СЛАВА НА БОГА! (Slava na boga)
Praise the Lord!

I may have mispelled this, but it is close to the common greeting when entering or exiting church in Bulgaria.

Keith and I arrived in Sofia Saturday afternoon and after a four hour drive, interrupted by a meal at an excellent roadside restaurant called Happy's, we were in Kardzjhali. We are staying with Pat and Lamar Myers in their apartment. It is a soviet-style place, but remarkable well maintained and spacious. It always surprises me how similar these apartments are no matter where in the former USSR one goes.

This morning Keith preached in the local Church of God congregation. The building is brand new and I hope to have some pictures up soon showing it off. It is beautiful. The pastor couple are artists and the church shows this heart. Paintings everywhere and wonderful architecture in a remarkably simple structure.

We went to a nearby village in the afternoon, visiting a small group of Roma (gypsy) believers. I was struck by the number of young people who are involved.

This evening was an adventure. We had another service at the local church and another group from the US were to come. They came late but made up for it with energy and volume. Their main leader spoke loudly and with great passion about the promises of God. It was over the top for me, and for the rest of us. It was also a challenge for the extremely talented translator as the speaker used a myriad of idioms and American expressions that simply were not translatable. It was hard for me to sit through. Keith taught me a new phrase today while we listened and that is MGR "More grace required". This is important for me, and a point of weakness.

Tomorrow we go to the Arts Centre, and meet with the staff of a newspaper, Spiritual Light, that Hari and Penka (the main pastoral/artist couple here) have created. Unfortunately the newspaper ran out of funds at the end of last year and they are looking for financial support. It appears to be a remarkable paper, with strong interest throughout Bulgaria, among Christians of all stripes, Muslims, and non-believers. The paper tries to have something for everyone and appears to have broad appeal. It may be a project for which I look to raise support back in the US.

We heard today about a place called Perperikon, quite close by, where Alexander the Great received a vision/prophecy that he would rule the world. They are right in the middle of excavating it and there is much to see. We may go there on Tuesday morning but Lamar recently had knee surgery and that is understandably slowing him down.

by the way, I am working on Lamar's computer at present because despite the presence of a dsl line we have not been able to get my or Keith's computer to connect. This also explains the lack of pictures at present. I will bring some over tomorrow.

So Keith is waiting for a chance to write his family and I should go to bed. It has been a long day.