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.

Christmas Trip to Vienna

This was our first Christmas without being with family (ever for either of us), so Lisa and I decided to travel for the holiday season. Given we are on this side of the world we did not want to miss out on seeing one of the most beautiful cities in Europe: Vienna, Austria. Vienna is only a 10 hour drive from Sofia, so we decided to take the trip. Given Budapest, Hungary is on the way – we also decided to stay there for a couple of days along the way. We chose to go to Vienna because of its reputation and it being within a “days” drive. Austria is also a Roman Catholic country and was never under communist rule – thus the tradition and celebration of Christmas is alive and well within Vienna.

Given Budapest, Hungary was on the way to Vienna, we decided to stay there for two days. What a wonderful surprise. Budapest has amazing architecture and most of it’s historical buildings are still standing. Budapest is built on the Danube River and has some remarkable views. We will post pictures and write more soon.

Vienna, or Wein as the locals like to call it, lived up to our expectations. It too is steep in history, culture and architecture. Vienna was all dressed up for Christmas and it definitely gave you that yuletide feeling. We also spent a day a Schombrum Palace – learning the history of the Hapsburg Empire and snacking on roasted chestnuts at the local Christmas market.

Below is a link to our pictures. We plan to post more details soon, but we wanted to let you all know how we spent this years Christmas.

We hope that you too have had a wonderful Christmas holiday with your family.

We feel so blessed that the Lord has allowed us the opportunity to explore some wonderful sites on this side of the world. We feel privileged for being able to take this trip and it has been a wonderful distraction from not being home for Christmas with all of you.

Christmas in Vienna

Christmas in Bulgaria

“It’s beginning to look a lot like…” Well… maybe not – or at least not the kind of Christmas we are use to. Christmas in Bulgaria has been different – contrasted to the Western media educed, economy driving Christmas we have come accustom to. To some extent – that has been a good thing – avoiding all the hype and focusing on the true reason for Christmas. However, we really find ourselves missing all of that Christmas “buzz” – decorations everywhere, malls packed with people trying to find that last minute gift and sipping on a Starbucks Peppermint Mocha, watching all of those frantic people. Its funny how those things you considered frustrating are actually missed when you don’t have them.

When you drive through Sofia it is hard to recognize it is Christmas time. (Other than the two new malls build by foreign investors). It is not completely barren of Christmas – you will see some lights downtown and small downtown shops will cater to the Christmas crowd – but you will not see it on the grand scales as you expect in the States. There are only a few Christmas lights in people’s homes and those who buy Christmas trees only do so a day or two before Christmas.

Growing up in the States, Christmas was always the grandest holiday – the presents, the family, all the hoopla – I just assumed it is that way all around the world. Although we know Bulgaria was under Turkish and Soviet rule for the last 400 years – I just assumed Christmas was still celebrated (naive American). Bulgarian Christians still celebrated in their homes, just not on the grand scale we are use to.

Last week we had a good friend, Maia, over for dinner. She is Bulgarian and is our age (31). We asked her how she celebrated Christmas as kid and to our surprise she said her family did not celebrate Christmas. She did not grow up in a Christian home and up to 15 years ago – Christmas was illegal to celebrate. For them and many other Bulgarians, New Years is the big Bulgarian holiday. I could not imagine growing up without Christmas.

Maia’s story helped me to understand the “lack” of Christmas in Bulgaria – they have never had the traditions of Christmas. I am talking about a lot of the extra tangibles of Christmas, as I do believe the Orthodox Christians did celebrate the birth of Christ – especially as a family, but they do not have a lot of the built up traditions of the season that we have become accustom to in the States.

We are not saying one is better or worse – just different. We realized we would have many different experiences living in Bulgaria. I was presently surprised how much more Bulgarians celebrated Easter than back home. I guess I am a bit disappointed to not see the same exuberance over Christmas. Then again, maybe they got it right.

Christmas Letter

Today, a Savior has been born unto you...

Merry Christmas! How we wish we were there to celebrate with all of you! Know that you are missed and are in our thoughts often, especially during the Christmas season.

