Farewell Friend

Our beloved Azlan passed away December 23, 2006. We are sure that many of you remember or heard about our 135lb lap dog, Azlan. Azlan was a Greater Swiss Mountain Dog and was one of our first “babies.” Before Lisa and I ever married – I told her that if she wanted to share life with me, it came with a canine or two. Given Lisa never had a dog, or any pets for that matter, she really didn’t know what she was getting into. Plus, she was so smitten by me, she would have agreed to anything ;-) (don’t tell her I said that) Lisa actually did most of the research on what kind of dog we would get – and as wedding present to each other (ok – more for me) we chose Azlan.

Azlan was a lot of fun. He really did think he was a lap dog and was very gentle for such a large beast. Swissys are breed as “working” dogs – originally they were breed to pull carts in the Swiss Mountains. We chose a Swissy due to their docile nature – they have a ferocious presence, but no bite. (just don’t let them step on your toe) I love big dogs, but did not want to take on the liability of some of the negative characteristics of some of the aggressive breeds. The only downside of the Swissy breed is there poor health record. Unfortunately we experienced that piece first hand.

Only months after Drew arrived in July of ’04 Azlan experienced his first epileptic seizure. Azlan eventually reached a comatose state and had to be loaded up with drugs. He eventually pulled through, but after heavy doses of medication he was never quite the same. A side effect of the medication was an unquenchable hunger – if we let him – he would have ate himself to death. He went from being afraid to step over a stick, to breaking out of the yard almost every day – just to rummage the neighbor’s trash. And the Gas! The Gas almost put us under. Other than the side effects, he actually did quite well. Until…

In February of ’05 Azlan experienced multiple consecutive seizures – only medication to knock him out, stopped him from seizing. He stayed like this to two days and then Lisa and I made the difficult decision to put him down. It was late Saturday night and we told the vet to remove him from the medication – if he continued to seize – they would put him down. On Sunday after church we called the vet, expecting him to be gone and to make finial arrangements. To our great surprise – the vet told us that Azlan was awake, alert and doing fine. We were amazed and went to pick him up. They gave him a new medical cocktail and that seamed to do the trick. Azlan continued to lead a “normal” life.

In deciding to leave for Bulgaria in the summer of ’05 we knew we had the difficult responsibility of placing Azlan, with all his medical needs, into capable and understanding hands. Who would take on such a daunting and ultimately fatal task? We prayed hard about it and God gave us the perfect answer in Kensey and Sarah Russell. Kensey and Sarah are a young couple in our church who had just moved into their first new house and were looking to get a “large” dog. They heard we were looking to place Azlan and to our surprise, Sarah had an epileptic dog when she was younger. So after knowing Azlan’s full medical condition they were still willing to take him.

Azlan became their baby very soon. In our household, after Drew arrived, Azlan when from being our baby – back to being a “dog.” With Sarah and Kensey – he was the center of attention once again. I truly believe that Sarah and Kensey added many more months to his life.

Azlan lived the rest of his days seizure free. Due to his epilepsy he was on very potent medication – over time they took their effects on his internal organs. Azlan died in his sleep at Sarah and Kensey's parent’s home – peacefully – no seizures. We don’t know for sure, but we assume his organs finally gave out. Azlan lived a full life and escaped death many times (did I tell you he ate a whole box of rat poison once!). He was loved by many and will be fondly remembered.

So – do dogs go to heaven?

I think so… and maybe I’ll get to pet that big o’l fat head again someday.

Farewell friend.

First Dr. Appointment in Bulgaria

Last week, I had my first “baby appointment” here in Bulgaria. I feel comfortable in that Dr. Kalvatcheva, the doctor I am seeing, was the Dr. for two other American, missionary women who both delivered here in Bulgaria. There are a few minor differences than in the states- the first being there is no receptionist so you wait in chairs in the hallway outside the office and hopefully go in to see the Dr. in the order you arrived (of course on the honor system, which in lines, Bulgarians are not always good about.) You then let yourself in after the person in front of you. Luckily with this system, the door is locked behind you to avoid embarrassing moments. Speaking of embarrassing moments, when asked to “prepare” for the appointment, I asked, “Do you prefer the robe tied in the front or the back?” as I have been to doctors with different preferences. Her kind reply was, “Oh, there’s no need for a robe as we are the only ones who will be in here.” True, but a bit more uncomfortable with no robe. There are some really nice differences. My appointment with ultrasound cost 18 leva ($12) blood work 40 leva ($26.50). Ultrasound is the regular method here of checking in on the little one so we’ll have a lot more than just the one we had with Drew. We still have yet to decide for sure whether or not we will find out if it is a boy or girl. We are excited about becoming a family of 4 and well let you know how future appointments go!

