Navigating Life

Life can be a challenge no matter where you are, but living overseas adds certain challenges. Practically speaking, street names are unfamiliar and options to get where you want to go have to be learned.  Years ago, when we lived in Japan, we relied mostly on business cards to help us find where we wanted to go.  Buildings were not numbered consecutively on a street, as they are in the U.S., so having something that showed you exactly where you wanted to go was very helpful.

Living overseas this time, we have many advantages - especially with smart phone apps.  Moovit, one such app, has been great for helping us find our way around the city - and can take us on interesting and unexpected routes!  This little video shows my route from our apartment to catch a tram to a local mall.  Many of these paths I had never been on before and didn't even know existed.  (Note - the route is about 9 minutes.)

Walk to the Tram

Often more than the physical navigating, is the navigating of culture - in our case both the culture we live in and the more than 20 cultures represented in our church.  Currently, Bulgarian society is presenting us with a potential new challenge.  Legislation has been proposed, and initially passed, which places new limits on religious expression.  One impact would be to limit expat (foreign) religious leaders from serving here and may not allow us to remain.   While there are some understandable reasons for new legislation, the extent to which it may impact our church and other faith communities is a concern.  We want to be informed as well as speak out appropriately, while not overstepping our role as expatriates here.  We would appreciate your prayers as decisions and revisions are considered.  If you want to read more, follow the link - Sofia Globe Article

At the same time, the life of the church goes on.  For me, the women who meet weekly are a special joy.  In this group of ladies, 10 cultures and languages are represented.  The level of English varies so ladies help each other - sometimes translating English to Bulgarian for a Korean, or helping a Chinese find a scripture passage in her dual language Bible.  And we share together the stories of God's faithfulness in the lives of believers from around the world.

These verses from our study this week especially spoke to me:
       "Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.  Delight yourself in
         the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart."  Psalm 37:3-5

Peace, Kathy

If you are interested in giving to our work in Bulgaria, and Paul's consulting in Africa and beyond, gifts can be given online at Global Horizons/Emmaus Assoc   or mailed to Global Horizons, P.O. Box 856678, Minneapolis, MN 55485-6678.   Please attach a note indicating Emmaus.  Thank you!

We have experienced a beautiful spring here with so many flowers and flowering trees.  The smells have been amazing - including peonies (just like at our house in Lakeville!) roses, cherry and lynden trees.  Bulgaria is the leading producer of rose oil in the world, but also has a wide variety of decorative roses that line the parks and boulevards.  The weather has been great for taking long walks through the parks and city to enjoy all this beauty!

This is also the season for moves - people visiting their home country, but also people moving to a new overseas assignment.  For us, that means a short trip back to the US to visit family and participate in a wedding (Paul will officiate for a dear friend and I will cheer them on!)  We hope also to see many of you in the short time we are back!  To help facilitate that, we have arranged to have a few tables at Lake Nokomis near their outdoor counter service restaurant, Sandcastle on Wednesday, June 27th.  It is on the west side of Lake Nokomis in Minneapolis (4955 W Lake Nokomis Pkwy, right next to the main beach access).  Come for food and drink or just to socialize.  We'll be there from 5:30-8:00.  There is some free street parking and also a pay lot.  We'd love to see your faces, catch up on your lives, see how your kids have grown and just reconnect!

As we know will happen every year, we are losing dear friends to other places.  We've been blessed with some great relationships in the short time we've been here, making it hard to see those people leave.  And yet we know this is part of the life God has for us here!  Sharing the joys and challenges of expat life, studying God's word together - whether in a couples, ladies or men's group - learning about and praying for the country we now call home are all part of this experience.  While there is pain and sadness at times, and definitely hurdles of unfamiliar bureacracy, we have seen God's faithfulness time and again in large and small ways.  We are learning faith lessons we probably should have mastered far earlier in life, but living in a foreign country provides huge opportunities to trust and see God's faithfulness at work.  We have been reminded time and again that God is love and His plans for us are good and trustworthy.  The joy of worshipping with people from many countries, singing sometimes in multiple languages and recognizing we are joined together by our common bond of faith continues to awe us!

I've been trying to finish this for days amidst a bathroom renovation that has taken out two layers of old tile, a tank water heater - and a ton of concrete dust!  It's time to send it off!  I arrive back in the US on June 19th, but will head to Sioux Falls for a few days with my mom and sisters.  Paul arrives on the 25th and we both return on July 11th.  We'll have our old US phone numbers once we arrive.

Kathy:   602-315-4375
Paul:   952-200-5781

Thanks so much for your interest and partnership in life!

If you are interested in giving to our work in Bulgaria, and Paul's consulting in Africa and beyond, gifts can given online at Global Horizons/Emmaus Assoc or mailed to Global Horizons, PO Box 856678, Minneapolis, MN 55485-6678.  Please attach a note indicating Emmaus.  Thank you!

Loss and Renewal

Just a little over a month ago, one of Paul's best friends here died in his sleep. He was 41 and his death was unexpected. He left behind a wife and an eight-year-old daughter, who are also dear friends. Stillian was on the leadership team at our church and he and his wife had planned to attend an International Baptist conference with us in Cyprus two weeks after he died. 

After much prayer and discussion, we decided to have Zornitsa and her daughter still join us.  We truly feel that God blessed that decision. People at the conference were so encouraging and supportive of both Zornitsa and Gergana, and we had many chances to talk, pray and get to know each other even better.  And God used both of them to share their faith and hope in Christ with a woman who worked at the hotel, because she heard them speaking Bulgarian together and she wondered what the group was about. 

We pray that these interactions will bear fruit, as she has already attended church and other friends are taking her a Bulgarian Bible this week.  In talking together, we realized that God knew all along Stillian wouldn't be at that conference, but that he could use Zornitsa and Gergana to share the hope of a relationship with Christ even after the loss of one so close to them.

In addition to being a great friend, Stillian had been a great help to Paul over the last 4 1/2 months when our admin assistant, Virginia, was sick and out of the office. We wondered what we would do without him, but God has provided people to step into the gap and we are very excited to have Virginia back this week.

Our congregation of about 100 adults has experienced a lot of loss this year - about 10 families have lost someone in their family. We feel privileged to walk with people as they share their love for those who are gone, but also the hope that they will see them again.  As we approach Easter, we are reminded anew of God's great sacrifice in sending His Son, and the HOPE that is ours because of His amazing gift!

A song to encourage you: What a Beautiful Name 

And from N.T. Wright:  "Jesus's resurrection is the beginning of God's new project, not to snatch people away from earth to heaven but to colonize earth with the life of heaven.  That after all, is what the Lord's Prayer is about." 

If you are interested in giving to our work in Bulgaria, and Paul's consulting in Africa and beyond, gifts can given online at Global Horizons/Emmaus Assoc or mailed to Global Horizons, PO Box 856678, Minneapolis, MN 55485-6678.  Please attach a note indicating Emmaus.  Thank you!