playing basketball in a city league that plays in different places in Bulgaria.  And yes, this is more than amazing!

I just wanted everybody to know the two most amazing things that happened to me this week.  I watched as over a hundred teens signed a song (Shout to the Lord), and you could feel the Grace of God in that place.  As the boys signed right along with the girls in Praising the Lord with hand motions.  I had the opportunity to speak to a Roma church about knowing God, that He loves them, and to teach about God's grace.  The Holy Spirit was at work and many of us began to weep.  At the end of the service, many testified about the love of God.  Now that is amazing!

What a wonderful week in the Amazing Grace of God!

Chance

God's grace going before us in Kyustendil

One week ago today, we were leaving for Bulgaria from Atlanta, Georgia.  Since that time we have traveled over 6,000 miles by airplane, bus, and car.  We now live in our flat in Kyustendil, Bulgaria, and have started to get settled in as best as we can.
We are so thankful for the ground work laid before we arrived in our new country.  Without the help of other missionaries like Al and Diane Mellinger, and interpreters like Joe, Vladi, and Peggy, we would not be where we are today.  We have now a Bulgarian bank account, a flat, two cell phones, and a God appointed city to live in.  We also have picked out a van and should be going to get that soon.  We are starting to learn where everything is located around us from grocery store to the dollar (leva store).
One thing that has been a constant though the whole process is God's presence.  A quick example of that is just after signing the contract to occupy our apartment with our landlord here, he brought us back and showed us all the things he had gifted us with like:  sheets, pillows, comforters, glasses, silverware, pots and pans, pictures, clocks, vases, decorations, and even a hair dryer!  We were amazed at the outpouring of gifts.  These are things we were going to have to get ourselves.
I realize the scripture in Ps 118:26 that says, "Blessed is he who is coming in the name of Jehovah."  We have been blessed and the Bulgarian translator that came to help us stated, "You have been blessed by God's provision ahead of you."
This is a remarkable place in which we live.  We are 20 km from Macedonia and Serbia.  The history in Kyustendil dates back thousands of years from Roman occupation to Ottoman control.
We are waiting to see what the Lord has in store for us concerning the next step.  We visited the gypsy church last night in our city.  They are located on the ourskirts of Kyustendil in population of about 10,000 we believe.  The pastor there is very nice and welcomed us and has helped us along the way.  He has a church of 60 adults and we look forward to working with him and helping out any way we can.
Our devotional gave us great wisdom that God gives us what we need for today and if we are constantly concerning ourselves with tomorrow, it takes the energy God has given us for today and we are left with less for this day.  We are living off the manna from heaven for each day's provision.  We know by His grace, though our faith, and in His Name, we are here to do His will and His work.
Please keep praying for His grace to continue to abound toward us.

