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!)

Tribute to Grandma Moeckl

(Lisa's Tribute read at Grandma Moeckl's Funeral)

My grandmother had an incredible gift, while she had so many family members vying for her attention, I could say without a doubt she made each one of us feel as if we were special and important in a meaningful way. Ask anyone of us and we will give you a unique story. My husband Marc holds much love and respect for her as well in the brief time he was privileged to know her, that is the kind of woman she was.

While it is difficult not being with everyone to celebrate her life, it is also difficult not being able to be with the wonderful family she had so much influence in creating. There is a great amount of love, laughter and pride in being a Moeckl and in being “a cousin” which would not have been possible without my grandmother’s sacrifices in so many ways.

Each of us in our quest of earthly existence hope our lives are in some way meaningful. My grandmother without a doubt accomplished that mission, not through earthly titles or wealth, but by being “stubbornly” committed to first her faith in God and then to her family. Today my heart is with all of you while my presence can not be. While I am saddened at the end of an era of my grandmother’s earthly presence I rejoice that she is in the heavenly home she always yearned for and taught us so much about. More so I rejoice that she is now with my grandfather and with us in her spirit and in who each one of us have become just by being touched by her faith and loving presence.

With all my love and respect grandma- Lisa Rachelle

I lost my grandma Sheppard when I was 8 so I never really had the chance to know here, but I still remember those big hugs that almost crushed you. She too was a prayer warier that held the family together when she was her. Grandma Moeckl embodied everything I knew my grandmother to stand for. It was easy to fall in love with Grandma Moeckl with her accepting love, her kindness, those hugs that would almost crush you and let’s not forget those awesome chicken and noodles. I love Grandma Moeckl as my own and rejoice that she is now home. I know Grandma Moeckl will have a very long line of greeters to welcome her into heaven, and at the end of that line will be my Grandma Sheppard anxiously awaiting an update – I think they will become great friends.

Love you grandma, Marc.

Obituary

Wilma “Jean” Moeckl
(June 11, 1919 - March 23, 2006)
“Her children arise and call her blessed…” Proverbs 31:28

We, her children, celebrate the life of our precious mother, Wilma “Jean” Moeckl, born June 11, 1919, to Irving and Jessie Wenig. She was ushered into heaven at 6:59 pm March 23, 2006, at Maranatha Village in Springfield, Missouri, on her grandson Ashton’s 17^th birthday, as her children were singing Onward Christian Soldiers. She grew up on a farm near Gray, Iowa, attended Iowa State Teacher’s College, and then taught in a one-room school for eight years. She married Harold “Pat” Alvin Moeckl, December 26, 1945; eight children were born to this union. She was a member of the Gray Assembly of God church until 1974 when Pat and she moved to Des Moines, Iowa. There they became members of the First Assembly of God church.

Jean was loved by many and will be remembered as a powerful prayer warrior who excelled in the gift of hospitality. She mastered the art of homemade wheat rolls, cinnamon rolls, chicken & noodles, scrumptious pies, and more. Her greatest joy was that all eight of her children and their spouses have accepted Christ as their personal Savior and are active in serving Him today.

Jean is survived by all eight of her children: Patti (Chaplain Delwin) VandeKrol, Ft. Madison, IA; Harold (Esther) Moeckl, Mechanicsville, VA; Dan (Jeannie) Moeckl, Des Moines, IA; Rev. Ken (Trudy) Moeckl, Springfield, MO; Pauline (Duane) Everett, Clifton, VA; Pam (Mark) Schaad, Des Moines, IA; Peggy (Rev. Randy) Williams, Vero Beach, FL; Penny (Chuck) Francis, Hollister, CA; 26 grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren. She is also survived by her sister, Nettie Clemmensen, Minneapolis, MN, and brother, Rev. Tom (Mae) Wenig, Kearney, NE. She was preceded in death by her husband, Harold “Pat” Moeckl (July 30, 1978), her son-in-law, Red Behnke (January 27, 1993), her parents, Irving and Jessie Wenig, her sister and husband, Eloise & Leonard Franz; and brother-in-law Glenn Clemmensen.