Drew continues to be our pride and joy. What a pleasure it is to see the smiles and attention he gets from others in a society that can use a little extra joy and hope. He is growing so fast and is a mere shadow of the baby he was when we arrived. He is fiercely independent with a sweet disposition. Favorite activities include talking to his grandparents on skype, “play toys” and playtime with his little friends. Favorite phrases now are: “I do it ME-SELF”, “Actually, ...”, “I need a hug!” and “Sing it again.” Neither Marc nor I have singing voices, but we cherish the brief time he enjoys us singing to him. While there are hints of the terrible twos, most of the time he is a fun and adorable little kid.

We have now been in Bulgaria for almost a year, and although it does not seem like “home,” we have settled in and are adjusting to the Bulgarian way. We are still experiencing times of intense learning and growth, followed by times of routine and normalcy. We have slowed more into the Bulgarian pace, getting less annoyed when things don’t happen instantaneously, or at all for that matter. We are finding the slower pace to be more enjoyable, as we have time to build relationships with our teammates and Bulgarian friends.

Marc is really involved with the Bible School here – helping to establish process and procedure that will continue to help the school long after we are gone. Lisa continues to brush up her design skills, working on 3-4 design projects here in Bulgaria and Croatia.

We pray that you and your family are enjoying this Christmas season and are taking time to reflect on the many Blessings God has given all of us.

With much love-

Marc, Lisa and Drew

Modern view of Sofia

Here is a short film (clip) on Sofia created and produced by Alex Rossner, posted on the TurnHere website. We found it when searching the net for things to do in Sofia.

It gives a great view of the "modern" cultural life here in Sofia. Lisa and I still want to go and do some of the things in this video - the hard part is finding where they are at.

Hope you enjoy... http://www.turnhere.com/city/Sofia_Bulgaria/All/films/483.aspx

Return to Boulder River

You may remember an earlier post on the Blog were we went to our near by mountain, Mt. Vitosha, to go play on the “Boulder River.” Many of you thought we “doctored” the pictures – but most boulders are as big as your car or SUV. It is a valley on the mountain where these large to huge boulders all form a river cascading down the mountain. There is actually a water river that flows under the rocks – you can always hear it and at times see it.

Last week we had a 60+ degree day and we knew it could be one of the last nice days before winter set in. Lisa’s cousin, Rachael, is here for a few weeks – so we decided to take her to one of our favorite spots. We had a great time and the weather was beautiful. We were so glad we went, because the day following it began to snow. Today, a week later, the top of Mt. Vitosha is now covered in snow. Saddened that we will not be able to play on the rocks for awhile – but excited that ski season is just around the corner!

Please click the picture below to see more pictures.

Return to Boulder River

New Family Photos

Our Little Loov

Last year he was our little “tiger,” this year he is our little “loov.” (Lion in Bulgarian). Last Saturday we attended a “Fall Festival” for the missions’ community here in Sofia. Of course Drew had a great time – kids and candy – how can you go wrong? I guess we now need to start working on that “bear” costume for next year.

You can see pictures on the link below. Happy Halloween and Drew says “Grrrrrrr!”

Fall Festival

Papa and Jeje Visit Bulgaria

We were excited to spend the last two weeks showing my parents our life here in Bulgaria. While we all know they came to see little guy (said of course just to get a rise out of mom ;) ) they were good sports in our tours of what we do here as well. 4+ Orthodox churches, dinners and lunches with our co-workers, a visit to mom’s group, a trip to the zoo, and an evening at Awanas were only brief smatterings of Sofia we were able to share.

A highlight included a day trip to the Rila Monestary. While Marc and I had been before, Fall in all of it’s glory had arrived and was beautiful to explore on a brisk, sunny autumn day. We all felt like school children on a field trip as we drove up the mountain road past Rila. Dad enjoyed the livestock which ambled across the road every now and then, and taking pictures of Bulgarian tractors.

It was a lovely time and made home, for a brief period, seam not so far away. We were grateful for good weather and good health for my parents. The two weeks flew by, and we could have easily filled another two more. My parents need another 2 weeks of vacation just to recover. While dad knew before hand Bulgaria is far from handicap accessible, with a little help from Marc, they got to experience quite a bit of Sofia. Only once was he half thrown out of his wheelchair. Mom also experienced a bit of how dangerous it is to walk with your “shoulders up, head held high” here. We saw her acrobatic side as she missed a 2 inch step in the middle of a restaurant while carrying Drew and did a textbook tuck and roll to save Drew any harm. Overall the greatest joy was to see how happy Drew was with everyone together. Numerous times he would say, “Papa, JeJe, Drew, Mommy, Daddy do it to-geth-ER.”

