February Newsletter

Hi all!  We have a new newsletter!  If you didn’t receive it by email, you can CLICK HERE to view it online. 

 

If you’re not on our email list, you can sign up over there >>>  in the sidebar.

Thanks for stopping by!

~Alyssa~

Things I Liked (or didn’t) This Month

So, apparently this column is evolving into a monthly feature rather then a weekly one.  My blogging hopes have fallen behind as we have gotten busier and been dealing with year end events like tax preparation (fun!).  But today I am here with a few observations from around the blogosphere. 

I like our new church building!  Having a place to call our own, that we can use all week long, is a huge step in the right direction for the budding congregation of the Church of the Nazarene in Sofia. 

I like that our kids have friends at church and look forward to going to service each week. 

I liked watching my first-time skaters take to the ice last week.  Even Don was a first timer, though he managed to not fall.  Can’t say the same for the kids!

I didn’t like the latest news about the Syrian Refugees and the situation here.  Please pray for these families.

I didn’t like this flu epidemic that has spread across Sofia.  Please pray for our health and that of our teammates!

I liked the countdown to our trip to the USA and the kids excitement!  48 days!

2013 Family Recap

Wow!  What a big year 2013 was in our lives.  This was the year of change, that much is certain.  The rest of it is marked by decided uncertainty, and also by God’s faithfulness.  Here’s a little about what happened in 2013.

January

After receiving multiple offers on our home on Dec. 31, we welcomed 2013 with a day of negotiation and realtor-finding.  We signed a contract with the buyers of our home on Jan 2.  Thankfully, they wanted to rent the house to us for 2 additional months, so we had 90 days to vacate.  Let the packing, selling, and temporary-house hunting begin!  At the time, we still had no idea where we were going to end up, but selling the house (for almost asking price!) was a huge confirmation from God that we were indeed supposed to be heading somewhere.

February

In February, we began selling our belongings in earnest.  Craigslist sales became an everyday affair.  We were offered a temporary place to live by friends, which was a huge blessing and took much of the stress off of us.  We also reached a decision to head to Bulgaria!  We set a departure date for July 9, and started fundraising.  We also had our family photos taken by a friend who did an excellent job, and ordered our prayer cards.

March

March was a blur of more selling, fundraising, and moving!  We left the only home the kids had ever known and moved into a temporary place at the end of the month (the Sunday before Easter!).  Our month looked like this:

April

April was a relatively quiet month.  This was the time when we started to settle into the idea of moving overseas and away from everyone and everything.  Living in temporary housing 30 miles from our beloved little town gave us a chance to slowly adjust to the idea of being much more the 30 miles away.  We began looking at every moment with loved ones in a new way and cherishing every moment.  

May

In May, we celebrated Elijah’s 6th birthday.  This was a very fun occasion for him as it marked the first year he was allowed to choose his own birthday activities.  He chose Jump-it, dinner at Texas Roadhouse and a sleepover.  We also did quite a bit of fundraising travel and speaking, including the amazing day we spent speaking and sharing at our beloved home church in Hillsboro, IN.

There was also one 3-week-long near panic regarding the FBI clearances and fingerprints… but we would prefer to leave that in the past. :)

Elijah and friends on his 6th birthday.

June

The month of June was a month of lasts.  It was full of tears, and bittersweet moments.  It is also overflowing with lots and lots of precious memories, many of which are making my teary-eyed as I write.  There were visits with family, park trips, and outings that we will never forget.

There was also the first round of goodbyes, these to family members that did not live close by, as we knew we would not have a chance to see them again before departure.

This was also the month of watching God provide for our financial needs and lots of prayers for documents to arrive in time (they did!).

One of the most precious memories in June was of Milena’s baptism.  Many friends and family came to celebrate with her, and it was a wonderful evening.

Milena’s Baptism

July

July was…  indescribable in a short paragraph.  Or even a full blog post, really.  We packed We said goodbye.  We left.  We vacationed briefly in Chicago. We flew.  We arrived.  We made our first trip to Greece.  We rented an apartment and moved in.  So much emotion.  So many new experiences. 

August

In August we celebrated our first milestone in Bulgaria.  Milena turned 8!  Along with her birthday, we also received our first package from the USA.  We began working and settling into life in Sofia.  We bought a car, had our first dinner guests, and attended church Sundays and Wednesdays.

Also in August, we got involved in an Embassy playgroup with people from all over the world, and started to make new friends.  We also met the Mann Family, who were later to become both great friends and ministry team members.

We also started school early, in preparation for our 2014 trip to the US.  Already we were looking forward to seeing friends and family again.

Milena’s 8th Birthday Breakfast- Cinnamon Roll Pancakes

September

In September we got into something of a routine, but frustrations were rising with our current ministry situation and we sensed a change coming.  God was working, though, and by the end of the month we are starting to see Him bringing things together for us to join the Church of the Nazarene (our denomination) as Tentmakers in Bulgaria.  It was a perfect fit for us, and we began to transition.

October

In October, we officially submitted our resignation to the first ministry and joined the Church of the Nazarene.  This change brought much peace and “settling” for our entire family, and things began to settle into a new, happier routine.  Some of the homesickness began to fade and we started seeing the purpose in our calling here.

Don began working with a ministry to the refugees here in Sofia as well.  It’s been amazing to be involved in a front-lines ministry to people from around the world.

We also took a walking photo tour of our new city, which resulted in many great shots for this Mama to scrapbook!

