Many people responded to our Facebook invites, and we had 9 students in attendance for our first club in the new location! We had a lot of fun talking about the last movie we had seen, creating movie riddles and guessing which movie was which. After club, we ate spaghetti together and continued creating and building friendships. It was a wonderful evening!
This week was our first Advanced English Club in Mladost 1. I was so excited to have English Club at the Christian Cultural Center, a facility that our team uses for a variety of things, from team meetings and team worship, to parties with our English students, because it means that we can make dinner or just hang out after English club. We have lots of board games and a foosball table, so it makes a great place to hang out!
Many people responded to our Facebook invites, and we had 9 students in attendance for our first club in the new location! We had a lot of fun talking about the last movie we had seen, creating movie riddles and guessing which movie was which. After club, we ate spaghetti together and continued creating and building friendships. It was a wonderful evening!
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There are now new photo albums in the Photos section of this website! You can view them as a slideshow by clicking on the picture. Enjoy!
My Bulgarian teacher has a huge job. Not only does she teach me how to read, write, speak, and listen to Bulgarian, but she also teaches me culturally important things, like how to be polite and holidays. Today, she taught me that it was Blagoveshtenie (Благоеещение), or as we know it in English: Annunciation. As she was explaining it to me, she told me what the word blagoveshtenie means--good news. Boyana explained the holiday by telling me that it is the day we celebrate Gabriel bringing good news to Mary--that she would be the mother of the Messiah, Jesus.
In Bulgaria, as in many cultures where Catholocism or Orthodoxy is heavily influential, there are days assigned to different saints. We usually call them name days, as most of the population of these countries is named after different saints. Name days are a chance to celebrate, kind of like birthdays. Often at night you can hear fireworks going off somewhere in the city, especially if it's the name day for popular names, like Ivan. Blagovestenie is also a name day. I realized that one of the pastors at my church must have his name day today, since his name is Blagovest. How cool to be a pastor named good news?! March 22, 2009, was a Sunday, just like it was this year. I had invited my friend Sarah to come have lunch at my house, since her parents were in GA for Spring Break. She was headed that way the next day, and I wanted to hang out with her before she left. March 23, 2009, was a Monday, just like this year. It was the first day of Spring Break in my third year of university. It was the day I learned what it feels like to lose a friend. It was the day I learned that God is truly my refuge and strength, for he was a present help in my time of trouble. Sarah was killed in a car accident on her way to be with her family for spring break. Over the weeks and months and years since Sarah's death, I have seen more and more clearly the hope we have in Jesus. He conquered death. He is the resurrection and the life. He is trustworthy, even when I'm feeling hopeless. He is God who raises the dead. Sarah was not snatched out of Jesus' hand, but welcomed into His loving embrace and at the last day she will receive a new body that can never get sick, grow old, or die. My friends, there is hope in the gospel. God will not leave us or forsake us, even when our loved ones or we ourselves die. It is not the end, and God is powerful to save to the uttermost. This is why I am in Bulgaria. I miss Sarah. I miss the conversations we would have had about the struggles of being first year teachers, about the silly things our students did, about how music can communicate things beyond what we say, about how cool it is to see God working, about what we've learned in the Bible, about marriage, kids, art, and musicals, about grammar, sunburns and recipes. I'm thankful for the time I had with Sarah, getting lost on our way to musicals in Tripp City, singing in the choir together at church, eating lunch together in college as she practiced directing and the strange looks people gave us as she waved her baton in the cafeteria, studying the Bible and talking about how loving Jesus influenced all of our lives. Rivers and Sea Billows Sarah Today was a special day at my church. Instead of a typical sermon, the choir sang, along with guest soloists and an ensemble. It's amazing to me how music transcends language barriers. One woman who came to sing is a missionary in Plovdiv, a city that is about 2 hours away. She is from Korea and does not speak English, but she sings in many different languages, including English. One of her solos, "Via Dolorosa" was beautiful. She sang it in both English and Spanish! I've been feeling rather homesick recently, so to listen to such beautiful music was a great comfort to me. One of the songs the choir sang was a spiritual in English, and it reminded me of singing at First ARP with Dr. Potter. It was