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers during our time together.

Love to you and yours-

Lisa

Click the link below to see more pictures:

Papa and Jeje Visit Bulgaria - Oct 2006

New Executive Director at UTF

(From: Nick Nedelchev, UTF Chairman of the Board)


Dear Friends and partners,


My heart is full of joy when I am sending this information! Believe me : It is answer of my prayers for very long! God is GREAT !


With great pleasure I want to announce that Stoyan (Tony) Lalev has been elected Executive Director of UTF at a special meeting of the Board of Trustees on September 28, 2006. Tony will fill the position left vacant when I was elected Chairman of the Board of Trustees late last year.


As most of you already know, Tony is a member of our first graduating class of 1996, and has been active in ministry ever since. He has served as a Pastor in the Congregational Church in Bansko, as Assistant to Dick Walton and SEND International, and for the last three years as a full-time staff member at UTF. He is also a founder and Pastor of the Holy Trinity Bulgarian free church in Sofia.


Tony has been closely associated with academic operations of the school, serving over the years as a teacher, translator, and director of extension studies. Administratively, he has been an important contributor in recruiting, fund-raising, strategic planning and the Campus for Tomorrow building campaign.


When I asked Tony to come on board full time, it was with a specific plan in mind to prepare him for leadership in the school. I have been encouraged by his growth in maturity and management. In these last few years he and I have worked closely together in almost all matters, and I am confident that he is ready to assume the role of Executive Director at this time.


Please join me in lifting Tony up in prayer as he begins this new and exciting chapter in ministry. Remember the school, too, as, we collectively rise to meet the challenges the Lord has laid out in front of us, in service to Him and for His glory!


Yours in Christ,


Nick Nedelchev

Chairman of the Board

UTF Alumni Event

I (Marc) have been spending a large part of my summer planning and organizing the school’s first “Alumni Event.” We are actually developing a full Alumni Program and this event was the “kick-off” to implement this program. Our objective for this event was to be a social gathering for all past graduates, over the last 10 years, to get together and re-connect. The second objective was to communicate to the graduates what an “Alumni” is and what an “Alumni Program” does. I feel both were accomplished.

The weekend was a huge success!

We had 69 people show up for the event – which is great as we were hopping for 60 to attend, but prepared for 70. We had a great planning team consisting of SEND missionaries and UTF staff (Bulgarians). The team did a great job coming together and owning their pieces of the event. It was a great display of teamwork as we all had out part in making this even successful.

The former graduates really enjoyed seeing one another again. Many of them personally thanked me for organizing the event as they really enjoyed it – many people on the planning team received many of the same comments. Besides the social element – I really wanted the “Alumni Program” to be communicated clearly. Given my lack of the Bulgarian language – this was hard for me to judge – but many said they were excited to participate in something like this. Now we just need to use the momentum of this event into implementing the actual Alumni Program.

Thank you for your support – it really was a great success!

Lion's and Tigers and Bears- Oh My!

A day at the zoo:

We were privileged to go to the zoo with Marc’s coworker, Tony and his wife and daughter, Alena and Iouana a week ago Saturday. After getting somewhat of a grim outlook from one of my Bulgarian friends, I was pleasantly surprised, as the zoo was clean and a fun place to spend an afternoon. It was wonderful after 8 months of being in Bulgaria to meet Tony’s wife and daughter, they are both delightful. The animals at Sofia zoo are much more interactive than any other animals I have seen at other zoos. I think mostly because people feed them (for much of Sofia, just think America of the 70’s.)