Memorials may be sent to First Assembly of God, 2725 Merle Hay Road, Des Moines, IA 50310 and will be used for “Fire Bibles” (study Bibles) for pastors overseas.

We rise up and honor the memory of our mother and are so thankful for her unselfish life. Patti, Harold, Dan, Ken, Pauline, Pam, Peggy, and Penny

Transportation in Sofia

We don’t have a car here in Sofia which is both a blessing and a curse. We knew coming over we would not have a car, although we did not realize just how far the bible school was from our home. We take public transportation (Bus, Tram, Trolley or Taxi) almost everywhere. To get to the school I take two busses. I walk 5 blocks to get to the bus station, take a 30 min bus ride, walk another 4 blocks to the next bus, take a 20 min bus ride and walk another 3 blocks to the school. The whole trip door to door is about 1hr15min. Once the weather gets better it won’t be too bad. However with all the snow we have been having – it makes for quite a trek. The positive is that I will have some genuine stories to tell Drew about waking blocks on icy snow packed roads in a foreign country – so don’t give me any whining! Another plus is that I am getting my exercise in.

Last week a family on our team left for a few days and left us their car to use. That same trip to school is only 35 min by car – but driving is a whole new adventure. Every car here is a manual transmission – automatics are unheard of. I can drive a stick – but pray that Lisa never has to go anywhere. The roads look like they just got bombed by the Germans. There are pot holes you can actually loose a car in – and some have. We had a family on our team who drove through a “puddle,” this puddle happened to be 16 inches deep. They ended up breaking their front axle on their min-van.

Road signs, street signals – are merely a “suggestion” here. The biggest and fastest win – the others get hurt. I have to admit – it was an adrenaline rush to drive. You are a race car driver with everyone else. The “right-of-way” goes to the one who gets his bumper in first – I felt like I was cutting my way through a defensive backfield once again. The only problem is – if you get tackled here – it will cost you some serious money. (It didn’t help that my friend’s car is a Volkswagen 6 speed turbo diesel – it could move)

I pulled back on my testosterone levels and we actually got around pretty good. We made some runs to the large groceries stores and visited some stores we had not been to. I gave back the keys and came down with “car bug fever.” Actually we will hold off and see how the public transit works once the weather gets nicer. On the down side, almost everyone on our team who has a car has had it in the shop a few times this year. Bulgaria just eats cars.

Meeting Dr. Ilianna Ivanova

As we struggle through language and feeling reduced to bumbling fools in our attempts to communicate in Bulgarian, a friend who speaks English is a welcomed joy. I was able to meet one such woman at our local bakery (yes the same one in our afore mentioned blog!) A blondish haired, blue eyed baby stands out here and I don't exactly blend in as well so it was easy to pick up that we weren't "from around these parts," which opened up a conversation with Dr. Ivanova. Come to find out, she is a professor in micro-biology at Sofia University. Awhile back, she won a grant to go to Tennessee for 6 months so spent some time in the states. In our short meeting at the bakery she gave me her card and told me I could call her sometime.

