Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Help Identify this Artwork

While we were in Northern Italy this past summer, we stayed at a Christian retreat center where I saw this artwork. It really got my attention, and I have been trying to identify the artist. This is a picture of unbelievers drowning while Christians continue their business or amusements without noticing the predicament of those around them. Does anyone know anything about this piece?

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Choosing Activities that will Pass the Test

Recently, I have been considering my priorities in light of a Scripture passage that I was reminded of at a recent church service. I Corinthians 3:13 says, "Every man's work shall be made manifest for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is." Often when I am deciding what I should do in a day's time, I determine it based on several factors that we all use--what is the most urgent or important thing that I need to do today? A question that I have been focusing on recently is the one that this Scripture passage brings to light and that is, "will this activity I am planning today, stand the test of fire?" This passage apparently teaches that our works will be tried by fire, and only some of our works will make it through the test.



When I think through my previous day's activities, I have to wonder if some of the activities I chose to do will stand the test of fire. Works that will stand the test of fire will not necessarily mean only "spiritual" tasks such as reading my Bible or praying. Rather, those enduring works would be the things that God has asked me to do no matter how temporary they may seem to be. Changing the baby's diaper or making a meal for my family can be a work that will stand the test of fire because it is something that God has called me to do.



On the other hand, Martha in the Bible was doing ordinary tasks, and her works did not stand the test of fire. Why was it that her preparing of a meal, which would seem legitimate, did not stand the test of fire? I suppose we may never know the full reason for why her work did not make the test because we do not know her motives when she was preparing the meal. Maybe she was preparing an extravagant meal when her budget didn't allow that. Perhaps she was working to impress Jesus instead of listening to Him. Maybe she didn't realize that when Jesus was there, it was the time to serve hot dogs and keep it simple so that she could have time for Him. Perhaps it was none of the above. I can see why Martha wanted to prepare such a nice meal because I would have thought of doing the same thing if Jesus were coming to my house to eat.



There is no way we can fully know why Jesus didn't approve of Martha's seemingly legitimate activity, but I believe we can know which of our activities will stand the test of fire. Many of our activities are obviously things that will burn up--and we don't want to be honest enough to face that fact so we keep going about it every day. Other activities may not be so clear--my standards for how clean my house should be, how well I maintain my yard, how much I need to earn, or how many cheerios I allow to accumulate in my child's car seat! That is why we are told to walk in the Spirit. God's Spirit will tell us what we should be involved in if we take the time to listen and if we walk closely enough to Him. Most of the time, I think our works fall short because we fail to know God's will in those areas.



Today as I plan my day, I should first focus on eliminating those things that I already know will not stand the test of fire. Then on those areas where I just don't know, I need to walk close to God so I will know what He wants me to do.



At the end of the day, I can have peace about how I spent my time whether I spent it in the obviously "spiritual" activities or whether my mundane activities became spiritual because I was walking in the Spirit. Since all my works will be tried by fire, it is insignificant what others think, or what is customary, or what has always been done a certain way, or how awkward I may appear to others. Rather, what is it that God wants me to do and will I choose to do it His way today?



My husband wrote a great piece on holiday time management. If you are interested in three ideas for redeeming the time during the holidays, read his article.

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

The Measure of a Life

“Life is not measured by the breaths we breathe, but by the moments that take our breath away.” Author unknown

Think back to the moments that have taken your breath away. You probably have some major life events that took your breath away—a wedding, a birth, a special occasion that took months of planning. In reality, however, how many of the most special moments in your life took just a few seconds and then they were gone from sight, but never from your heart. In my life, while I have enjoyed the big things that make my life richer, it has been those sixty second spaces of time that have given me the rich life that I enjoy. My four year old last week cuddling up beside me last week, and saying, “I love you.” A special email sent from my husband. A note from my teenage daughter. A smile from my fourteen year old. An innocent bedtime prayer, “Help Mommy to be good” from my little boy.

I have experienced these breathtaking moments in nature—my first glimpse of the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone in the Spring, seeing the Acropolis in Athens at night--but most of those moments have involved people-- people that have invested less than sixty seconds in my life. Sometimes those moments have been made when I take a fraction of a moment to notice the people around me—pudgy baby feet sticking out from under a blanket, standing outside a bedroom door and listening to little boys talking, watching my little girl play with her baby doll.

If it takes so little to remember so much, why don’t we do it more often? Too often we’re measuring life by the breaths we breathe-- how much we can do, and how much money we can bring home before the day’s breaths are past. We’re busy seeing how successful we can become while we can still breathe, and forget to make those moments that will outlive us when our breathing has finally ended. Savor the moments today before they are gone!
Recently I had an event in my life that brought back memories of what it was like in the MOMYS stage of life. In case you haven’t heard, MOMYS stands for a Mother of Many Young Siblings! I am still a mother of many young siblings, but now there is a big difference because I am also the mother of many older siblings. Maybe this event can demonstrate how much things have changed and express the heart that I have for other MOMYS.

One of our best memories of our time in Europe was the time that we spent in Belgium. We did not have too many expectations for our time in Belgium and did not even know where we were scheduled to stay during our time there. When we arrived, we were very pleasantly surprised to find out that we were spending several days in an old castle, and we had the whole place to ourselves. Tthe castle was beautiful with lots of little nooks and crannies and meandering hallways to explore. It seemed like the perfect place to relax and spend some time reading a book in the privacy of one of these hidden areas of the castle.

One morning during our time there, I awoke earlier than the others and was cozily thinking about the good time I was going to have downstairs sitting by myself with a cup of tea. I was looking forward to taking my Bible down and having some special time with the Lord reminiscing about the trip and enjoying a nice, quiet morning of devotions.

In just a few minutes, though, before I even made it out my bedroom door, I experienced the “event” that brought together this whole blog. One of my older children told me that the baby was a mess, and I knew by the sound effects and atmosphere in the next room that “mess” meant that he had caught the sickness that one of the other younger children had experienced during the night.

The thought of the quiet time downstairs disappeared into thin air as I began to instead experience the sights and sounds of a baby in a “mess.” Before it was all over, linens and clothes had to be changed, a bath given and quite a while later, I had finally taken care of the “mess.”
Of course, by this time everyone else was up and ready to start the day and my plan of starting the day had been drastically changed. As I thought of my options, I remembered what it was like to be a young MOMY. In those days, I experienced a lot of frustration and guilt on days that started out just like this day had. In those days, I couldn’t do what I did next. I asked one of my older daughters to please watch the baby while I went back upstairs to read my Bible. Then I went upstairs, read a few minutes, and fell asleep after all the stress of the morning.

