Thursday

1. left to right: Angel, Valeri, Dimitrie, Tateos
2. left to right: Blagovest, Galya, Angel, Valeri, Dimitrie
2. left to right: Blagovest, Galya, Angel, Valeri
3. left to right: Dimitrie, Tateos, Reni, Maria (Mimi)
4. Mimi


Today was a much cooler day here in Sofia. It even rained a little. It felt a lot better and it seemed like the students were a bit more attentive. We had a lot more discussions anyway.
We finished the class right at 6:00 this evening. Tomorrow morning we will have a review and take a break and then the final test.
Last night several of the students and I went out to this restaurant for some dessert. It was an interesting place. It was kind of like a Friendly’s but without all the food items just mostly desserts. Three floors and all of them were packed. Lot’s of people smoking too. But I found that a bit more common here in Europe than in the states. But maybe it’s because of all the non-smoking laws in the states that I don’t notice it in eating establishments and public buildings.
Oh, yeah just so you know it was the student’s idea and I asked them several times if it was okay to leave for this amount of time because I didn’t want to take them away from any studying that my want to do. They assured me that it was okay and that we would only be gone for about an hour or so.
It was good to get away from the academic environment and hear the students stories.
John

Wednesday

Some more pictures:

1. Dimitrie, Valeri, and I went up to the top of the mountian on the side of Sofia. Beautful view from up that high.

2. Me and Valeri

Wednesday
We had a great class today.
I asked each of the students what ministry they are in with their home church. Several were ministers. A Blagovest and Angel each pastor several churches. Tateao is the national director of the Jesus Film for Bulgaria and also does some supply preaching. Valeri is in between jobs right now but at his church he is working with the youth program. Dimitrie is working with a Christian company called Books of Hope. He is the distributor of children’s books to churches here in Bulgaria. The company is located in Orlando, so he has been to the states quite a bit and speaks English very well. Galya is working with the women’s ministry in her church, and also coordinates different ministry seminars for her church. Renee is the editor and journalist for a national church magazine here in Bulgaria.
I found out today the Mimi my translator is a student at the National Conservatory of Music and is an accomplished pianist and sings very well also.

John

Wednesday

Here are some pictures of today.

1. Here is the card that the students gave me.

2. The XL Pizza we had for lunch today

3. Mural on the side wall of the worship center at the Holy Trinty Community center where the class is held.

I just had to blog this as soon as I got the chance. Today is the 4th of July and I'm sure hardly anyone will be reading this because you are all out somewhere having a wonderful picnic and celebrating. But at the beginning of class today the students stopped me teaching for just a moment and wanted to present me with something. They gave me a card that said, "Happy Birthday America!!!" and it was signed by the Bulgarian Students. They even had balloons to go along with the card. What wonderful, thoughtful students! I was thinking thatI was going to spend the 4th celebrating by myself and now I am celebrating it with my students.
John

Tuesday

Some more pictures:
1. The front of the worship center
2. Break time again
3. Class. Mimi, my translator is the girl in the front row.

Tuesday
Good class today. Lot’s and lot’s of discussion. Bulgarians happen to be on the loud side. And that’s fine with me. The discussions today were like when my family gets together around the dinner table. Everyone is talking with each other all at the same time there are so many conversations going on at the same time, it’s a wonder that we all know what we are talking about and to whom! Needless to say it was fun. I had to more then one time to finally speak up a little louder then I normally talk to bring the discussions to a close. It was either my loud voice or my New York accent that did it.

Today I was able to talk to Angle a little bit about his work here in Bulgaria. He is in his 40’s. I found out that he pastors 4 churches traveling to these churches on for different days. On Sunday he is in his home town of Svishtov. On Wednesday evening he travels 30 kilometers to a rural village and has a worship service there for about hour. On Thursday night he travels to a town that is 70 kilometers and has a service there. On Saturday night he travels to another rural village that is 200 kilometers away for an hour service.

On Sunday he is in his home church in Svishtov and has a worship service that lasts for about two hours. Then on top of all this because none of the churches are really big enough to support him fully he has a part time job 3 days a week teaching guitar. Yet this man is in my class this week. He is here working on his MA degree. He is here missing his guitar students, missing his church services, missing his family. How can I teach a man such as this? What can I possibly say that will help him in his ministries? What will be in this class that will help him make his personal worship more meaningful. What will be in this class that will help him with corporate worship in these churches? What is taught has to matter - what we talk about in class has to make a difference. What is said has to spark his and the classes imagination to make worship something new and refreshing.

I can’t believe that after today my time here is half over. These two weeks have just flown by. Two more days of teaching with a review for the last class and then the final on Friday morning. Of course then it’s grading all the papers. 6 of them are in Bulgaria so I need the help of my translator and the one in English I think I can handle by myself. Then the finals and then the final grade. As I mentioned everyone here is just a blessing to have in the class. Each one brings a special part to make this class better then I could have done just by myself.

Monday

Pictures:
1. The church building
2. Part of the class
3. It's break time!
4. Break time still (Actually it seems like it's always break time here!) :)
5. The class (I'm the short one in the back middle)

Monday

Class started today and it looks like there will be 7 in the class. Almost all of them are taking the class for credit so there are a lot of papers and tests that will have to be translated. But I have a great translator Maria. I found out that most people call her Mimi. She is sharp and quick in her translating.