On a beautiful Saturday in Sofia I was able to get together with her. It started out a bit rocky as a big difference we're finding with Bulgarians and Americans is that they don't plan much and can be a bit non-committal. Our telephone conversation started with planning a time to meet. After I thought we had agreed to 10 am Saturday, she then said, "Well maybe 1pm." Ok then, 1. "Well maybe 11, as I have to go to a showing of pots, pans and assorted kitchenware, or maybe you could meet me and go with me to the show?" We FINALLY agreed that we would meet at 11 and I would go with her to whatever this "show" was. I was thinking I was possibly going to the Bulgarian version of pampered chef? I would never find out exactly what I was supposed to go to because the next mistake I made was when she told me we would meet at Universidad I assumed that was the University she works at in the center of the city. I was mistaken and what she actually meant is that we were to meet at the Universidad sports complex which was only a little ways from our apartment. I was 20 mins away in the opposite direction! Thank goodness for cell phones, she called, then came to meet me in the center of the city. Finally united, we spent a wonderful day. We spent the morning touring one of the most well known cathedrals in Sofia, the Alexander Nevski. It is the cathedral in the background of our magnets we sent out. She gave me the insiders view of the city and I enjoyed every moment of it. While I felt bad Dr. Ivanova had missed her show, I had such a wonderful time and hope she did as well that I felt like it was ordained to be that way. I'm looking forward to calling her in the coming week to hopefully arrange a second meeting. This time I'll be more careful to get street names as to where I am supposed to go!

Much love to you all!

Lisa

(Picture insert is the Alexander Nevski Cathedral)

Gypsy Worship

Last Friday night we attended Gypsy Church again and a took a small video
snipit with my camara. I want to try to show it here on the Blog, but not quite
sure how. So this is a test. Hopefully you will see it below. We'll write more
later, but for now Im just trying to see if this works. Let me know if you have
any feedback or if you have a better way of sharing video.



Later,

Marc

 

Here is some Gypsy Preaching:

My first assignment

I thought you may all like this...

Here is my first email I sent from my new role at UTF. It took me three days to write it, but I think you will see why.

Basically I am introducing myself and then requesting the team to fill our an employee survey I created to help us develop our new Job Descriptions. At least... that is what I think it says...

Здравейте, аз се казвам Марк Шепард и аз съм мисионер за кратък период с SEND International. Тук съм да помагам на Тони и ОБФ с работното управление. Със съпругата ми, Лиса, имаме момче на 19 месеца, казва се Drew (Дру). Ние сме от Kansas City Missouri, USA (Кансас Сити, Мисури, САЩ) и ще живем в България за 18 месеца.

Намерението на този ‘общ служебен преглед’ е да получава информация от работния колектив на ОБФ, така че ние да можем да документираме точно ролите и отговорностите в ОБФ. Ще използваме тази информация за да помогнем при създаването на длъжностни характеристики за нашата текуща работа. И за нови длъжности в бъдеще.

Разделът ‘Лична информация’ ще събере вашите лични интереси и ще се погрижи за обратна работна връзка. Моля попълнете формуляра и го върнете на Марк Шепард или Тони Лалев преди четвъртък, 24 февруари. Моля питайте ако имате въпроси относно формуляра.

Блогодаря за вашата помощ и ще се радвам да работя с вас.

Марк

Bulgarian Valentine

Happy belated Valentines Day to everyone. Yes, they do celebrate Valentines Day in Bulgaria. They kind of go a bit overboard as they were not allowed to celebrate Valentines Day under Communism as it was considered a “Catholic” holiday. However it is still not as commercial as in the US. Lisa and I had involuntary started to boycott the V-Day holiday in the states, as we swore it was a holiday that Hallmark invented just to make a few extra bucks.

Bulgaria does have its advantages, as I was able to get Lisa a big bouquet of roses for about $20 the day before V-day. I would have easily had to pay $60-$80 in the states for the same. Sorry, the truth is revealed, I am a “cheap” romantic.

Drew made his mommy a valentine day card and he was able to tell her that he was “hop-pee” (his new word) to be her valentine.

Drew is a big Nemo and Lion King fan, so he got a large stuffed Simba, who is about Drew’s size. Drew loves to read books in his “turtle tent” that is in his room. So Simba now has to go to the tent whenever we all read books.

We are all doing well. We have had a lot of snow and it has been cold here. Highs are in the 20s and it dips to the single digits when I go to work in the morning. The only time I really long for home is when I see that KC has been in the 50s and 60s through out all of Jan and Feb. Because of the temps it is hard to get out and explore like we would like to. On the positive side of the weather, we are planning on going skiing this weekend on Mt. Vitosha. This is the mountain we can see outside of our living room window.