Back in the days of having only small children and no one to help out, getting back to that Bible time was often nearly impossible. If it were not impossible, it certainly wasn’t a private time by myself. It was most often a time of trying to concentrate and offering a short prayer for the day while managing to handle all of childhood’s needs.

Many times I felt guilty over my devotional life because it was far from what I wanted it to be. I felt that I should have gotten up sooner, stayed up later or come up with some different plan. In my heart I wanted to have time with the Lord, but not only was I dealing with many young siblings with needs that often couldn’t wait, but I was also dealing with back to back pregnancies, late night breast feeding and the general weariness that comes with being a MOMY.

Would I do it again? Absolutely! What I am enjoying now is worth it and more. The life I enjoy now is a direct result of spending so much time and physical energy investing in little people that could give little in return. This morning, my husband and I are in California with just our youngest child. Yesterday, we thoroughly enjoyed a day at the Monterey Aquarium. We had not planned on going, but our older children wanted to give us money to go there, so we enjoyed a day at their expense!

Now, I realize something that I did not fully realize then. That is, God is not standing ready to punish the MOMY that wants and actually misses that special time with the Lord because she couldn’t make it happen. He is not standing there criticizing me because I did not get up early enough because the baby cried so much in the night. He is not there critically marking down how many times the devotions were less than satisfactory because I couldn’t hide away somewhere and have peace and quiet to concentrate for a few minutes. Back then, the idea of a prayer closet sounded wonderful-- just give me any closet by myself for a few minutes to restore my sanity!
God was watching and knowing that all along there was a desire in my heart, often made stronger by my circumstances, to spend that time with him. He knew that instead of carelessly skipping opportunities to spend time with Him, I actually more eagerly looked forward to the times when I could slip in a few extra moments of peace and quiet. I know more now than I did then that God knows. He knows where I am, and He knows the conditions I find myself in. He knows when the baby wakes up in a “mess” before I get my Bible time, and He knows when my mind can’t stay alert any longer because I am weary from the struggles of the day.

Am I excusing laziness, lack of discipline, or lack of love for the Lord? I don’t think so. The same God that knew when I couldn’t meet with him also knows when I can and choose not to. He knows when I am weary because I stayed up late the night before in frivolous activities. He knows when I choose to get up early and go shopping before spending time with Him. He knows when it is not my true heart’s desire to meet with Him, and when I am using flimsy excuses to cover my true lack of love and lukewarmness toward Him.

It is reassuring, and it develops a proper fear of God to realize that “God knows” and His knowledge is far purer and holier than ours. When I think that “every one of us shall give an account of himself to God,” I can both rest in the assurance and stand in the fear of God knowing that He really does know.

Monday, October 19, 2009

Take a Break to Redeem the Time

One of the best time management techniques that we have discovered is to take a break on Sundays. Often when considering time management, we sometimes forget that the best thing we can do to manage our time well is to take a break.
When God created the world, He took a break after six days. Was this because He was tired? We know that God never slumbers or sleeps or even gets tired so the reason that he rested was to set the example for us. God has already prescribed the perfect time managment schedule for us by His example--work six days, then rest on the seventh.

When we first married, we agreed that Sunday would always be given to worship, rest and time with our family. Over the years, we have tried to define exactly what that means for us. Especially as we began to have children, we started to realize that what others did on Sunday might not work for us as a day of rest so we started making our own standards to live by. For example, the traditional large Sunday lunch did not work for us because on Saturday evenings when all our children were small, I did not have time or energy to finish the evening by preparing a large lunch for the next day. We began having our easiest meals for Sunday lunch and then we began making it tradition to have a "breakfast meal" in the evening after church.

Yesterday as I was enjoying a day of rest, I recalled one way that God taught me about taking a day of rest. Several years ago, I was working very full weeks of taking care of little ones, homeschooling and travelling. One Saturday evening, I was preparing for Sunday and was definitely ready to go to bed. The baby had been waking up every night and I was very tired. Everything was fairly complete for Sunday, and as I walked toward my bedroom, I passed the dishwasher and noticed that I had not unloaded the clean dishes. Now I know that some people are going to throw mudpies of legalism at me, but as I noticed that dishwasher, it came to my mind that I could unload that dishwasher on Saturday night instead of Sunday morning and in this small way show God that I wanted to honor His day in just another way. I really wanted to just go to bed, but I finally decided to go ahead and unload it. When I went to bed, I just told the Lord how tired I was and let it go at that. That night was the first night that our baby slept the whole night through! If I remember right, that was the beginning of his sleeping through the night. I felt that God was showing us that if we choose to honor Him, he will honor us.

How does all this relate to time management? God prescribed a day of rest because as the Great Physician, He knew that our bodies needed it. One of the most relaxing things of my week is to go to bed on Saturday night and know that now I can rest because God told me to. I don't have to feel guilty about sitting down or choosing to take a nap because God has already ordered me to do it!

Next time you are tempted to redeem the time by adding on a list of household chores or business for Sunday, relax--take a break! As my husband says in one of his seminars, "What does God want me to do RIGHT NOW?" (How many people still have one of those bright yellow stickers?!) He wants you to rest. He wants you to calm down. He wants you to redeem the time--so go take a break (next Sunday--not right now)!
Here's a thought provoking radio minute from Rick on the topic

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Time Saving Tortilla Lasagna for supper

If you are trying to redeem the time and feed a large crowd, you may want to try out this recipe that our family came up with this week. Using a basic recipe I already had, we experimented a little and came up with a hit that everyone liked. That's pretty hard to do with twelve of us! Actually, baby Paul didn't get to taste it, but eleven of us voted for it to be served again. It's a one pot meal and fairly quick to make. Let me know what you think!

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

At your funeral...

My husband did a radio program on, "Who will be crying at your funeral?" The idea is that there may be a lot of people at your funeral, but only a few of them will be crying. Our priority in life should be to invest our time in those who will be crying at our funeral.


Just this week, we lost an acquaintance to a debilitating disease. Both my husband and I had admired this man for his many great character qualities, but one thing he was remembered best for was his diligence in witnessing to every one that crossed his path. Those who knew him best knew that he rarely let an opportunity pass to tell others about Jesus and what He had done in his own life.


As I have reflected on what people remember most about this man, I have been reminded to invest my life in those who will be crying, but to also make sure that the things they will be saying reflect a life well spent. As those who are crying at my funeral summarize my life, will the things they say reflect a depth of spiritual life and character or will I have been just a good person? A wife or mother can be remembered for doing lots of loving and sacrificial things for her family, but in order to really succeed, she must have lived a life that was consumed in focusing others on eternity.


