Updating

Wow….I didn’t realize how long it had been since I updated our blog.

Of course, from the time we left Sofia for the conference until the middle part of December we were constantly on the move, at a training, etc. The break from the middle of December until now has been nice, but now we’re trying to get back into the swing of things.

So, since this has been a while…I’ll post these backwards in chronological order so that as you scroll down the screen you’ll get something new.

NOTE:  The end of the updates will be noted.

Triennial – Bulgaria

The NMSI Triennial Conference was great. We weren’t really sure what to expect, since this was our first one. But it was great…a good mixture of spiritual refreshment, personal relaxation, and focused learning.

The first two weeks were in Hissar, Bulgaria and were set up much like a typical conference you would go to in the States. We had morning devotions together, worship times together, and different learning modules.

It was great to meet many new people with the mission and to reconnect with the one’s we already knew – especially the people we had gone through our COAT training with last fall.

Travis’ favorite parts were when the Roma Christians from Berkovitsa came and led worship, the youth ministry module, and swimming with Melilla

Emilie really enjoyed..

Melilla had her own class where they played and learned and had a great time. She really enjoyed the “birthday party for everyone” and swimming in the pool after supper each night.

Triennial – Roma Wedding

At the end of the conference we got to join a smaller group of NMSI people (around 30 or so out of the 250 or so people there) who attended some Roma weddings in Berkovitsa.

It was definitely a cultural experience – with a range of emotions, thoughts, and experiences. Travis got to drive a car through the village, there was outrageously loud music, loads of different food, a bunch of Roma kids to play with and take pictures of (they really like digital cameras, because they can see themselves immediately afterwards), and lots and lots of dancing.

We all got to learn a traditional Bulgarian dance and dance several times…Melilla even joined in and had a blast.

Probably the funniest part of the whole thing was when Melilla needed to use the potty and we discovered that there weren’t any western-style toilets…just outhouses with holes in the ground. Melilla was having nothing to do with those…so we eventually just had to put a pull-up on and tell her it was ok to go potty in her diaper. I think it was about that time that Emilie and I agreed that when we move to Bulgaria that regardless of where we live it will be worth the extra expense to have indoor plumbing installed.

Emilie and Melilla Dancing at the Wedding: (see our the “Videos” link on the “Our Sites” secton on the right for more videos!)

Triennial – Greece

The final part of the Triennial was a mixture of vacation, fellowship, and minor meetings. The point was to relax and refresh and enjoy each other.

Unfortunately for Travis…most of his time was spent sick in the bathroom in the hotel. A bug was going around (anytime you put that many people together in confined spaces it’s bound to happen). If you’d like to hear some really funny but rather disgusting stories you’ll have to ask Travis about it privately…it’s not fit for publishing for all to see!!!

But, nonetheless, we all managed to have a good time. We rented a car one day and went into the closest Greek town and did some shopping and looking with some friends. And, of course, we all enjoyed the beach..especially Melilla!

MTI

Upon returning to the States we had a handful of days to unpack and repack – then it was off to Colorado for our final official training program – Missionary Training International.

Here’s a video that tells a little about MTI:

MTI – What we thought

We had an absolutely wonderful time in Colorado. The training programs (both the cultural and the language) were excellent.

To be honest our required attendance at MTI was one of the main things we’ve struggled with in the whole process. We figured it was good, but having already spent four years and a lot of money on missions degrees at KCC it wasn’t something we were excited about – mostly because of the expense.

However, it was worth every penny.

We didn’t necessarily learn anything new and earth-shattering – but it refreshed a lot of things we had learned, focused other areas, and probably most importantly having a specific location and situation in mind as we covered the issues was valuable.

Not to mention it was perhaps the best marriage-enrichment experience you could ever hope for – seriously, I recommend the cultural part for married couples just for that aspect!

One of the overarching ideas behind the learning is that our strongest witness is our families – people hear what we say, but put more emphasis on how they see us living. And who do we tend to lower the guard with more than anyone else? Our families. So when they see us interacting with our families they are then able to evaluate what we are preaching to them.

