Hello all, I hope this post finds you all having a wonderful day and enjoying the beauty of Spring as I know we are here in Bulgaria. I apologize again for the delay in the blog but I just couldn't bring myself to write a blog while in Istanbul for a Birthday celebration/ mini vacation! However, I am going to be working diligently to get caught up and stay on top of this blog if it kills me. J I am so glad that you all are patient with us and that you are all still excited to hear from us even if it is later than usual! Hopefully I can tackle the rest of March and all of April and May in just a few days! The past few months have been interesting and somewhat calmer than the previous however, they have still been packed! Ok let’s get started.
I don’t want these posts to just be a, “One this week we did this, and on this week we did this” kind of blog! So you can get the details of what has gone on and even get to see pictures but hopefully in a ~not-so-boring~ kind of way! We left off the last blog with talking about our BIG Spring celebration day and it was definitely a celebration that we all wanted to have. With struggling through the gray and coldness of winter we were excited for the bright colors and warmth of spring and summer! We have greatly enjoyed Spring and we are starting to feel the warmth of Summer inching closer and closer. We took a trip to a town about 30 kilometers away from here called “Shumen”. It is a larger town not as big as Razgrad but still big enough to notice it! There is a large monument overlooking the city that we went to see. The monument was placed in recognition of the age of Bulgaria. It was quite interesting. Very sharp lines and very interesting stone monuments inside of the larger structure! It was a beautifully sunny day and it was amazing to be towering over Shumen and seeing all of the green and beauty of Spring beginning to show its face. 
After visiting the monument Joshua, Debbie and Nikolay paid to go into the Fortress in Shumen. It was very large and very well taken car of. They spent lots of time looking around and taking pictures. It was a very beautiful day for being outside. While they looked at all of the historical things Yanita and I enjoyed sitting under a tree and had a wonderful conversation. Between her broken English and my broken Bulgarian we were able to have a great time.
Shumen was merely a stopover on our way to Varna, Bulgaria. We have been there before but this trip was strictly for ministry. Nikolay and Yanita have a nephew in Varna that we briefly met up with for a few encouraging words as he has been struggling with health recently and then it was onto a small fair that was set up in the middle of town. We found out once we arrived here that the man that is in charge of the fair is a man that has frequently visited the Razgrad Church of the Nazarene. He is now living in Varna and isn’t attending a church anywhere. There are many families that live and work in Varna that are from the Razgrad area and have attended the Razgrad church many times. We have been trying to visit all of these families and introduce them to the others so that maybe they can form a relationship and begin meeting as a church in Varna.
We were able to get two of these people to meet with us at the same time and they have exchanged phone numbers and we pray that a connection will be made. It had been a long day of traveling and we assumed as we all piled back in the car we were going back home to Razgrad. It was about 9:00pm and Pastor Nikolay pulls into a housing area. He parks the car and we all get out and go into the home of two doctors from Razgrad that are working in Varna. This is a very large family of seven and would be a great addition to the church in Varna. They have four daughters ranging in age from fourteen to four and one little boy not yet two. Their parents were working late and brought pizza home for everyone to eat. We had a wonderfully CRAZY time with all of them. They are all very sweet and we enjoyed the conversations and company. We were actually able to see them all again at the Easter celebration in Razgrad, which was nice!
It was a busy day and not to mention the time change that occurred the same night so church the next day was challenging! However, after church Simon (Pastor Nikolay’s son) and Lilly his girlfriend asked us all to join them at the lake to enjoy the spring weather. We stopped at a gas station to get gas and ice cream to eat at the lake and then enjoyed an afternoon playing baseball with a stick and rocks (which was quite funny since they have never played baseball beforeJ). It poured rain for a while when we first arrived but there was an abandoned building that we took cover in!
Remember me telling you all about the Martinitsa? They are red and white bracelets and necklaces that people wear beginning March 1 until the first tree blooms or you see the first stork well while at the lake we had two storks flying over head! It was a neat experience to see our first life of spring while have a blast with friends after the spring day just a week before!
We have been fortunate to sit in classes with Klaus Arnold from European Nazarene University and also Ron Compton from Michigan. Both did wonderful jobs teaching seminar style classes for ordination! We enjoyed having them both here for a week of learning about the Church of the Nazarene. They have spoken on issues that have really been vital in the learning of the Church of the Nazarene polity for the people in Bulgaria striving to become ordained in the Church of the Nazarene.
March was a wonderful month with new beginning as spring brings out many new things to do and things to see! Enjoy the pictures from the end of the month and we hope you are looking forward to hearing all about our Easter season here in Bulgaria!
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