Greetings everyone from Bulgaria! The 6-person Bulgaria ABCRM mission team (Sherry Wilson and Karla Davis from FBC of Laramie, Kent Oakes from Calvary Baptist Denver, and Dwight and Aladine Neuenschwander and trip leader Kerry Hassler from FBC Boulder) arrived in Sofia midday on Friday, June 20 after flying from Denver the previous day. We were greeted at the Sofia airport by our hosts ABC-IM missionaries Tom and Terry Myers (ABCRM special-interest missionaries), who promptly took us to our Sofia hotel to get a few hours of immediate rest after our long 14-hour trip.
Later that evening, our mission team gathered at Tom and Terry’s home to sort out materials and puppets we brought along for the following week’s Vacation Bible School our team is helping to conduct at the Baptist Church in Guliantsi. The church is about 2 hours north of Sofia. The VBS will be taught along with Tom, Terry, AJ, and Nathan, and interpreter Katya Raichinova from the Sofia Baptist Church. We then enjoyed a delicious evening meal prepared by Tom and Terry before retiring early back at the hotel for a much-needed full night’s sleep.
On Saturday morning, June 21, the Bulgaria mission team was transported by Tom and Terry to the Sofia Baptist Church (the Myers’ family church) to meet Pastor Teddy Oprenov. Pastor Teddy showed the group the new 5-story Sofia Baptist Church building (still under construction) that will be used as a multi-functional facility for future church services as well as for community outreach purposes. It will house a medical/dental staff to provide free exams to the homeless, a high-tech Internet café, shops for in-need women who sell craft items for income, rentable business meeting rooms, and a computer training center to teach young unemployed Bulgarians the skills necessary to get jobs involving office computer applications.
After the mission team’s tour of the new facility, we talked with Pastor Teddy about details of this visionary $2 million project he has led for the past four years, along with his summary of Bulgarian Baptist Union’s history. It was truly amazing to learn how Pastor Teddy has combined his skills as a church-building planner and innovative pastor to create a new way to spread the Gospel of Christ that have never been seen before in Bulgaria.
On Saturday afternoon, Tom and Terry gave the ABCRM Bulgaria mission team a tour of downtown Sofia, including stops at the statue of Saint Sofia, the former Soviet headquarters during Communist rule, the current building housing offices of the President of Bulgaria, the National Arts Center, and the 1600-year-old St. George’s Orthodox Christian church. With Bulgaria being a member of the European Union (EU) since early 2007, the mission team saw examples of the many new buildings and municipal construction projects that have been stimulated by foreign investments now coming into Bulgaria. Although there are still many 
smaller cities in Bulgaria who are suffering from high unemployment in post-Soviet times, Sofia is rapidly evolving into a modern city comparable to other major cities in Europe.On Saturday evening, our mission team again enjoyed sharing an evening meal in Tom and Terry’s home that was joined by Bulgaria ABC-IM missionary Susan Linderman. After eating, Tom shared with us how he and Terry had been called to their Bulgaria ministry in the mid-90’s after spending 18 years doing farming in the San Luis Valley of southern Colorado. Susan (commissioned as an ABC-IM missionary in Sioux Falls, South Dakota in early 2006) also told us about her call to first be an English teach at the International Baptist Theological Seminary (IBTS) in the early 2000’s, and now her new ministry to help in-need women in Bulgaria. What wonderful servants of the Lord are Tom, Terry, and Susan!
On Sunday, June 22, our mission team will attend the Sofia Baptist morning worship service, and then travel by van to Gulliantsi to conduct June 23-26 morning Vacation Bible School sessions in support of Guliantsi Baptist Church under Pastor Ivan Vassileff and wife Tedi. During these afternoons, we’ll be putting together new playground equipment and painting existing equipment and a fence at an elementary school in Guliantsi. On Friday, the mission team will travel by van to the nearby city of Pleven to put together more new playground equipment for an orphanage there. A busy week lies ahead for our Bulgaria team!
Stay tuned for more ABCRM Missions Experiences Blog updates about our mission trip that will be sent from Bulgaria on June 29. Please keep the ABCRM June 19-30 Bulgaria mission team in your thoughts and prayers as we complete our upcoming projects on behalf of ABC-Rocky Mountain region churches and members.
Kerry Hassler
ABCRM Bulgaria Mission Trip Leader
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