Doghouses

[Abby]

"You can do no great things, only small things with great love"
-Mama T (Mother Theresa)

We are staying with a family who moved into their house 3 weeks before we came along. In addition they have been traveling back and forth between homes with their three children, one of which has Down’s Syndrome, attempting to finish the third story of their apartment-like building. The reason they could afford such a big place (all relative, of course) is because the rent was discounted due to the fact that the third story isn’t functional whatsoever. Rali, the wife, is going out of town in several days (ironically, to America) for a Christian conference. Bobby, the husband, helps run their church here, ministering constantly to others and providing almost continually for missionaries. The couple works day and night for Jesus. Then we arrived: nine extra people to care for and feed and assist.

Never once have they complained.

Bobby and Rali are two of the most loving, compassionate, and patient people I have ever met. They are constantly serving us at a time in their life when their schedules are so hectic, I hate to imagine what they sacrifice to meet our needs. They are honest about what they want us to do, which our whole team appreciates because it gives us opportunities to serve them as well. While we arrived, they sent their kids to stay with their grandparents so we could settle in. They come back tomorrow and they will be staying in the currently unfinished upstairs bedrooms. Despite our eagerness to jump into our “mission work” and “the reason we’re here”, our service was needed in their home the past two days. Our jobs?
1. Finish the upstairs with walls and floors, so it’s at least relatively possible for people to inhabit.
2. Clean our their garden/backyard area because it’s a mini jungle.
3. Build a doghouse out of an old chicken shed so that the neighbors don’t poison their dog because it’s acceptable in Bulgaria for that to happen if dogs are too noisy.

So yesterday, we were doing yard work, sawing wood, and laying brick walls for a dog that has too much slobber for it’s own good. Crowded around a table, debriefing, we all expressed essentially the same change of heart. At some point in our work we all made a complaint in our minds to the effect of “I raise $4000 to do this?” and then we realized that for now, for these few days, yes, we did raise $4000 to love and serve people who make a living out of loving and serving. Yes, we nine are here to build doghouses if that’s what needs to be done. We are here to do God’s work and if God’s work is pulling weeds in someone’s backyard, than pull weeds we will.

Everyone of us was humbled yesterday in our innocent missionary hearts. Prepared to move mountains in Bulgaria, we acknowledged that sometimes, to move mountains we must move the stones around it first. God is working though- in us, in the Stefanovs, and in our service. AmberLynn is an amazing cook. She’s going to make such a fantastic mom some day and the extent of her skills in domesticity seems to be endless. Chase is probably the hardest worker here and he hardly gets a moment’s rest because of it. Josh is growing every day and is willing to do any job. Whitney and Allison double as incredible gardeners and encouragers. Brian is his typical serious work self, but at the end of the day, the finished product speaks for itself. Howard is constantly versatile and contributes his strength to whatever project is available, even if it that means hauling wood for the neighbor next door. Amy and I have fun competing to see who can be the manliest woman and to be honest, we make a great team. At the end of the day, we are all happy to be here serving- even if it is in small things with great love.

A Message from the Front

AmberLynn: its day ten and I have now successfully managed to get on the computer twice! Perhaps God is just trying to break me of my obsessive face book habits or perhaps I’ve just found better ways to spend my limited amount of free time. In other news, we are about to leave Istanbul, this is truly sad, two days is no time to do justice to such a beautiful, rich city. The people are full of character and a genuine love of other people, foreigners or natives and that is truly rare and beautiful. I am truly sad to leave.

However, I cannot say that I am not excited to return to Shumen and to begin out work, after weeks of being apathetic about this whole ordeal I feel giddy at the prospect of serving! I want to be among the people and to serve them, and my heart is truly full of love for what we are here to do. Flexible pants are, of course, still a vital part of this mission, and I have no idea how God will use me to serve, but whatever He wishes, I am open.

In other news, I have yet to be owned on the narrow European stairs… although I’ve not escaped all embarrassing face plants thus far in the trip. Abby Chestnut, bless her, would like to comment on the status of foreign keyboards and how much she hates them and loves my American made computer. AmyJoy has put her hair up in the most adorable poof AND put on make up to match her outfit. Whitney has blow dried her hair and added a flower bobby pin the same color as her tank top. Allison has put her contacts back in and is faithfully strutting her aqua sunglasses. Howie still has not taken off his Tevas but did manage to buy two pairs of shoes at the bazaar yesterday. Brian has broken out his mad photography skills and matching outfits. Josh has raised his IQ twenty points in the accumulations of “things” he has purchased. And chase has saved the day with his speakers which are finitely less ghetto then Whitney’s. In short, as far away as we are from home, we really aren’t that different… the foreign country has not radically changed our personalities as of yet, but our hearts are another matter, He is working in us.

