We have hearts filled with joy that the place God is allowing us to serve brings such joy to each of us in our family. It makes my heart so happy to see my children ask to stay longer in the city God is letting us work in. They enjoy their new friends and the simplicity and assurance that a game of tag is always a possibility with the group of children waiting to play.
Ministry looks different here, feels different here and is actually more simple in some ways. Quite honestly the fact that all of the children speak bulgarian and understand bulgarian has been refreshing. In Sofia, the younger children of the group of roma we worked with needed their parents to translate some of the simplest questions I would ask, like: "Do you want water?" into the Romani language. Working with a third language when you are barely speaking the second one is very difficult to do weekly and I found myself learning both languages at the same time in order to do the lessons and simply pass out a glass of water. It was exhausting and mind boggling for me to say the least.
Another blessing in this city is literacy. The lack of literacy amongst the children and adults in the group we worked with in the past meant that training someone to take my place was very difficult to accomplish. The few women who were interested and willing to be trained, struggled with reading and writing and needed oral training on retelling Bible stories. Oral retelling of Bible stories is acceptable and practiced all over the world but most of the time the retelling of a story is done so in a heart language and we were training these oral stories outside of their heart language (since we are not romani speakers) and once again proved difficult.
Though we continue to work in the field where we initially began working, we recognize the time needed to accomplish the goals of church planting and discipleship are much more quickly accomplished in an environment where reading and language knowledge are not initial barriers. We continue to seek the Lord weekly on what our commitment should look like with the group in Sofia. You can definitely join us in praying for guidance as the spring has arrived and our presence would normally increase in the field at this time of year. At this time we have been to the field only a handful of times mainly due to the heavy mud and lack of access. Starting in June we will need to know (as we are always asked when are we coming) what our commitment will look like so that they can know what to expect. Also please pray for the partnership in the city we are currently working in and for the Lord to bless the work in the city and the surrounding villages. Praise God that He is the voice behind us saying 'This is the way, walk in it' Thank you for your prayers!!
We have hearts filled with joy that the place God is allowing us to serve brings such joy to each of us in our family. It makes my heart so happy to see my children ask to stay longer in the city God is letting us work in. They enjoy their new friends and the simplicity and assurance that a game of tag is always a possibility with the group of children waiting to play.
Ministry looks different here, feels different here and is actually more simple in some ways. Quite honestly the fact that all of the children speak bulgarian and understand bulgarian has been refreshing. In Sofia, the younger children of the group of roma we worked with needed their parents to translate some of the simplest questions I would ask, like: "Do you want water?" into the Romani language. Working with a third language when you are barely speaking the second one is very difficult to do weekly and I found myself learning both languages at the same time in order to do the lessons and simply pass out a glass of water. It was exhausting and mind boggling for me to say the least.
Another blessing in this city is literacy. The lack of literacy amongst the children and adults in the group we worked with in the past meant that training someone to take my place was very difficult to accomplish. The few women who were interested and willing to be trained, struggled with reading and writing and needed oral training on retelling Bible stories. Oral retelling of Bible stories is acceptable and practiced all over the world but most of the time the retelling of a story is done so in a heart language and we were training these oral stories outside of their heart language (since we are not romani speakers) and once again proved difficult.
Though we continue to work in the field where we initially began working, we recognize the time needed to accomplish the goals of church planting and discipleship are much more quickly accomplished in an environment where reading and language knowledge are not initial barriers. We continue to seek the Lord weekly on what our commitment should look like with the group in Sofia. You can definitely join us in praying for guidance as the spring has arrived and our presence would normally increase in the field at this time of year. At this time we have been to the field only a handful of times mainly due to the heavy mud and lack of access. Starting in June we will need to know (as we are always asked when are we coming) what our commitment will look like so that they can know what to expect. Also please pray for the partnership in the city we are currently working in and for the Lord to bless the work in the city and the surrounding villages. Praise God that He is the voice behind us saying 'This is the way, walk in it' Thank you for your prayers!!
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