Who will be crying at your funeral and what will they be saying? Will their statements reflect a life of temporary good or of eternal significance?

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Thank the Lord for a Great Trip

We're finally rested up and fairly recovered from our four months in Europe and Africa. We visited thirty countries and ministered in twenty one of those countries with the seminars translated into thirteen languages. I must say that it was nice to get back and hear a little English for a change!



This morning I posted a country by country review and slide show of our ministry there. God worked in marvelous ways His wonders to perform!

Thursday, October 8, 2009

God Pays for What He Orders

For many years as we have travelled and spoken in churches, we have told people that, "God pays for what He orders," when people ask us how we afford ten children. It has been one of the biggest blessings of my life to see God pay for all the children that He has ordered for us. One example happened just this week...

One of the ways that I try to manage money carefully is by buying in bulk when I find food items on sale. Obviously, what our family considers bulk is different from most families because for us, a weekly trip to the grocery store would still be a huge amount of food to purchase. A family of our size consumes a large amount of food--especially when you consider that six of our ten children are growing young men!

Because we emptied our freezers before we left for Europe, we came back having to buy food at the going price rather than having a stockpile of food we had gotten at good sales. We buy so many groceries that this quickly makes a big difference in the food budget.

Earlier this week, we travelled to Rick's mother to visit her and while we were there, I picked up a sale flyer from her local grocery store to look for any good deals. I noticed that they had chicken breasts there for .99 a pound, and I intended to go by and get some to freeze, but we left without doing so. The next day, on a whim, I decided to shop at a totally different Walmart than usual. One of the things I like about Walmart is their price matching guarantee, so to save time, I just take the local grocery store papers in there and match the prices. I knew it was a stretch, but I thought it wouldn't hurt to see if this Walmart would match the sale prices from a competitor in Rick's mother's town even though the other store was not anywhere nearby.

I got to the meat counter and showed the lady there the ad and asked if they would match it. She said that she didn't think so because it was not really a competitor being so far away, but that she would ask the manager. To make a long story short, after a while she came back out and said that they would match the price on those chicken breasts, plus they would give me what I considered a much better grade of chicken for the same money. I took all they had and she got me more from the back of the store!

Before I left the meat department, I decided to just check on the ground beef prices and nothing seemed to be unusual. Usually I buy ground beef at a big discount and then I don't have to buy it again for a long time, but I always wait until it's a super deal. Just as I was walking away, I noticed a little sign that had fallen down into the bin of ground beef. It was a special sale sign, and I quickly started filling my cart and then called my mother and got more for her.

I knew the real test would come when I got to the cashier as she might balk when she saw the awesome deals I got on such a huge amount of food. At this point, it looked like I was running a restaurant by the amount of meat in my cart! When I got to the cashier, I showed her the sale paper and told her the manager had approved selling these chicken breasts for .99 versus the normal price which was a whole lot higher. She called the front manager and they started overriding the price on all these packages of chicken. After a few packages had gone through, the manager stopped and looked at me and said, "what was the original price on this chicken?" I replied that I wasn't sure, so she told the cashier to scan one and see. I figured that this was where the great deal was going to end, but I was hoping that this was how God was going to pay for His children! The cashier scanned the price and the manager saw that I was getting each package of chicken for about $3.50 less than the normal price. She said, "Hey, you really got a great deal on that chicken!" She helped me bag up all the chicken plus the huge amount of ground beef and I went happily on my way!

I was so encouraged to see how God always pays for his orders and it is so fun to see how He is going to do it! One more thing...I don't know if God is paying for the cashier's children, too, but I noticed she kept my sale paper. I am just guessing that on break time, both she and the manager were back there in the meat department loading up on chicken!

Now since this blog is supposed to be about time management, you can find out a great timesaving way to prepare ground beef ahead of time. No, it's not frying it all ahead of time. It's a much healthier and quicker way to prepare large quantities of meat for meals in the future. If you are interested, check out this tip on our website http://www.lifechangingseminars.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3192&Itemid=315

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Thank the Lord for Clean Water

And now an advertisement...



When we were preparing to go on this trip, one consideration for me was where I was going to get good water in all the countries we were going to. Since there are so many of us in our family, buying bottled water everywhere we go for four months would be very expensive, not counting the times and places where good water might not be available. We purchased a pump water filter for the family, but this takes time to set up so it was not the best solution for having good water all the time.



Our plan, which actually worked very well ,was to pump several gallons of water at a time so that we did not run out. However, I drink water almost continually and I very, very rarely drink any carbonated drinks. Because I am still nursing our baby, I did not want any situation where I would be without good water. I also didn't want to change water every few days.



I found what worked perfectly for our situation, and I thought that there might be other missionaries or short term trip takers that might like to know about my water bottle. The water bottle that I took for these last four months through thirty countries including several third world countries and Africa, is a bottle that has a special filter built into it. You can buy bottles with filters to improve taste and to moderately reduce chlorine, etc., but this is not what this filter is. It says on the side of the bottle, "Serious Protection," and that is what it is.



Basically, you can take any water source whether it is coming from a kitchen tap in Moldova or a river in Morocco and the filter will bring the water up to the World Health Organization's water safety standards. It is an instant filtration system as the suction of drinking forces the water through the filter. This bottle was invaluable for me as I could just walk into any place and fill it up while the others had to either stop and pump or try to find quality bottled water. Not only that, but it gave me a continual source of water that remained the same for four months.



The bottle is very durable as it has been dropped numerous times on our trip. The only disadvantages that I found was that it is just a little bulky without having a handle. Another small annoyance is that it stresses airport and other security officers a little bit when I carry it through. It is a semi transparent bottle and the filter contraption inside makes it look as if I might be carrying some highly explosive water bottle. I never was stopped in security, but it did attract a few extra stares.



If you are going on a short term trip overseas or if you are going long-term, you may want to go to Walmart.com and check it out. It's called the Sawyer serious protection water bottle. Although buying the bottle is between thirty to fourty dollars up front, it's good for 500 fill ups and since it's a large bottle to start with, it's a good deal all the way around. That's my advertisement for today. Here's the link to see the specs... http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=8283710. Let me know if you try it out and if you like it!

Monday, September 14, 2009

To Africa and Back

Monday morning we experienced a unique adventure in our lives as we crossed the Mediterranean on a 35 minute ferry from the southern tip of Spain to Morocco on the continent of Africa. I hadn't thought that I would ever visit an Islamic country in Africa, but it didn't take me long to figure out that I really had arrived.