Love,
Lisa

Bebeto dve makes chetri (Baby 2 makes 4)

We are pleased to announce that we will be expecting our sencond child around August 3rd of this year, making us a family of 4. We feel blessed and are excited about this new little addition. We will return to the states in June of 07 and hopefully settling in somewhere in July. Thank you for all your notes of congratulaions and support!

Marc, Lisa and Drew (the BIG brother)

Bombs Welcoming the New Year

We have learned that it is tradition in Bulgaria to welcome in the New Year with a massive Firework display. This is truly an amazing site as all of Sofia is lit up with Industrial standard and make-shift bombs bursting in the air.



The action actually starts about a week out – with an occasional blast going off here or there. If you are familiar with an “M-80” firework in the States – multiply that by 4 – and you’re just getting started. The show cumulates at the stroke of midnight New Years Eve as the grand finally goes for almost an hour. Sort of like our 4^th of July – but nothing orchestrated and set to music – more like mad chaos – but what a site!

We were joined by our friends from our team, the Smiths and the Shipleys. We had a great time welcoming in the New Year - Bulgaria Style!

UTF Christmas Party

In continuing our efforts to establish our new Alumni Association – we held an UTF Christmas party for the current students and Alumni of UTF. It was a smaller gathering, but a great time was had by all. We held an “open house” from 4 to 8 where guest were welcome to come and go as they liked. We served Christmas cookies along with other treats and drinks.

Our goals were two fold – one to provide the current students with a nice break during their final week of school before their “final testing” began. The second was to provide another opportunity for the alumni to gather and interact with each other. An added bonus was to have the current students and alumni interact as well. This allowed for networking opportunities and helped forge new friendships that will be essential to their future ministries. I worked with Martin, the new Student Pastor at UTF, to help plan this event. Our plan is transition the planning of these alumni events to Martin.

About 15 students attended and we had a hand full of alumni attend as well, along with UTF staff and faculty. The fireplace was roaring and the food was being devoured – always a good sign of a good party. Games were being played and when 8:00 rolled around – many were slow to leave. All had a good time and we plan to hold more events such as these in the future.

Vienna Christmas

It has been said that Vienna is one of the most beautiful cities in Europe – from what we saw – we cannot disagree. If we had to be away from family and friends this Christmas season – Vienna was the place to be. There was a buzz, a “spirit,” of Christmas in the air. Decorations and lights were everywhere. They had open air “Christmas Markets” selling all kinds of Christmas decorations and serving up hot wine punch and roasting chestnuts on an open fire (literally).

We took the metro out to the Schonbrunn Palace, which was the “summer” palace of the Habsburgs (of the Habsburg Empire from the 1300’s – 1918). We had a great time – they too had a Christmas Market outside of the palace, serving great food and playing live Christmas music. We toured the palace – taking in a brief history of the Habsburgs as we viewed the grandeur of palatial living. We were actually able to stand where the young Mozart once played. Yep – feel’n pretty “cultured” I must say!

Vienna’s city center has wide open pedestrian streets lined with merchants and lighted with grand chandeliers that hung above the crowds. We truly enjoyed our time there. We stayed through Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Drew was able to see and talk with his Grandparents via “skype” and they were able to watch him open some of his gifts. Not quite the same – but being half way around the world – not bad. We attended a beautiful catholic mass Christmas morning. It was a bit difficult to fallow, given it was all in German, but the Mozart music made up for it.

Thank you once again for giving us the opportunities to experience these wonderful places. We know you did not send us to Bulgaria for us to go tour Europe. While still being fiscally responsible we have had the opportunity to visit our neighbors at reasonable prices. While still doing the work God has called us to, we feel comfortable that you would approve of our expeditions – thus the reason we share.

Thank you so much for your love, prayer and support.