My Resolve

Hello, friends!  I apologize that it has been a little while since my last post.  Sept. was quite the crazy month and all seems to have settled a little.  After going to Washington and submitting the visas and having some paperwork issues, the Bulgarian consulate said they would accept our background checks, "Praise the Lord!"  The only issue was that it could take up to 40 business days to process the paperwork.  The rest of the month of September we travelled to Panama City Beach to visit my aunt's condo and have some family "down/reflective" time and then drove down to visit Chance's parents that live north of Tampa for a few days.
When we got back to Columbus, we had our Commissioning Sunday at Christ Community Church and many family and friends came to support us.  We are so thankful for you all (more than words...).  We then prepared to leave the house, stepping out totally by faith, because at this point we had no buyer.  At one point we had a "For Sale" sign and a "For Rent" sign in the yard.  We would take what we could get.  We knew we did not have a mortgage payment in the budget when we left for Bulgaria.  We had many days of waking up and "walking by faith and not by sight" by packing the house, giving away items and then having an estate sale and having Valley Rescue come get the left overs.  I also had a day or two of, "the righteous cry and the Lord hears and delivers them from all their troubles" days of weaping before the Lord and coming to the end of my strength.
We decided to move out of the house on the 23rd and spend a week getting the house cleaned up.  Some of our great friends allowed us to stay in a mission house while we worked on it.  The Tuesday before we were set to leave, I woke up and wrote what God had put in my heart, which is the title of this blog, My Resolve.  It is my private devotion from the Lord that I never intended on making public, until God asked me to a few weeks ago.  (Yes, it has taken me a few weeks to obey.)
MY RESOLVE:
To walk in strong weakness.  In my daily walk, I resolve to know the Peace that I have and know the bigger picture.  To not measure success or failure BY successess and failures.  Those are OUR measuring sticks, based on OUR plans and OUR measures of success (or the worlds).   This life is not about that at ALL, but to walk in the blessed assurance that I am His and HE is mine.  He is the lifter of my head.  We make plans in the earthly realm, but we do not walk there.  In that is carnality.  We walk above it in the spiritual realm.  We walk in the Peace that is above all things.
Ultimate sacrifice is to give one's life (martyr).  We should be laying down our plans and life down here everyday and choosing to live life above all things.  HE will judge our life as sucesses or failures, and HE ALONE.  I will not judge myself nor allow myself to be judged.  "There is therefore no condemnation."  I will not bring myself down to earthly matters, I will walk in the spirit only as one going into the coluseum to lay down my life.  I will listen only to HIS voice, and only He will I follow...ONLY.
It is in the earthly matters that you are moved.  I will not be moved!  I will rise above circumstances.  I will walk my daily walk and attend to His voice and follow His guidance, and rise above.  My life is not determined by my circumstances, they are temporary and subject to change.  I am above it in heavenly realms.  I choose to walk here with Him.

That afternoon we got a call about selling the house.  God is so amazing and He wants a life surrendered to Him.
We left the house as scheduled on the 30th after much cleaning and help and hard work by my kids and some AMAZING! friends (Kristy Jones and Beverly Pope).  We attended a family wedding, then drove up to my parents house in the mountains of north Georgia.  We drove back down last Tuesday to close on the house.  We were scheduled to leave for Bulgaria on the 7th of October.  We received a call last Tuesday that a Roma/Gypsy leader had killed a 19 year old Bulgarian and that racial unrest was happening in the country.  The worst in more than a decade.  Our visas did not come in as scheduled and we were not able to fly out last Friday.  I am now reminded again of my resolve and that He is in control and will guide our every footstep.  Please help us pray for peace and racial healing in Bulgaria.  We LOVE you all and know we could NOT be doing this awesome walk with the Lord without our amazing partner support.  We will talk to you soon and keep you posted on the new travel dates.  God Bless!

Washington, D.C.

Well, friends, it has been a long road of American paperwork and Bulgarian translations, diplomatic governmental redtape and, finally, with all of our "homework" completed to the best of our ability, we went to apply in person at the Bulgarian consulate in Washington.  We received our paperwork back from Bulgaria all translated and ready to hand over.  These papers that had just travelled in the last two weeks to Bulgaria and back, arrived at our house Monday at noon and we were on the road by 3 pm.
We six packed in the car and headed out on our journey.
In Washington finally and excited to get all of this "work" turned in, we rushed into the office and handed over our paperwork.  All was in order except for one background check that wasn't to their specification.  We were a bit disappointed, but we decided to spend the rest of the afternoon roaming around the Lincoln Memorial, World War II Memorial, Washington Monument, and several of the Smithsonian Museums (they are all free and very worth it if you are heading there, but parking in DC is a nightmare).
We have come back home, searched for the correct background check and are hoping and PRAYING that the one we have now is sufficient.  I just went to Atlanta today to get the apostille seal on it, and we will be faxing it to the consulate tomorrow.  Our advocate (in Bulgaria) will also be calling them in the morning to explain our case, so PLEASE help us pray that we find favor in the eyes of these officials.  We also need these visas approved and returned in the next four weeks.  We have heard that this is difficult, but we KNOW nothing is impossible with God.  In my time this morning I read this scripture in Phil. 2:19-20, "For I KNOW that this shall turn out for my deliverance through your prayers and the provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, according to my earnest expectation and hope, that I shall not be put to shame in anything, but that with all boldness, Christ shall even now, as ALWAYS, be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death."

Please join with us in agreement that these things will work together for our good because we know Phil. 2:13 that, "it is God who is at work in us, both to will and to work for HIS good pleasure."

