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!

My friend

A few days ago, I had a thought about an old friend of mine when I came across a song that he liked so much back in the day.  I’m almost too embarrassed to mention the song but it was Neil Diamond’s “Hello Again”.  The song references “I just called to say hello” and my ole friend would always call me and say hello.  I have some very fond memories of him because we grew up together.   We would talk for hours about football, girls, and every other subject meaningful to a boy growing up in the south.  We also argued about church things, especially the Methodist and Pentecostal movements (he would be surprised I’m a missionary today).  I was with him through many of his girlfriends and a couple of his marriages, with him through the death of his dad and brother in law.  After the divorce from his first wife, these pains took their toll on his life, and he began to battle with alcohol.  We both had our struggles with alcohol, but dealing with the grief, guilt, and failure of his life was very hard for him to handle.  We had many conversations over his last days, and he was consumed with his past (before all the tragedies in his life had occurred).  He just did not want to talk about the future or face the reality of today.  He had such a fear of the future and did not want to take any more chances, because he did not want to fail again.  He was such a big part of my life, and I still miss him to this day.

Years before his death, my life was spinning out of control.  I was struggling with alcohol and drugs and unable to let go of the past and face the future.  I had made a mess of my life with my family and friends.  As I happened to be sitting in jail as a result of my actions (solitaire confinement to be exact), it was the first time I was able to think about all my actions and deal with the guilt.  I knelt down by the cot in the jail cell and told the Lord, “Not my way anymore, but Your way!”  That was the day the Lord forgave me, and I forgave myself.  I still, to this day, ask people to forgive me for all of my actions.  Please forgive me.  I let go of what had been holding me back all those years and gave it to the one person who could take it, Jesus.  I was ready to face the future with no fear and no guilt.  Now, giving to God is the easy part, but walking it out everyday, was, and still is the harder part.  I do not want to limit God in my life anymore.

I tried my best to reach my friend and tell him that there is another way and let’s face the future together.  He knew his destiny was heaven, but he was not willing to face the reality of today.  The lesson I’m sharing today is to always humble yourself (submit), repent (change your mind), confess everything (and give it to God), take the limits off of God in your life and see how everything changes!

Paperwork

Fun day!
We have been going through paperwork here in Bulgaria since around January.  It is always fun to find out what you need, how it is not enough, or how it has just expired and you need another one.  We truly give our lawyer plenty of work to do.
We recently had to get FBI criminal background checks processed and sent from America to Bulgaria.  (I won't bore you with the details and length of this process, but began back in Feb.)  They were finally obtained in America and sent to Bulgaria via my amazing parents.  We were on a time crunch, but we had gotten an extension so we had three weeks to get it here.  Priority mail in the states costs around $17 to get it here and states that it takes 6 to 10 business days.  DHL or UPS is about $130, so we opted for the cheaper and figured we had time.  I should also state that we are not familiar with the mail here and how it works.  We just put up a mailbox with our name on it for these documents specifically and checked everyday for the notice they said would get placed in the locked mailbox.  They were sent Apr. 24 from Atlanta.  On May 7, I went with a friend here to the post office to check on them and was told they had not arrived.
By May 14 the lawyer called and said the police stated that they must be here by the 23rd (and apostilled and translated) or we would have to leave the country.  This is when you send prayer requests to prayer partners :D
The next morning (thanks to prayers) the police officer told our lawyer that if we sent the unofficial copies he would accept them and give us another extension, praise the Lord! (but of course this meant more paperwork)
So, our lawyer comes to our town (I've lost count of how many times she has had to take the bus to our town from the capital to help us), to help us submit the extension papers.  While we are there I am apologizing for not using the faster service, thanking him for his extension, and made a joke, "Wouldn't it be funny if they are sitting at the post office right now?"
So afterwards, I asked our lawyer if she would go to the post office with us just to check.  Guess what?  They were there!  And had been there since May 7!  (The lady said someone must have stolen our notice.)
We ran them back to the police officer and we all had a good laugh!  We are currently getting them translated and sealed and go back Monday to present them.  Please help us pray for the finalization of these documents.  This will give us legal residency status until next year.
This reminds me of how God has provided for us "Everything pertaining to life and godliness" (2 Pet. 1:3), but how the enemy or people or circumstances sometimes make it seem we are at a loss.  The good thing is that we weren't emotional or fearful about the situation in any way.  We knew God called us here, and He would see it through.
The documents were there the whole time...sometimes we just need a little wisdom and persistence to see it.