It was a fun experience to get to the Elephant (слон-slone in Bulgarian) display at the actual zoo feeding time. Drew and Iouana were captivated for 20 minutes as they watched the elephant eat a whole, large watermelon. I was pretty impressed as well. The elephant picked the whole thing up with its trunk, and then crunched it in half. Drew still talks about it every time he see’s a picture of an elephant. The hippo (хипопотам-hipopotam) was also very fun. It would open it’s mouth wide for people to throw food in. At first I didn’t know whether he was hungry or had had a bad day as he looked quite grumpy with his mouth wide open. Marc thinks he looked straight out of the game hungry hippo. I will have him refrain from trying to feed the hippo marbles the next time we are there. The bear (мечка-mechka) was entertaining as well. He almost looked human as he sat almost straight up on a rock waiting for food to be thrown down to him.

Hope you enjoyed your trip with us to the zoo!

Take care-

Lisa

NFL in Bulgaria

Many of you know that I am an avid football fan. From the many years of playing myself (a long time ago) to living in an NFL town for the last 5 years – I have really become addicted to the sport. One of my largest difficulties in living in Bulgaria is that anytime I mention football they all think I am talking about a bunch of guys who chase around a black and white ball and will get hurt if the wind blows too hard.

So my mission this summer. (Ok- admittedly a self-indulging “side” mission) was to find a way to watch US Football this fall. None of the Bulgarian cable or satellite companies carried any US Football.

I then had to turn to the wonderful world of technology – the internet. I have a good friend in Kansas City whom has a “Slingbox” which allows you to watch TV via the internet. He also has a Tivo unit set up – thus I can watch and record KC cable from here – in Bulgaria. The quality is not the best – but being half way around the world – I cannot complain. I have also found sites on the internet that will allow you to download football games after they have all ready been played. So I have been able to find a fix for my addiction.

As a result I am bringing down the other missionaries with me. Just last week I held a Monday Night Football Party on “Wednesday” night. It felt like back home – a bunch of guys sitting around, goofing off and watching football – real football. I actually invited some of my Bulgarian friends – for some reason they did not seam that interested.

Gotta go… Bears coming on at 8.

The Last Hike

Hopefully it will not be the last hike of the year, but last weekend Lisa and I took the opportunity to go with some friends to the Rila Mountains for an all day hike.

“Rila is the highest mountain (range) in Bulgaria and on the whole Balkan Peninsula. It is a part of the Rila-Rhodope Massif and occupies its north-east end. Rila seems to be a piece of the Alps thrown into the heart of the Balkans with its 130 Alpine peaks above 2000m, glacial valleys and lakes… the most famous and scenic of all - the 7 Rila lakes.” (bgtravel.com)

We left Drew with a baby sitter and we headed out with our friends, Paul and Erin Smith. Paul and Erin are avid hikers and were kind enough to take us along. We hiked above the tree line and the views were spectacular. Of course pictures never do it justice, but you can check them out at the link below. We hiked up to the 7 lakes and ate lunch at a “Hizha.” A Hizha is a shelter/hotel/restaurant up in the high elevations for the mountains. Bulgarians will hike for days from hizha to hizha. The only down side is that our little walk ended up going 8hrs. Our legs were dead - it literally felt as if my hamstring was pulling away from my leg bone by the end of the trip. All in all, it was a great trip and we hope to do it again soon.

Pictures: http://sheppardbulgaria.shutterfly.com/action/

SEND Regional Conference

This year SEND International (the missions organization we are with) held their Regional conference in Ohrid Macedonia. Macedonia neighbors Bulgaria to the south west and we arrived by bus – a 10 hour one way bus ride from Sofia to Ohrid.

The conference was great, the trip home was not. Our bus turned into a traveling petri dish of sickness. The night before we left the conference, three girls came down with “flue-like” symptoms – by the end of the 10 HOUR bus ride home, over half 20+ had the same symptoms of varying degree. I (Marc) unfortunately become one of them. Half way through the trip I got the chills, then the aches, then the fever, then the chills again – you know how it goes. Fortunately I was able to keep my food down, while an unfortunate few were not. The last 5 hours of the bus trip were very unpleasant, but we finally got home at 12:30am Tuesday. I have since recovered, but it was a rough couple of days and I and others had “lingering” effects for about a week. Praise God that Lisa and Drew were able to avoid this mini-plague.