Off Our Feet

Our theme at church for many years has been about the river spoken of in Ezek. 47, and Pastor Keith has been talking in depth about the river for the last two Sundays.  Last Sunday, God really spoke to my heart about where I was in my walk into the river.  You might think...,"They are selling or giving all they own, leaving all of their family and friends, an amazing church family, good jobs, and a school family we have been a big part of for 12 years to follow the calling on their lives.  How much more in the river can you get?"
Well.... God is always calling us deeper isn't He?
He brought me back to last year when Jessie, Mitch, and I went white water rafting on the Nantahala River.  He showed me how I thought I knew what I was doing so decided not to go with a guide or a group, but instead took a small boat with Jessie.  Of course, Mitch knew how to do it and went in a boat on his own.  Which goes back to his independent spirit from the beginning as he told us before he began first grade, "I really don't need to go to first grade, Mom.  I already know how to read."
So Jessie and I had to work together without getting frustrated at one another, nor blaming one another for our constant mistakes.  We noticed after not too long how incredibly COLD the water was and how hard we had to work at paddling together.  We also noticed soon after that, that the closer we stayed to the edges of the river, the more we went round and round in circles and ended up not getting any progress done.  The more we stayed in the middle of the river, the deeper the water and the more progress we could make.  (See the spiritual stuff already?)
Anyway... we were making quite the progress and stride and feeling quite the experts WHEN we saw a large log stretched out across the river.  Tried as we might, we could not get to either side to avoid the log.  We hit it at the far right edge, the boat's backside turned and we were now stuck up against and alongside the log.  Because of the force of the river, the boat then began to tilt and fill with water.  Before I knew it we were dumped out!  As I tried to get to my feet (this seemed to be at a place in the river that was about thigh deep) and go against all training I had just had about "if you find yourself capsized, DO NOT TRY TO STAND UP, but let the river take you and find a way to get to the side."  But they did not understand, as I looked to the side, my Jessie was out of the boat and the river's strength had pushed her under the log and all I saw was her head sticking up and the look of panic on her face.  I had to be strong and save my child.
I used all the strength (probably that mama adrenaline that they talk about) and jerked that girl up from under the log.  Yay, right?  Well, yes and then we were left with the dilemma of our boat stuck now under this log and standing in rapids.  This is when I cried, "Jesus!"
Out of nowhere, comes this long blonde haired guy on a surf board.  We push the boat out from under the log, he jumps in to the boat and paddles up to us and we jump in.  He was my surfer angel "dude".  We were safe!
Now, back to the river analogy that God whispered to my heart Sunday after church.  "Dee Dee, where are you in the river?"  I replied, "In the middle of the rapids, Lord, but I'm on my feet."
He said so gently, "It's time to let go."  Wow how the tears flowed!
My prayer since that moment every morning is "Lord, I'm off my feet today.  Let the river take me.  I will enjoy the river ride.  Life is an adventure with you."
Every day since Sunday this week has been one amazing story after another.  I just wish I had the time t share them all.  I will/must share one!
Yesterday, we had our physicals and then were heading up to Atlanta to take care of opening an account that will be beneficial since we will be doing things internationally.  On the way to Atlanta I heard in my heart Marietta Diner.  I dismissed it and thought strange and moved on.  Again, Marietta Diner...I thought, "I've never been there but I've heard it's good...strange."
We got to Peachtree St. to do our business and there are lots of great restaurants around.  We were looking for a place to have lunch, but nothing looked good.  Again, I hear, "Marietta Diner."
So we got back in the car, punched Marietta Diner into the GPS and headed the 20 minutes out of the way to Marietta Diner.
When we get there, the host takes us to a booth, but at the last minutes swerves and places us at a different booth.  No big deal....
Our waitress takes our order and we notice that she has an accent.  I tell Chance, "Ask where she's from."
So as she comes back, we ask her and she says, "Bulgaria."  We proceeded to have the most amazing conversation about Bulgaria, the language, the culture, the do's and don'ts, the places to go, websites to help, etc. etc etc.  We exchange emails and she invites us to the coast on the Black Sea where her family lives and would like for us to stay in her apartment in Burgas when we visit.
We have met now a friend for life in one afternoon all because God whispered, "Get off your feet."
He may ask something of us and it may seem like a huge sacrifice, but the adventure He wants to take us on is sooooo much better!
God Bless and have an OFF YOUR FEET DAY!

