Love is the only way

Over the past few weeks we have been busy with an amazing teen conference, several women’s conferences, church services, and visiting a summer camp for orphans.  We try to share insights that we get during the month in our blog, and with everything that has happened, we have come away with many insights.  

A group from Kyustendil (our home town and the church we work very closely with) was able to attend the large teen conference called Love Bulgaria that we were privileged to help with this year.  The group was led by Roddy, who was responsible for five other people from his church. Roddy participated in the sports group for street evangelism.  This is when we go to a village and play soccer (football) involving the community with the purpose of sharing the Gospel.  Roddy was always quick to volunteer and anything he could do to help, he came with a heart of humility and love.  As we did the evangelism, Roddy was always obeying the leaders in charge of the groups and as a member of his team he also participated in playing.  Roddy made a point to pass to open teammates and play any position on the field that would help his team win.  Roddy showed no prejudice to any race and always made a point to praise any good play on the field.  Roddy was the first to volunteer to give his testimony, and he shared his testimony on the last day of evangelism in the city of Razlog.  While Roddy was involved with sports, he looked after his group from Kyustendil like a father looks after his children.  He made sure they attended all events , he protected them, and made sure every need within his group was taken care of with a heart of humility and love.  As I watched Roddy, I was very impressed with his behavior and the attitude he displayed all week.  The week ended a great success!

One of the last things we did this month was to visit a camp held each year near our town for orphans.  We got to see the Bible dramas being told to the young children and listen to them sing praise songs to God.  The staff was made up of teens and young adults from all over the world, coming together in love to share the Gospel of Jesus.  All the children in this camp were very poor Roma children.  They were getting to experience the Love of God for the first time.  The staff is from different countries, races and denominations to share their love with children who have never experienced love of any kind.  You may be asking what does this camp have to do with Roddy?  Well, Roddy is an orphan.  Roddy is Roma.  And Roddy’s testimony is that as a child he attended this camp when he was a young boy and experienced the Love of Christ for the first time.

The Love of God is the greatest evangelistic tool.  “By this all men will KNOW that you are my disciples, if you have LOVE one for another.”

Idols

I have been reading from the beginning of the Bible since I arrived in Bulgaria 8 months ago and I am in Isaiah now.  After reading through the Old Testament and how they would turn to idols and other gods so easily, I began to pray about the word "idol" and make it relevant to me.  I wanted to understand in my easy 3rd grade teacher mind, how this word would apply to my life.  I prayed and asked God to reveal this to me.
The other day as we were driving through the Thracian valley in the middle of Bulgaria in the most furtile parts of the country, I was talking and the answer just came out of my mouth.  I was talking about how we as humans put value on things.  Earthly things only are valuable in regards to how much value we place on it.  If we pay alot for something, we deem it valuable.  If it is a family heirloom, we may value it.  This is why we love to watch shows like "Antique Roadshow", because we see value in things we may not have valued before.
We, as humans, have this power of value that we can place onto things and also onto other people (or lack of value, however).
It causes me to think about the things and people that I value in my life.  As far as people go, of course, my faith, my family (my husband and our four AMAZING kids) and friends are the most valuable to me.  People I would die for...
As far as things/possessions, well, I've already let go of most things I valued already (like the Keiurig coffee maker and the Dyson vacuum cleaner).  You might say my laptop or some other thing of monetary value might rank at the top, but  I really would say my Bible.  I know, how cliche, a missionary loves her Bible....but I really do.  It is the most valuable thing to me...I really like it.  I lost it (or left it at the mission house we were staying at in the hussle and bussle of moving) and had to begin in a new Bible.  I like it ok, but the team brought mine back to me last week.  I liked the Dukes and the hot sauce, even the M & Ms, and the beef jerky they brought to us, but my Bible was back home with me.
Anyway, back to idols and the value we put on things.
This was just my assessment of the things I value.  We should all ask ourselves, what we value most...
I believe an idol becomes anything that we OVERvalue.  The idols of the Old Testament were old skulls put on a mantle and worshipped.  Graven images that became as gods.  They took ordinary things and overvalued them.  Made them worth more than they really were.
What have you overvalued?  If everyone else says, that's not really worth much, but in your eyes it's worth more than money could buy, has it become an idol to you?
Can you not sell your house because you have overvalued it?  Can you not let go of something because it is worth too much to you?  Has it then become an idol?  This, for me, is now my "idol test".  Have I OVERvalued an object, a person, or even a tradition?

The Rila Monastery

Monday we picked up our first summer guest, Gantt Bone.  He is a 17 years old that decided to forgo his summer and come spend the entire 9 weeks in Bulgaria with us.  We are so excited to have him here to join us with all God has in store for this summer.  We will definitely be keeping him busy with all the activities we have planned this summer and we will keep everyone posted as we go.