The first thing I noticed besides all the bribing being done at the border crossing was how the western style of clothing was quickly fading away. The further we travelled into Morocco, the fewer western style clothing we saw and the more typical Arab clothing we saw until we got to the place where we were definitely in the minority. It was interesting to see the range of clothing in the Islamic world as we don't often think of our own culture as having this range of clothing styles.

In our culture, we see the range of clothing from the Amish to what we would see as very immodest clothing. I suppose in the Islamic mindset, they have the same range although I must say I saw very little immodesty. For the first time in a long time, I had fewer clothes on than most people around me--that was quite a change! Perhaps the best way to express what we saw is to tell you what happened on our first evening there.

Our son, Christian, is five years old and has learned some about the Islamic world as we have prepared for this trip. I have tried to teach him that just because someone has a head dress on, doesn't mean that he/she is Muslim, but he can't seem to get that concept. Although it is fairly uncommon to see a person dressed in Arabic clothing in our area of North Carolina, once in a while when we are travelling, he spots someone dressed in this way, and usually lets me know.

Our first evening in Morocco, after our service, we went back to our apartment where we were staying and decided to take the whole family on a walk. The biggest reason for doing this was that it looked like an excellent opportunity to experience the Moroccan culture as it was the heart of Ramadan--a major Islamic holiday. The people had finished feasting and now the streets were full of celebrating throngs of people at about 11 at night and we wanted the kids to see what was going on.

We got out on the streets and all around us were throngs of Arabic speaking, long-robed wearing people. Everywhere around us were men in fez hats or other traditional male clothing such as long shirts, robes, and sandals. The women were dressed in a wider range of clothing from simple head scarves to complete burkas and gloves.

I know I felt a little uneasy myself as I was obviously ridiculously conspicuous with all twelve of us walking down the street of Morocco's holiest city in western wear, and all around us were these people of such a different race. However, I can only imagine how my little five year old felt as he experienced the night of spooky black burka-clad people walking by! To my amazement, we had only been out just a little while when all the sudden, he said with great excitement, "Mom, I see a Muslim!" I was so caught off guard by his obvious innocence in realizing that he had just seen a Muslim--thousands as a matter of fact--and he never realized that he was the only nonmuslim on the street! I quickly said "shhhh" as if hoping people wouldn't hear him, understand, and actually notice us! Oh, well, I guess the mind does quirky things when under stress!

Another very interesting thing we experienced was going into, the Medina. I had heard about the Medina of Fez before we got there and just thought it was a large flea market type place with lots of different products to buy. I assumed we would go there for a couple of hours, buy some souvenirs, and that would be it. I was very uniformed however, as to what the Medina is. As I quickly found out, the medina is not a flea market, but is actually the old city of Fes and is a cultural experience that can not be found anywhere else in the world. We travelled to the city walls, parked our van and walked in through the medina gate. Immediately we realized that we had just walked into another world. The medina is a modern day city that is still living back in medieval times. It is an area enclosed in old city walls encompassing about ten square miles of the city. No motor vehicles are allowed in the whole ten square mile area. People live, work, buy and sell in this enclosed area of the city as they did a long, long time ago. All around us were little shops, craftsmen, fruit stands, public baths (get a bath and massage for about 3 dollars), tanneries, schools and houses. This was no living history museum, but it could certainly qualify for it! We walked for hours in this medina as someone guided us through. All the information about the medina says not to go in without someone who knows the way as you will certainly get lost. Our contact there in Morocco actually lived in the Medina and guided us around. It would be almost certainly impossible for a newcomer to enter and not get lost as there are 7,000 little dark streets, alley ways and small roads, all jutting off in odd angles.

I don't claim to be a softie, but even I got a little shaken when I was standing in the street and saw a robed person approach the counter of a little shop right near where I was standing. I hadn't paid a lot of attention to where I was standing although I was standing taking pictures of the live chickens hanging out there. The customer approached the clerk and apparently requested a particular live chicken. I assumed that the customer would pick up the chicken and go home with his squawking purchase. However, before I could even turn my head to protect my sensitive feminine senses, the "clerk" plopped the chicken up on the counter and promptly pulled out his big knife and began sawing the chicken's head off before I realized what was happening and could turn my startled head. I have seen chickens butchered before, but I was totally unprepared for this and just never expected someone to start butchering a chicken right where you would normally see a cash register in my day and age. I mean, nice chickens are supposed to go into Walmart bags aren't they? Anyway, my sensitivities quickly adjusted again as I realized they were going to continue to prepare the chicken right there including singing it and defeathering it. I decided not to watch anymore as I never intended to see any part of it anyway and headed on to slightly better sites.

As we walked through the narrow streets, frequently, we would hear yelling and so we would squeeze up against the sides of the shops as a heavy donkey load of vegetables or market products would squeeze by.

We headed on down the street and soon came to the leather tanneries. Here, again, this was not a tidy museum experience in leather making. This was men sloshing around in hugs earthen tubs of liquids out under the baking African sun. Animal skins were hanging up, lots of smells were wafting around and inside we saw beautiful leather sandals, purses, jackets, etc.

In the middle of all these experiences, one thing was really bothering me. Here we were in the middle of a country that was listed in the top ten countries for persecution of Christians. Being a Christian in Morocco is a serious thing and there is no option on the national identity card for "Christian" on the space given for religion. It is forbidden to tell any Moroccan about Jesus. The churches that are there are for foreigners serving in Morocco only and the police have made that very clear. Morocco just threw out a group of missionaries not long before we got there, and although it is not technically against the law to become a Christian, they make it so unpleasant that the law doesn't matter at all. One person there told us the penalty was 20 years in prison.

Why did this bother me? It bothered me because when I walked into the English speaking churches, everything in me wanted to step outside and invite the throngs of people outside in. We were there during the holy month of Ramadan so in the evening, we would hear the call to prayer coming from the mosque and would see the throngs of mostly men heading for the mosque to pray before ending their fast for the day. They all came out a short time later while the voice from the mosque would continue to chant for a long time later over the loudspeaker. I wanted to stop them and let them know about the Way, the Truth, and the Life. It was a new experience for me to stand there and not be able to do a thing. It went totally against my nature to enter a gate to go into a church and know that those outside could not easily come in. Rick was speaking inside and a police was standing outside so it was not even an option to invite people in even if we had been able to speak their language. I'm not sure how it happened, but I do know that at one point in the evening, one Moroccan man did come into the service, so pray that God would satisfy his hunger for the truth and protect him from those who would try to hurt him. He must have been very hungry for God to come in as he did.