Language study

Хвалете Господа!  Ние сме само на осем седмици разстояние от въртящи се!  This means Praise the Lord!  We move in eight more weeks!
We have been studying hard and trying to find the similar sounds for the alphabet.  Bs are Vs and p's are r's.  Once you can figure out the puzzle, it doesn't seem so foreign.  We still are drilling a lot of vocabulary and will move into word endings.  Bulgaria is like most other languages in the world that they change endings depending on the words around it and whether they are masculine or feminine.  This is very different from English, so it should be fun to retrain our brains for that.
We now have all paper work finished and ready to mail off to the translators.  When that comes back from Bulgaria, we can then head to the consulate in D.C. for visas.  
We have also been teaching our children the classes that we learned while at training/orientation.  We think as teenagers and an 8 year old, they will need to be as equipped as us for the culture shock, health and safety and the changes we will be encountering in the next coming months. 
The kids will be going through a class at church next Monday to help them see their spiritual gifts.  We're excited for them to be able to understand how God wants to use them in Bulgaria!    Our "commissioning" Sunday is September 18th.  This will be our last Sunday at Christ Community and the church will be praying for us and sending us out.  We would love for our friends and family to join us for this special event.  Consider this your official invitation!
We love you and thank you again for partnering, following, praying, and believing in the work God has called us to! 

Training in the Dominican

We left Monday and flew to Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic.  We were attending training through the Free Methodist VISA program that has been sending missionaries out since some time in the 60s.  They had a vast knowledge of what to expect as we plan to leave, and also as we get settled in Bulgaria.  We had many classes and learned a great deal.  We also met some AMAZING people that are heading out to Africa (Kenya and Rowanda) and a good many heading to Asia.

We are now back home and begin a week of paperwork getting the final things off so that we can get to Washington, D.C. to the consulate for our visas.  Please help us pray for this leg of the race as we count down the last 9 weeks here in the states.  There are so many daily reminders that this journey will have many obvious and hidden rewards and gains, but also obvious and hidden challenges.  Thank you so much for your prayers and partnership in this.  God is so amazing, and we are so very thankful for family, friends, prayer partners, and those that are joined with us in their hearts.  It makes all the difference in the world!

Busy Week

We have had quite a busy week!  Al and Diane Mellinger were visiting.  They are the missionaries that have been in Bulgaria for 4 years and planted the seed 3 years ago of us possibly coming to help them one day.  We spent three days discussing plans and talking about "household" issues.  We will be living in their home in Petrich, Bulgaria the month of October while they are here in the states and we will be going out with our friend Peggy to locate a home of our own in the town of Samokov, Bulgaria.
Before they got here, we spent a week going through each room of the house and going down to the bare necessities that we need to live off of for the next 11 weeks.  Many items were donated to Highland church in Bibb City. (A man who told me that he lives in the woods got my Pampered Chef stone that makes great pizza and plans to cook on the stone to make his bacon and eggs over the fire.  How awesome is that?)  Items are being a blessing already!  Alan's toys were given to Valley Rescue for their Christmas toy give away.  Books were given to a local church that has felt led to begin a bookstore in their church.  Furniture was given to a newly married couple that had little furniture to begin their life together.  God is good!
Today a Sunday school group is outside cleaning up our yard and making it look beautiful for the people God is sending this way to purchase it!  How humbling and what a blessing!  Special thanks to David, Bailie, Randall and Brianna!
We leave Sunday to go to Atlanta and then fly out Monday morning for a week of classes and training in the Dominican Republic.
Joy Crumpton and Pam Bone are planning to set up a yard sale in the next month or two to help with fundraising.  If you are interested in helping or donating, please contact them!
The fundraising process has been amazing!  God is so good!  We still need around $30,000 if you feel led to partner and connect with this calling on a monthly basis or one-time gift.
God Bless and remember there is Freedom in Christ!
The Galloways
Chance, Dee Dee, Mitch, Catherine, Jessie, and Alan