Monday, June 20, 2011

I woke a few hours after I went to sleep in order to finish my packing and prepare myself with reading and such before our trip to Macedonia. As I grabbed a yogurt I had left in the fridge from when I first arrived, I met Rick Howard, who had been coming to Sofia for at least 15 years and preaching and acting as a kind of missionary (I think) before returning to the States and continuing now with short trips back and forth. We talked a bit about the changing landscape of global missions and about the assault on Christianity by the prosperity gospel. After we visited I went back to packing and at one point was able to talk with Ventzy at the office about the city of Sofia and ministry within the city and some of his background. We also spoke about the BL office and some of the grounds work. Later, we all gathered upstairs to pray before Nicky, Stefan, and I left for Macedonia. After packing our things into the vehicle, we headed out, first stopping at an exchange for me to grab some Bulgarian currency and for Nicky to grab some Macedonian currency. We did pretty well on exchange rates. From there we met with Vintzy, the newly elected president of the Church of God denomination in Bulgaria. We had a wonderful time talking about ministry in the country and the cultural context its ministers face. He wanted me to share my impressions from prior meetings with church planters and ministers and the BCPN first, and after I shared he gave me his thoughts on what I had seen clearly and what other factors had perhaps affected my perception and items of which I may not have been aware. As usual, we were having coffee and the weather was beautiful. How interesting it is that such places of beauty are so often empty of joyful inhabitants. Anyway, Nicky and Stefan were also testing some of their audio/visual equipment during our conversation and engaged Vintzy with some of their own questions as a means of gathering critiques of the most recent BCPN conference (the one I attended last month which helped initiate this mission) and what the attendees viewed as most beneficial and useful – the evidence or “data” of why the conference series is worth continuing. By the way, Vintzy is Nicky’s pastor and was a speaker at the BCPN conference. One of the subjects which dominated our discussion was the question of ministry structure. The western churches have structures: sub-ministries, organized leadership, regular programs and understanding of what a program does (what does a youth program look like and how does it function, under whose leadership, with what kind of funding, etc…). The Balkan churches, however, don’t seem to have such structure. They struggle in this area – finding it difficult to organize themselves often because of mentality and circumstance. I’ll talk about mentality later in this post or in another post to come. We had to be on our way and so did Vintzy, and so we ended the discussion with a “plan” to meet again and discuss more when I return to Bulgaria either in one month’s time or near the end of my time in the Balkans. As we headed West, Nicky, Stef, and I spoke about our backgrounds. We hadn’t had much time to connect personally up to this point, and so the road trip provided a great time for discussion and the foundation of a closer relationship with one another. For instance, I found out about their educations, that Stefan was a Bible school student and his passion for photography and use of his skill as a freelance professional was as a way of self-support and also for helping other Bible school students – he sells prints online and donates 30-35% of the proceeds to help others get Bible school educations. His work can be seen HERE. Nicky, on the other hand, has his education in Psychology and Screenwriting. His passion is for the cinematic arts. He’s written one major screenplay on a Bulgarian WWII hero as well as smaller pieces for commercials and humanitarian PSAs. As we progressed in conversation, we eventually began kicking around ideas for businesses in Bulgaria as well as solutions to problems which inhibit business in Bulgaria (marketing, market size, regulatory issues, start-up capital, etc.). We stopped along the way for some ripe cherries and again for lunch before we reached the border (I think). It was definitely a time of mutual encouragement. We also talked quite a bit about movies and differences between European and American tastes and music performers as well. We sampled different songs and I was educated in the musical cultures throughout the Balkans. I would later learn more about the events that have historically shaped the music each region promotes. The same events could also figure heavily in why the movies and arts emphasize the asking of different questions and promoting different values. We finally arrived at the BL office in Macedonia in Skopje and quickly unloaded our things into our room and spent some time catching up with Stole and Marino – BL officers as well as pastors and church-planter trainers. After organizing dinner plans with another brother (denominational leader), we headed for dinner at a local restaurant. The restaurant was located next to the Macedonian capital’s soccer stadium, and it just so happened that next to our table was the country’s minister of covert intelligence. After great discussion (most of which I didn’t understand..hah) and a wonderful meal we headed toward the city’s center to view the brand-new statue of Alexander the Great which was being placed on a large pedestal to make it the world’s tallest statue of the renowned military leader. I have some video and several pictures you can view on YouTube. We decided to find a place to sit down and have some coffee and catch up and talk about the history of the ministry as well as the cultural issues the churches are currently facing, and we found this nice outdoor café near the statue. I had the greatest coffee drink this world has ever known. It was so rich I couldn’t stand to drink it all, but because it was so good I couldn’t stand to let it remain in the mug. Nothing has ever tasted so good on my tongue. It was like what liquid gold would taste like if its taste reflected its value. Again, the discussion was beyond my vocabulary, but the company was great, and so I was able to relax and not be burdened. Thankfully, the seating consisted of couches and pillows and cushions, and so I was pretty much lying down, and the café had free Wi-Fi, and so I was able to see some of your e-mails to me and read some scriptures and pray intermittently. After awhile we decided to call it a night. But first, Marino had to take me to the police station because unregistered persons who plan to stay in the country longer than two days are required to or be liable for removal from the country. It didn’t take long at all, and we drove back to the office immediately afterward. From there I unpacked my bags while chatting with Nicky and Stef about the dinner and the day. We were at the point of starting to crack jokes, which is that point at which you know a friendship is really forming. That’s probably one of the closest points we have to a universal cultural truth (except in some Asian contexts): where you can be vulnerable to another’s friendly jabs without bitterness is where you have a friend. Traveling drains you physically, and so we were ready for bed (even though we gained an hour journeying westward).