Excited, overwhelmed, exhausted, blessed…these are just a few of the feelings we have experienced the past few weeks. We hit the ground running this summer with VBS, a youth seminar and a men’s breakfast. Each of these events was truly amazing and we were so blessed to be able to be a part of each. They gave us an opportunity to pour into and serve the church of Troyan and more importantly they gave us a foundation to build relationships upon. Because of these events we were able to begin building relationships quickly with the Pastor, his family and the church body, relationships that might otherwise have taken a while to build. Because of this we have been so blessed. Our first few weeks here have been better than we could have imagined.
VBS was an awesome week of fun and laughter with 13 kids from church and the village. We taught the kids about Esther and they learned to rely on God for their help and to trust Him more. It was a great week in which our boys were able to build friendships with the kids of Troyan. It was so fun to watch them all interact and become friends, even though none of them understood each other. God is so good.
VBS was followed by a 3-day youth seminar in which we were able to teach the youth about standing firm in their faith. Here in Bulgaria people think that evangelical Christians are a cult, which makes it difficult for the youth to share their faith. We were able to teach them the foundations of who Jesus is to us, how to prove He is real and how to share their faith to others around them. Matt did an amazing job teaching and all of the kids really loved him. We were also so thankful to use this week to build relationships with the youth and learn more about them and their specific struggles in Bulgaria. We finished off the week so blessed by them and their eagerness to learn more. We pray that in the future we can expand on this foundation that was taught this week and continue meeting with them regularly.
This morning we hosted the first Men’s Breakfast and it was a huge hit. The men loved the American style breakfast complete with pancakes, eggs, bacon, and hash browns! Matt did an awesome job sharing his testimony and a short devotion and they finished off the morning asking for more! We are excited to host more for them in the future.
We have been busy but God is good. I believe He is working in the lives of these children and youth here and we are so excited to be diving in and working with them more. Please pray with us for our future ministry here with them.
Prayer Requests:
- For our future ministry opportunities with the youth.
- Pray for God to give us wisdom for a place to live as we are currently still in Jessica’s parents guesthouse.
- For us all to learn the language quickly.
Praise Reports:
- We are so blessed by all the doors God has opened for us.
- We are thankful for the relationships that we have begun to build.
- After 6 weeks we got our long lost suitcase!!
- God blessed us with an awesome car!