When you think of Morocco or hear about it on the news, remember to pray that God would make it possible for the people there to hear about the true way to heaven. One person who is working there with the people, told us that when the Moroccans can hear about God, the people are very responsive. He said that there is great responsiveness to the Gospel, and he was not the only one to tell us that. However, he said the problem is "when" they can hear the Gospel. There are so many hindrances for those who are there to tell it that it is extremely difficult for them to do it, but we met those who are spending their lives trying to tell as many as possible.

Another thing that I realized when I was there was the importance of meeting and sharing with the Moroccans and other Muslims who are living in both the Europe and the United States. They are moving to western countries in huge numbers, and if they can be reached, they can influence their own families as we never could. This was brought home to me twice on this trip.

On the way over to Morocco, I decided to step out onto the deck of the ship with Paul and get some fresh air. I decided not to stand near the rail as the ship ride was not the smoothest ride I had ever taken (it was choppy enough for the kids to enjoy it without getting sick at least if we weren't on there too long!) I stood back against the wall of the ship and a young Muslim woman and her husband and baby also stood there beside me. Both of our babies were about the same age and communicated in their own baby language. However, I realized that unless the Gospel could be shared with this young family, no doubt our little boys would have drastically different futures.

One the way back, I saw even more clearly the opportunities that we miss when we fail to befriend Muslims in our own country. We boarded the ship to return to Spain late at night. Right before the ship left the port, I stepped out onto the deck to enjoy the ride. Just as the ship was preparing to leave, I noticed two people step out onto the darkened deck, and cross a chain to go past a "no access permitted point." I wondered what they were doing so I stood and watched them without making myself obvious. It was a young Muslim couple. They were nicely dressed and appeared to perhaps have on special clothing. She had on a beautiful long dark blue robe with gold trimming and he was standing nicely dressed beside her. They made a striking picture standing there, but I wondered what they were doing there at the very edge of the ship where they weren't supposed to be. In a moment, the young man lifted both his arms and began waving them slowly back and forth and just stood there doing that. I wondered what he was doing and I kept wondering as he just stood there slowly waving his arms back and forth at something in the distance. In a moment, though, I realized he was crying and his wife beside him was wiping her face on the edges of her head scarf. Then I realized they were telling someone goodbye so I looked toward the terminal, and I saw a fairly large group of people standing outside the terminal, and they were doing the same slow waving of the arms back at him. This was not a casual goodbye as they apparently were leaving their family in Africa. It went on for a long time as the young man kept slowly waving his arms and periodically putting both his hands to his mouth to blow solemn kisses to the people on shore. As the ship moved away, they continued to stand there and wave and cry until the people were gone from sight on the shore and someone came from the ship and asked them to move from the area. I realized very strongly how sorrowful this young couple was to be leaving and how likely it would be that someone with compassion and tact could befriend them in their home where they were going and have a lot of influence for God in their lives. I know now that I will be watching for Muslims in our area and making aggressive efforts to befriend them so that I can share what I was not able to do in their own country.

The Strange Moroccan Stoplight


This is the case of the strange Moroccan stoplight. We have been travelling in Europe for four months and during these last few weeks in Europe, we have had several meetings in southern Spain. On Sunday night, we travelled to Gibraltar and then the next morning we boarded a ferry for Morocco on the continent of Africa. Now, everyone else may not be as geographically challenged as I was, but I never realized until we were planning this trip, how close southern Spain is to the continent of Africa. After church on Sunday night in Gibraltar, we saw the lights of Africa in the distance, and when we got on the ferry, it was just a 40 minute ferry ride before we disembarked in a whole different world in Africa.

We knew all along that a trip into Africa, and into Morocco in particular, would possibly be both very challenging and very rewarding. Since Morocco is listed as one of the top ten countries for persecution of Christians, we already had a clue ahead of time of what they thought about us, so we were under no delusions, but now that we are back out of Morocco after three full and exciting days, I can honestly say that I am very glad to be out of Morocco, and I am very glad I went to Morocco. With all this said, perhaps you will more easily understand the case of the strange Moroccan stoplight.

During our time in Morocco, we noticed that their officers of the law seemed to hang around everywhere quite a bit, but they never seemed to pay much attention to us other than to take note of who was entering the church where Rick was speaking (it was supposed to be only foreigners--but one very brave Moroccan made it in toward the end of the meeting). We drove for three days in Morocco with Rick speaking in three different locations. During our time on the highways, we noticed that these vigilant officers would randomly appear on different sides of the highway quite unexpectedly and dutifully pull over apparently non-law abiding citizens. Nothing seemed to be out of order until we approached the capitol city of Rabat for the third and final time during our stay in Morocco. We were moving along with the traffic at about 45 miles per hour as everyone around us was when we noticed a stoplight up ahead. It was green as we approached so we dutifully prepared to proceed as we have done since the day we first learned how stop lights operate. This is where we learned about the oddities of Moroccan stoplights.... Just as we were ready to proceed through the intersection with the other cars in the other lanes beside us, the light suddenly and inexplicably turned red. We were shocked, but we were already entering the intersection and there was no way either we or the other vehicles could stop so we just sailed through. At that perfectly timed moment, the aforesaid vigilant officer was standing ready ahead of time to motion us to the side of the road.

Now with all the commotion of Moroccan roads going on around us, we quickly pulled over, but needless to say, we were a little stunned. Neither Rick or I ever run red lights, and we didn't see how such a thing could happen as a stoplight turning red instantly. The friendly officer came over and asked for Rick's license and chuckled merrily about how he didn't know if he could interpret it. Rick wasn't chuckling. Especially when the dutiful officer told him just a few chuckles later how much the fine would be. (that's a sentence fragment I know, but it gives the effect I want to express)...rules don't matter right now it appears.

Rick tried to explain, but the officer was unmoved--it was all our fault because we were going too fast. Just then, noticing what was happening a little clearer, I turned and looked where the officer had been standing, and saw his stoplight switching station. Now, I had learned earlier on in our stay in Morocco, that the government there has a very wonderful policy in effect in their country. That is, King Mohammed VI, Islam, Mohammed, and everything even remotely related to them, are and always will be perfect in every way and if you think otherwise and are smart enough to say so, they will arrange an extended visa and free lodging to go with it. (A Moroccan recently found this out when he noted in the newspaper that the King didn't seem to be healthy).

Now, we have prayed for a lot of free lodging on this trip, but considering the fact that our ferry was leaving later that evening, I decided that I didn't want to take advantage of their free lodging offer by opening my mouth to enlighten the officer to the criminality of his stoplight switching station, so I just started thinking some choice thoughts about this dutiful officer.

