Hope

Almost twenty years ago Dee Dee and I started dreaming about travels we would be doing as a couple during our marriage.  We would share with each other different places from all around the world and most of the places were different except for one place, Scotland.  Being a Galloway whose family came to the United States in the late 1700’s from Scotland, we have documented history of a Galloway dying in Scotland around 1100 in Edinburgh.  We also discovered early in our marriage that the Dee River ran through the region of Galloway in Scotland.  Dee Dee started making the statement that one day she would stand on the Dee River in Galloway and take a picture.  After many children and lots of financial losses through the years it seemed we would never see this event ever happen in our lifetime.  This did not stop Dee Dee from saying that one day she was going to take a picture on the Dee River in Galloway.  After becoming missionaries in Bulgaria I never imagined that Dee Dee’s dream would ever come true.  Then by a miracle, from a grant to attend a minister’s conference in Birmingham, England, Dee Dee got to experience her dream.  I now recall that she keep saying I’m going to have my picture taken on the Dee river in Galloway and I started picturing her standing beside the river taking a picture.  When I snapped the picture this week of her at the river, God did it better than I had imagined, Dee Dee was standing the Dee bridge on top of the Dee River in Galloway.  So what is this simple lesson, Hebrews 11:1 now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.  I want to focus on the word hope, without hope, faith could not be the substance.  Hope is the ability to imagine or visualize something in your mind, like the picture of Dee Dee standing by the Dee River.  After years of confessing and believing, with hope, this dream finally came true.  It did not just happen, it was first hoped for, then a picture was formed in her mind twenty years ago, and then God did more than we could have imagined.  “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.”  Ps. 37:4

It is What it is (some random thoughts)

We have been living in Bulgaria for some time and the Galloway family has a saying… “It Is What It Is”.  I cannot remember when we originally began saying it or how it became a part of our everyday lives, but it is now what we say when things happen here in Bulgaria that are the way they are.  It is how we cope with the different way of doing things.

My son says it is an Alabama saying, but I have heard it here in Bulgaria and from other Americans also, so who knows.  We realize that when you encounter a different culture it will not be the same as the culture that you are used to.  We have to embrace the differences and realize that it is not better or worse, it is just different.  Here are some differences:

       

 Driving and Roads:

     Every two-lane road is actually a three-lane road (pass at your own risk). There are pot holes in the road that will damage your car.  There are some big potholes!  We call them pot graves because some you could bury a person in. The Police are constantly pulling people over to the side of road for “inspection”. You park your car wherever there is some space (middle of road, sidewalk, etc.) There is no warning about workers ahead…pay attention.

           

·      Beaches

  The sand is very different from Gulf Coast beaches….coarser.

   Some topless and completely nude people…ages 2 to 80.

           

·      Food

   You cannot find a rib eye steak or any other steak for that matter!

   All the restaurant menus are the same.

   Best vegetable and fruits I’ve ever had in my life.

·      People

   Eastern Europeans are very family oriented.

   Public urination is not against the law.
  Women will clean the urinal next to you while you are doing your business.

   Some bathrooms are equipped with a hole in the ground only.
   Eastern Europeans will use a tool until it is absolutely broken and will use anything to       get the job done.

We have enjoyed getting to experience life from a different perspective.  Eastern Europe is a fascinating place; it has a lot of beauty and history.  Growing up in America we heard a lot about Greece and Italy, but because the Ottoman and Communist governments hid Bulgaria from us, we did not realize all the history and beauty here.  We enjoy getting to unfold and learn all about this hidden treasure of a country and learning all of the differences of how things are done and of course we continue to say, “It is what it is”.

Perfect Love Casts Out Fear

For years I have been trying to understand a certain passage in the Bible. The verse is:

1 John 4:18
There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

I have listened to many pastors, teachers, evangelist, and instructors. I have read many opinions on this subject, also studied the Bible, and meditated the verses dealing with love. But in my life I have had doubts, unbelief and placed myself under condemnation in some way, which opens the door to fear. We all know that fear does have punishment that comes with it, in the form of torment. I am not unfamiliar with love; I know God loved us so much He sent His Son. God introduce me to my wife (the love of my life) and we have four kids that I love with all my heart. God saved my wife from cancer by His love. Also God has saved me hundreds of times in my lifetime. I was a “chance” in a million to even be born (hence the name Chance) and I am alive and well today doing missionary work in Bulgaria. I still struggled with this verse in understanding the full meaning of “no fear in love”, that is, until yesterday.