November

November began with a fun trip to the Nazarene National Assembly, where we spent time getting to know our new teammates and met many of the pastors and leaders from across the nation.  For the kids, the highlight was definitely the visit to the castle in Veliko Turnovo,

We decorated for Christmas mid-November, after making most of our own decorations.  We also celebrated Thanksgiving with a lovely Turkey dinner with Bulgarians and Americans alike.  It was a great holiday!

A group shot at Veliko Turnovo (minus Sarah, the photographer)

December

December, while filled with Christmas celebrations, had a few other highlights.  The Nazarene Sofia Church found a new rental location, and Don spent much of the month preparing it for our first service. 

Our team also made great progress in planning the soon-to-be-built new church building.  We ended the year with a rough drawing of our plans, a business plan being written, and a timeline sketched out for 2014. 

Christmas was nice, but quiet.  Most of our friends were travelling over the holidays, so we spent a few quiet days at home with way to much food and some fun Skype chats.  We were blessed with several packages from US family and friends, and this made Christmas far more special. 

We ended the year staying at the Mann’s house for a few days, enjoying the big yard, trampoline, and unusually warm weather.  The New Year’s Eve fireworks here are amazing!

Listening to Don read the Christmas story on Christmas Morning

Thank you for supporting and praying for our family through this year of ups and downs.  We are so blessed and encouraged to have an amazing support team. 

We are also blessed with an abundance of great friends and family, both in Sofia and in the USA.  We are beyond grateful for God’s faithfulness in 2013, and we are excited to see what miracles and amazing things God will do in 2014.

Much Love, Don, Alyssa, Milena, and Elijah

I Like Riding the Bus

Since we’ve been in Sofia, I’ve developed a preference for public transportation, especially the bus.  I ride the bus whenever it works with our plans/destination.  Why?

I like riding the bus because it give me time to pray.  More specifically, it’s one time in my daily routine when instead of praying for “the people of Sofia/Bulgaria/Europe,” I can pray for specific people.  I sit on the bus, and for the 20-60 minutes it takes to get to my destination, I pray for the people sitting around me. 

I pray for the babas (grandmothers) getting on an off slowly, painstakingly carrying home produce from the market.  I pray for the mothers, carrying their toddlers onto the bus.  I pray for the business men, standing on the bus answering emails with their free hand while holding on with the other.

I appreciate the opportunity to pray for specific people, rather then in generalities.  Maybe one day, someone I prayed for on the bus will show up at church.  Now wouldn’t that be exciting? 

What “tools/time” do you use to pray for the people in your country?  Any tips for including more prayer time in your day?

Things I Liked (or didn’t) This Week

Ok, so it’s been a few weeks, but I’m back with a new list.  Share your lists with me in the comments. :)

I liked putting up all the Christmas decorations.  I know it’s early, but we made them all ourselves (mostly the kids) and we wanted to see our work on display. 

I didn’t like seeing all of the news from the tornadoes in Illinois and Indiana last week. So many of our friends were affected, and it’s heartbreaking to see.

I liked watching from afar as our home church responded to the needs and opened the church doors to the community.

I liked seeing so many doors open in our ministry here and so many fun things in the works.

There you have it!  It’s a short list this week, but it’s definitely worth sharing.

Reactions and Choices

Recently, I’ve been taking some time to look back on my life and revisit how I reacted to certain events, and how my reaction changed the outcome. 

What has stood out to me during this reflection is that I have a choice how I will react.   There is always a moment (sometimes just a spilt second) when I have to choose how I will react.  It’s easy to say something like “I just reacted.  I didn’t choose it… I just exploded/laughed/was mean.”  Or, “I can’t help how I reacted.  They just made me so angry.”  But the truth is, I have a choice.  There is always that moment, the split second (or longer) when I know I am faced with a choice about what I will say or do in the next moments.

Galatians 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

I used to think that the fruit of the Spirit would automatically begin displaying itself in the lives of every follower of Christ, because the Spirit lives in each of us.  I am seeing more then ever that we must still make the choice.  I must make the choice in each challenging situation how to react- this is self control!  Self control is not the Spirit taking over my body and forcing a reaction upon me.  Self control is pausing in that moment of aggravation or frustration to listen to the voice of the Spirit and choosing to react in a way that honors Christ. I must choose my reaction.  You must choose your reaction.  If we ask Him, the Holy Spirit will teach us how to use our moment of choice to stop and listen.

Our family recently went through a huge shift in our ministry situation.  Through the month-long process of making decisions and dealing with frustrating circumstances, we were faced with choices about our reaction every single day.  Sometimes so many times in one day, our heads were spinning. But looking back, it is clear to me that our reactions made a huge difference in how events unfolded.  I’m happy to say that we responded to the prompting of the Holy Spirit and reacted accordingly.  There is no doubt that if we had reacted badly, the outcome would have been far more unpleasant. 

John 15:8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

It’s encouraging to look back and see how I have grown in my walk with Christ.  How about you?  How do you react to frustrating situations, and how has your reaction affected the outcome? In what ways are you bearing fruit?

Things I Liked (or didn’t) This Week

Here’s a few of our highlights and blurbs from around the web this week.

I liked that we are now residents of Bulgaria!  Woo-Hoo!

I liked spending time with new friends and getting to know them better.

I liked the Lego Bash party at the Mann’s and the excitement of my kids before and after.

I didn’t like the exchange rates and the way they affected our weekly budget.  Praying they stabilize.

I liked the way This Article made me think.

Thanks for stopping by!

~Alyssa~