Reflection on my trip to Bulgaria - May 2011

The time from April 30th to May 15th 2011 marked a milestone in my life. It was my first overseas mission trip. Granted, my trip wasn’t typical for most mission trips in that there was not a great focus on direct ministry and proclamation of the Gospel. But there was worship, beautiful worship. And even in the smallest amount of it, I felt the unifying presence of the Holy Spirit. For me this was a wonder to behold because even though I knew it in my head that international church is unified in Christ, I hadn’t experienced that true sense of “one holy catholic and apostolic church”; the sense of being united and sent with a body of people from other languages, backgrounds and cultures. Really, meeting people whose only connection I share is faith in Christ, and then seeing that connection at work and worship, was and is something I will never want to trade.

For me it came to a head when we had our first large group dinner at Taino Myasto with Villi, her kids, Ivancho and Natalia, John, Ken and myself. Supper surrounded in worship and fellowship. It was a moving and special occasion. I have made friends there that I fully intend to visit the first chance I get.

If you are reading this, you should consider joining.

Asking the Lord about the house in Bulgaria, He showed me a picture of the house with the Mulberry trees around the perimeter. When we were there in July I was amazed at the size of these trees and the amount of fruit on them. The pastor from Pavlikeni and his wife would come to the house and she in particular loved to pull the branches down and feed on the mulberries. It was like she was very hungry and she delighted in eating right from the tree.

The kingdom of God is all about bearing fruit. Good fruit. The word says, you will know them by their fruit. He would have us bear much fruit. Etc.
The house in Stambalovo is a place where God wants the fruit of His kingdom to grow and be harvested. There are hungry people in Bulgaria, the world over actually, who desire to delight in eating fruit from the kingdom,harvesting fruit of the kingdom and being fruit for the kingdom.

I thought the adventure of my very first mission trip would start when I got to Bulgaria. Little did I know the whole experience would start from the moment I ‘signed up’. When I made it known that our team needed to raise funds and that one of the things we were doing was holding a Dessert & Silent Auction Fundraiser people started volunteering to bake and donate items for the auction. Support poured in from family, friends, co-workers and my church family. 

We left for Bulgaria on July 1 and returned on July 18. Those were a whirlwind 18 days. We were a team of 7 Canadians and 1 Romanian. To briefly encapsulate those days and do them justice is difficult. It was very emotional to experience so many things in such a short period.