Yesterday on the way to the hotel where I am staying, Evgeniy decided that I needed some extra food to take to my room. So we stopped at a produce market and bought some cherries, nectarines and bottled water – about 3 pounds of cherries, 2 pounds of nectarines and 4 gallons of water! I think I’ll bring the fruit to class tomorrow to share it with the whole class. I don’t think I can eat all the fruit in one week. I mean I can, but I’m not sure what that will do to my colon!

Class went well today. We had some really good discussions. Most of the students in the class understand English pretty well. So with their English proficiency and the translation they really understand the class material.

Tomorrow I will find out how creative they are. Their first class assignment is to make a sign with their name on it in a creative way. In the past I’ve had people spell their name with small little vines, spell it out with needle and thread.
They have used play-do, paper, acrostics, they have spelled their name in such a way it was a piece of art. Their name is very important to them. It’s also used every day by people who are talking to them. It’s very special. But it is also very common in that it is used every day. By making them spell their name out creatively it brings a new and fresh way for them to see their name and for others to look at it. It’s the same for worship. We create corporate worship services week after week. Our worship services are very special, but sometimes they can also become very common. I want the students to see that by crafting a creative worship service they can help their congregation see and experience the presence of God each week in a new way. We want people to be excited about coming to worship. We want people to come with a holy expectancy each week.

Okay I’m bringing the fruit to call tomorrow!!
John

Bulgaria 2007

I got back to the Haus about 8:00 pm Saturday night. I didn’t think I was going to like going back to the Haus for one night and then taking off again. But it turned out really great. Sunday morning at breakfast I got to see several former students. It was really good to see them again.

Besides seeing students I got see the profs that were there teaching. Let’s see, Bob Lowery, Neal Windam, Dinelle Frankland, Nancy Olson… hum see a pattern here. Yep, they are all from Lincoln Christian College and Seminary. Pam and I haven’t seen some of them since we left LCCS back in 1999. It was so good to see them. It was also good to see Bill Hilgendorf who is there teaching. It was good to see all of them again.

Here are some pictures of Sunday morning worship at the Haus. Yep, that's Bob preaching.

The last picture is of Sofia taken from my hotel up in the mountains. It's the same place I stayed back in 2004. I had to take it through a window so that's why it looks like Sofia is in a fog.

I left the Haus about 11:00 am. When I finally got to the ticket counter I found out that there was not a seat for me, I was on stand-by. They told me they over booked. I got to the gate and waited about 45 minutes for someone to come to the counter. I gave them my ticket and they said that it would take some time but they would let me know if I had a seat for this flight. If not the next flight out was at 7:50 PM. There were several of us on stand-by. One person was just a bit too pushy about getting a seat. After awhile I was given a seat.. in business class, not bad for waiting patiently and doing a lot of smiling!

Evgeny picked me up at the airport. While picking up my luggage I noticed that there were 3 luggage belts but only 1 was moving, and that one belt had 4 flights worth of luggage on it.

I’m staying at the same resort inn I stayed in back in 2004, but the class will be at Evgeny’s new church building. I’m looking forward to the class tomorrow. Of course this blog won’t get posted until Monday sometime.

John

Saturday

I have a couple of photos that my interpreter was able to take in between translating and trying to figure what I said and then the best way to interpret it. People in the states have problems understanding me, so sometime it's really a problem for my interpreters! But Aldo did a great job! When I first heard his name was Aldo, I thought I was going to meet one of my long lost relatives from Italy. But Aldo is Estonian through and through.

1. This is a picture of our break time. Notice how high the 'break' room is from the church pews and then where the picture was taken was the floor where the class is. Like I said before three LONG floors up. This picture was taken at the beginning of the week, because by the middle of the week there were two tables full of cookies, with coffee and tea and water and juice. Good food!!!!

2. Here's a picture of me and Heldur the National Director. He was always taking pictures, stills and videos. He told me he hasabout 3 hours of video besides a DVD full of stills.

3. Lunch time. I found out yesterday that we have been eating lunch in the building where the Ministry of Agriculture is located. The bowl in the top left had the consistency of very loose jello and it had rhubarb in it. The white in the very middle was a dab of sour cream. It was very good.

4. And here is one of me teaching.

5. One of the pews in the church. The seat is very narrow and hard, and the back is very straight. Notice the speaker in the middle of the row. The church has a reverberation time of about 2 seconds and the sound lasts for about 12. While teaching the class one day a tour group came through the church, they were a choir. While we were in the middle of class all of a sudden we heard this choir singing. From inside our room the sound was wonderful.

I don't think I ever mentioned a bit of the story about the church there at Olevista. I don't mean the building, I mean the people. Back when Estonia was under Communist rule the communist rulers of Estonia decided that a good way to get rid of Christianity in Tallinn was to put several denominations together under one roof. Make them fight for leadership of the church. They thought that the leaders of all the churches wouldn't be able to get along with each other. The building they picked for this was the Olevista church building. (We won' t talk about how the communist's used the tower for their listening devices and radio signals since it was the tallest building in the city at the time.) I believe that was about 50 years ago. (I might be wrong about the timing of this though). As you can tell it didn't work. What man meant for destroying the church of God turned out to be a blessing. The church here in Olevista has about 1500 members. Praise God.

Because the church is an historical landmark it's likeness is found on all kinds of souvenirs both very nice and well a little bit on the gaudy side. Like the picture of the church on an ashtray or on the side of a shot glass. Ah, capitalism at its best!

John