Saturday with my Sister

Crystal and I took our annual trek to take pictures for the family. John-Paul went with us and we just went over to the Samford campus. The beautiful leaves from 2 weeks ago were all gone. But we had fun!

Christmas at DAXKO

Last Friday we took our annual Christmas Picture. This one was my first, of course. But, it was fun-my team leader was Santa!

my heart at home

So we're having a big "Tell It" event at church this weekend. All about ways you can Tell your faith. And I was asked to work the booth for missions this morning in case anyone is interested in the Journeyman program. And it was really neat cause I got to meet some missionaries who I never actually got to meet but that I served with in West Africa. It's not very often that I get to talk to people who actually understand where I've been and what I've done. They knew what I'd been through with the war, struggles I must have had with my bosses, and the harsh life you live in West Africa. And it was like immediately among all those hundreds of people, my heart found home.
Of course, more than one person asked me when I plan to go back on the field-and my answer stays the same-When Jesus lets me go. For now, here I am.

DAXKO Life

Implementation team style.

As a team we get along pretty well and have to work together to figure stuff out quite a bit. One of the things I've been working on is what we call our "Playbook." So we wanted a team pic for the front. And it's a beautiful day here in B'ham so we headed outside.



Nick (acting normal), Amanda, me, and Keith (our team lead)


everybody acting goofy


a great picture-showing everyone's personalities

The Father of Jesus

. . . is NOT the god of Muhammed. But does it really matter what we call Him? How should we share Christ in a culture who's only word for god is "Allah?" How do we tell who God is and what He's done through His son and communicate when there's no other word? And, is it our job to make sure their theology is perfect when they come to Christ, or just speak the truth and allow them to hear the name of Christ and what He's done for us? Can we change thousands of years of people in the Arabic speaking world from using Allah as the name for God, which ever god they worship?

All things that have been going through my mind since the trip. There's was lots of discussion around this topic-lots of people throwing out criticism without any background information. Lots of people saying that the word "Allah" has a bad connotation. But what about the word "God" in our culture. People throw it around all the time, but they don't worship the God we worship. Seems to me its the same thing, but then, what do I know. . .

Day 10

Chaos-the time change wasn’t just in America. Bulgarians recognize Daylight Savings too. So, we were supposed to be at the bus at 5, and we were actually there at 4. Apparently only 2 people knew about the time change so the whole team was out waiting. Svetlo was all worried about us and called Jeffrey. And we just went to the airport really early. It was sad saying goodbye to Bulgaria. It felt like we didn’t have enough time to really take in all that was going on. Brandi and I talked at the gate some and it’s neat to see how the Lord faithfully works in the hearts of His children.

Our plane was about 20 minutes late leaving-no big deal since we had a 3 hr layover in Munich. We got to hang out and get some lunch. Then on our flight to the States. It was super nice-I’ve decided I’m flying with the Germans wherever they go! I stayed awake most of the time since I didn’t want to have a hard time sleeping that night. I sat by Brian Baker who is just funny, but I hadn’t really got to know him so we got to talk a little. He’s traveled a lot too so we got to talk about the places we’ve been.

Once in the states we had to go through customs and passport control in Chicago. It was a little crazy, but not too bad, not near as bad as Munich where we literally got every inch of our bodies patted down-gross. Then we grabbed our first American food in 10 days at a little Chili’s in the restaurant and just about the same time we all started crashing from all the travel. Some of the guys watched football and I read a magazine trying to stay awake. Our plane was pretty much on time and we boarded with no problems. We pulled away from the gate and then everything changed. We just stopped and pulled back up to the gate and they told us there was something wrong with the computer system and a mechanic was coming out to look at it. When he got there he determined he couldn’t fix it and they needed to totally replace the computer-so we sat there while they did. Of course normally getting in at 9:30 wouldn’t seem that late, but by that time we had been awake for over 24 hrs so we were not happy. And neither was our flight attendant!

But we made it, and several people showed up at the airport to welcome us home. And lets just say I didn’t have a problems sleeping that night!

Day 9

Stood out on the balcony of the hotel and watched the small military parade go down the street-it was independence day in Greece. Headed back to Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria.

The bus ride wasn’t near as long as the one there. We got there, dropped Sharolyn off at the Hotel Champion-the name is misleading-and headed out to see Sofia. It’s really a neat city with lots of old churches-Bulgarian Orthodox. Apparently Constantine worshipped in one of the churches we visited. Then we headed to the market to buy pottery and see a little more of the city. For dinner we went to a cool Bulgarian restaurant that was decorated in local stuff and was real fun. We celebrated Kara’s birthday and ate way too much. Once we were back to the hotel we went to visit everybody in the Suite and then headed to bead early. We had to be at the bus at 5 the next morning.

looking down a street in Sofia

military guarding the Presidential offices-which are coincidentally located inside the local Sheraton hotel

one of the local churches we had an opportunity to visit-just around the corner there's a market that sells Communist paraphanelia-Bulgaria is the only country where selling these relics is legal

Day 8

We woke up really early to start out for our trip to Greece. It was supposed to be a 4 hour trip but turned into about 8 and a half. It was a long day. As soon as we got there we went straight to Philippi, looked around for a few minutes and then had a little service in the arena. It was really neat to hear some history and learn the reason behind Paul’s military references in the book of Philippians. And stand in and arena where believers gave their lives for the truth. And none of them are looking back saying it wasn’t worth it. We got to walk through the old town and see where Paul and Silas were in prison. And we saw where Paul probably stood before the council and walk the Roman Road that we know he walked. Too cool.


the group in the ruins at Philippi

me and Amy in the Basillica ruins

worsip in the arena

Then on to Lydia. It was just a few minutes drive from Philippi. Jeffrey offered to baptize anyone who wanted to be baptized, but it was too cold and we were all just excited to see it. Tommye read the story of Lydia’s conversion for us.