We covered a lot about team conflict. Something like 80% of all missionaries who don’t return to the field after their first-term or go to a different field cite team conflict as a determining factor. That sounds bad, but it’s reasonable as well. Put a group of people together in an overly stressful situation and tell them they have to work as a team and somewhat of a family unit and things are bound to happen…when they do you’re hit with the “but we’re missionaries” guilt and cultural stress everyone is experience and it’s not always a pretty picture. That’s right, missionaries aren’t perfect either and conflict amongst missionaries has been happening since Paul and Barnabas parted ways…but there are things we can do to prepare ourselves and our teammates to handle conflict when it arises.

That was very powerful stuff for Travis. It brought out a lot of his personality and family history stuff and was a very emotional time – but we feel better knowing what to watch for and things for us to work on before we go.

The cultural part of the program was, as I mentioned, very emotional. It was draining and refreshing at the same time – but extremely beneficial for us as a family and as individuals.

Melilla even had her own class and it was very rewarding for us as parents to hear from her teachers about things that we could do to help ease her stress in transitions, things to watch out for related to her personality, etc. And she LOVED going to class every day. The first Saturday when she realized she wasn’t going to class she was crushed. We tried to tell her, “But you get to hang out with Mommy and Daddy today!” Her reply, “BUT I WANT TO GO TO CLASS!”

The language part was COMPLETELY different and it was a hard transition at first. We were drained from the first three weeks and more than half of the people from the first program left and a whole group of new people came in and classes were set up very differently.

After a few days of grumbling internally we made the adjustment and it really was a beneficial time. Not quite as enjoyable probably as the first, but rewarding nonetheless.

We each got to learn a little of a new language to practice the techniques we were learning. Travis got to tackle Mandarin, Emilie got to learn some Russian, and Melilla got to learn some sign language (at her age only two weeks of a new language can cause other issues in her normal English development, so they focused on sign language instead).

Let me just say that I’m glad we aren’t learning a tonal language like Mandarin!

Overall, though, it was very exciting. We both responded well to the techniques and found ourselves looking forward to those parts of the day…and honestly, that’s what will be a key ingredient to success in learning Bulgarian – enjoying parts of the process. There will be areas we have to struggle through and fight with…but the more we can enjoy the process the better.

We left with a 3-ring binder full of lesson ideas – which we are looking forward to putting to use in Bulgaria!

MTI – People and Fun

Not all our time at MTI was work, work, work.

We were there with a wonderful group of people from all over the place heading to places all over the world. We made some really close friends.

We were also able to get out and do some fun things like:

1.  A crazy road-trip to Mt Rushmore: A group of six of us rented a van and drove like 9 hours to Mt Rushmore.  It was awesome.

2. The zoo:  We took Melilla to the zoo in Colorado Springs and had a great time.  We even got to feed the giraffes.

3. A date:  Emilie and Travis had their first day in like 6-months and went to dinner and a movie (the new Bond!)

4. Catching up: A friend of Emilie’s home church now lives in Denver and we got to see her twice.  She came down for a visit and dinner and we went up there for a weekend.  We had a great time and got to see some cool stuff and eat some great food.  Thanks Cheryl!

MTI Experience

WARNING: This post is not for everyone. Specifically if you are related to us as a parent, grandparent, other close relative you may want to choose to skip this section. It was an exciting experience, but when Travis shared it with his mother she was less excited than him and advised to avoid telling his grandmother such stories. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

Ok.  So this is copied from a message I sent to a couple of good buddies the day it happened.

TAKEN HOSTAGE:

PART ONE:

Wow…

Today was crazy. It was just a simulation but it was nuts.

They divided our group into two smaller groups of 16-17 each…making sure spouses weren’t together.

Then we were told we were going to be taken to hide out in a mission compound as a group or rebels was attacking…they crammed us into a little box like maybe 9 feet by 6 feet – with only a few holes cut in it for air.

We had to try to remain quiet and not be discovered…then had to decide which 5 people got to leave on a rescue flight….but as that group was trying to escape we were caught by the rebels.

