The warmth of a welcome

Over the last several weeks I have received many warm welcomes.  These welcomes took place in three different countries, and so were structured differently, but each one made me feel like people were glad to see me. There were a few contexts for these locations. I went to the States for my boyfriend’s and my brother’s graduation from NNU, and was there for about six days. After that, I went to Sighișoara, Romania, and visited my host family (from when I was there in 2009), the churches, and many friends. After a week in Romania, I came back to Razgrad, Bulgaria. 

Read on if you’d like to hear about these welcomes.

April Activities

April has been a wonderful, full month! There have been some great experiences that I will treasure. It was especially joyful to be able to celebrate Easter here in Bulgaria. Read on if you would like to hear about the events of the month.

Easter in Bulgaria: The Greatest Day: Christ is Risen!

For my Cultural Anthropology class I'm taking online through NTS, we had to write a forum post about how Easter is celebrated in our context. I thought I would share my forum post with you, in case you find it interesting. Enjoy reading about Easter in Bulgaria!

Pictures from March

I've not been able to upload any pictures to my blog recently, so here are a bunch of pictures all at once. They are not necessarily in the order they happened, but you can enjoy them anyway and get a glimpse of my life and ministry here. :-)

The Lord's Prayer in Bulgaria

Keep reading if you'd like to see more pictures!

Windy March - It's about over!

The month of March has flown past! It is already the last day of March, and it seemed like the month just started last week. So many exciting things have happened this month. I’ll update you on what’s happened in the past three weeks since my last update.
Keep reading if you'd like to hear what's been going on!

St. Patrick's Day! - a Great Day

Hello all! It's been an AMAZING day! I spent almost twelve hours with people from church, both at church and out around Razgrad (we had a 'picnic'). It was great. :-) I've not had time to blog today, so I'll just quickly list some things that made today special. Later I'll write more about today and this week.

-got to church around 7:30 am
-learned how to make makitsi
-spent the whole day with friends from church
-walked for over five hours total
-walked for about fifteen miles (maybe more, I didn't exactly measure it)
-saw a monument that I see from my bedroom window each day (but have never gone to before. It was very close, only about 35 or 40 minute walk from my house. Close compared to how far we walked today!)
-got sunburnt
-wore tennis shoes for the first time all year
-wore short-sleeve shirt for the first time all year (usually I wear a sweater on top)
-ate, and ate, and ate makitsi
-had a picnic
-spent lots of time with friends
-enjoyed the beautiful weather
-wore lots of green!
-taught Bulgarians about St. Patrick's Day
-saw beautiful flowers blooming in the forest
-took a nap in the sun
-helped stop a campfire from spreading out of control
-took pictures of the beautiful day
-sang praise songs while sitting in God's beautiful creation
-talked with teens about why I am in Bulgaria
-played with finger rockets
-talked to little kids

So you can see, it's been a great day, and I've only shown you glimpses of it. God is good! God has blessed me so much.

Four Days in Assenovgrad

View out my hotel window

We traveled to Plovdiv (in southern Bulgaria) with Pastor Nikolay and family for a conference. It was located in Assenovgrad, a town just outside of Plovdiv. It was a great week!

Read on if you’d like to hear highlights from each of the days.