Update 21Feb14

Yesterday was another challenging day, but I am very thankful to God that it was quite productive in regard to our mission and role here in Bulgaria. A lot of confusion and misunderstanding was cleared up, and a vision for the Renaissance Church of Christ was more clearly defined. Please continue to pray for our family, the Arnaudovs, the members of the church, and all the other people with whom we have contact. May God bless us all richly as we serve Him!

Looking for Partners

There has been quite a lot happening with us here in Bulgaria; some of it is uplifting and affirming, but some of it is also quite challenging. Lisa and I have been doing a lot of discussion about what we're doing here; that is to say, what is the focus of our mission, and where do we see God leading us in the future? There are various aspects of what we do here that we consider "mission": we work with adoptive families who come through, since we are an adoptive family ourselves and can provide guidance and moral support in this foreign environment; we work at a school where we are free to talk about our faith with young people, influencing them with Christian morals and scripture; we've started a Scout troop, because we believe that there is a serious lack of guidance and development opportunity for young men in today's world; and of course we work with the Renaissance Church of Christ in as many ways as we can, including me singing on the praise team and Lisa teaching a children's class.
We're really thankful for the jobs at the American English Academy that allowed us to move here. We're working every week taking lessons in the Bulgarian language; we're making connections all the time with people. But we feel that it's time to begin working toward even deeper engagement than what we've been able to do thus far.
Because I'm working a 40+ hour per week job, with an added commute of over an hour each day, plus paper grading, I simply don't have the time or energy I need to engage in other aspects of what we want to do here. We want to work in some expanded manner with orphans, and with post-institutional young people. There is a great need right now for people to work with refugees in Bulgaria, both African and Syrian. I feel strongly that the church needs to reach out to young families in Sofia. I can't effectively do any of that while working full-time in teaching.
So we're actively beginning the process to look for supporting congregations. Right now, knowing that churches need time to budget for missions, our thinking is that we will both continue to teach through the 2014-2015 school year. After that, Lisa will continue to teach while I either completely stop teaching, or only teach a class or two. With Lisa still teaching, we will not need the level of support that a family of four typically needs in the field. What we're seeking to raise is the level of a small salary ($15,000 annually); the cost of one kid's tuition ($4,000 annually - right now both kids are going for free because we're both teaching, but that will obviously change if I'm not teaching); and airfare for one return trip to the States each year (about $5,000). That totals $24,000, or $2,000 per month.
If you are a member at a congregation which might be capable of supporting us, even in part, we very much want to talk to you. If you know of other congregations which might be capable of some monthly support, we would love to hear who they are, so that we might make contact with them. For all of you, we deeply need your prayers and words of encouragement. We were told that there would be times, especially in the first year, when the challenges would accumulate to the point where we would doubt our purpose. Those doubts are certainly there, but we are committed to working where God wants us to be.

I can walk!

God is moving in Bulgaria. We see it all the time, in little things that happen all around us, and sometimes involve us. We see it in the seemingly random encounters we have with people - three different ones in the last week alone. We see it in things developing and growing.
Today, I saw it in something else. I was walking back from meeting another adoptive parent who just flew in (tomorrow she's going to pick up her new son, who is blind). She needed to go grocery shopping, so that she would have food in the rental apartment and wouldn't have to go out later without a guide - something I was happy to help with. As I stepped onto the escalator to come out of the metro, it occurred to me - I felt no pain.

You see, for a couple of years, I've been battling plantar fasciitis. It was an inflammation of the muscle tissue in my left heel, making walking painful. The condition was exacerbated by my weight - let's be honest, my obesity. The more my foot pain persisted, the less likely I was to exercise... and the worse my weight got, which made my foot pain worse.

But coming to Bulgaria has been an absolute kick in the hindquarters. We don't have a car, so we spend our days walking, standing at bus stops, and climbing stairs in elevator-less buildings. The food quality in Bulgaria is much better than in the US. The result of all that - I've lost a lot of weight, my pain has subsided, and I'm a much more capable servant of God than I was before I came.

Every day, God puts new things in our path. Some are new opportunities for service. Some are people who need a witness or a minister. Some are lessons that make us smarter. And some are obstacles which seem to hinder us - but serve to make us stronger. Praise Him for His wisdom and love!

Good and not-so-good

We had an incredibly busy weekend, meeting (if you count Thursday) with four different families who are/were here adopting, and one just visiting from Qatar. We were on an "exhausted high" - and then received a difficult email message (actually, the second difficult email of the week). We ask for your prayers, that God will show us His wisdom as we work for the Kingdom. Please also pray for Bro. Hristo and Sis. Vania Arnaudov as they work diligently for the congregation; we love them very much (as do many of you!) and want very much to be able to help them in whatever way we can to help the congregation to grow and prosper in the faith. Father, please grant us all the wisdom, faith, patience, strength, and whatever else we need to be instruments of Yours in this lost world!

Looking for discernment in the new year

So happy to be back with our Renaissance Church of Christ family this morning!

Please be in prayer for the African immigrants we work with. I handed out several Bibles this morning to some newcomers who requested them. They have some other needs which we're in a process of assessing how best to help. One young man named Musa Ali, from Mali, asked me for a little money today for the first time, though he's been to church faithfully for over two months. He has been studying Bulgarian in the class at church each week, in the hope that it will help him find some work.

I gave him a little money, but we're running pretty low on funds ourselves for this month. Christmas is always more expensive than a typical month, and the months of paying both a mortgage and a rent have taken their toll. Praise God my sister Jeni and her husband James have decided to rent, and eventually purchase, our Nashville house. This will really help things out starting in February, though not bring us out of the woods entirely.