Lydia, where Paul met Lydia and she was baptized

Then it was dinner time-the first official meal we had for the day. Gyro’s again. But at least it tasted normal. We souvenir shopped for a while and several people went out to eat octopus, but I just didn’t have it in me.

Day 7

Back to the village-much earlier than normal. We spent a little time cleaning up the rest of the road on the way in to the village.

Richard and Sharolyn-picking up trash in the fog

Then headed out with Nancy and Heike to deliver bags to the other part of the village. We ended up in a part that was separated from the rest of the village by a considerable distance. Apparently that’s where the gypsies live. We met a believer and she told us that there are actually 3 families who are meeting together as a fellowship. So cool. As we continued on we met a family with an 8 year old daughter who is paralyzed. It was heartbreaking and it was all I could do to not completely break down. But I felt the presence of the Holy Spirit and trust that He’ll work.

Then it was time to head back to the school. The kids presented a program for us. It was heartbreaking as well-the young girls did a dance that was totally inappropriate for girls of their age, but sadly probably just like something they saw on MTV. They did do a traditional dance and that was really neat to see-apparently they all tell stories-I guess just like most cultures. And then it was time for Amy to sing. Wow, the enemy attacked-she could barely breathe and couldn’t stop crying. We prayed. And she sang, but when it came time to sing again she couldn’t think of a song. The enemy definitely doesn’t want to give up his territory. Bill and I joined in to help her make it through-I know I know, I can’t sing, but you do what you have to do-and it was Amazing Grace, so I’ve heard it enough times to at least get close. What’s really cool is later the girls came up and wanted to hear her sing again-and she got to sing a song all about Jesus. And then we got to learn to dance. I don’t think I laughed so hard the whole time we were there. The boys were playing futbol and we were getting laughed at.

one of the girls singing during their program for us

Amy singing for the girl at the school

And for lunch. . . Lamb. It was good to see the community come out in mass to eat and fellowship. Not my favorite meal while I was there. But it was food. The men at first so lots of women didn’t get food. And some tried to stay at the back of the line so they wanted have to have any I think.

After lunch several of the ladies set out to deliver bags in that part of the village and the guys headed to the other part. It didn’t take long for our big group to split up into two smaller ones and I ended up with Amy, Heike, and Anita. And we didn’t go very far before we were invited in for. . . .you guessed it, more Baklava. And Werther’s and chocolate candy, and yogurt, and strawberry drink. It just kept coming. There was way more food than we could eat. But we had a blast hanging out there and they asked us to pray for them.

me, Amy, and Anita with the group that offered us all the food

Just as we were walking out to take a photo the bus drove up looking for us to take us back to Block 46 for the party there. Before the party we headed out to deliver bags again. The first round I went out with Brandi and Amy. It was kind of discouraging. Hardly anyone opened the door and we got doors closed on us several times. We had two young boys with us trying to help us out, but when people didn’t open their doors they would spit on their doors-apparently a Turkish curse. We went back a little dejected. Amy was feeling well so Brandi and I headed out again with Jeffrey. Our first stop was to our friend Rose’s house. And she took us from there-all over her building and out to the back of the building. Maybe she’ll turn out to be a person of peace.

me and Brandi with "Rose" and her friends

Everybody started gathering for the meal and next thing I knew I was helping serve the lamb. In America I think I would have been totally grossed out by it, but I just did it. And actually had fun. David thought people wouldn’t come, that they’d be afraid to be involved, but there were tons of people there. It was totally worth all the hard work to see the people respond.

helping Richard, Chris, and Nancy serve lamb

Once the crowd started to clear we headed to get our own food. The Bulgarian version of a gyro. It was nice to have something that tasted so much like food you’d get in America. Then back to the hotel for devotion and off to bed.

Day 6

Up early. And off to the village. The Lord really worked and opened the door-the mayor was getting cold feet about letting us come. When we arrived we split up-most of us started working and a few headed to the school and started handing out bags to the kids.

Then we all joined in the work. Even the mayor and several of the young guys helped with the work. Apparently we cleaned up what the local newspaper had named “trash hell.”

Amy, Patrick, and Chris-cleaning up "trash hell"

the mayor

the group heading off to clean

Once we were done we headed down one of the streets to take a look around. We met a precious old lady who wouldn’t let us take her picture. Her granddaughter was there and spoke some English so we got to talk for just a few minutes.

Then it was time for the ladies to leave and head back to the Blocks to prayerwalk. The guys stayed behind and cleaned up as much as they could along the road.

The prayerwalk was really cool. We walked from Heike’s Block to David and Katherine’s and then kept walking around the area for a while longer. When we were almost back to meet up with the group I told Amy that I wanted to sing-something specifically that repeats the name of Jesus. So we were kinda humming. I walked away from the group for a second and I heard Amy say, “oh, Amber just said that.” Turns out Sharolyn told her she wanted to sing something with the name “Jesus” in it. How cool. So we sang several hymns that just repeated the Name and marveled at how awesome our God is. A little boy was sitting with us watching us the whole time and Heike sang a song to him. Apparently he is Romani instead of Turk and everyone is really mean to him.

Then off we went to town to shop for souvenirs and chill out for a while. And back to the hotel to get ready for dinner-in other words. . . more chopska salad.

Back to the hotel for devotion and off to bed.