Well when we left off on our previous blog post we had begun our aggressive evangelism Sunday school classes. I had completed my first bible study and Joshua preached a sermon that was amazing. The Spirit was all over the room. It was a feeling I have not experience while here in the Razgrad church. The Bulgarian culture is very much a closeness culture. There is not a “personal bubble” in living areas and in public buildings. Many live with at least three others in a small, two room apartment and work in offices with desks sitting practically on top of each other. Prior to the beautiful new Nazarene church being built here in Razgrad the congregation met in a small room. Everyone’s elbows were touching and you could hardly breathe because the air seemed so scarce. And now with the new LARGE building many have grown accustomed to having two foot radius that is all theirs. This particular Sunday we were able to experience a glimpse of what this former church was like. We all crowded into the small fellowship area due to the heater breaking in the church. We gathered small benches and chairs from the church and brought the keyboard and guitar over and the service began. The Spirit was amazing and it was like the church needed that “closeness” again. It was an amazing service!
After the service ended we fellowshipped with one another for maybe thirty minutes and everyone went along their way to the comfort of their warm homes. We were preparing to leave to go to the village of Kubrat where we attend service, participate in communion, and fellowship with one another once a month.
The day before we had an afternoon filled with sledding. We went with friends from the church to the villages on the outskirts of Razgrad. We parked the car and walked higher and higher and higher in snow up to my waist at times before we finally arrived at the “perfect” spot. By the time we arrived at the hill we were only there for around an hour because it was so cold and we were worn out from the walk. We each slid down the hill multiple times and then climbed our way back up on our hands and knees because the entire top layer of snow was covered in ice! We finished and made the walk back to the car in our layers and layers of clothes. It was a very adventurous week!
The next week was filled with fun days and events. We celebrated our second Valentine’s Day as a married couple here in Bulgaria. It was a wonderful day. I received 3 roses and a great dinner at the Italian restaurant in town. It was wonderful to have an evening talking and spending quality time with each other! Also this week a lady in the church crocheted me a toboggan to match the scarf I was working on! It is really cute and I can’t wait to learn how to make new things. Crocheting is a new concept to me and it is taking me a while to learn all of the terms and such that go along with it. We have been trying to learn new Bulgarian foods and desserts to make once we get back home! It has been a joy watching and learning, but a struggle doing it on my own. I know that I must keep practicing and things will get better as I make them. Towards the end of February I was taught to make “Soldier Cookies”. Pastor Nikolay’s mother had made some and passed them out at bible study Thursday night and I decided I wanted to know how to make them! It was lots and lots of work. And it made more cookies than I have ever made in my life! We had to knead the dough in three parts in order for it to mix together and not be as difficult. I was covered in flour by the time I was finished. Even so, these were some great cookies!! They are called soldier cookies because they last a very long time! I told Joshua that they should have taken some with them on their trip to Romania! I truly enjoy learning to bake from the older people in the church and am looking forward to the next adventure.
The weeks to come were not extremely busy but still held its exciting days! On the 28th of February we received a LARGE package from my family. It had everything you could possibly imagine in it! Including Easter candy, chocolate chips, and the largest container of goldfish they make! This day was also the first day that I began tutoring a young girl in English. She is 9 years old and enjoys learning the English language. She knows her alphabet and her numbers and how to write both, so we began with the pronouns and “to-be” verbs. I am looking forward to the next session. It is going to be a great experience for me as well because I must know many Bulgarian words to communicate!
It is hard to believe how quickly the month of February passed. Once Joshua started his online classes in January and we began teaching the evangelism classes each Sunday we have many due dates to look forward to. With so much taking place it is hard for time to not fly by. Updating blogs have been neglected and we are going to be doing our best to stay on top of things! We know that many of you look forward to know what is happening here in Razgrad and we are excited to share! Be sure to continue to look for more posts soon as we try to catch up. We are through February and just one more post to cover March! Lots of traveling, adventures, sightseeing, educational history and more to come! Stay tuned!!
No comments:
Post a Comment