Anniversary

Today we celebrated our anniversary. 14 years ago we made a promise. I was 18 and Cameron was 20. It's funny to look back on and realize that neither of us could legally buy a beer but at 18 and 20 we could make the most important decision of our lives and we did! The Lord has been so good to us over the years. We were both broken people who loved each other and loved God more than we loved each other. God over the years has taken cracked and broken clay jars and made us into beautiful expressions of what His love and transformation can do. Thank God that we do not have a perfect marriage, but a perfect God.

Life

It's amazing how much can change in 5 months and while we were away many things did change. Many of you were praying for a girl who was sent out of the country for prostitution and believed dark magic was being used to make bad things happen in her life. Since we've returned we have not seen her. When we asked people in her community about her, they told us that she was married to a man in a different city and her family is in Amsterdam. You can continue to pray for her and pray that we can reunite with her some way if she is still in Bulgaria. In 5 months, Didi who you've also prayed for has had his heart operation and his parents say that he does not need anymore. When we were in the field this week, he had sticks in hand ready to sword fight with Cameron and full of energy. It was awesome to see his lips full of color rather than blue and hear hearty laughing coming from his once weak body. His mom said it didn't surprise her that so many people and kids in America were praying for Didi because he's special and she knows God's hand has kept him alive all this time. She said to tell you thank you for praying and believes God will use Didi's life for His purpose. Some of the interesting things that have changed in the field are houses with satellites lol Not quite sure how this all works but it's interesting to say the least. Next week the police will arrive and tear down their homes and they will move out of the field for a while. One woman jokingly said "It's good because every time my husband has to build me a new house. This house is so old already." We absolutely do not condone squatting but we've learned this is the cycle of life for them and they choose to continue to have homes to rebuild every six months or so and the police are kind enough to give them a date that they will come and tear things down so they can collect what they need. It's interesting and we in no way understand it or try to understand it anymore than we do, we just continue to be obedient to God and teach them His Word.

We've never owned phones that could connect to the internet but when we returned from the States, we returned with internet capable phones. It was great for them to see some of your pictures on Facebook. So many times we've been asked about how you are doing (those who have visited them in the field) and this time we could show them an updated picture. They were all very excited to see my brother married, pictures of our friends who worked beside us in the field who are back in America and their new baby, and others. Today I was reminded that I forgot to show them pictures of my mom! I will have to fix this mistake next week when we are there. Some new faces are wanting to join the Bible study in the field but there are ill purposes in their heart for wanting to do so. You can be praying that God will change the hearts of those arriving thinking that we will hand out money one day. Usually this situation always fixes itself as God's word changes their motives or they eventually stop coming when they lose hope of free hand outs. Some of these new faces are more disruptive than those from past groups and present more aggressive behavior towards the group, so you can lift up these prayer needs.

The kids have grown leaps and bounds. The minute I would say "Wow he's grown up!" One of the group would say "Wow Micah is very big!" or "Wow where is little Ben!" So I guess in 5 months everyone had growth spurts. Even I received mixed reviews from "Jennifer why are you so white and weak and skinny?" to "Jennifer you're stomach is much fatter than before." Like I said in 5 months a lot can change :) Our time in the village has been much more limited than we would like. This summer has been very busy and weekend illness or teams from the states have kept us from traveling to the village like we were able to do last summer. In a couple of weeks all of this should change and we should be able to continue to work bedside the Pastor there. In august our desire is to hold another children's week (no date is currently set) and to show the Jesus film in the village to the parents who invited us to show it in their community. If everything goes as planned we will need help and we are praying for the help to be available. Last year we were able to work beside the pastor and his family, two missionary families and a brother in Christ but this year both of those missionary families will be in the States. You can be praying for God to provide the right people to be able to help this year.

Back in Bulgaria

We arrived back to Bulgaria this week and have accomplished getting phones set back up, refrigerators re-stocked and bags unpacked. Next week we will head to the visa office and reapply for another year. Many people who read this blog were also directly involved in some aspect of our time stateside and each of you made our five months back home very enjoyable and relaxing. The boys loved their time in America but are also very happy to be home and sleeping in their room and their beds.

Even though we have enjoyed having this week to set up life again and get readjusted to our time zone, we are anxious to reconnect with people like Papa Isho who Micah and Jennifer used to visit weekly. We are excited to also return to the village we were working in prior to heading to the states. Tonight all of us were inspired by a story from Hudson Taylor. I was reading to the boys about one of Hudson Taylor's experiences while he travelled on a boat in China. He had just shared the story of Christ with a Chinese man. The man had many questions and told Hudson Taylor that he was not ready to make a decision but would come to listen to his preaching later in the village. As they continued sailing towards the village Hudson Taylor went to his cabin to collect his things but heard screams of concern from the deck above. When he returned to the deck, he was told that the Chinese man he had been talking to had fallen over board and could not swim. Hudson Taylor jumped into the water and began desperately searching for him without success. He saw fishermen close by and called for them to come and drop their nets to aid the search effort. The fishermen replied that they were busy fishing and it would cost too much valuable time to join the search. After much yelling back and forth, the fishermen were convinced to join the search if 14.00 dollars would be paid to them for their time. It took only one attempt to find the man when the nets were dropped but it was too late. Though Hudson Taylor tried to resuscitate him, the man was dead. Hudson Taylor paid the fishermen with great frustration and sadness and returned to his cabin in sorrow. He cried out to the Lord, "Those fishermen were guilty of a man's death. All because they were too busy fishing! They would not leave their fishing even to save a life!" "In the stillness, a new thought came to Hudson Taylor. Those Chinese fishermen were cruel and heartless. But how many Christians are no better? How many Christians have no time to go and tell others about Jesus? They will not try to save dying souls, because they are too busy with their own lives...too busy fishing!" The boys and us all looked at each other and talked about how easy it is to become "too busy" with our own lives,

