Today is the last day of November. It has been a good month. Last week was a busy week, and we all had a great time! On Wednesday, my favorite part of the day was when we went to the home of a lady from church. She taught us how to make banitsa, a traditional Bulgarian dish. We sat there in her living room as she brought out all of the ingredients and made in on the table in front of us. I took pictures of each step, and Katie wrote down each of the steps, so we would be able to remember and replicate it. Banitsa is made with philo dough, eggs, yoghurt, water, cheese, and a few other things. It is baked till it is golden brown on top, and then cut into slices and eaten. It is delicious! We made it with just egg, but you can add any number of things to it, like ham, onions, spinach, or other stuff. It is delicious and flaky. The lady whose home we went to does not speak English, but she does speak Italian (and another language or two besides Bulgarian). Her grandson was going to translate for us, but he wasnot there for the first 40 minutes or so, so she spoke to us in a mixture of Bulgarian and Italian to help us understand. Spanish (a language I understand) is somewhat similar to Italian, right? =) We were able to understand most of what was happening. It was a great evening, full of fun and food! Bulgarians are very hospitable.
Thursday was Thanksgiving! We left on a bus at 4am to go to Sofia. We arrived at about 9:40 am, got a bit to eat, then went to Ikea to go shopping. We bought some things for our home that we needed. It is nice to have light in our living room – before we bought a lamp from Ikea, we could only use that room when the sun was up! Now that we have a lamp, it will be nice for when we host people at our house, because we will have more room to be in!
We went to the home of Jen and Doug Mann for Thanksgiving. We celebrated with their family, Jessica Morris, Gillian from Ireland who is a missionary in Kosovo, Doug’s parents, and a Bulgarian couple. We all had a great time! It was a multicultural Thanksgiving, and we all enjoyed it. =) I was able to call my family and talk with them on Thanksgiving, too, and that made me happy. I have much to be thankful for!
Friday morning we did a bit of sightseeing in Sofia, learning more about the history of Bulgarian as we walked around and looked at various buildings. We went into a beautiful Orthodox church. We left Sofia in the afternoon, driving back to Razgrad with the Bulgarian couple that had been at the Thanksgiving celebration the day before. We got back to Razgrad just in time for a prayer meeting with people from churches all over Razgrad and the surrounding villages. It was a good time of prayer for Razgrad and asking God to work more here.
Saturday was another train ride and another youth conference, this time in Russe! There were eleven of us total, Pastor Nikolay and his wife Yanita, and Joshua, Katie, and me, and six teens. The youth conference started at 10am and lasted till 4:30pm; lunch was provided as part of the conference. One neat thing about the conference was that everyone who came participated in some way, whether through a skit, leading some worship songs, performing a dance, or something else. There was also a speaker. It was a great time of worship and growing closer to God and to the teens. Our group from Razgrad led everyone in two worship songs (in English!). I got to sing. =) The whole day was a great time of getting to know the teens more; I enjoy spending time with them.
Sunday we started practicing Christmas songs at church. Katie and I are helping lead the children in a couple Christmas songs to sing at the big church celebration on Christmas Eve, and after the church service, all the adults got together for the choir to practice singing. I got to sing in Bulgarian! =) I was able to look up the lyrics and understand what I was singing. I am excited to learn a song in Bulgarian.
Sunday afternoon we went to the village of Ossenets to have a church service. We met in a house, because their church building does not have electricity. There were about a dozen people there, and we enjoyed a time of singing worship songs and listening to Joshua preach, then we ate some delicious snacks. We later had a nice theological discussion after there were only a few people left. I look forward to going to that village again and having more conversations there.
Tonight is exciting – we are hosting a birthday party for Misho, who is turning 17 today! His parents, younger brother, and Pastor Nikolay and Yanita came over an hour ago to start setting up for the party, and all the guests will arrive in about two hours. Misho is one from the youth group who is very active, and we have enjoyed getting to know him.
Also – this week has been warm! We do not need to bundle up in our gloves, scarves, hats, and thick coats this week. It is nice to have warm (compared to what the past two weeks have been) weather. =) We are enjoying the sunny days.
May God bless you!