We continue to struggle through the language, but we are making malko (some) progress. My job is going well as we are in the middle of creating job descriptions for the bible school. We have kept in contact with the taxi driver, Stoiam, who invited us to the gypsy church. We have invited him and his whole family to come of Saturday night. Your prayers for Saturday night would be appreciated.

Please drop us a line if you have time.

Love you guys!

Marc, Lisa and Drew

Invisible Children

Some of you may remember that my cousin, Mallory, went to Uganda this last summer to work with Invisible Children (IC). She is the one who got real sick with malaria, typhoid and salmonella. She is now alive and kicking, better than ever before, in case your wondering. Anyways… she shared a DVD with us about the project. It is an awesome story that really needs to be shared. We really feel this is a worthy cause to pray about. This was also the cover story of Christianity Today in December of 2005. It is awesome to see that they are finally getting some press.

Blow is a cool “podcast” that keep you up to date. This whole effort is driven by these two UCLA Film School Students, who happen to be Christians, therefore the videography is really cool. I know your all into the Ipod – so you will need to check out the link below.

Our engines have started, so start yours and copy this link into your browser: itpc://rss.mac.com/invisiblechildren/iWeb/Site/Podcast/rss.xml i-tunes will automatically start up and you will see I.C.'s first podcast ever. Subscribe to it and you will see many more to come. If you don't have i-tunes get it now, or you'll miss out. Buckle up, let's WinnebagOOOOOOO! Much love and cheese- The I.C. team

First Days at Work

I started work at UTF (United Theological Faculty - a college within the Bulgarian Evangelical Theological Institute) on Tuesday and will be working there 3 days a week. The other two days I will have language class in the morning and work from home in the afternoon.

Here are some of the projects I will be working on:

Create Job Descriptions for those who work at the Institute and then create Job Descriptions for positions that are needed at the Institute. We need to define what UTF currently has and then develop a strategic plan for what they need.

I will also work on developing an Alumni Association/Network to ensure that UTF will have the ability to continue to Encourage, Enable and Equip the current alumni. The project will also have recruiting and fund raising elements.

UTF is actually a large house. The house construction began in 1990 with Communists funds. Once communists fell in 1991 there were no funds to finish the house. The mission then bought the half constructed house and finished it to serve as a school with classrooms, a chapel and a kitchen.

My office is in the upper loft with a few other guys. Check out the stairs to get to my office. Maybe you all need to be praying that I donÂ’t break my leg going to work each day.

I know this does not look like “hands on” missions, but my hope is that we can positively impact the school to run more efficiently and effectively – thus resulting in more students learning the gospel and saving lives.

Thank you for allowing me to do this.

In His care,

Marc

A night with the Gypsies

Whoa, we just had crazy/cool experience. We just spent the evening with a “Gypsy” family singing praise songs, praying, struggling to communicate and eating cookies and benitsa (bread and cheese). Nothing like getting right into the culture.

In Lisa’s last post she mentions how our taxi driver invited us to go to church. Actually he told us he was picking us up and since we did not know how to decline – we just said Da (yes). This was to be our first truly “Bulgarian” experience with no Americans holding our hands. Service was great. It was at a Bulgarian Church of God and not too unlike some services we have attended back home. The only “somewhat” down side is that they gave us too much attention. We looked to be the only American couple in about 500 people in attendance. So they wanted to parade us on stage and have me say something – something most all of them would not understand without the use of the translator. We realized they were only giving us the attention because we are Americans, as I kind of doubt they bring every visitor up on stage. Anyways – it was cool to attend and worship with them.

We may have made another cultural “faux-pa.” We were told when Bulgarians ask you to do something during the day – they are actually asking you to spend the whole day with them. After church they wanted us to come to their house. Unfortunately we had not discussed this senario and told them we had to get home to put Drew down for his nap – which was true. But they asked if we were free Monday evening and we told them we were – so they said they would pick us up. To do what – we really didn’t know.