but we must be active in telling a dying world about God's saving love. People can be fooled that a missionary is different from everyone else, but missionaries also struggle with not being consumed with worthless, time wasting events from day to day. We don't want to waste our lives living where God has called us and not being used to change a dying world. As we begin our activities next week, pray for us as we pray for you that we won't be "busy fishermen" too busy to save the lost at sea.

Wow, it's just around the corner!

Can you believe it's almost been three years? Three years since we've seen our families? Three years since we've lived in a culture that we actually understand and excel in. Three years since we've eaten some of our favorite foods or visited our sweet friends. Three years ago my family included a four year old and my baby boy who had just turned three.

There would be things I would have done differently. Lessons learned that were hard. Many tears that were shed, but with those tears there were also many times God had a chance to show His faithfulness to restore what had been broken. Just last night one of my children shared new information about his first year in the country that re-broke my heart but then as he saw my tears falling he placed his hand on me and said "Mom it's okay. God sent me .... to be my friend and when things were not good, .... made me smile and things were better. God didn't forget me." You can not fathom how those words were like balm on my heart. I would say that it is the resounding theme of our three years "God didn't forget me" He saw it all, He walked each step of the journey with each of us and His hand alone has kept our feet planted in obedience to run the path set before us. Today during homeschool we enjoyed a good giggle when we were talking about God's faithfulness and protection over us. I reminded the boys of the time we were riding the bus and a man was trying to rob me. I had been in the hospital with the swine flu the week before and with no trash container to be found, I placed all my snotty tissues into my purse and moved my wallet and passport to a small pocket. On the bus that day, trying to slap his hand away as he forcefully dug through my purse and then escaped, I cringed to think of everything he managed to steal. When I searched my purse I realized his hand was only in the massive amounts of booger tissues and he only stole the swine flu while my wallet and passport were safely tucked into the pocket of my purse I never use.

We have every intention of returning to the place we are and continuing the work God has placed before us. If our time in the military taught us anything, it is that you have no choice in life but to follow and be obedient to the man who hands out your orders, and we have by the grace of God the commitment to follow and be completely obedient to the one and only commander and chief, Our Lord. We thank you for praying for our first three years in bulgaria and we ask you to continue those prayers. This month you can pray for the rose ministry outreach into the villages and that God would again allow times of sharing and loving on the elderly in these villages. The roses again will have an evangelistic messaged attached to them and a handwritten message of love. In addition we will spend a week in the city we work in and do english lessons as an outreach. This was very successful last time and we are praying that this outreach will again generate deeper conversations and new faces entering to the church.

Pray for a volunteer named "A" would will join our work the last two weeks we are in the country. Pray for safe travel and a sweet time of ministry as she joins our team. Here is a link to a video of our last three years in Bulgaria and the people we've had the privilege to love on and be loved by. Again thank you for your prayers. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0bUb3eHR8o

Goodbye Snappy

This picture was taken during our vacation in Turkey. The boys had mentioned on our last day of vacation that they hoped Snappy was not missing them and while we were walking on the beach we spotted a little cat print. We all laughed and talked about how snappy escaped the apartment and followed us to Turkey and had been lounging on the beach the whole time. We made a heart and wrote his name and pretended Snappy was with us and laughed. It's appropriate now to look at and remember the little paw print he made especially on the heart of my once hurting son, Micah.

"I don't know how to do this" I cried out to the Lord in broken sobs as I learned that our cat would not survive his fall from our 5th story apartment balcony and we would be left to explain to two little boys the next morning that their beloved cat, Snappy had died. If there is one thing that has been consistent in our lives here in Bulgaria, it would be God's faithfulness and my desperate pleas of "I don't know how to do this." With every single declaration of that statement, God has shown up in our lives in amazing ways. I am not trying to be overly dramatic, I know people lose their pets all of the time and parents have to watch their children's hearts break when a beloved cat, dog, mouse, rabbit ect dies, I mean I lost my first cat at 7 years old too. So in no way am I trying to elevate our loss, I'm just grieving. I'm grieving over the fact that Snappy didn't need to know bulgarian to be Micah's first friend. Snappy loved Micah and let Micah love him without needing to understand cultural differences. Micah saved Snappy by pulling him from the cold winter snow, and Snappy pulled Micah out of a very sad and difficult time that he unfortunately was having to deal with. The fact that Snappy was even allowed in our car was a miracle in itself. Cameron being very allergic to cats has repeatedly said no! But when Micah approached with a orange skinny cat, who he was holding upside down like a possum Cameron surprisingly said yes. More surprising was that Cameron was not allergic to Snappy and we felt he was a God given gift to help Micah smile and feel like he had a consistent buddy. Ben hated Snappy as first because he would wait for Ben to make his nightly potty break and then stalk and pounce on him, his half asleep 3 year old victim. I am pretty convinced that this is why we still have to wake Ben up to go potty at night now. I think Snappy scared him from leaving his bed in the middle of the night. Over time Ben and Snappy found a sweet love for one another and you could find Snappy every night curled up at Ben's feet.