New Religion is My Song

Whitney: İstanbul has become my new favorite city. Even if I were blind I would still love this place. The smells, the choking humidity, hookah from every restaurant, the tea alone makes this trip worthwhile. But there is something here that makes us question who God is for a fleeting second. We are surrounded by İslam, something we rarely see in the states. İts amazing to see an entire nation sell their soals out to a lie that is so close to the truth...details off from the true gospel. But one thing ıs certain, they have more love for a lie than most Christians do for the truth. Some of our students have a hard time grasping how God can allow these people to go to hell when they are so reverent...İ think if we are honest, we can confess that we have thought the same thing now and again. But it soothes my heart to know that God is a god of love and he gives everyone the change. A religıon is just a religion without the gospel, but with the gospel its true love.

Pray for us as the Lord causes us to question and causes us to go looking for answers. İ love that he is challenging us here! Please pray for unity and that we could recognize real truth and help the people we meet to do the same. We love you all and miss you. The kids are shopping for gifts for all of you! Thank you for your continued prayer...we love you.

Istanbul!

Brian: Hello everyone! We are in Istanbul staying at the Big Apple Hostel. It is surprisingly nice. Traveling has made me very tired. So far we have had two 24 hour days. One flying across the Atlantic and the other driving to Istanbul from Sophia. It has been a little weird going from Bulgarian culture to Turkish culture in less then one week but seeing Hagia Sophia today made it all worth it. I was fascinated by the history that was represented by Hagia Sophia. I am a history nerd, what can I say. We also went across the street and visited the Blue Mosque. It was quite a difference! We went from a musium to a place of worship. One we had to pay money, the other, take off our shoes. I definatly learned the true meaning of the word decieved after leaving the mosque. The inside of the mosque was quite an exerience. First when we entered there was a line of seats where water faucets cleaned the feet and hands of those who wanted to enter. We of course did not use them. The courtyard was very busy with people walking about, and talking about various things, most of which, actually all of which I did not understand. It is incredible how much I can understand by simple opening my eyes and reading body language. Most people reviel what they are trying to say with their body language. Is there some statistic about 90% of communication being non verbal? Any way, Howard took a picture of a Turkish man playing with what looked like his grandaughter. The man was ammused that somebody was interested enough to take a picture of him. We then waited in a line to put our shoes into little bags. Shoes are not allowed to be worn in the mosque as a sign of respect for holy ground. A nice symbolic gesture. As we went in the smell of dirty feet hits me like a wall. The red carpet seems very inviting. All around us are people taking or praying. The visiters to the mosque are obvious. Everything in the mosque is geometric and pleasing to look at, and I get a strange pleasent feeling about the whole thing. Thats when it hit me that all these people are being decieved and it broke my heart. How appealing these old building are to humans! I am reminded of what Jesus said to the woman at the well. What a gift I have in the Holy Spirit, to have God with me. It seems like if that mosque or really any church like Hagia Sophia were the extent of my relationship with God, I would love the building more then the one who the building was for. But what does God really want, the kind gesture of a phenomenal piece of architecture, or a humble heart? How easily we are decieved.

Here in Sofia

Chase: Hey everyone, we are here and safe! It has been an ordeal, but fun nonetheless. We left on Wednesday at noon, and arrived in Sofia at about 1:15  Bulgaria time. It turns out that our 14 hours of flying turned into 24 hours of travel due to time zone differences. The funny thing is that it just feels like we have had a tough afternoon of travel, and the overnight part was just a blur. It really throws me off that it is actually Thursday afternoon, not Wednesday evening, oh well!

I have decided that jet lag is not very real. Sure I am tired, but once I go to sleep tonight, I should get accustomed to this time zone without any problems. I am rather happy about that. Our flights were long, but aside from Abby's troubles, we all handled it pretty well. Some have already gone and crashed upstairs, but that is discouraged as that will throw off our new schedule.

We have got connected with Marti and Didi, two super friendly Bulgarians who are connected to the Navigators. We are staying in some school dorms that he (Marti) teaches at. It is so cool to hear them talk about life and to each other in their native language. They are very neat people, already they have got us water, pizza, and watermelon, which by the way, was really good and fresh. yum. Luftansa was a really nice airline, and even though we only had a two and one half hour flight, we got fed a delightful amount. also yum.

