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Greetings from Bulgaria!

Seven from the Arden church journeyed from the United States to Bulgaria to hold evangelistic meetings and health talks.  Johnathon Leonard, David Atkins, Lorraine Hansen, Eric Dillingham, Rita Roberts, Larry Cottrell and Gail Bremner.

The flight over was not crowded, but that still didn't lend itself to good sleep!  So we arrived very tired and several of us had to apologize for sleeping through orientation!  

Eric, Rita & Gail had a 9 hour layover in Munich, so took advantage of the time and did some sight seeing.  All went well except that Rita boarded the train going into Munich and the doors closed before Gail & Eric could get on!  Off went Rita leaving Gail & Eric praying that they would see her again!  After a prayerful train ride to the agreed upon station, Rita was found. . . .the only problem was she was on the other side of the tracks.

It sounds like a simple problem, but with steps going every which way, we made several false attempts and finally were standing still trying to figure it out when a lady approached us and said in perfect English, "Do you need help?"  We explained our problem and she led us right to Rita.  Angels do still exist!

Escalators in Munich  in the trains stations	Signs in train station. . .	Eric & Rita outside the bus we took to  see the sights of Munich
Now that's fresh orange juice!	Wonderful sights and sounds. . . .	St. Michael's church in the heart of Munich

Friday: 11/24

Gail:  We are meeting in a upstairs room in a government hall.  The room holds maybe 70 and it was full.  Pastor Trevoror said there were many visitors.  The church here began by having a health expo for 3 days as a lead-in to the meetings.

Of course, the devil was not happy.  The first difficulty was being unable to show the health slides - they showed on my computer but not on the screen.  So we used the pastor's computer to show the health slides and pictures of my family and then used mine to do the sermon.  The slides in the sermon somehow got out of order with the notes (that are also on the computer) and I had to go from memory.  Praise the Lord, he brought to mind the important things.

Elena, my roommate, who works in Norway but is originally from Moldova, and is having major technical problems.  She couldn't get the Jesus video to play on the screen and then the computer booted up with a 2 inch wide band across the screen instead of a picture.  We managed - over the phone since she is in a nearby town - to get her up and running, but it looks like the computer is on it's last legs.  Please pray for her computer!

Please continue to pray for us and all the meetings going on here in Bulgaria.

Update:
Things are going well at our end of Bulgaria.  Our average attendance is about 60-70 with up to 20 visitors.  The people here are wonderful!  We have had many invitations to lunch and to be shown the area they are so proud of.

Yesterday we walked up the mountain to a wonderful tower and tea shop.  The walk was very invigorating and the way they are feeding us, I think we need to walk it every day!

The sermons are going well now that we have gotten the technical difficulties worked out.  People are responding well also.  Many are asking how to deal with family difficulties and health problems - in fact, last night one lady began asking me medical questions and when I told her I was not a doctor, she was very surprised.  Thank you DeWayne for the wonderful health talks!  The people are thoroughly enjoying them.

LORRAINE: Today has been quite a day for everyone. We all had church services, lunch & an evening service. My church had the closing of their week of prayer today. Which like Pazardijik was on Hope. So I preached on how Hope changes us & the cost of change, using the story of the man by the pool of Bethsaida (thanks Jeanette for the ideas). I believe it went well & the people felt like they had a fitting close to their week of prayer. I was quite willing to go along with their program, because the sermon for this morning was to be on the subject of suffering that & all of us felt we needed to give that in the evening when more people are there who are just learning about Jesus. For a nation who claims to have an official religion, of which the people are very proud, most people know almost nothing about the Bible or even Jesus for that matter. 

I think it went well, in spite of computer problems. For some reason my synchronizer got off wrong. The song didn't end right & when I went to start the sermon, my notes & the pictures on the screen were not together. Finally had to take the song off then the rest went on like it was suppose too. Great program this synchronizer, but it does do some strange things when you try to manipulate it too much!!!

Rita & Polina (her translator) were gone all day, since they have a 35 mi. drive 1 way. The Pastor fixed lunch for them & about 6 other young fellas!!! Rita said it was really good - lots of typically fixed vegetables & ???? we got interrupted & I never did hear the rest of the story. Rita was told today that the people liked her calmness!!! She is feeling good about her experience here for which I am glad.

Eric is really enjoying his experience & feels really comfortable with his translator, who David Dobais said is one of the best. Yes, David is with us, apparently went to Eric's meeting tonight. All I got from Eric was that he now knew all he needed to do. He called to ask if I had heard from Larry - it was then near 10pm & Larry wasn't home yet. We are concerned - hopefully it is nothing serious. Hope to get the rest of the story tomorrow.

Sunday: 11/26

Just the rest of the story: Larry has discovered the same thing that I have discovered, that once you have the synchronizer program on your computer you can't show any other Power Point Presentations. So his pastor is transferring the health talks to a DVD so that they can show them from there. Apparently took some time!! So all is well. Also tomorrow he is going to be interviewed by a radio station in Nova Zagora where he is preaching. His pastor has asked him to spend a night with him & then in the morning he will take him to see some of the sites around his town. Larry sounds real pleased with the things are going.

Just keep up the prayers - the devil is still alive & well - we don't want to give him any openings!!

MONDAY: 11/27

	<-The tower up the mountain that many of the town people climb to daily just for exercise. A view of the mountains when the sun finally came out and we were able to see them.                         ->
	<- The front of the hotel where we stay with the mountain behind it. Two dear church members who escorted me up the mountain to the tower and the wonderful little tea shop. The one on the right is an English teacher so she translated for us.     ->
	<-View from the base of the tower.  You can see how foggy is was. Inside the tea shop at the tower.  The mountain goes on up from there, but we only went this far.            ->

This is Elena, who has been working in  Norway, but is originally from Moldova.   She is 23 and we are roommates at the  hotel in Vratza.   She preaches at Botevgrad.

We didn't accept a lunch invitation because we wanted to study most of the day because we are presenting the 2300 day prophecy this evening and so we took a break and went out to find some lunch.   We found a pizza place and asked the waitress if she understood English.  She came back with a menu that had English underneath the Bulgarian. Wonderful! So we ordered and when the food was brought, she only brought 1 plate which she gave to Elena. We asked for another plate - we thought - and she went away but didn't come back for awhile. When she did, Elena tried to talk to her in Russian and she answered something about wait.  When she finally came back - she brought another pizza! Languages and trying to communicate certainly adds flavor!  This one tasted like pizza!

View of the main square of Vratza from our hotel window. Monday 11/27 is the first day that we have seen the sun. It has been cold, rainy and foggy since we arrived. This area is beautiful and the people are beautiful as well.

Apparently Rita's driver is the host of the men, so they went there 1^st & had a party!! They tried to call but the lady of the house didn't answer & they didn't think of calling my cell. Polina's husband has been here this weekend - making her very happy - they are so young I hope they can keep their apparent devotion to each other the rest of their lives. They have only been married 3 months & this was their 1^st separation, it was hard enough on them that he made the drive down to be with her for a few days - young love is wonderful!! 

Monday's Meeting

<--Lucy, Gail's translator.  She is been doing a wonderful job translating. To the right, the hall where Vratza's  meetings are being held.  I ask if I could take their picture and show my family back home who my family here is.