Please also be in prayer for us as we think and plan about the future of our mission here. Our work at the American English Academy is going well, and we feel that we are making a difference in a number of small ways with our students and others associated with the school. It's not, however, what we came to Bulgaria to do, and we feel that there's much more with which we can get engaged. The African immigrants are one thing; working with orphans and post-orphans is the desire that brought us here in the first place. It wasn't a mistake that brought us to AEA; we sincerely feel that God opened that door, so that we could get on the ground and start acclimating and learning the language. We also anticipate having a long-term relationship with the school in some form or another, if nothing more than having our kids there as students. But having said all that, we just feel like we're supposed to do more than just teach school - something we could do just as well back in the US.

So, we crave your prayers. We even welcome your thoughts on how we might proceed forward. We plan on teaching full-time at AEA for another full year, but are open to changes after that point. If you have some particular bit of wisdom for us, please feel free to message or email. We want to hear the ideas of our brothers and sisters, as we press forward in our work for the Kingdom of God.

8 November 2013

Several times now, we've experienced something that rarely happens in the US. At home, it's considered quite a breach of etiquette, but here it's apparently normal. What's the issue? Random strangers critiquing our parenting.

Today it was the lady at the bus stop coming home. We had decided to split up; Lisa would take Avery to the store for ingredients for dinner, and I'd take Elise on home. I took Lisa's backpack and bag from school, and asked Avery how heavy his bag was (bags are not permitted into stores at all. Instead, there are lockers at the front of the store to put them in, but this is generally a hassle). When he said it was pretty light, I told him to give it to Elise to carry.

Immediately, an older lady began to harangue us. I didn't get all the Bulgarian she was saying, but the gist was that this was far too heavy for a delicate flower like Elise (and those of you who know her are guffawing at this point; she's anything but delicate!). I think she even disparaged Americans in general, though I can't be sure. In any case, I took the bag, we walked away 20 steps, and then I handed the bag back to her.

It wasn't the first time, and I'm sure it won't be the last. Shortly after we moved in, our landlord was visiting to work out a solution on a problem we had. While he was there, I noticed that a light bulb was out, and I asked Avery to replace it. Our landlord just about had a conniption. How could I be so horrible a parent that I would risk the very life of my son in CHANGING A LIGHTBULB??? Suffice it to say, in order to keep the peace, I didn't have Avery change the lightbulb that day.

Bulgarians are intensely protective of children - and that means well up into the teen years. The sad thing is that, while a Bulgarian considers it near child abuse to have an almost 12-year-old change a light bulb, they probably wouldn't bat an eyelash if that same 12-year-old was out in a public park drinking a beer. OK, that may be overstating it - but then again, I have personally seen 14-year-olds doing exactly that.

I don't know that there's a moral lesson here, other than it's an illustration of how messed-up priorities can become. How does a society get to the point where they worry about a bag being too heavy, but turn a blind eye to the epidemic of underage drinking? This is a big part of the reason why I'm so excited about working with Scouting - I will have the opportunity to work with young men in developing skills which they will use for their entire lives, but also in developing a moral character that will enrich their lives and the lives of those dear to them.

Your continued prayers are always appreciated. May God bless you as you serve Him!

Update 29Oct13

Hello, all!  I guess I didn't realize how long it's been since I posted on this blog (or our facebook group, for that matter)!  We're doing fine, and we're adjusting well to life in Sofia.  Lisa has had a fairly minor but painful health issue, but is doing better now.  I am pleased to say that due to the healthier lifestyle here - more wholesome food, lots of walking and stair climbing, and weekly Ultimate (frisbee) practice - I have lost some fairly noticeable weight.  I don't know exactly how much since we don't have a scale, but my Scout uniform fits better than it has in years.  Speaking of Scout uniforms, we are on track to officially restart BSA Troop 359 in January, and I'll serve as Scoutmaster.  Keep that effort in your prayers, please, as it will be a very interesting situation (and opportunity); we will likely have Scouts from at least 5 different nations, including Christians, Jews, and Muslims.  I am really excited about the opportunity to make a stronger impact on these boys' lives, and perhaps even the lives of their families.

We do still need, deeply need, your prayers.  There has been no movement on selling our house.  We're about to enter into the period of time where having both a rent and a mortgage is going to really put us in the red.  So long as the house remains unsold, we are unable to afford a car in Sofia, which is frustrating because we have to spend 200 leva each month (about $130) for metro transit passes, which is a good-sized chunk of a monthly car payment.  We especially would like to have a car for when couples and families who are adopting from Bulgaria fly in, so that we can be a friendly American face to pick them up from the airport and take them to where they need to go.  Thus far we've connected with only one couple (there is another we're meeting this weekend and two more in November), but I had to introduce them to Sofia public transit - which is not so much fun when you're jetlagged.

We're EXTREMELY thankful for a donor who provided enough funds for us to purchase a dryer!  With a family of four, we were being swallowed up in laundry.  Everything had to be air-dried, and we ended up with clothes hanging all over the apartment (which makes hosting a bit awkward).  God bless our friend and brother for his generosity!

I am very excited about something that's coming up in May-June.  We will likely be having a group of 4-6 missions interns from Oklahoma Christian University coming to stay with us for about 6 weeks.  They'll be exploring what living in a foreign missions context is all about, and it's my sincere hope that in that time they'll fall in love with Bulgaria and her people as much as we have!

Pray, please.  We cannot do what we're here to do on our own efforts, nor those alone of our supporters in the US.  We must have the blessings of God daily if we're to thrive and be a blessing in turn to the people of Bulgaria.  Thank you for your support, thoughts, and prayers!