This Saturday, Team 1 of Covenant United Methodist Church's Bulgaria Mission trip will travel to their destination- Lovech, Bulgaria. So, where in the world is Bulgaria? The capital of Bulgaria is Sofia, and bordering countries include Greece, Macedonia, Romania, Serbia and Turkey. The Bulgarian national motto is "Unity Makes Strength." According to Greater Europe Mission, "In Bulgaria, a land of mountains, rolling plains, and rivers, just 1.4 percent of the people have a relationship with Jesus. Many people continue to struggle with distrust, greed, authoritarianism, and secrecy even though communism fell almost two decades ago.Today, more Bulgarians are open to consider personal faith in Christ. The Holy Spirit is breaking down the problems of the past and providing a lighted path into the future. National church leaders have requested partnership from North Americans to promote discipleship, evangelism, and outreach in society. Bulgaria can become a place where Jesus is Lord!" (www.gemission.org/countries/Default.asp?ID=32)
Specifically, the Covenant missions team 1 will arrive in the Bulgarian city of Lovech on June 14th (see photo of Lovech to right). They will be hosted by Christ’s Evangelical Church Shalom (CECS). As the week progresses, each team will be building relationships with Bulgarians as well as building a foundation for a new church building for CECS. The church has purchased an old Turkish bath house (see photo below) and is renovating it. The Covenant work teams will be putting down the form and the concrete for the two floors of the former bath house. Currently, CECS is meeting in a former Communist hall that they are forced to rent.
Team 2 will arrive in Bulgaria on June 21st (Team 1 leaves) and will continue the work begun by team 1 through June 28th. Please be in prayer for all of the team members traveling to Bulgaria. Pictures of each team member are posted to the right of this page. How can you get involved? Each day, if technology cooperates, we will post pictures and updates on the teams' work and physical, relational, and spiritual progress in Bulgaria. Feel free to post comments after each blog entry. The team can view your words, which can include general comments, specific prayers and overall encouragement. Just follow the comments link below each post.
Blessings on our newest international outreach mission...Covenant's Bridge to Bulgaria!
8 comments:
Welcome to the Bridge to Bulgaria. These two mission teams are providing a Bridge from our community to far away brothers and sisters in Christ in Bulgaria. If you are wondering how to leave a comment for them, please use the following instructions:
On this page, look for the text box on the right-hand side that says, “Leave your comment here.” Write your comment in the box. Make it fairly short, but give encouragement, leave specific messages for team members, offer prayers, or provide scripture.
After writing your comment, there will be a blank box that says, “word verification” and a set of letters. This is a security device. It will ask you to fill in the numbers and letters that you see. Put these in the blank.
Then, at the bottom of the screen, it will ask you to, “Choose an identity.” This is the only difficult part. If you already have a google or gmail account or already a blogger on Blogspot.com, you will just sign in with your google or gmail email address in the username box and your established password from that account.
If you do NOT have a google or gmail account, you’ll see a box that says, “No Google Account? Sign up here.” Click on the link. (Note: You'll have to write the rest of these directions down on paper before clicking, as you will be clicking away from this page.)
You’ll get to a screen that will be titled: "Create a Google Account." You are not signing up for a new email address and will not be charged for anything. Nor will you have to give away any critical personal information at all. You will only be providing your current email address and then creating a password and screen name for yourself. That's it.
In the first line, type in any working email address that you already have. It’ll ask you to type it twice.
Then, make up a password for yourself. PLEASE WRITE IT DOWN TO REMEMBER THE NEXT TIME YOU VISIT THE BLOG! Then, enter the password (again, twice).
Then, there will be a box that says, “Display Name.” Here, you will type in a nickname or something else to identify yourself. Others will be able to see this name when you leave a comment.
In the Word Verification box, enter the security set of letters/numbers that you see.
Finally, click the box that says, “I accept the terms of service.” Basically, these terms deal with appropriately posting comments and general internet usage rules.
Once you do this, all you have to do is click the orange “continue” arrow. It will take you back to this original page where you posted your comment. At the bottom of this screen on the right side, click the orange button that says, “Publish Your Comment.” Your comments will appear fairly quickly. You're done!
Note: Once you create a Google account, you will never have to do this again. The next time you go to the blog, you will simply sign in using the email address you provided as well as the password you created.
Be aware that any comments published are available for everyone to see that can access the internet and blog page. Inappropriate comments will obviously be removed by the administrator. Team members can also publish comments back to you (if they have time.)
Enjoy providing encouragement for those who are doing His work so far away from home!
Great job on the blog page. We look forward to sending you updates. Posting to the blog will be one of the things we will do at our nightly meetings. Thanks for your daily prayers.
Yay for spreading Covenant's mission work to Eastern Europe. I pray that you all will have a wonderful time and be instruments of God's joy, love and peace!
Hello from the 1st Bulgarian Team. It is 4:15 pm now in Frankfurt, Germany. We were 4 hours late leaving RDU because of intense weather in Washington DC. We missed our initial connection and we were put on priority standby on the 10:00 pm flight to Frankfurt - we arrived in DC - jogged to the gate - praying all the way. We initially only got 7 of the 9 on to the flight and reluctantly left Jan and Rob Fisher to come on the morning flight. But... God was and is in control and we were overjoyed to see the Fishers get on the plane. We arrived in Frankfurt at noon (6 AM NC time) and found that we were not leaving for Sofia until 6:40 pm (12:40 NC time). We will arrive in Sofia at 10:00 pm (Sofia time)(3 pm NC time) and then travel 2 1/2 to 3 hours to Lovech. Needless to say, we will be exhausted. Please pray for our strength. The team is in great spirits and utilzing one of our mission principles - be flexible. We were given meal vouchers and are enjoying some German food but we could have had McDonald's (ha ha) if we wanted it.
Thank goodness for WiFi at the airport - so we can update you on our journey.
Hey: You all have to be so tired so be careful not to let negativity creep in. Rest in God's grace. We are so proud of you for your courage and faithfulness. We are praying for you throughout the day. Continue in His grace. Look fwd to seeing pics and hearing from you.
April's Momma
We are praying for you all without ceasing. pirateaman
Wondering how things were going and if the luggage arrived.
May God bless your efforts and your hearts. We continue to pray for you.
Hi Dad, It's Mckenzie,I miss you but I hope you're having a wonderful time,see you when you get back.
Hi dad, miss you I hope you don't work too hard. See you soon.
Love,
Brighton
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