We were warned about people trying to pull scams on us about money exchange and tours, and sure enough when we left the security at the airport, a man approached us and offered to show us around and how to have fun here and avoid, ironically enough, the people trying to trick us. It was good we were warned and were meeting people anyway.

Well, that's about it for today, as said abby, we are tired but happy, and mostly healthy. Prayer for our health and safety would be great.

Nausea, Customs, and Sofia Taxi Drivers

Abby: It began in the last hour of our overseas flight from Washington to Frankfurt. I awoke from an uncomfortable attempt at sleep to Chase telling me that he picked up my gluten-free food for me and had got me coffee. Although the gesture was very sweet, the sight of it prompted me to immediately go to the bathroom. After about 5 minutes of fighting an upset stomach I returned to my seat. Chase was a darling. He went to the back of the plane to try and get me a cup of ice, but when it was unsuccessful he returned letting me know that he would help if he could. With roughly 10 minutes left in the flight, I told him I needed a Bag. With the swiftness of a fox he secured one from Whitney and I took care of business. Absolutely mortified, I started crying but Chase rubbed my back a little bit and encouraged me to not feel bad about it. Once we were in Frankfurt I was eager to wash off and feel better, but we had to go through security twice. As if my rebellious stomach wasn’t enough for my embarrassment, the second time through security I set off the detector. What, you may be wondering, set it off? Nothing other than the wire in my bra. So I was left to being frisked and poked by a German woman, humiliation continuing to overcome me. By this time, I was crying and I still didn’t feel well at all. We took a bus to our flight to Sofia and as soon as we were off the bus, I got sick again, but I boarded the plane feeling like it was all out of my system (or at least hoping). After arriving in Bulgaria and being able to really talk to my whole team, we realized that my case was the manifestation of the stomach battles inside us all. But for me, I knew this sickness was from God. As weird as it sounds, I prayed that God would humble me and help me to rely on my group, and rely on my group I did. Happy to take one for the team, we headed for Customs. Although we were warned that we should declare our business as “tourists” we weren’t even asked. We all got our luggage (praise God!) and we met up with Marty and DiDi, the couple helping us out for a few days and headed for the Pentecostal School where we are staying. Marty led us to two taxis, as well as his car. I hopped in a taxi with Whitney and Allison and rapidly learned that Sofia taxi drivers are NUTS. Though I’ve never been to New York, I imagine it’s much the same. Road signs? Suggestions. Lines on the road? Guidelines. Lanes? Laughable attempts at control. Through all the insanity of the driving, I looked out the window to see a fascinating sight around me. The mountains make you feel like you’re still in Colorado, but the streets are like nowhere I’ve ever seen. People living in dilapidated apartments, stray dogs roaming the roads, piles of wood that were once buildings. It’s like the collapse of Communism brought about the collapse of architecture as well. I could tell that Sofia was a rough place to live. We are going to tour the city tomorrow and we’ve been warned by Ed to be particularly on our guard about stealing. Theft is common in Bulgaria and beggars are good at it. So, if you would like to pray, feel free to begin with our health from our trip and for the safety of our money and possessions.

And I suppose that’s all.

Moral of the story? We are here. We are safe. We are tired. We are happy.

:)

Connection One

We made it to the Denver Airport...some didn't think it would be possible. Please be praying for patience, safety, and sleep! A Nav Missionary will meet us in Sofia to show us the town, win.

Abby: The past few days have been unbelievable. We started with two initiatives: one of which we failed, but for a good reason (we spent too long on communication and planning) and the other we did well on as a group if you exclude when we let AmberLynn fall on her face. Overall though, after our initiatives I think we realized that as a team, we are in a good place. We are open and honest with each other and in general, we all get along. Having such a solid unit is going to make the next month much easier.
Yesterday, we had two main things on the agenda. In the morning we hiked up to the cross and wrote our fears about the trip on rocks. After praying, we hurled them from the top of the cliff and watched as they shattered below. Powerful stuff, man. Powerful stuff. Then Ed Cox from the Navigators came and orientated us on Bulgaria. It was sort of information overload, but it was GREAT to finally have a picture of the culture in mind. I know especially for me, hearing about the country has made the fact that we are sitting in an airport getting ready to start this journey that much more real and exhilirating.