They tried to ransom us but of course…no go with the US…so they tried to do a prisoner exchange with the local government…but that fell through…so they took two of us out and shot them (yes, real guns…ok, so they were starter pistols, but when you are sitting in a small box and their gun fire and bomb sounds blaring around you and someone “shoots” another person JUST outside the box…). They took two more and shot them too.

We were discussing whether to try to “take them out” or let them live in hopes that they would have an opportunity to know Christ later when they informed us that the “executions” had been faked and the government had relented and we were released.

Man…it was crazy. Today’s topic for discussion was FEAR and WHO YOU ARE UNDER STRESS.

I called my Mom and told her and she was freaking out…

PART TWO: In reply to a response to the original message…

Yeah..it was crazy. I think it was made a little more “real” for us by the fact that the previous day one of the director’s friends in the Congo had called him and asked for prayer as their village had been surrounded by rebels again. The typical thing that happens there is they take all the children (new recruits) and kill everyone else.

Fortunately they got the children out and the friend and his wife made it through…but then having this the next day made it hard to think, “this could NEVER happen”.

Fortunately for us though Bulgaria isn’t very unstable or violent so the likelihood is lower there…but it exists everywhere in the world (even the US) – so it was an interesting learning experience.

Not long after this was the hostage situation in India – which made this experience only more real in the mind.

Obviously we do not anticipate anything like this happening to us.  Bulgaria is a stable place and not a real hot spot for terrorism or anti-Americanism.

However, this could happen here in the States, this could happen in Bulgaria, this could happen in China – it COULD happen anywhere.  So while I don’t feel like we are necessarily raising our percentage of it happening too much, it is a real thing that happens in the world.

I learned quite a bit about myself that day.  I told you…it was emotional stuff we dealt with at MTI!

PS:  I kept meaning to go back to the room where the wooden box was and take pictures, but I never did – sorry.

We have an apartment

We learned in late November that our teammate in Sofia who was living in the apartment that we will be staying in was coming home earlier than anticipated. This meant that we either had to give up the lease on the apartment or start paying rent.

Our initial inclination was to just find another apartment before we arrived (through the help of teammates and others).

However, we quickly learned that:

-Prices have gone up drastically for apartments in Sofia since our teammates first arrived and our apartment at $500 was a great price. The going rate right now is between $750 to $1000 each month.

-Getting an apartment isn’t easy or cheap in Bulgaria. Typically the only way is to hire an agent and they typically charge one or two months rent just for finding the apartment.

So, the obvious choice was to keep the apartment and start paying the rent.

Honestly it’s a mixed bag for us. We are EXCESSIVELY excited to say we now have our own apartment in Bulgaria and it gives us yet more incentive to get there SOON. However, we hate spending money on an apartment we aren’t in yet.

But God is good and His plans are clear to Him. Our job is simply to follow. We really can’t wait to move in…it is really a nice place with a great location. Plus it’s mostly furnished so we were able to drop our household startup costs by more than half!!!! That’s right, from about $6000 to LESS THAN $3000!! Praise God!

Paperwork!

We are in an interesting part of the process right now. We have finished all of our required trainings and now all that we have to do is finish support raising and get our visas.

Well, the first step of the visa process is finished. We spent months gathering our birth certificates and marriage license and getting the special apostille copies for them (it’s some kind of legal thing internationally which is something like a super-duper notary seal but it’s a pain in the neck to gather it all up). We sent them to Bulgaria to be translated and a few days ago we received them back in the mail.

The next step is to go to Washington DC and visit the Bulgarian Consulate and take all the paperwork and our passports. We then wait for about a month and when we get them back we will have a 90-day special visa that gets us in the country and from that point we apply for a residency card.

We have to wait for the green light from the mission to go to DC because it puts us on a time limit (we have about 90 days from when we get the visa to get to Bulgaria). And the whole inauguration thing plays into our planning as well!

But we have them in hand and ready to go when we get the green light.

So the only thing we need now is to wrap up our support. We’re hoping that with this information many people will now be ready to support us…knowing we are so close to being ready.

Please pray for the rest of our support to come in and for Melilla’s paperwork (a couple of the sheets have her name translated Melila in Bulgarian and others have Melisa…we hope they don’t mind the typos!)