Team 1 Group Picture

Team 1 left today for the capital of Sofia for some sightseeing and shopping. They'll spend the night at a hotel and will leave early in the morning for Vienna, Austria to begin their journey home. You might recognize the Methodist symbol on the T-shirts on our Bulgarian friends. We gave them all t-shirts and they put them on for the picture. Many photos of the team were taken with different cameras - but the photo taken with my camera was the silly one (and the only left here to load to the blog :). We are standing on the finished second floor after working this morning on preparing downstairs for team 2. They said we worked too fast :)

Goodbyes were hard and there were lots of tears. We gathered in prayer in the middle of the floor of what will be the sanctuary and prayed for the funds to finish the church, for the people that will eventually worship on this 2nd floor and for the people of Lovech, Bulgaria.

Pastor George closed the prayer thanking God for sending us and for the relationships that have started. He asked that God bless each of us as we have blessed them. Rebecca and I (Amy) stayed behind in Lovech to await the arrival of Team 2. It was difficult for us to send our brothers and sisters off too! Lifelong friendships have been made.

One little boy (12 yr old) was at the site everyday. His name was Emo (spelling?). He rode his bike everyday to the building and worked alongside us - ruining his shoes in the concrete. (FYI, we bought him some new ones.) He was from Mike's host family. On other mission trips we have stayed together but on this trip to Bulgaria we stayed in separate Bulgarian homes - what an addition to the experience. Carley stayed with Svetla and if she could I believe Carley would have stayed forever. Candace stayed with Tsura who also served as an interpreter for us when necessary. They bonded quickly. And I could go on......I'm sure each one will have a story. Emo's gorgeous smile turned soon to tears when we said it was time to go.