He saw that we weren't going to pay him this huge fine so he told us that we would have to pay this fine when we got to customs in a few hours. He took our customs paper so he could kindly arrange the details for us, and we proceeded on our way. I don't know all of God's reasons for sending us on this trip, but it seems that I am having a lot of practice in holding my tongue, so maybe I am going to need this practice later because I really wanted to say, "Wait a second before we go...my little boys back there in the van are really into gadgets and neat little inventions, and I'm wondering if you would be interested in just taking them over to your little light switching station and demonstrate how it works? I mean, if I have too, I could slip you a nice little sum--but you probably don't know what I mean by that, do you?"

We travelled on for a couple of hours to the customs office praying that God would either hinder the officer's message getting though or would work in some other way to accomplish His plan. When we got to customs, Rick went in to have his form stamped and the officer never even noticed that we had to pay this fine. We asked no questions and actually kept the form which I thought was supposed to be turned in. We'll put it in a nice little scrap book of Morocco to show how God is bigger than any of Satan's devices. This was just another example of how everything is really under God's control. We think we have a difficult situation, but all situations are the same to God. Nothing is big or small to Him because the word "problem" is not in his vocabulary. God has no problems--He only has perfect solutions to the situations we find ourselves in!

Sunday, August 30, 2009

Random pictures
























































Now that we only have a few weeks left here in Europe, I thought I would post a few random pictures. Enjoy!

A visit to Pompeii

Have you ever wondered what happened in the story of Sodom and Gomorrha? I mean, have you ever imagined how the people responded and all the chaos that surrounded God's destruction of those cities? Well, if you want to get a real glimpse in to what those people must have experienced, visit Pompeii, Italy.

I had head about Pompeii and saw historical information about the destruction of Pompeii, but I was not prepared for what I saw when we visited Pompeii, last week.

For those who do not know, Pompeii was a city that sat directly under Mt. Vesuvius. It was known as a totally corrupted and erotic city. Even in those days, the godly people of that generation regarded Pompeii as a modern day Sodom. During the days of the first church, Pompeii was totally given to sensual living in the extreme and even today, there are some historical venues about Pompeii that require people that enter to be 18 or have written parental permission to enter the site. Obviously, we weren't interested at all in those sites, but the fact that the historical evidence for this city has to be guarded so carefully from innocent minds, speaks volumes about what the city was like.

Anyway, in the year 79 A.D, Mt. Vesuvius erupted and buried the city of Pompeii in a heavy layer of ash. Now you can go to the city and see remarkably preserved remains of a once great city. I went expecting to see a few buildings in ruins, but the significance of Pompeii is that basically the whole city was preserved. We walked across the city for four hours looking in houses, businesses, temples and stadiums and still we didn't see half of the city. Because the city was buried in ash, most things in the city are very similar to what they were on the day it was buried. We saw paintings on the walls of houses, beautifully tiled floors, cart ruts on the road, and graffiti that the inhabitants had scrawled on places around the city--again, some of it, obscene. Pompeii has one piece of graffiti that says "Sodom and Gomorrah" and no one has been able to discern if it was written before, during or after the eruption. Either way, it was apparently an appropriate description of the city.

The most grim part of it all was seeing the plaster casts of the people and animals trying to flee the city. One of the first archeologists to work with this city did future generations a service, by pouring plaster into the body-shaped cavities that were in the ash and preserving the actual figures of the people and animals. The people tried to escape as the city filled with ash and poisonous gas and their postures and positions are perfectly preserved in these casts as well as the positions of animals as they tried to escape. A fully harnessed mule was in one shop and both adults and children are preserved in the "garden of the fugitives."

Pompeii is an experience that I won't forget for a long time, and I sometimes wonder if this city wasn't preserved for a warning to future generations. Whether the destruction of Pompeii was a destructive act of God or a tragic natural occurrence may never be known, but the picture of this city starkly reminds me that we are leaving footprints on the sands of time and future generations will certainly judge us by what they see.

A Visit to the Colosseum



While we were in Rome, we were very privileged to visit the Colosseum. I had looked forward to going to the Colosseum because of the rich, historical heritage that it held. We were not disappointed in what we saw there. For one thing, we were prepared to pay a very significant amount to get into the colosseum because we really wanted to see it. Those of you who know Rick's frugality would be surprised at what he was going to pay to get in! The rule is that everyone pays full adult price unless you are under 18 AND a citizen of the European Union. Obviously we had a whole lot of people under the age of 18 with us, but being a citizen of the E.U was a different story. The kids can mimic some of the accents here fairly well, but when they asked us where we were from, we had to tell the truth. The man at the ticket counter said, "Oh, it's going to cost you a whole lot to come in here." Rick already knew that:( However, apparently God touched his heart because he said, "Let's just charge you for the two adults and you can come in!" Rick didn't argue and we walked in very quickly before they changed their minds!
The colosseum was a very special place because I had read in many books of the many, many Christians who had stood in the center of the Colosseum and cheerfully gave their lives for the Savior that they loved so much. I remember reading of young people who stood in the center of the Colosseum and sang beautiful songs as the lions were released to kill them. Now, we were standing where they had stood, and I must say that I felt very unworthy, but so privileged to see this sacred place. Now, there is a cross erected near where so many of the Christians gave their lives.

This was not the first time on this trip that we had seen places that had been such bastions of wickedness, but now the evil is gone and the symbols of Christ still stand. Isn't it amazing after so much wickedness took place in the Colosseum, and so much blood was shed because of the name of Christ, the central point of the whole colosseum is a cross?

Another example of this was when we visited Corinth in Greece. Corinth was one of the most degraded cities at the time of Paul, and I am sure that in all their vain glory, they thought that their statues and monuments to the gods would stand forever. Now, though, Corinth is about Paul and the ministry that he had. An insignificant man left his mark on that city with preaching a seemingly foolish message. It is encouraging to see that however strong evil seems to be, God and His Word will last forever!
A mighty fortress is our God
A Bulwark never failing
Our helper he amidst the flood
Of mortal ill prevailing
Let goods and kindred go
This mortal life also
The body they may kill
God's Word abideth still
His kingdom is forever!

Monday, August 17, 2009

When in Athens...





Tomorrow we are leaving Greece, but we have enjoyed our time in this Biblical country. We started out in Thessalonica and continued on to Athens. Yesterday was a full day of services here and we spent the evening at the Acropolis. Our little Paul didn't preach on Mars Hill like the Apostle Paul, but he did enjoy the view! Tomorrow we head for Corinth and Rome and tonight we work at an Iranian Refugee Feeding Center (our instructions are to not wear any American flag logos--wonder why?)


























