Veligrad

Bulgaria is amazing! I feel like I'm dreaming when I open up my eyes.. 

The missionaries are incredible. There are 6 girls and 1 guy from Sweden, along with the base leaders, Walter and Linda and their 3 boys. They have also recently started a Bible school program with about 9 students... they are all married with a few children, only in their late teens. Obviously, life and especially marriage is quite different in this culture. I've learned that guys will throw a young girl (12-16 yrs) into the back of a car, drive to a forest, sleep together and then proclaim themselves to be married. These Bible students are some of the first in their generation to step up and declare themselves as set-apart by God. This morning was my first time in prayer with the entire team. The moment we began to speak in tongues, electricity seemed to zap through the room and the power of God filled all of our senses.. the students just began to speak in the Holy Spirit days ago. That's how rapidly the Word is moving in Veligrad, Bulgaria! I'm walking out the book of Acts with these incredible missionaries. 

This morning, Maria took me on a ride through some muslim villages in the Rhodope mountains... it looked like the fields in the Sound of Music with shepherds watching their herds in the distance and babushka-covered, old, wrinkled ladies carrying bags of produce from their home-grown gardens. I couldn't even speak.

At lunch time, Maria, Eva and I went to visit some muslim turks as they worked in Raspberry fields. We sat in the grass with sunshine and mountains all around.. laughing and talking about.. life. The women said they want me to marry a Bulgarian man and fed me some sort of tomato sauce, homemade cheese and chunky, sour milk :). They told us stories of how they are incredibly poor, working all the time in the fields for only dollars a day which end up funding their alcoholic husbands.

My trip here was amazing and horrible, all in one. On my first flight I got to talk about Jesus with an atheist (he was so open to all I had to say). Then I spoke with a French woman about reincarnation and hypnosis.. and Jesus :). I also got very sick and passed out on my second international flight which was scary and frustrating because I was alone. I feel much better now though and haven't even been too effected with the time change. Thank you all for praying for me.. I asked the angels to wake you all up for intercession when I was blacked-out on that plane!!

Later today, I will go to visit more Bulgarian, Gypsy, Turkish and Pomac people. This is such a rich, warm land. I feel like a gigantic sponge, soaking up all the sights, smells, foods, languages, and mannerisms that I can...