Stoiam, the taxi driver, came to picked us up in his little Russian car, a Lada, and took us to his brothers house. It was a nice home and they laid out a table of goodies for us. Other younger children were there to play with drew. It was Stoiam’s family, his bothers family, and some other relation – about 15 of us in all. We all had our Rechniki (Dictionaries) out trying to piece together dialects that others could understand. It is amazing how much you can communicate through humor – basically everyone laughing at everyone as they butchered the other language. Then they started singing many Bulgarian praise songs and once they started singing Amazing Grace my heart leaped. God’s saving Grace transcends all barriers. They prayed for us and it was a great evening. Scary and exciting all in one.

The Gypsies are actually second class citizens in Bulgaria. They are a bit darker skinned – like those from an Indian decent. We did not even know this until they started making fun of each other for being gypsies. It all clicked once I heard them and paid more attention to there features. They have now invited us to go to the “gypsies church.” We’ll let you know how that turns out.

Please keep Stoiam and his family in your prayers.

Lisa is in the top left.

Stoiam is just to the right of Lisa, balding and in a black jacket. 

We've arrived!

Picture 1: view of the mountains from our apartment
Picture 2: View of the street from our apartment

Hello all! As most of you have heard via our emails, we have arrived in our new home and are doing well! We just got internet set up in the apartment so have just begun answering emails and this marks the beginning of us updating our blog on a more regular basis.

Our apartment, though dilapidated looking on the outside, is quite nice and spacious on the inside. It is furnished and we're shocked that we even have a dishwasher. The best part of the apartment is that about twice a day the haze in the city lifts and we have a view of the mountains from our living room, a welcome sight in a city where most everything is grey and dirty. I am hoping for a better perspective on the dreariness of the city once spring comes!

Most of our days right now are filled with language study. We are trying to get our mouths used to trying to say so many consonants in a row. We're starting to get the new alphabet down (Bulgarian uses Cyrillic which has 30 letter in its alphabet.) Because of the different alphabet, note that anything we write to you in Bulgarian will be spelled phonetically in roman letters as we don't expect all of you to learn Cyrillic! :-) Here are just a few of the many words we've covered in the last couple weeks- priyaten den: Have a nice day, jeveesh: we live, jeveeya: I live, momche: boy, zdreveyte: hello, hlyab: bread.

We are excited that we will have our first truly Bulgarian experience (meaning we won't have another person who speaks English to hold our hand) on Sunday! We happened to meet a taxi driver who drove us to our Bulgarian classes who speaks a tiny bit of English. On our fist ride with him we struggled through a bit of conversation with our almost non-existent grasp of Bulgarian and his small knowledge of English. It was funny because we made no reference to why we were in Bulgaria, but halfway through our taxi ride he held up the Bible that was in his passenger seat and declared, "Christiani." At the end of our fist ride with him we took down his cell number(called a gsm number in Bulgaria,) and continued to have him drive us to our classes. On Thursday, we asked him about his church and thought we would write down the address to go and try to visit sometime, but he immediately got excited and asked to pick us up on Sunday. We'll let you know how it goes!

Today we had one of my favorite experiences thus far, we found our local Bakery! Wow, you have not had bread this good! The bakery is only 3 blocks away so we walked there as a family today. The bread was still steaming as we left the bakery. Drew loved that we broke it open on the way home and gave him some. He was like a little bird chirping bread, bread bread, as we couldn't feed it to him fast enough! I will not buy bread from the grocery store again! Also, you can't beat the price, for a hot loaf of bread and some rolls with chocolate on them (excellent as well) we paid 1 leva which is equivalent to 60 cents US. It may be habit forming!

We love and miss you all!

Lisa

And we are off...

