March 2014 God brought me to Mission to the World as I prayed about sending agencies and potential locations. As I prepared to go wherever He would send me, I participated in a weekend conference with MTW, now called Link. While I was there, I learned more about MTW as an organization, met with some friends who have been with MTW for a few years and narrowed down my sense of calling: I wanted to serve with a team that was discipling and planting churches. As I talked with my recruiter, she began to think of a list of teams in various countries that had those foci, in addition to being a good fit for a single. She promised to email me some contact information for the team leaders and I returned to my final quarter of teaching at North Gaston High School.
I began praying that God would make a specific need known that I could meet. A few days after the conference, my recruiter emailed me a list of countries and the contact information for team leaders. Her email was quickly followed up by the email about Bulgaria. In it, my recruiter told me that the team was looking for a young lady to come teach English. As this team is a church planting team with an emphasis on discipleship, I thought that this answered my prayer very clearly.
November 2014-September 2015
I arrived in Bulgaria and went straight to an ESL ministry meeting to learn more about the ministry. The woman who leads this ministry was about to begin a month of professional development and was not going to be around. This first year of my internship was intense as I adjusted to living in another country, saw God expose more of my sin and more of His grace, and began to form friendships (SLOWLY). I was so busy, it was hard to even think about whether or not God was calling me to serve in full time ministry (though that’s where my heart had been for months already!). As the end of my first 11-month internship drew to a close one of my Bulgarian teammates warned me: “Many people come to Bulgaria for a short time. When they go home, they begin to cry. They do not know why they are crying. They are very sad. They do not know why. Then they come back to Bulgaria and they realize that they missed it!” That rang true for me.
October 2015-August 2016
My second 11-month internship started with my desire to begin the process toward becoming a full time missionary. Having been a part of the team for an entire year gave me good insight into how the ministry went in each season and allowed me to get my feet pretty well established. This second year flew by and I discovered a deep love for Bulgaria, close friendships developing with both Bulgarians and my teammates, and excitement about being a part of God’s work in Bulgaria. I’m excited to see where this journey will take me!