The conference went well. A church from Pennsylvania came over to help run it. They provided the worship, the speaker/teacher and children programs. The purpose of the SEND Conference is to bring all the missionary families from South/Central Europe together for fellowship and to discuss SEND business matters. The countries represented were Croatia, Slovenia, Kosovo, Hungary, Check Republic, Macedonia, Bulgaria and Turkey. All teams gave a country report and shared what was going on within their countries and ministries. SEND also has some business to conduct such as elect new area council members and a new Area Director was moved into office. I enjoyed this piece as I was able to see how SEND operates as an organization and how their leadership structure is put into place. I was also very nice to meet all of the other missionary families. There were 30 family units there – most of them with kids. The supporting church from Pennsylvania also brought about 15 people.

We greatly enjoyed the worship and teaching. It did not hit me until we were there singing that this was the fist time in 8 months that we were worshiping God in our own language with other believers. The teaching was also very practical to our current situation – we appreciated it very much. It was a great time to “re-center” on an emotional and spiritual level.

Small World!

We discovered my parents in Des Moines, IA have neighbors from Bulgaria. The Bulgarian family’s parents visited Des Moines, from Bulgaria, for 3 months this summer and were able to meet my parents. My parents gave them our contact information and the mother, Margarita, called us when they came back to Bulgaria. Drew and I met her for coffee and then went to their apartment. They live about 6 blocks from us, just on the other side of our local grocery store. I was able to speak to her all in Bulgarian and get to know her a little bit. We look forward to more encounters with them. We hope to get to know them better and we pray that my parents will be able to get to know the Bulgarian family there in West Des Moines because of this connection. Who would have figured – two different families, half way around the world, actually live houses/blocks from each other. Crazy -

Lisa

Lisa goes “International”

Lisa has expanded her home grown business “Desserts by Design” by going “International.” A few weeks back Lisa was asked to bake a birthday cake for the birthday party of her friend and language helper “Nade” (short for Nadeshda). Of course it was a big hit as the traditional birthday cake that we are use to in the States is quite different than the cake here. The cakes here are good, but they are usually very heavy and accompanied with some kind of fruit. You can see by the pictures that Lisa has taken her design skills international as well, as the cake writing is in Bulgarian “Nade, Chesteet Rozhden Den” – “Nade, Happy Birthday.” The party was a good time to interact with our Bulgarian friends and share in their customs and traditions, as we injected some of ours traditions – like Birthday Cake!

VIDEO - 2006 Orphan Summer Camp

Pictures from the 2006 Orphan SummerCamp in the Rila Mountains of Bulgaria set to the music of "Thousand Foot Krutch" - "This is a Call"

The Bus Gestapo

I had my first run in with the “Bus Gestapo” Wednesday on bus N^o 313. I was the last person to squeeze onto a bus that was so full the doors literally hit me in the behind when they closed. Traveling by bus this way is a lovely experience, especially in 80 degree heat with 90% humidity. In order to validate your bus ticket you have to manually punch it in these little “machines” on the walls of the bus. Of course, they are not conveniently located near the doors, you have to actually get up the stairs and into the bus to get near them. I pulled out my ticket and planned to get mine validated after a few people cleared. 3 stops later, the bus was still full, but had cleared a little and I thought, “After the next stop I should be able to get to the machine and punch my ticket.” One thought too late for the bus Gestapo - the lady next to me proceeded to rip out and put on her “controller vest.” She looked directly at me and asked for my ticket and made no attempt to look at tickets of those near me. In my broken Bulgarian I said, “I want to, but can’t” and handed her my ticket. She took my ticket, mocked me to some nearby passengers repeating what I had tried to say and handed me a 7 leva fine. A fine for not having a ticket while keeping mine. I refused to pay the “on the spot” ticket, which is the custom here, because I felt that if she was going to single me out, I was going to make her go to the trouble of writing me a paper ticket. I know this was not a very “Christian” attitude and it was stubbornness on my part. I should have just paid the ticket, but I didn’t. She proceeded to ask for my Litchna card, our Bulgarian identification card. Thinking she was just going to use it to write me a ticket and then give it back - I handed it over. Instead, she just placed it in her bag. Now in English, I ask her how to get it back? She made a motion for me to wait but spoke to me only in Bulgarian - most of which I didn’t understand. As stops passed by, the passengers on the bus started sticking up for me. I assumed they were pleading my case and telling her to give my card back.

