Friday, Al and Diane Mellinger came up to Kyustendil with a new member of our team named Mark that just came to Bulgaria Dec. 29th from Michigan. He plans to be here for 7 to 8 months.
Saturday, Al and Chance went to Samokov to have a meeting with many of the Roma pastors from all around the region to set the teen conferences and pastor trainings schedule for this year.
Sunday, Peggy and her husband and son came up to help us translate and Al took us to a Bulgarian church (which we found out is a stone's throw from our house) and introduced us to the church members there. Our three teenagers and Mark went back to the Bulgarian church for their teen activity that afternoon at 3. I have explained before how the two (Bulgarian and Roma) don't usually do many things together. While the teens were there, they explained how they had to leave at 4:30 to be able to go to the Roma service that evening and Jessie explained how to her, "God loves everyone the same."
So we get a text from Catherine telling us that several of the teens would like to go to the Roma service that evening and asked if they could go with us. We said, "Certainly!" So our group of 12 met them on the street corner and they (being 8 of them!) followed us to the church. So our group of 20 joined the Roma service last night and we all (Roma, Bulgarian, and American) worshipped the Lord of Lords and King of Kings together last night. It was powerful and amazing! Sometimes all it takes is for an outsider to come in and bridge the gap...and praise the Lord for teenagers to come in and show God's love. His love is cross cultural and breaks barriers!
Monday (today) was Diane's birthday and we went to brunch together to celebrate. We are now home and our company has gone back. We are going to rest after having company and cooking 3 meals a day for 9-12 people for 3 days. Whew! It was so good to have them here...it is good to have a feeling of family here while we are separated from ours back in the states.
We are basking in His goodness and thanking the many others that have gone before us to pave the road that we are walking. Many seeds have been planted in Bulgaria over the many years before us, and we are seeing God's growth due to those that have gone before us! Thank you to all of those who pray for us and keep us lifted up...it means so much!
Saturday, Al and Chance went to Samokov to have a meeting with many of the Roma pastors from all around the region to set the teen conferences and pastor trainings schedule for this year.
Sunday, Peggy and her husband and son came up to help us translate and Al took us to a Bulgarian church (which we found out is a stone's throw from our house) and introduced us to the church members there. Our three teenagers and Mark went back to the Bulgarian church for their teen activity that afternoon at 3. I have explained before how the two (Bulgarian and Roma) don't usually do many things together. While the teens were there, they explained how they had to leave at 4:30 to be able to go to the Roma service that evening and Jessie explained how to her, "God loves everyone the same."
So we get a text from Catherine telling us that several of the teens would like to go to the Roma service that evening and asked if they could go with us. We said, "Certainly!" So our group of 12 met them on the street corner and they (being 8 of them!) followed us to the church. So our group of 20 joined the Roma service last night and we all (Roma, Bulgarian, and American) worshipped the Lord of Lords and King of Kings together last night. It was powerful and amazing! Sometimes all it takes is for an outsider to come in and bridge the gap...and praise the Lord for teenagers to come in and show God's love. His love is cross cultural and breaks barriers!
Monday (today) was Diane's birthday and we went to brunch together to celebrate. We are now home and our company has gone back. We are going to rest after having company and cooking 3 meals a day for 9-12 people for 3 days. Whew! It was so good to have them here...it is good to have a feeling of family here while we are separated from ours back in the states.
We are basking in His goodness and thanking the many others that have gone before us to pave the road that we are walking. Many seeds have been planted in Bulgaria over the many years before us, and we are seeing God's growth due to those that have gone before us! Thank you to all of those who pray for us and keep us lifted up...it means so much!
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