Oh happy day!

Oh, what a tremendous day was yesterday! We've discovered that Bulgarians are very friendly, but that they hang back a bit at first until they see if they like you. Once that initial wall is down, they are fantastically warm. And so it was with Victor Virchev. After the rush, rush, rush of Sunday, we had a mostly free day yesterday. Theodore took us to see the Alexander Nevski Cathedral, the largest and most significant Orthodox cathedral Bulgaria. It was incredibly impressive with its soaring domes and gold covered interior. Every square inch was painted with images of icons, saints, and Biblical scenes. On the boulevard leading to the cathedral were scores of kiosks selling all sorts of souvenirs from t-shirts to old miltaria to old photographs and instruments to handcrafts and jewelry. I bought a few handmade trinkets to take home.

We walked around the city for a couple of hours and then headed a couple of hours south to Rila and the Rila Monastery. What a fabulous place! It is one of the most visited sights in Bulgaria, and there many, many tourists on the grounds when we were there. But, it was up in the mountains, the weather was cool, and the grounds were amazing. The monastery was founded in 927 and moved to its current location in 1335. So we were walking around a monastery that has stood there for more than 650 years! It was arranged kind of like a castle with four stories. In the huge central courtyard was a magnificent cathedral with four domes and a tall brick watchtower. The monastery doubled as a fortress and the monks defended the area on several occasions from invading Turks. We really enjoyed being there and seeing some of the countryside and small villages on the way. The countryside looked a lot like rural Romania and western Virginia.

After returning to Sofia in the afternoon, we had a meeting at Victor Virchev's church with several lay leaders. We didn't quite know what to expect and we were amazed at the people God had in attendance. There were three professors, a leading media figure, the President of the Rule of Law Institute, the President of a Pro-Life organization, a medical doctor, the leader of a Christian political party, and so on. We spent two-and-a-half hours laying out our reformation vision and answering their questions. We found that they were very well along in their thinking already and asked questions about things like reconstruction versus reformation and the like! We especially connected with the Rule of Law and Pro-Life people (they were husband and wife). Our conversation with them spilled out on the sidewalk and street afterward. The whole evening really confirmed that God has connected us to the right people here and that there will certainly be future opportunities here.

We ended the evening with dinner at "Happy" with Victor and Theodore and said our farewells. What a wonderful and family! More to come...