Chestita Baba Marta

Around the first of March every year, Bulgarians present to thier relatives and friends martenitsas - a double red and white tassel or ribbon - to bring health and happiness. On the first day of March, people in Bulgaria put the martenitsa-s on their clothes or wrists and wish each other health and happiness with "Chestita baba Marta" - (in English, "Happy Grandma Marta"). "Marta" comes from the word for March (Mart) in Bulgarian.

This is an ancient Bulgarian (pagan) tradition (nobody really knows how old, but most probably it's more than a thousand years old) and symbolizes the end of the cold winter and the coming of the spring.

Martenitsa-s are supposed to be worn until the person sees the first stork - representing the coming of spring. Then martenitsa-s are then tied to a blooming tree. The red and white colours symbolize the snow and the blood that come from old stories where a stork brings blessings for health to small children. The giving of the martenitsa makes you feel that Spring is coming very soon.

The lack of "real" winter and viewing of storks raises some difficulties in implementing this tradition nowadays, as most storks dont come to the city. However the Bulgarians are still celebrating and very fond of the 1st of March - in the traditional and "modern" way at the same time.

(information taken from: http://www.b-info.com/places/Bulgaria/BabaMarta/ )

March Update

Happy Spring! We do love this time of year. We are hoping for a pleasant spring as we feel we may have escaped winter. We have only had a few days of below freezing temperatures and no snow here in Sofia. Quite a contradiction to what you have all experienced in the States and the weather that first welcomed us to Sofia. We are certainly not complaining… it has been a nice winter.

We have become very busy and do not see things slowing down. Our mission team held their winter retreat in a nearby ski village of Borovets over a weekend in mid February. It was a great time of bonding as a team and Drew and I had a great time sledding in the snow.

I spent a week of February in Wroclaw, Poland attending a “Finance and Fundraising” seminar for theological institutions. I attended with my good friend, Tony Lalev, whom is the UTF Director. We received a lot of great information for the school and had a wonderful time in the city of Wroclaw.

Lisa, Drew and I had to make a last minute “run for the border” as our one year visas expired and we needed a border stamp for a 90 day tourist visa to complete our stay. We turned the trek into a nice weekend getaway to Thessaloniki, Greece, which is only an hour on the other side of the border. We had a wonderful time, enjoying beautiful weather, great seafood and Starbucks coffee!

Lisa is packing her bags now for a SEND women’s retreat in Madrid, Spain. The women of South Central Europe are gathering for a time of fellowship and discipleship, March 22-26. Please pray for Lisa’s travel along with the little one she holds. Don’t forget Drew and me as well – as we will be ‘bachelors’ for four days.

Lisa’s belly continues to grow as we anticipate the arrival of our new baby girl. Yes – a girl – please start praying for me now! Lisa is doing very well as she has moved out of the first trimester and is now half way through at 20 weeks. The doctor performed a 3D ultrasound last week and both mom and baby are very healthy.

Time is becoming short as we have less than 3 months here in Bulgaria. I am working closely with the staff here at UTF to transition / train many of the nationals on what I have been working on. I plan to continue to assist Tony and the UTF team by consulting from abroad. With modern technology – I will only be a “skype” call away.

Many have asked what our plans are when we return. Our long range plans are still in the Lord’s hands, but for now we are planning on arriving home by June 15^th. We plan on spending a few weeks in Decatur and then sometime in July moving onto Des Moines where we will temporarily settle down to await the arrival of our the new little one the first of August. I will be researching employment opportunities when home. (Picture to the Right: Drew's cousins, Christian (12 mo.) and Anna (18 mo.))

Please continue to pray with us as we lean on the Lord as He guides and directs us through this new and exciting transition.

With sincere love and gratitude,

Marc, Lisa and Drew Sheppard

Pregnancy Journal- Half way there!

Here we are at halfway through the pregnancy 20 weeks- (pictured at 19 weeks of 40.) We are starting the “belly picts” the same week as with Drew. I am feeling a lot better which is great and enjoying the in-between period before getting to the “beached whale” state.