Love,

The Sheps

Please feel free to view out pictures at the following link:

Christmas in Vienna

Budapest, Hungary

Budapest may have just been one of our biggest surprises of our trip. I think it surprised me most because I had very low expectations of the city – to me it was just a stop-over on our way to Vienna. I knew Hungary had a similar history to Bulgaria – thus I assumed their capital city to be a lot like Sofia. We were very surprised to find a beautiful city set on the Danube River with amazing architecture displayed in their parliament buildings, St. Stephen's church and the old Buda palace.

We were only there for a day and a half so we decided to take a bus tour of the city. This tour was what they call a “stop and go” tour – as the bus rout had designated stops where you can get on and off the buses as you like within a 24 hr. period. The tour also gave us a high level history lesson that helped explain why Budapest escaped a lot of the communist demise.

Please forgive my lack of detail or precision with this history – but I am trying to repeat what I heard on a bumpy bus ride around a busy city. Unlike Bulgaria, Hungary has a strong Roman Catholic influence – 98% of the residents consider themselves Roman Catholics. Hungary was converted by St. Stephan (Stephan I of Hungary) in 1000AD – converting the whole county to Christianity. Like Bulgaria, the Turks invaded in the 1400’s to establish the Ottoman Empire. Unlike Bulgaria, the Turks only ruled for 150yers – contrasting 400 years in Bulgaria. In the mid 1500s the Austrian Habsburgs invaded and ruled up to the time the Russians came in 1944 to “liberate” them, only to then occupy them. They too were under communist rule from 1944 to 1991 – however the communist did not confiscate all of the land and buildings as they did in other countries. We feel this is a big reason that Budapest still has many of its cultural treasures today. We also think the Christian / Catholic influence also had a large impact on the society that helped them to persevere through the difficult times.

The highlight of the Budapest trip was our restaurant find. After the bus tour, cold and hungry, we passed through the downtown shopping area of Budapest. We spotted a restaurant called “The Cellar” – but it was only a narrow hallway leading back to a distant door. A menu was posted outside and we spotted the Hungarian Goulash and Hungarian Stroganoff – thus we decided to give it a try. We walked the hallway and through the door only to find a spiral staircase heading to nowhere. At the bottom was another set of doors with no light reflecting through – we actually thought they were closed. We pressed through to find a long candle lit hallway literally leading back to a “cellar.” It was wonderful – a nice quiet cozy restaurant, well decorated for the Christmas season sitting beneath the busy city streets. We enjoyed great Hungarian food as Christmas music played in the background – what a wonderful gift.

Driving to Vienna

To save on expenses we decided to drive the trek to Vienna over Christmas. This added a whole new level of adventure: border crossings, 130 km/h speed limits and inclement weather – all while traveling through 4 different countries, with different languages and currencies - all within a day’s drive.

Besides the distance, I really enjoyed the drive. Once you get into Serbia, an hour from Sofia, they have a major motorway (highway) that travels directly to Budapest and then onto Vienna. The roads are new, big and clear of pot holes. They also have a speed limit of 130 km/h – which in our 2-door VW Golf - it was all it could do to reach 130. Unfortunately we did run into a snow storm in Serbia which did slow us down quite a bit.

Crossing the boarders went well. It seams to be an unfair bias – but it sure is nice to have a US passport. Although the media would have you think everyone in Europe hates the US – actually most wish they could live in the US and they honor and look up to those who do, though we personally have not done anything to earn that respect. That respect goes to our forefathers – but I digress. This is all to say – we had easy border crossings – 15min at most (some have waited 2+ hours). One funny moment with a border crossing guard was when we were on our way back home, crossing from Hungary into Serbia. The guard asked us where we were going and where we lived. She then wanted to know why we lived in Sofia, so I tried to explain that I was working at a Bible School in Sofia. And then, with a very puzzled look on her face, she asked – and I quote “Why do you want to live in Bulgaria, don’t you know that the United States is much better?” We just smiled and really didn’t say anything – she just couldn’t understand why we wanted to live in Bulgaria.

When we left for Budapest – it should have taken us 8 to 9 hours to get there, but ended up taking 11 hours with the snow storm. The leg to Vienna a couple of days later only took two hours – unfortunately it took us another 2 hours to find our hotel once we reached Vienna. The internet directions we had from the hotel were horrible and our map was not that detailed. Lisa had to reach back to her freshman year of German to help read the signs. We eventually got there and had a great time.

I just wanted to share the driving experience with you now in this blog. We had some wonderful experiences in Budapest and Vienna that we will post very soon. Thank you so much for your prayers of safety – as the travel went very well.