It’s kind of weird to realize that I am writing you all for the last time from the comforts of our US home(s). Hopefully the next email you receive from us will be from Bulgaria. All of our bags (boxes) are re-packed and we are loading up the van tonight. We are then off to Chicago tomorrow morning, we’ll spend one last evening with family and then head to the airport around noon on Sunday. Our flight is at 4:30pm so hopefully we will have all of our luggage taken care of by then.

We have been so busy this last week getting all the last minute things ready (I know… you’re all saying I had 4 months) that I really have not had any time to just reflect on what’s really happening. Maybe this is all by God’s design – as our human natures tend to freak out about things like this. But as of right now – all emotions are on a cool level.

I/We have learned so much over the last four months – don’t worry, I won’t break it all down now. The largest thing I have come to experience is how generous and loving our family and friends are to us. I have often become “one-tracked” about all of this and have been very selfish at times – but you have all put up with me and loved me all the same. “Thank you” is not enough – but please know that you are all very loved and appreciated.

God does nothing by accident or coincidence. God is definitely in this – and that brings us great peace.

God has put you in our lives and we are so very grateful.

Please join us in prayer by praying for the following:

• Getting everything to the airport
• Luggage – that we are allotted the extra bags and that we make the weight limits
• The flight – a safe and comfortable ride (specifically for Drew)
• The Transfer – we have 35 minutes for our connecting flight in Munich – pray that we and our luggage make it
• Arrival – Pray for the SEND team and all those who will be helping us adjust.
• The mission – Pray for God to perform His work through us.

God Bless! We Love You!

We’ll catcha on the flip side.

The Sheps

Hallelujah!

We have visas!

We just wanted to give you all an update that we now have visas in hand. Well… we don’t actually have them “in hand,” but they are in capable hands – and on the way.

We just found out Tuesday morning, by a phone call from the Bulgarian Consulate, that the visas were ready. However they did not have a return envelope to use to send them to us. Unfortunately they never communicated that they needed return envelopes? So verses having us send envelopes and them getting back to us in an efficient manor, we called Greg, Lisa’s cousin, who lives in Chicago and he graciously agreed to go pick them up for us. Greg has since placed them in the mail to us.

Given we now have the visas – we were able to book our tickets.

It is now official – we are flying out of Chicago on Sunday January 8^th at 4:20 PM for Sofia Bulgaria.

We are very excited and are very thankful for all your prayers.

I have found in “working for God” He likes to make things very interesting – although this can be very frustrating for our small minds, it makes life exciting and rewarding.

Now for the scary part… we are going!

Please continue to keep us in your prayers.

We love you.

Marc, Lisa and Drew.

Christmas Eve Update

Merry Christmas Everyone!

We would just like to wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas!

We received a nice present ourselves this week - we got some good news from Bulgaria. I was sent an email last week stating that our visa process has been approved in Bulgaria. That information now needs to get back to the Bulgarian Consulate in Chicago. The Consulate will give the final approval and issue the visas. They will then need to send them to us.

Unfortunately we do not know how long this process will take. But we are pleased to know that we are one step closer to going. Thank you all so much for your prayers in this effort.

We will be spending Christmas Eve with the Sheppards and then heading to the Moeckls on Christmas Day.

Merry Christmas!

Love,
Marc, Lisa and Drew

Merry Christmas from the Christmas Bug

Merry Christmas!

 

I am a Professional!

Please do not try this at home!

As Kevin displays - He is the only true professional among us. 

Enjoying Christmas

Hey ya'll...

Still hanging out.

We don't feel so anxious this week. We received a few encouraging emails last week and we know quite a few of you are praying for us and that certainly makes a difference.

We figure we could sit around being frustrated and trying to figure out what "God is doing." Or we can enjoy this Christmas season with our family and use this time to get closer to God. We have decided to choose the latter.

You would think that should have been an easy choice - yet somehow that human/sin nature keeps getting in the way.

We hope and pray all of your are enjoying this Christmas season with your friends and family.

Merry Christmas -

Marc