Catherine

A little over 16 yrs. and 4 months ago, I found out that I had cancer.  If having cancer in your lymphnodes is not bad enough, I also happened to be 4 months pregnant at the time.  Many doctor visits, tests, and a biopsy later, the option was given to me, one option...terminate the pregnancy and receive treatment immediately.  The cancer would infact, "spread through you like wildfire" due to your pregnant condition because your body is built to protect the baby at all costs and not you, therefore, all of your immunities will be going to this baby and not you.

Being a young mother of Mitch already and fairly new at all of this Christian stuff, there were many things to think about and consider.  Much advice came from all around.  It wasn't until I was driving in the car and heard a scripture that I gained all clarity.  Deut. 30:19, "choose life, not death, blessings not curses, and both you and your seed will live."

I figured if I am truly doing this Christian thing, if God has my back and He says this....there is truly no other way to go.  I will be true to my faith, my convictions, to who I say that I am.  

Chance and I thanked the doctors for all of their help and advice, but told them that we had made our choice.  Catherine and I both would be in God's hands.  He told me to go home, that there was nothing they could do...not even an xray to see how far the cancer was in my body.

Prov. says that the word is medicine to your flesh, Psalm says the righteous cry and the Lord hears and delivers them out of all of their troubles.  He says He is near to the broken hearted and saves those of a contrite spirit.  I lived all day taking my Word medicine.

Catherine Elizabeth Galloway was born on the National Day of Prayer in America, Thursday, May 2, 1996, weighing 5 lbs. and 6 oz.  She was a little ball of fight and muscle.  She is turning 16 today, and I have to say that God is so true to His Word.  He is not a man that He should lie....and His word does not come back void.

I am so proud of the awesome young lady that she has become!  Still a ball of fight and muscle.  Loves her friends and family and softball with great passion, is so strong on her convictions and draws children in from all around no matter where we are.  She has one of the greatest sense of humors I know.  Your dad and I love you so much and are so proud of you for sacrificing so much to come to Bulgaria with us.  You are the awesomeness of Catherine!  Thank you God for your faithfulness and thank you for blessing us with this gift.

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.

"We are as grasshoppers"

During my devotion this morning, I heard something that was quite profound.  Go with me here as I lead with a personal example and bring it all back together.
Many times in my life the Holy Spirit has given me wisdom and helped me in the raising of my children (praise the Lord).  I would not always know the exact place in the Bible where to back up this wisdom, but many times through my studying the Word, would come across things in the Word that confirmed what the Holy Spirit had taught me in my cry as a mother for wisdom in raising my kids.
They are 16, 15, 14, and 8 right now.  In elementary school and especially middle school, children need to be firm in who they are, but at this age it is tested and retested.  Peer pressure and name calling is rampant throughout these ages.  My children would come home at a young age and say, "..... called me this" or "....said I was....".  I would always tell them, "Are you this?  Is this who YOU say you are?  Is this true to be what you know about yourself?  Is this true about what God says about you?"  The answer would always be, "No."  Then I would say, "Then what does it matter?  Why should it move you?  The only truth that matters is what God thinks of us and what we think of ourselves.  People will always try to get you to change those two things, but if you are firm in who you are, you will never be moved."
So this morning I heard a word confirmation on this advice.  We know the story in the Bible of the spies that are sent out to check out the land and they come back with the report that there are giants in the land.  The next statement is what stood out the most to me..."and we are as grasshoppers in their eyes."  They did not ask the giants what they thought of them.  This was their image of THEMSELVES.  This image of themselves was not the image God had of them.  This wrong image of themselves kept them from entering the promised land.  The image they had of themselves.
As I tie this all together, we as parents try to ground our children and have them rooted strongly in confidence and in knowing who they are and not to be moved by outward circumstances.
It makes me question us even as adults, "Who do you say you are?  What is it you believe about yourself?  Is this true about what God says about you?"
In this world there will always be prejudices, racism, and even in small clusters like a middle school you will have those usurping and ranking themselves.  It even goes back to the message we have here in Bulgaria as we are teaching the Roma.   The question still goes back to "what image do you have of yourself"?  How do you see yourself?  Will you believe what others say you are?  Will you be put in the category others put you in?  Will you rise and be who you are and who God says you are?
His Beloved, bought with a price, valuable, and created for His purpose in such a time as this!

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.