We woke this morning, very tired (Cameron came home from the animal hospital at 3:30am and we finally laid down around 4:40) to two very happy friday morning boys. How do you know when to ruin somebody's day? Micah had looked around the house and finally asked "Hey guys have you seen Snappy?" We pulled the boys onto our beds and broke the news and watched them cry. Each boy took a moment to say their goodbyes to a blanket covered peacefully sleeping Snappy.

God will be faithful to heal their hearts and replace Micah's smiles not with a cat but with His own peace and love. It has been good to see Micah pray to God and talk to Him about how he is feeling and to know that Micah is on his own journey with God. Snappy gave us many gifts of joy in a time of very hard transition and we will be grateful for how he helped my sweet Micah find a consistent joy in his new country of Bulgaria. Thank you for praying for us last night and even though some may not have understood the need to pray for a cat, I thank you for praying anyways.

Rose Evangelism

Every weekend we travel to another city to partner with a local church and help and join in whatever the Lord is doing. It's a pretty basic drive to this city and every weekend we drive through the same small cities and villages. Often we see the elderly sitting on a bench watching the cars drive by and we have come to recognize some of the same faces at the same benches sitting and watching the cars pass. It has been a desire in our hearts to meet the people of these places but we haven't known how to begin. Two weekends ago as we drove by, the Lord impressed on our hearts to purchase roses for the elderly and tie a tract on the stem with a hand written note letting them know we have prayed for them that day. The next weekend we prayed, purchased 40 roses and attached the messages on the stems. We didn't know what to expect but God did amazing things and opened doors that we couldn't have accomplished on our own.

We explained that every weekend we pass by their town on our way to the city of our work and we wanted them to know that God loves them and that we prayed for them. My colleague Cassandra and I would hand out these roses to the grandmas and Micah and Ben would go with their daddy, Cameron to give roses to the grandpas. It was humbling to experience what a simple act of love could do and to experience the flowing tears on the faces of the elderly as they expressed their appreciation. One woman received the rose and began crying. She said "Oh I believe in Jesus and He knows how hard my days have been and I know this is from my Jesus! Oh my Savior!" She kept shaking her head in disbelief at how sweet God's love is for us and continued to say Thank You to God as we walked away.

Another woman who received a rose wouldn't stop hugging us and gave us a huge bag of cookies and candies. She explained how lonely she was and said that she would forever keep the rose and the note to remind her of that day. She told us about her son who lives in the capitol city of Sofia and asked us to meet him. She has already arranged a meeting between our family and his and this person of peace is opening doors in our city that we might otherwise not have ever walked through. We have committed to visit her every weekend on our way to the city we work in. Both my colleague and I were effected by her tears and deep appreciation for a simple act of love from God. On a humorous note, one elderly woman in a wheel chair had been sitting under a tree. Her tire was stuck in a large hole in the ground. She gladly took the rose from me but then asked me to get her out of the hole. I pushed her to the point of freeing the wheels and she then commanded "PUSH ME!! FASTER! FASTER!" Confused by the command I began to push her a little further and she continued pointing her finger in the direction she desired to go and saying "PUSH!! PUSH!! FASTER!" We didn't get far before a little old man step out of a house and said "Where are you taking my wife?" I then realized that maybe this act of kindness was actually turning into the escape of the captive granny and I was indeed her get away vehicle. The grandpa and I talked a little bit and then I waved at my grandma fugitive and she reminded me to come back soon (maybe for round two of the fast and the furious escape plan) lol I'm not sure where she planned to go but she was looking to roll away with my help. lol

The boys on our team also had great experiences and spiritual conversations with the elderly men. It was exciting to see my boys experience how acts of love can lighten the face of those they encountered and how love in action is the best way to open a door that invites the message and hope of Christ to enter in. If my kids could choose any job on the planet at this moment, I think they would be convinced that this ministry is in the top 10 as the grandmas and grandpas loaded us down with candies and cookies to show us love in return. My boys enjoyed the trip and were very full by the time we arrived to the city we work in. This is a ministry that we do plan to continue as we saw that it was effective in broad seed sewing and has now given us persons of peace into small villages and cities where we had no contacts. God is amazing and obedience to Him gives us such an amazing adventure to enjoy.

June Update

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