I am the type person that God has to occasionally hit over the head with a 2x4 to get my attention. Yesterday God showed me what love is about in His unique way concerning me (no 2X4 this time). Dee Dee and I took a friend and his family to visit his mother. When we arrived at the home for women in the mountains, several women came running to the front gate to greet my friend. One of the caretakers came to the gate and was informed he wanted to see his mother. We were going to take her and have a picnic under the apple tree beside the home. While this is going on Dee Dee and I were sitting in the car waiting and then I noticed the caretaker escorting an elderly lady. All of a sudden the elderly lady stopped, the caretaker starting pulling the elderly lady. The elderly lady sat on the ground, the caretaker started dragging her, and then the elderly lady pulled away from the caretaker in absolute fear, hiding in some bushes. The caretaker walked up to the gate and let my friend in the front gate, at the same time the elderly lady crawled out from under the bushes and was sprinting away in the opposite direction of the caretaker. Then my friend starting calling, “Momma, momma!”  At this point the elderly lady saw her son and came running….all of her doubts, unbelief and fears were gone…she was running to her son. After kissing and hugging her son in an unbelievable embrace, Dee Dee and I wiped the tears from our eyes and looked at each other and said, “Love casts out fear”!

When we start learning how much God loves us and realize that He cares for us, we can start to walk in that love. We have to start by getting to know God, and knowing that He is the God of love.  To run to His perfect, loving embrace and let it cast all of our fears away.

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?

Unique

We just spent a week with the Christ Community Church mission team in Kyustendil, Bulgaria. I think it would be impossible to describe all that happened in such a short period of time.  I could start with the two Sunday services we attended or the 160 Roma children that learned Bible lessons, sports and songs for five days.  I could describe working with the orphans, elderly or street evangelism, but I want to talk about is the uniqueness of our God.  I am reminded of the scripture:

Lamentations 3:22-23 (NCV)

22 The Lord's love never ends;

       His mercies never stop.

 23 They are new every morning;

       Lord, Your loyalty is great.

Definition of New

1.   Having been made or come into being only a short time ago; recent: 2. Still fresh 3. Not previously experienced or encountered; novel or unfamiliar:

I wanted to share about how God surprised us this week, which was new or not previously experienced.  We laughed about how these surprises brought us encouragement and even joked how we (Chance and Dee Dee) had arranged all these strange consequences.  I thought of the movie “Funny Farm” when Andy (Chevy Chase) and Elizabeth Farmer had compensated the town in order to sell their house.  As a prospective buyer looked out the window of Andy’s house he said, “Que the deer!” and the deer ran across the yard in order to impress the buyers.  We, as a team, could never have arranged all the unique experiences God had in store for our group.  I know by now you want to know what happened, so here we go:

1.    One member of the group was baptized in a cold river on Mt. Osogovo during our end of the week picnic.

2.    A shepherd walked up with his sheep during this picnic and explained about his sheep and goats.

3.    A missionary from South Africa came and gave his testimony about his daughter and their work with orphans in Bulgaria.

4.    The Pastors of a church in Kyustendil came by and delivered ice cream for the mission team.

5.    A local pastor’s wife gave a testimony about Bulgarian churches during Communist times.

6.    A former Bulgarian solider testified about Communist times and how the church was tested.

7.    We got to experience the Roman baths.

8.    How God moved on the hearts of the Roma people while we were praying during street evangelism.

9.    Americans singing “How He Loves” to the Roma during street evangelism.

10. While in Sofiia on our last day, a Bulgarian always showed up right on time to show us around town which was not scheduled AT ALL.

11.Washing the feet of the Roma that served us lunch all week was more than words can express.

We as a grouped cried…. And… cried during all the happenings during this week.  We are thankful for God’s love and grace during this trip and we know that without organization you cannot have the power of the Holy Spirit.  Even if the same group came next year and we planned things exactly the same, because of God’s uniqueness or new mercies it would be completely different.  I am reminded as a member of the Body of Jesus Christ we desire the same, but we need to embrace His unique new mercies everyday and experience His love and grace.

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!