Monday, August 10, 2009

Ministry in Albania
















































































Today we are in Albania. I never thought that we would get to visit Albania, but God has graciously opened the door, and here we are. Albania is one of the most interesting countries that we have visited. Probably most people know that under communism, Albania was one of the most closed countries that there was. As one person put it, Albania under communism was a sister to North Korea today. Now that it has been open for almost 20 years, it is still a very third world country, and quite interesting to visit.

We came to Albania from Macedonia. When we crossed the border into Albania, it was on a lonely border crossing high on a mountain. We approached the border and were greeted by friendly Albanian border guards. After they finished practicing their English with us, chatting about our huge family size and stamping our passports, we crossed into Albania. We usually like to exchange money right away when we cross into a country so this time, Rick decided to go into the official bank right there at the customs office. He stepped into the dingy "bank" with broken windows and looked around but there was no one to be seen so an official led him into another room where a bank teller was asleep on a sofa. He woke him up so we could exchange money. Rick asked what the exchange rate was for Albanian money versus the U.S. dollar. He said that he didn't know but he thought it was 1,000 to 1. Then a few seconds later, he changed his mind and said, "No, I think it's 100 to 1." Considering that was such a big difference in money, Rick thanked him and went on our way without changing money! Later we found out that it is about 90 to 1.
















As we crossed the border into Albania we immediately began descending deep into a balley. The road was a very winding road deep into the valley. It looked very similar to descending into the grand canyon. One of the first things we noticed was that we had just dropped off into a different world as we descended into the valley. Immediately we saw countless numbers of circular bunkers all over the place. These bunkers were built to withstand heavy bombing and they are literally everywhere over the countryside. Lots of places there are more bunkers than there are houses. When we entered the main town that we were staying in, between each building in town, there was a bomb shelter built into the ground with a little chimney sticking up. The pastor here told us that the dictator built 600,000 bunkers and I can believe it by just how many we have seen.


There are literally miles and miles of terraced mountains that the people were required to dig out to make way for the communist fruit farms. Last night on our way to a church in an outlying town, I had a hard time imagining the amount of work (slavery) that was required of the people to literally use hand tools and terrace the mountains in order to plant these huge fruit farms. When communism finally fell, the people were so angry over the slavery that had been subjected to that they destroyed these fruit farms--also causing great hunger for themselves. Now there are just terraced hill sides left with very few trees or else very young trees growing randomly. Another reason that their mountain sides are without old growth vegetation is because when communism fell, the western countries (most notably Italy--a neighbor), came in and cleared the forests of old growth trees and gave the people almost nothing for the trees. For example, the Albanians who were unbelievably poor after years under a despotic communist leader, were given about five dollars for an old growth oak tree. Five dollars was a huge amount to them, but it seems terribly wrong for them to have been cheated just because they didn't know the value of the trees. Now they have beautiful mountains that have almost no trees.

Most of our time here in Albania we are spending at a church and christian radio station in one of the most beautiful area of Albania. If you look on a map and see the eastern border of Albania, you will see a very large lake. We are at the southern end of the lake, not too far from Greece. As we have travelled to churches at night, it has been some of the most beautiful scenery that I have ever seen. There are towering mountains with this very large lake below surrounded by the cities of both Albania and Macedonia. Last night, Christian, our four year old stated it very well. He was sitting behind me in the van as we descended the mountain toward the lake. The sun was setting and the lights of the city were beautiful. He said, "Mom, this is a nice view." I said that it was. A few seconds later, he said, "This is a nice view (and then with his characteristic North Carolina drawl, he said with great emphasis, 'MAN!'"

During our time here in Albania, we have enjoyed the beautiful Mediterranean temperature and lifestyle. Last night we went out late after church with the pastor and his wife. We walked along the beach here in perfect cool weather and ate outside at a little restaurant along the shore of the lake. We had typical mediterranean food of meat, cheese and salad. The restaurant is owned by a neighbor to the pastor. Years ago when the pastor came here, he was preaching on the street when the owner of this restaurant hurled a rock at him. He thanked him for throwing the rock and later the two became neighbors. The man is still not overly friendly, but the pastor thought it would be a nice gesture to take our family to his restaurant and give him some business. This man was jailed a while back for human trafficking so it's not like he is your model business man, but the food was delicious. This picture is Paul with the wife of the human trafficker. I was sitting very close by...Then tonight we enjoyed pizza also near the beach. We ate inside, but the restaurant was had large open windows where we could here the albanian music outside. The music is live and you can walk along the beach from restaurant to restaurant (almost all outdoor seating) and see people playing accordians, or singing opera or playing other instruments.

Albania still has many physical needs that we take for granted. The city we are in tonight is only one of two cities that has water all day every day. The rest of the country has it when it comes on. Electricity can be sporadic. It has only gone off once since we have been here, so that's probably doing pretty well. As many third world countries are, environmental carefulness does not seem to exist. I have been appalled to see how much litter and garbage is left sitting around, especially in the rivers and streams. There seems to be a mentality here that they lived so many years with a dictator telling them what to do so now they don't want anyone to tell them what to do. I can understand how they would get that mind set, but it seems a no littering law couldn't hurt much! Wages and prices are also still quite low here. Today the six men in our family got haircuts for a grand total of nine dollars! A man who does manual labor here makes ten dollars a day and today we were told that a "pricey" hotel in this city goes for twenty dollars a night.

Albania is a beautiful country in spite of all the difficulties they have endured. Today we drove just a few miles and had a picnic at what used to be the private park of the former dictator. It is a beautiful park with waterways and swans and nice walkways. As with most of Albania, it needs a lot of maintenance and repair, but it was a beautiful place to walk around in (don't fall through the foot bridges over the river--repairs desperately needed here).

We passed out tracts at the gypsy market on Saturday. Many received the tracts cheerfully, several asked us for them, and several threw them on the ground or tore them up. Overall I think the reception was quite good considering that a big percentage of the people that were given the tracts were muslim.

Our time here in Albania has been one of the most rewarding of our whole time here in Europe, and we are so thankful that the Lord allowed us to come. The people here appreciate being able to hear the Gospel and they are enjoying their freedom. Two stories that we heard here made us realize the depth of slavery they had here just a few years ago and made us rejoice with them that those days are past for them. One man here complained about the lack of concrete available for building his house. He made the comment that the government had plenty of concrete to make all the bunkers they were making so they should have enough for him to build his house. He received TEN YEARS in prison for his lack of appreciation to the communist Albanian government. Another man made a similar complaint when he saw Macedonia from a distance and commented about how much greener it looked over there. He also received a harsh penalty.

