Another great day in Bulgaria. We started the day at the preschool home where we had been on Monday as well. We had a long time with them this morning, and they were singing for us as we arrived. After joining them for more singing, we told the story of David and Goliath -- Tom was David, and Skip was Goliath, complete with a great crash to the ground as he was killed! Two other sets of children also acted out the story. We told them that God gives us each tasks to do, and He will give us the strength to accomplish them.
Each child there is so precious. A few of them really stole our hearts today. Several of us have particular children we felt called to pray for.
While we were there, Katya and Asya (our translators) spoke with a teacher, and they said she was impressed that professional, educated people from America would choose to come to Bulgaria and play with the children on the floor. Apparently, that would be very unusual for a Bulgarian professional to do. She also commented that she could tell our love for doing that came from our hearts. Katya offered a more full explanation -- that our love of Christ was the reason we did that. It reminded us to pray for the workers. Think what a difference it would make in an orphanage if the workers knew and followed Jesus!
We headed to the Borovtsi Learning Center for lunch, and we stayed there to work the rest of the afternoon. The Learning Center is for orphans who have aged out of the orphanage system. They typically have no skills, no money, and no place to go and often wind up on the street. The Center will give them a place to live for 12-18 months, teach them life skills and vocational skills, and provide spiritual teaching too. There is nothing like this in Bulgaria. The first twelve residents arrive on June 10, and there is still much to do. We fixed, cleaned, hung curtains, and moved furniture to get ready. Staff training is going on this week, with Daniel and Katie (the missionaries from Australia) doing much of the teaching. Skip taught a session this afternoon on ethics.
After a quick trip to the lake a mile or two down the road from the Center, we headed back to Berkovitsa, where the ladies at the hotel cooked a lamb dinner for us. Yum. We had a debrief of the day, which Ian led and tied into Matthew 16:24, where Jesus told His disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me."
On the logistics front, four more of our suitcases arrived today, which only leaves one of the eleven still not here. Most of the baby blankets were in the bags that came, so we'll be able to stop by the baby home again (where we were on Monday) on our way out of Berkovitsa tomorrow afternoon.
Thanks for following along with us. Tomorrow we'll be at Berk 4 (the handicap home) in the morning, Rockavitsa (the gypsy village) in the afternoon, and then up to a hotel in the mountain town of Vratsa tomorrow night, to get us closer to the orphanage where we'll be on Friday for another Hawaiian luau party.
Good night from Berkovitsa.