nice to have a few songs in English, but I'm also learning enough Bulgarian to get a vague idea of what they are singing. Maybe someday I'll be in the choir here, but for now, I find great comfort in hearing them praise God in a way I can understand musically, if not lyrically. It's been a bit snowy here. That is an understatement. It's been snowing since last Wednesday. Today, I ventured into the storm because I had to put money on my travel card (I pay once a month to use the metro, buses and trams in Sofia.). As I was crossing the street near my office, a woman walked up to me with snow in her hair and her umbrella causing her difficulty. "Angliski?" she asked in a desperate voice. "Da." I was so surprised that I answered her in Bulgarian. I realize that a Bulgarian would not ask me if I spoke English before they asked me directions. They would just ask (and that's what all of them have done in the past...including the Italian lady, but that's a different story.). "Do you know where I can get the bus to the monument with the bells?" She asked me. "I think is one-one-one or one-one-three." When I finally figured out that she was speaking Engish and I could answer her in English and not in Bulgarian, I pointed up the street. "The bus stop you need is on that other street. The 5 and the three-zero-six are the only buses on this street." "The bus stop is next to an indoor market. Do you know where that is?" I recognized the desperation and the feeling of confusion in her voice. "Yes, that's it! I'm going in that direction. I can walk with you there, if you'd like." I offered. As we tramped through the snow and splashed through the slush, I asked her where she was from. It turns out that she was from Spain. A few months ago I totally could have given her directions in Spanish. Today I think I told her that she spoke a little Spanish (I meant to say that I speak a little Spanish, but those stinking verb endings trip me up all the time!). After I dropped her off at the bus stop, I went to fill my travel card. Wouldn't you know it, I tried to speak to the nice Bulgarian transportation lady in Spanish! It's funny that I left the office expecting to speak only in Bulgarian and instead I spoke in three different languages! I have to admit, the fact that I could write the Bulgarian title from my own head makes me especially happy.
I've been planning to buy a new purse ever since I noticed that my purse was susceptible to purse snatchers (not that I've seen any here!) because the faux-leather had ripped on both sides where the strap connected to the purse. Only a few threads stood between my purse being secure and it being snatchable. I don't really like carrying a purse, but with everything that I have to carry, I have been carrying both a purse and backpack. So I was looking for a purse that could carry my notebooks and handouts for English Club and maybe even my computer, since it's small. There's a purse store at my bus stop in the tunnel under the road, but almost every time I want to stop, something's come up. The first time, the power in the entire tunnel was out. The next time I realized that I didn't have any cash. Another time I was running late. Today, however, I stopped. Another lady was in the shop, chatting with the clerk, who looked to be around my age. An older lady came in right after me. After a few minutes, the friend left, the older lady made her purchase and left and I had narrowed my decision down to two purses. The clerk came over and began speaking to me in Bulgarian. I asked her if she knew English (in Bulgarian) and she told me that she knew a little (still in Bulgarian). She began helping me using a mix of about 95% Bulgarian and 5% English. After I made a decision on the bag, we had a conversation that went something like this, though most of it was in Bulgarian. "Are you a student?" she asked. "No, I'm ... a teacher." I replied, pausing as I tried to remember what the difference between the words for student and teacher were in Bulgarian. "An English teacher." "Ah, teacher." an old lady who had just come in and overheard our conversation commented in accented English. The look on her face was the same as my Bulgarian teacher's when I say something right without prompting. "Oh, an English teacher. Do you like it here?" The clerk asked. "Yes." I smiled. "I think we should get coffee!" She said. "You want to?" I asked, surprised. Most of the shopkeepers I've talked with haven't been exactly excited to practice English. In fact, we'd been speaking in Bulgarian for this entire conversation! "Yes!" "Oh, I have a card." I handed it to her. "I teach at an English Club. One is in Dianabad and one is on Solunska street." I pointed them out to her. "It is free." Maybe she'll call, email, or find me on Facebook. Maybe she'll come to English Club. Who knows! I do know that God makes my appointments. Sometimes it's not as clear as this, but when I meet with anyone, it is under his direction. He can use even the smallest moment to work in ways that are beyond anything we understand! Sometimes this is the coolest job ever. |
Elisabeth CarySharing the love of Christ to make known the hope of Christ in Bulgaria. Archives
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