On Monday morning, we were happy to see that over 20 Roma Bulgarian kids from ages 4 through 14 showed up for our first Vacation Bible School class. We made out name-tags for the kids (and our mission team), Sherry and Karla took photos of each kid for the “flat Charlie” paper-doll craft they would make later in the week, and Katya began the first session by leading singing VBS-type songs that included kids and adults. Katya was fantastic at getting everyone energized through our singing!
Next, some of the mission team members did a skit for the kids about Jesus making his first disciples “fishers of men” using costumes brought from the Laramie Baptist Church VBS sessions, followed by a time for crafts and games. The first day’s VBS session ended around noon with Katya leading more singing with the kids, talking about God and lessons taught by Jesus, and then the kids were given a snack and fruit drink. This first day’s schedule of VBS activities would generally be followed through the rest of the VBS sessions ending on Thursday.
After enjoying lunch at a nearby Guliantsi restaurant, the Bulgaria mission team walked several blocks from the Guliantsi Baptist Church to the preschool where our schoolyard renovation project for them was done in the afternoons. These included putting together new playground equipment purchased for/delivered to the preschool using budgeted 2008 ABCRM Bulgaria mission trip project, and painting of the preschool’s playground equipment and fence using paint also purchased from these same ABCRM funds. Despite daily afternoon temperatures in the high 90’s, the mission team completed these projects with help from the Myers and Vassileff family members, Katya, several Guliantsi Baptist Church volunteers, teenager Chrisie who lived in Pleven, and the director of the preschool, Matzidana Dasuvosa. One of the Guliantsi Church volunteers “Emo” (who had his own construction business in Guliantsi) helped improve the preschool by replacing wooden playground benches. The completed painting made the playground look alive with color again, and we could see the kids were happy with the results. A local Guliantsi TV station brought a reporter and video cameraman to the preschool on Monday to write a news story about our ABCRM mission trip preschool project shown later that same day. We were told that many people in this town of about 5000 inhabitants were in general amazement that a Baptist mission team from America had come so far to improve a preschool and the Baptist church in their city.
The other main Bulgaria mission team’s project in Guliantsi was to improve the grounds of Pastor Ivan’s church by spreading gravel over the area used for car-parking. This was another task made more difficult by the high daily temperatures. With shoveling and raking contributions by Dwight, Kerry, Tom, AJ, Nathan, Pastor Ivan, Emo, and particularly Kent on our last day of this project on Thursday, we were able to finish this task from Tuesday through Thursday. Church visitors were now had a designated place to park their cars at the church.
The Guliantsi Baptist Church VBS sessions led by Katya continued through Thursday with puppet shows and skits involving the ABCRM mission team along with the Myer’s kids AJ and Nathan, and Vassileff family teenagers Pepie and Monie. During the middle part of the VBS daily sessions, the kids did new crafts and games provided by the mission team every day. These kids worked hard to complete their crafts with materials brought from ABCRM churches in Colorado and Wyoming. The kids especially enjoyed doing water-related games in the churchyard to cool off from the daily high temperatures. On Thursday morning, we held out last VBS class, and said good-byes to the kids we had gotten to know during the week. It was a sad parting for all of us!
On Thursday afternoon, we returned for the last time to the Guliantsi preschool several blocks from the Guliantsi Baptist Church to complete the painting of playground equipment and the preschool’s fence. The preschool’s director and staff thanked us all for our hard work put in since Monday in very hot temperatures by providing the team members with special Bulgarian food snacks and small gifts, as well as certificates (written in Bulgaria) for each member of our painting team and their respective home church. The director said she wanted to use our mission team’s project to encourage people living in Guliantsi to also do volunteer projects to help improve Guliantsi schools. We all saw how the newly-painted playground and fence sparkled as we left the preschool to walk back to the Guliantsi Baptist Church to spend our last evening there.
After having an evening meal at the Guliantsi Baptist Church with Pastor Ivan, the Vassileff family, Katya, and Emo, we gathered for our last evening fellowship in the church’s main meeting room. After singing several hymns simultaneously together in English and, we finished sharing our testimonies about how we became Christians and are now serving the Lord in various ways. It was especially interesting to listen to Pastor Ivan’s testimony about how he endured persecution as a Christian during the Communist time in Bulgaria, during which he lost his job as a farm manager because of his faith. The ABCRM mission team received gifts of gratitude from Pastor Ivan, and we closed by singing “Blest Be the Tie that Binds”. Tomorrow we’ll go to Pleven to do our last mission team work-project to paint a fence and assemble new playground equipment at an orphanage there. Our Bulgaria mission trip is almost over already!
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