Greetings!

It was a long but lovely day. We began this morning by first driving from Berkovitsa (where we are staying) to Borovtsi (where the Learning Center is) to do our devotional (as we begin each day). We like to do the devotional at the Center so that the workers can see that Christ comes first and is important in our lives.

Directly after the devotional our Dutch friends began laying floor, our Aussie friends began painting, our Bulgarian friends began their normal duties of contruction, and we, the Americans from FUMC went to Georgi Damyanovo (the preschool orphanage), with Rachel driving one of the cars - her first Bulgarian driving experience.  (Leanne, we saw the water buffalo again on the way.)

We spent the morning with these beautiful, bright-eyed, energetic children. There were about 26 kids there total. Many of the faces that we are familiar with from past years have aged out (at age 7) of the orphanage and were not there (although we saw some of those 'older' children walking in another nearby village on our way to Georgi - they have been moved to another orphanage).

We told the Bible story of Zacchaeus (from Luke 19) to the children, acted it out (Greg was Zacchaeus, Brad was Jesus, and Skip made a great tall tree!), sang a song, danced, colored, and played. The children are wonderful!

There was one brother and sister that was at the preschool orphanage that have an interesting and sad story. Earlier this year they were found living under a bridge with their mom. The workers at the orphanage showed us a picture of when they were found and told us this story. The kids were taken from their mother and have been living in this orphanage since February. Such a sad story. Rachel held the sister for a long time because she just wanted to be held and loved on. Others in the group held children, sang to them, and just played (swinging them round and round). Jim counted in Bulgarian from one to ten with the children.

After about 2 hours we headed back to Borovtsi and ate lunch with everyone... then we jumped back into work - painting, sweeping, cleaning, scrubbing windows, and doing whatever we were needed to do (including carrying heavy furniture up 3 flights of stairs).

Following our work we headed to the mountain town of Vratsa with wonderful food and atmosphere. Of course we are eating the famous Shopski salad (with tomatoes and cucumbers and cheese - mmmmmm!) and good home cooked meals! Fanta orange and lemon are the drinks of choice. The resturant we ate in is at the base of vertical rock cliffs a couple of thousand feet tall - a beautiful place.

We are now going to sleep in the midst of a thunder and lightening storm. It is soothing to hear the rain falling outside our windows (the prefered choice is to sleep with the windows open). It is a hard rain and very calming.

Good night to all. We love you. Thanks for your prayers. We ask for continued prayer for the Learning Center - the work is slow and the opening for the center is scheduled for next week. Judy and Paul are under a lot of pressure and want to see this completed.

Brad, Andrew (Judy and Paul's son), and our Dutch friends singing during our devotions.

Midge cleaning a window.

One of the Bulgarian workers lifting cement buckets up to the 3rd floor.

Skip and Jane after a hard day's work.

One of the dorm rooms at the Learning Center BEFORE.

One of the dorm rooms AFTER.

The view of the mountain where we had dinner.