We just had the appointment for the 3-D/diagnostic ultrasound last Wednesday and received the news that it’s a girl! It was different finding out after waiting it out with Drew. I was pretty convinced it was a girl before the ultrasound as this time we only had a girl’s name picked out (with Drew, we didn’t have a girl’s name until 2 weeks before the due date,) and I was sicker. If we were living in the states, I don’t think we would have found out, but here they do an ultrasound every appointment and I was afraid they’d slip and tell me without Marc being there. Marc (probably wisely) wished to know as we will be going through a lot of transition right before baby is born and this will help in planning a bit.

We think Drew will make a great big brother- we’ll be finding out soon enough. Drew is still convinced it’s not a boy OR girl- “just a baby.” He is also quite adamant that the baby is NOT in mommy’s tummy (when asked where it is then, he says, “I don’t know” or at the ultrasound, he pointed to the screen and said, “It’s right there.”) I’m looking forward to watching Marc with a girl after getting the pleasure of watching him be such a great dad to Drew. I’m already convinced she’ll be “daddy’s little girl” and am excited to watch that relationship grow! We are getting excited to come home and look forward to sharing the birth of our new little one with you soon after our arrival!

Much love- Lisa

The Women in My Life

You are born into life being loved by a few select women. Your mother, of course, and those doting grandmothers are right there as well. And in turn there are few women that I deeply and unconditionally love. The first in my life was my mother, what can I say about my mother, except that she lived for us boys… and we knew it. And the grandmothers always hold a special place in your heart – the one I lost when I was 8 who’s void could never be filled. And the one who still holds onto life, so that she can continue to love.

And then there comes that time in a young man's life where he gets to choose – that one more “love of his life." I am privileged to find that love with Lisa. And all along I have thought that Lisa was the last “true love” of my life. But I was wrong…

There will be one more “true love” of my life – and I’ll be waiting for her when she comes into our lives in August.

Baby Blues

Marc in Wroclaw, Poland

I recently spent a week in Wroclaw (Vros-slov) Poland attending a seminar on “Finances and Fundraising for Theological Institutions” conducted by Overseas Council International (OCI). Tony, the UTF Director, and I both attended the week of February 19 -25. We had a great and very informative and educational week. We came home with a long “laundry list” of items to address at the school. The affirming piece for me is that most of what we learned – we had already identified as issues prior to attending. The positive is that now we have some new ideas and thoughts on how to address these issues.

OCI. is a non-profit organization based in Indianapolis, IN who raises funds for theological institutions based primarily in Europe and Africa. If you wish, you can see more information about OCI here: http://www.overseas.org OCI holds yearly seminars for their partnering schools, UTF being one of those schools. Each year they focus on different topics, inviting the president of the school and a representative. Given this year was on administration – Tony asked me along. I was very honored and appreciative of him asking.

I personally got a lot out of the conference as I was able to learn, actually – reconfirm how essential administration is to having a successful school, church and/or organization. There was one session on “Administration as a Calling.” This too encouraged me as they pointed out how different “giftedness” (to use a churchy term) or skills are needed for these administrative roles. Many pastors are very gifted – but not necessarily in administration. They also pointed out that although there may be a “need” that does not necessarily mean you were called to fill that need. In all things we need to seek God first and follow where He leads. As I am looking out into my future – I needed to hear that message again.

The added bonus to the trip was the extra time to explore the city of Wroclaw, Poland. I actually dreaded going to Poland in February – however the weather was nice and the city was a wonderful surprise. The biggest surprise was the food – it was awesome! I all ready liked “Polish Sausage” but it is nothing like the sausage and other smoked meats in Poland. They make a lot of “sour krout” and cabbage dishes, which to my surprise were very good. The city is old and impressive. The building we stayed in, actually a theological school, was originally built in 1690 as a nunnery. The downtown was very impressive as well. Poland is “very” Roman Catholic – it is not an overstatement to say there is literally a Cathedral on every block. You may remember the last Pope, the late Pope John Paul was from Poland.

Overall the trip was very productive. We received some great ideas and materials for UTF – now we just need to put them into practice. On top of that I had a great time of getting to know Tony better and enjoying a wonderful new place.

Thank you for allowing me serve and partake,
Marc

PS –
I found this video on Google prior to going. It gives a short overview of Wroclaw, so I thought you may like to view it.