Leaving Bulgaria

The day had come and the sun had set on our time in Bulgaria.  We left Sofia Friday morning with mixed emotions.  Our very full week of experiencing Bulgaria went very quickly.  We learned a lot about the country's history and current status, had a chance to talk with its people, and spent a lot of time asking questions of the missionaries serving faithfully there.

Since we did not have a "lighting bolt" experience confirming or negating God's call for us to serve in Bulgaria full-time, we have decided to continue to pray about and pursue serving God in Bulgaria until God clearly shuts the door.  The next steps include the team leader talking to the other team members on the field.  It is ultimately up to the team to decide to extend an invitation to us to join them in their work there in Bulgaria.  Also, in July, we go to the REV which is an assessment/boot camp of sorts in which we are observed and carefully scrutinized to determine whether or not, we are fit for missionary service.  At the end of the week, we are either given a green light to serve as missionaries, a caution in which certain things need to be worked on before we can serve or a red light saying we are not up to the rigors or serving on a foreign field.  All of these are ways in which God can use to direct us.  If we are given the "go-ahead" from the REV but are not offered an invitation to serve in Bulgaria, we will start looking at other fields.

The biggest concern for serving in Bulgaria is education for Joshua.  However, we know that if it's the Lord's will for us to serve Him in Bulgaria, He will work those details out.  We will be looking into the options that are before us for Josh's schooling to decide what would work best if we did end up there.

Please pray with us as we seek God's will for our future service.  Pray that God would make His will clear to us and equip our family with whatever is needed to serve God effectively.  Thank you to all who prayed for us while we were in Bulgaria.  God answered all of our prayers and those we didn't even think to pray about.  The boys did extremely well with my parents and Tim's parents.  God sustained David's health and gave Josh the strength he needed to cope with his anxieties about our being gone.  Josh did not have any of the behaviors we were seeing right before we left.  We were able to either video skype or talk on the phone with the boys every day, and many times, they were having too much fun to talk to us for more than a couple of minutes, which is fine with us.  We'd rather that then having them crying for us to come home.  We are praising the Lord for His goodness to us as we were away and to our boys while they remained here in the States.