Drew's First Easter Egg Hunt

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Here is Drew's first Easter Egg Hunt.

The Bulgarian missionary community held an Easter Celebration and egg hunt for all the children. It was a nice to meet the other missionaries and the kids had a great time.

Hope you enjoy hunting eggs with Drew as much as we did!

(More details on our Bulgarian Easter to come...)

Welcome, Christian Lee Sheppard!

Christian Lee Sheppard

Lisa and I would like to introduce you to our first nephew, Christian Lee Sheppard, born to my “little” bother Micah and his wife Lindsey. Christian was born on Wednesday April 12, weighing in at 7lbs and 6oz and standing 21 inches tall. The new mommy, daddy and baby are all doing well.

This is Drew’s second cousin, his first cousin, Anna Lynn, was born just a few months ago on November 14, 2005. Drew misses his cousins, but technology has closed the distance gap and he gets to see them through pictures and on video through Skype. Drew looks forward to the weekend video calls where he gets to see his Nana, Granddad, Pa-pa and Je-je almost every weekend. Just last night Drew was able to see his cousin Christian on video skype. Drew can say “Baby Christian” in “Drew-garian”. “Drew-garian” is the third language Lisa and I are now learning.

We love our family and friends and miss you all dearly – especially at these “momentous” times. You’re constantly in our prayers.

We love you,

Marc, Lisa and Drew

Work trip to Croatia

Last weekend I was able to travel to Croatia to help our SEND team missionaries there with a design project. I left for Zagreb, Croatia Thusday, April 6, and returned Monday afternoon April 10. Marc did a wonderful job of playing single dad, and Drew and he had a great time being boys while I was away. My brief view of Croatia is that it is a beautiful country. I wasn’t able to see much of it as most of my time there was spent meeting with the current camp staff to get an idea of what they need and measuring the existing facility. What I did get to see of Zagreb seamed as if they their infrastructure is a bit more advanced than Sofia. I actually saw paved walking trails with curb cuts that didn’t look as if they would trip you when running on them and parks with play equipment that didn’t look dangerous. They also have a new Tram design that is accessible at street level (rather than having to go up two steps upon entering) and are air conditioned!

The camp is located just outside Zagreb in Severin na Kupi, Croatia and the primary facility consists of a house that has been added on to to accommodate the camp. The quaint building has a pleasant exterior and is in a beautiful setting, but while currently comfortable and clean, it lacks character and an overall scheme and vision for how their existing space can be used. Other issues include that the kitchen and dining space currently are not functional for the camps growing needs. Who knew that we would come all the way over here for me to be working on AutoCAD?!? The camp exists to evangelize and disciple Croatians and to provide a Missionary Camp to the MK’s of this region. The plan will consist of an immediate plan to rework the kitchen and dining area, some of which will hopefully be able to be incorporated before the next camping season. The rest of the plan will consist of a phased plan to rework areas of the existing building as money is raised for the project. It is an exciting reminder that God creates each of us with unique gifts and you will use them in the most unexpected places! I am excited to be able to help them with their vision of creating a more comfortable place for the campers to learn and grow.

(by the way, if you know of someone looking to sell, at a reasonable price, AutoCAD 2000 or newer- please have them contact us via email. I will need to update my version so that the drawings I do will be able to be opened by others if needed.)

Buying meat in Bulgaria

I have to say that I have been pleasantly surprised with the food here in Bulgaria. We are especially enjoying that restaurants are a lot less expensive than in the states and serve good food. We have been able to find most of the things we enjoy and I was quite happy when I found out you can buy meat in neat little saran wrapped packages, just like in the states. That said, buying meat, like most things in Bulgaria is a process. Part of the process is my own fault. I don’t yet trust the meat from our closest grocer as I have not been able to find eggs there that are not yet past the date on the package and the milk is always within a week of expiring (unless of course you buy the radiated milk that has a shelf life of something like 3 years and isn’t refrigerated.)

There are two options when buying meat. I much prefer the first, when I get the chance I go to one of the bigger grocers with a fellow missionary who has a car. The second involves a bit more work. I first gather change- as you have to have it as a deposit on the shopping cart, my bags- (you have to buy them at the grocer, so best to gather your own) and the back pack to bring home my goods. I then walk the 6 blocks to our major bus stop. Then it’s 15 minutes on the bus to the grocery. Once at the store, it’s back to the frozen meat section. I walk quickly past the whole, frozen, saran wrapped pig (snout to hooves), and the section of mystery meats that look like tongues and such. My first few trips then involved a phone call to Marc as I had forgotten to look up the word for cow and pig. Even after the phone call I accidentally ended up with 4 packages of ground pork rather than beef because I didn’t look carefully enough and confused the word for meat for the word for cow. It’s amazing how the simple, everyday things can become less simple and everyday when you read in the wrong language! We have yet to tackle types of beef steaks, and are sticking solely to chicken breasts, pork chops and ground beef and pork. We are learning to enjoy the processes though and hope you enjoy an entertaining story of our treks in Bulgaria!

As they say in Bulgaria- Весичко хубаво, all the best!

Lisa

(Picture not actually from Bulgaria - but we've seen close to the same meat- just w/o sunglasses!)