We decided to introduce him to Bulgaria this week as his sleep patterns get "adjusted".  Plus the fact that I've wanted to visit the Rila Monastery for 5 years and have just not been able to get there yet.  When we arrived in November it was too cold, and when the snow finally melted last month, the rain started in.  So, needless to say, when I saw the slightest ray of sunshine today, I said, "Today is the day!"

It was so beautiful and entirely worth the wait.  If you would like to learn more about the monastery, you should look it up!  A monk came to these mountains and lived in a cave up here in the 10 century.  It is one of Bulgaria's most famous and important landmarks.  The colors in the church and in the paintings are amazing!

The Rila is also the tallest mountain in the Balkan region.  I can't wait until it gets a little bit warmer and we will be hiking up to the Seven Lakes even higher in elevation than the monastery.

There is also a beautiful river up there and you might even get to see some pigs along side the road on your way back down the mountain!

Ruse

Friday we left early and drove across Bulgaria and were able to see sights and places we had never seen before.  We had heard Ruse was called "Little Vienna", and I have heard many great things about a town called Veliko Tarnovo.
We first drove to Etropole in the Balkan Mountains to pick up Rossen, our translator, then over to Veliko Tarnovo.  This city took my breath away!  It was on the side of a large hill/small mountain that overlooked another canyon and on the other side was another large hill/mountain with a beautiful castle on top.  The geological rocks that jutted out were amazing.  I have travelled to many European cities, and I will have to say, Veliko Tarnovo is one of the most beautiful cities I have ever seen.  We were looking also while we were there for an Irish restaurant/pub that I had seen on the show House Hunter's International.  We were able to drive through the town, but some streets were blocked off, so we didn't find it this time.  We will definitely go back to this city later to visit!
We arrived in Ruse and had a discussion question at a church there in the city center. (It is a church completely underground right under the city.)  The next morning we had a full day of worship, teaching, testimonies, and workshops.  The teens of Ruse are wonderful!
We left early Sunday morning for Shumen, hoping to meet some pastors from England that are working there.  About 8 km outside of Shumen we heard a POP! and then the temperature in the car began to RISE.  We got out and checked and the tension wheel that turns the serpenine belt had popped off.  So we basically coasted into Shumen and prayed.  When we arrived, we stopped at the gas station and asked for a mechanic (being Sunday we were a little concerned), and he said he had just seen him going up to his shop.  We got to the shop and he fixed the car.  He said he never comes in on Sundays because that is his fishing day, he just happened to need to go to the shop for a minute.  When he told us the price to fix the car, we had the EXACT amount on us.
We thanked him and then preceeded to find the church and the pastor.  (The number we had to reach them didn't work).  A nice lady walked us through town to their church and we were able to stay to hear half of the service and then go to lunch with them afterwards.  It was such a God moment :D
After that we had seven hours of driving back to the house.  We have made it safely back home and spent yesterday RESTING!
Here are a few pictures of Veliko Tarnovo (not mine, I just wanted you to see how beautiful) and two of Ruse we took.

Opportunities

God has been talking to my heart over the last 6 weeks about this word...opportunities.  We as parents want/wish to give our children every opportunity we can to help them to be a better person.  We introduce them to different sports, different people, different activities, and different foods.  We do this to make sure they are given every opportunity to better themselves or to be anything they want to be.
Growing up I was given great opportunities that my parents worked very hard to give us.  We then become adults and choose to walk away with the opportunities we want.  I can't begin to name all of the opportunities my parents gave me, but I would like to list 3 main ones.  First, was education.  My parents knew that education was very important.  They would find the best public school in a city and then find the closest house for sale.  Education mattered.  Second, speech.  My mother would constantly look me in the face to correct my speech.  Third, people.  I was not raised to belittle another race nor look down on anyone, no matter their status.
I remember this lesson of "opportunities" was ingrained into me through a situation I found myself in when we lived in Bibb City (a poorer section of our town) in my twenties.  Chance and I were living in a staff house at a local homeless shelter.  I was given the opportunity to help a young girl in her twenties just like me, with small children, just like me.  The only difference between the two of us were the opportunities given to each of us growing up.  Her speech was different and her education was different.  I saw us as no different other than the fact that I had been given different opportunities.  This reminded me of the movie "My Fair Lady" in which the professor takes a lady away from the poor part of town, educates her and perfects her speech and tries to pass her off as royalty.  These are opportunities.
In America, "the land of opportunity" the opportunities are vast.  Being here in Bulgaria, I saw this desire to be more like America in dress, slogans, and pop culture, but I believe the desire to be like America, comes more in the opportunities available.  In America you are told you can be anything you want when you grow up.  You can take advantage (if you work hard enough) of every opportunity America gives you.  Many choose to take advantage, but many don't.
We, here on the mission field, want to give opportunities to those wanting to choose them.  An opportunity to move from the kingdom of darkness and into God's glorious loving kingdom, an opportunity to learn God's word and become a disciple and live in freedom and victory, an opportunity to learn English so that more opportunities are given to them, and an opportunity to change the world.

God is good!

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!

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!