Monday/Tuesday

I have this week to relax and regroup before my next two weeks out.


Monday was a nice day for the most part and Pam and I went for a little drive and then went to Baden in the afternoon.


Yesterday and today I started to take pictures of the Mid-term and Long Term Staff who live here. I'll try and show pictures and a little story about each of the people.


So here goes:
1. Alexander is from Bulgaria. He was here for the last session and is staying over this week to take a class in the next session. Those students that stay over from one session to the next do some work over the in between work. They do this is part to help pay for their stay here.
2. Todar is from Bulgaria and one of my former students. He is also staying for the next session. I spoke to Todar today and he said that his wife was going to be here during this next session. The students know that while enrolled with TCMI their spouse can come here and stay with them for only one session . But while here that spouse has to at least audit a class. So they can learn and experience what it's like here while taking a class.
3. Debe Ahl. Debe is the Coordinator of Administrative Services
4. Arlen Ahl. Arlen is the Director of Information Technology.
5. Jim Poer. Jim is the Facilities Coordinator.
Arlen and Debe are full time staff here so they live here all year around.
Jim and his wife Debbie are also full time staff here.
More to come tomorrow.
John

Sunday

We went to Vienna to church today. Here are some pictures of what it was like. The songs were either all in English or in German. then everything else that was said, announcements, sermon and the like was either spoken in English and translated into German or spoken in German and translated into English.

1. The new worship center. (Last year they were on the top floor and were ready to start working on the second floor to make it into their worship center. Right now they are reconstructing the top floor into several rooms.)

2. Worship team

3. Announcement time

4. Preaching. The preaching was done in German and translated into English

5. Robert and Sunny with other church members. Robert and Sunny work here at TCMI in Food Services. Because they are on staff here, this is the church they attend most of the year.

After the service Pam and I went to dinner with Paul and Cathy Kissling. Paul is professor of Old Testament and is also the Research Director. Cathy is the registrar here. They are staff so they live here year round. It's always good to see them again when we come here.

Came home and proceeded to take a nap. I guess I was tired.

John

Friday/Saturday

What happened to Friday? I spent half the morning reviewing all the class notes, and then the students took their final. But before they took the final they gave me some gifts to remember them by. I received a DVD of Bulgaria, and 2 CD of Bulgarian Christian music. I haven't had time to listen to them yet, but I'm sure I'm going to enjoy them very much. Everyone finished by 1:20 which was a little past our lunch break but no one seemed to mind.


After lunch all of the students left and Mimi and I graded their finals. I got to the hotel by about 4:00 and started reading the rest of the pre-class papers the students had written. I love reading them because I learn so much about their culture and the deep love they have for their country and Christ.


Saturday morning I finished reading the papers and started "doing" grades. Grades are almost all done now. There's just a couple of things left for me to do before all the students will get their final grade for the class.


Vlado and his wife took me around early this afternoon (Saturday) to see the sights of Bulgaria. Here are some pictures I took.
1. The Bulgarian National Theater Building
2. Parliament Building
3. Bulgarian Orthodox Church. This is the biggest church building in Bulgaria.
4. Vlado and Hope his wife in front of the church. The church is on the third floor.
5. Russian Orthodox Church

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.