Now the church is growing as the former regime very successfully destroyed practically all churches and religion. Most of the believers here are young people and seem very sincere. The church we are staying in has a Christian radio station that broadcasts over a large part of Albania as well as Macedonia. They are now playing Rick's program also so we are glad about that! Their antenna is made from some strong pipes welded together, and we are sleeping in one of their studios which is soundproof by being covered with cardboard egg cartons!

Come over into Macedonia

Today we are in Macedonia, and honestly I must say that I expected something a whole lot different that what we are getting. I don't know what the typical American thinks about Macedonia, but I have been pleasantly suprised with our experience so far here. When we arrived, I first noticed that there appeared to be a lot of Islamic influence here. I was right. The pastor here told us that Macedonia is the most Islamic country in Europe. Not only are they the most Islamic country, but they are not content to remain at the levels they are at. "Somewhere" is pouring huge amounts of money into Europe and especially into Macedonia to further the Islamic religion. Here is a striking and scary statistic. Look at how small Macedonia is and then consider that in the last year, the muslims have built 164 new mosques in Macedonia alone.




Then he told us something that was painful to hear, but perhaps it is worth passing along. This pastor is in charge of one of the biggest and most influential relief agencies in this part of the world. During the word in Kosovo, his organization was the only organization that managed to work with both the Serbs and the Albanians--although some people hated them for this. He told us that most of the aid that was sent to Indonesia after the Tsunami came from Christian churches. The people were obviously in great need, so this was wonderful that so many Christians gave to this need. The problem is... while Christians were giving so heavily to help the devastated people of Indonesia, the government of Indonesia built a enormously expensive mosque in Sarajevo. The pastor said it is a beautiful mosque in downtown Sarajevo and it is a greenish color. I said it sounds to me like it's the color of money..


The pastor we are staying with is president of the Evangelical church here in Macedonia. In the last 20 or so years, they are averaging about 2 new churches a year. It's not that they aren't trying, but the Islamic countries are literally pouring all their resources into the spread of their faith.

When I thought of Macedonia, I thought of dirt roads, donkeys and hay wagons, people working in fields and basically a lot of what I saw in Romania or Moldova. Frankly, I thought it would be worse than what we saw there. Instead, I have seen very little of these things. The roads are nice compared to Romania and we were in on interstate type highway part of the way here today. Although we did see some of the rural way of life, here in the capital city of Skopje, it is a fairly modern city. It has even more of the feel of an eastern or Turkish type of city than even Bulgaria. I guess the presence of so many muslims makes it seem more like the middle east also.


When we arrived, we were greeted by very friendly people and went out to eat at a restauant with some great (although somewhat unusual) items. We were stuffed and then the pastor said we were going out to another restaurant for dessert. We enjoyed kiwi ice cream which none of us had ever had before. Macedonia grows lots of kiwis and sells them by the kilogram in the markets. I thought kiwis were only grown in Australia and New Zealand--dumb American again!


Although there is a very modern city, we see here again the anomaly of cities that we have seen so often here--wealth and western stores, restaurants, and business and abject poverty on the other side of the street. In our directions to the capital city here, the pastor had given us specific directions to go around one city and not to go into it. We obeyed his directions and quickly saw why. As we pulled on to the bypass of the city, I glanced to the side and saw horrific housing like I haven't seen in a very long time if ever. The houses were decrepit pieces of junk piled together and people were living in garbage all over the place. I could only see it for a few seconds because the government had conveniently built a wall to hide it from the view of the main road.


When we got to Skopje, we never saw any housing like we saw in other places, but there were still plenty of people begging. At one traffic light, children came out and got in front of our van and beside it, calling to us and wanting money or food. When the traffic light changed, they moved and we went on. I would guess the oldest child to have been 8-10 years old. At another stop light in the city, a gypsy man came up and began to wash our windows as they commonly do here when they get a chance. Rick shook his head no, but he continued to wash, hoping we would pay him. The lady with us told us to ignore him and drive on. As we drove away, he spit on our windows! Later in a parking lot, children surrounded us asking for money. We walked on because there was no way in the world we could ever do anything for these children. They persisted for a while and then left. When we came back, the air was out of our van tire. Some things just look very suspicious once in a while!

Nodding in Bulgaria

For the last two days, we have been in Bulgaria. Bulgaria is not a country with very many dramatic sights to see or too many unusual historical events that took place. Being there, however, was a little disconcerting at times because it was like getting our first taste of Eastern culture as Bulgaria has a lot of Turkish influence.

I was not in Bulgaria very long until I felt like I had missed something very important way back in kindergarten. Had I really learned the alphabet? Everywhere I looked were signs I couldn't read, and I got a small taste of what life must be like to be illiterate. Even when we are in other countries, I could still often read the words and can often get an idea of what they say just by looking at similar words or root words. However, in Bulgaria, they use the cyrillic alphabet so I felt like I was operating on the level of a three year old. It is very humbling to not know the letters of the alphabet or how to even write the simplest letters or words.


Another thing that was very disconcerting is an unusual custom that Bulgaria has kept for hundreds of years. The story that we heard was that a long time ago under the occupation of the Turks, the Bulgarians decided to resist this occupation by confusing the Turks so they changed the way they nod their heads when saying yes or no. They began nodding their heads "yes" for "no" and vice versa. This piece of resistance stuck with them, and now Bulgaria is one of the few countries if not the only country that nods their heads the opposite of the rest of the world.
Now this may not seem so difficult to you, and I honestly thought it was a cute little anomaly, but the way it works in ordinary life makes one realize how often we Americans nod our heads without ever realizing it. For example, last night we were in a church there in the capital city of Bulgaria. The church leader was in front doing the preliminares and leading the songs, and I noticed all of the sudden that I had been slightly nodding "yes" and smiling while the leader was speaking as I often do as a guest in churches. It struck me that I was communicating "no" to everything the speaker was saying. Try smiling at the preacher and nodding "no"--it's very hard to do!


A short time later, Rick experienced the same thing. He got up and began speaking as usual on the topic of "Redeeming the Time." Before long, he noticed that the congregation was nodding, "no" at him. Fortunately, he remembered that they were not ready to throw eggs at him, but were actually agreeing with him. Nevertheless, there is just something psychologically difficult about preaching to a congregation that is nodding, "No"!


Another thing we learned about Bulgaria is that they are very well known for their roses and rose oil. I discovered this after I had gone into several shops and noticed they all had shelves full of rose products--rose oil, rose water, soap, lotion, you name it. I thought, "wait a minute...either all the shops in Sophia got a really good deal on rose based products or there is something to this. I asked the missionary we were with and he told me that Bulgaria grows huge fields of roses and sell the oil to the companies that make the most expensive perfumes in the world. Needless to say, the shops smell wonderful...