Given what happened next, I should have just paid the 7 lev ticket. We finally got off the bus and my “friend,” the bus lady, starts briskly walking. So I follow - for six blocks I follow her and all I can understand is her saying “chef”- which means boss in Bulgarian. She takes me like her personal prisoner, bound by the fact she still has my ID card, to the main city bus office. I thought we would get there, she would write me a ticket and I’d go on my way - that’s the way civilized society should work! Right? I think I’ve mentioned before, but assumptions don’t work so well in Bulgaria.

She proceeded from office to office with me not letting her out of my sight. People kept shooing her away. She then walked in on a meeting in her boss’s office and again was told to go away. At this time I took out my cell and called Marc. Marc wisely suggested I get a Bulgarian on the line so I called my friend Mimi to find out exactly what was going on. Mimi talked to her and translated to me that as soon as her boss was done we would talk to him and be done. I kept Mimi on the line to explain my side of the story to her boss. Mimi then talked to the boss and they began chatting about the people he knew in Florida and Chicago – how random is that? After they got off the phone, Mimi translated that she would write me a ticket and he dismissed us.

I am finding all of this unbelievable. It is now 45 mins after my little bus infraction and I have walked 6 blocks to this office. The woman then takes me to a room, pulls the tickets out of the SAME bag she had with her on the bus and begins asking me basic questions – now in ENGLISH (this is the first English she has spoken to me since this started!) Her boss was not needed for the process; he didn’t even look at the ticket. Come to find out, she should have taken me off the bus at the very next stop and written me a ticket there. The only reason I should have been taken to the station is if I didn’t have Bulgarian identification AND refused to pay the ticket.

I was ready to catch a flight back to the US last Wednesday. However I have now simmered down and think most of it is funny. At least I know what to expect next time!

-Lisa

A Week at Orphan Camp

Last week we were privileged to share in a unique experience. We served as counselors at an Orphan Camp with 5 other Bulgarian Christians and Christina, an American on our SEND team who served as the camp director. The camp brought two different orphanages together with a goal of providing a carefree and enjoyable environment where God'’s love could be witnessed and experienced.

Overall I was impressed by the group of kids. Given they do not have parents I expected there to be more behavior problems. Granted, we had a buffered view as we couldn't understand what they said most the time and were not around late in the evening due to Drew'’s bed time. However many of the kids, even the older teenage boys, were playing with and lovingly interacting with Drew. We were also impressed by the Bulgarian counselors. This team is not only committed to a week at camp, this summer will be the third camp they have facilitated for orphans. They also visit to the orphanages at least once a month to interact with the kids and build relationships.

I first noticed that the kids were in need of love and understandably so. Almost immediately, even though we could barely communicate, we had kids hugging on us. The highlight of my time at camp was meeting and playing with two of the youngest kids at the camp (maybe 7 or 8) Annie and Emil. Both were vibrant kids full of energy and always wanting to play with Drew. Another highlight was watching Marc befriend and care for the youth. Marc willingly went, but I know that this type of thing is a bit out of his element. I knew that he was making an impact on the kids when a group of older boys asked him to pull up a chair to sit down with them as they smoked. (Anti-smoking campaigns have not yet made it to Bulgaria, practically everyone 13 and older smokes.)

The English lessons, while very basic, were rewarding for me. It was exciting to see how excited a few of the kids were to learn. We didn't get through much, but hopefully it will spark a desire for the youth to learn more. One of the boys in my class goes to our church, so it will be good to continue to see him on a regular basis.

Because of the orphanage is a state run institution, the camp could not be a "“Christian Camp." However the youth attended "small groups" everyday where they read the Max Lucado book, You are Special, which teaches life principles and morals. There was an open forum session the youth could voluntarily attend where they could ask faith based questions. 14 of about 36 youth attended and the Bulgarian counselors fielded the questions. The counselors felt it was a very encouraging session.

We don'’t know how effective we were - however our hope is that the kids were able to witness what a loving family unit looked like. We also hope that they felt loved and that they know there is a committed group of Christians who care for them. Please continue to pray for this group of youth who have so many large obstacles to overcome!

-Lisa for the 3 of us

To view more pictures of camp, click on the the title "A Week at Orphan Camp" above or click the following link: http://sheppardbulgaria.shutterfly.com/action/