Back in the US

A blessed Easter to you!  We celebrated with a 3am service for IBC Sofia and a potential pastoral candidate preaching.  Yea!  Time has flown by since we left for Bulgaria in late January.  We jumped right back into life there with wonderful opportunities to interact with friends from church and in the neighborhood.  We experienced a wide variety of weather - from snow, air pollution, rain and sunny, warm days.  While restaurants were closed until our last full day in Sofia, we had a number of opportunities for the long walks that we enjoyed so much in our years living there.

Although the church is still meeting virtually, we did have a times to meet with some families and individuals in person, which was a real joy.  Paul continued with his men's meetings and I started a new women's Bible study, which is continuing virtually now that I'm back.  Along with other regular church services, we were able to lead and participate in a baby dedication for a sweet little girl named Sofia, who was born on Christmas Day (and whose parents are Bulgarian and Italian).

While the search for a new pastor continues, we were able to complete the process for renewing our resident permits, bookending our travels with trips to immigration and completing it just before leaving.  In the middle of our time there, I came down with what I thought was a cold - until I lost my sense of taste and smell.  That Covid test came back negative, as did the ones within 72 hours of our departure and the 3am Rapid Antigen Test at the airport before our 7am departure flight.  Flying is definitely different since Covid!  And, although our flight to Amsterdam was fairly full, our flight to Minneapolis had 24 passengers total with 6 flight attendants.  I doubt we'll ever have a repeat of that!

Covid numbers had been down while we were in Bulgaria, which is why schools and restaurants had opened back up.  However, schools only met in person for 4 days before closing again and restaurants went only a few days more.  Friends tell us that hospitals are full and vaccines are not readily available.  Please continue to hold Bulgaria in your prayers!

We are truly blessed to be able to continue to contribute to the life of the community of international believers in Sofia.  We don't know when we'll be back, but want to be available for however God wants to use us in our relationships there.

Blessings, Kathy

Back to Bulgaria

Just a quick note to let you know that we are on our way back to Bulgaria tomorrow for at least 3 weeks, but a bit of an uncertain timetable.  When we left, we had round trip tickets knowing we would likely need to go back at some point.  The search for a new pastor of the church has not gone as quickly as we had hoped - largely due to Covid - so Paul has been continuing in many aspects of that role.  This trip will be an opportunity to reconnect more personally with people in the church and perhaps bring closure to more aspects of our official relationship.  (I anticipate lots of walks outside with somewhat warmer weather than here.)

Our trip has gone through numerous changes - the last one occurring this afternoon when the Netherlands put new restrictions in place requiring us to have a second and different Covid test in order to transit through Amsterdam (and, as it turns out, Paris.)  So, instead of leaving at 12:40pm tomorrow, we leave at 5:30am and spend 9 hours in Atlanta in order to be sure we can complete the necessary test.   Then we'll have a quick 2 hours in Paris before arriving in Sofia around 2pm.

We'll be able to stay in our old apartment, making a lot of things easier and familiar.  We'd appreciate prayers for all aspects of our flights, layovers, safety from Covid, time in Sofia (including some official documents we need to complete), ongoing search for a new pastor and as yet unscheduled return home.  Please also pray for our family here - we will miss them all a great deal after the last months of significant change and lots of time together.

Blessings, dear friends, who have followed us on this journey!  Kathy