Icons of nature, history and the church
May 25 When in Bulgaria, you are sure to experience a few new things; including banistsa, stotinki, and even an earthquake! Around 3:00am on May 22nd, our cross-cultural group experienced the aftershocks of a 5.6 est. earthquake that damaged parts of Sofia – the capital of Bulgaria. No one from our group was injured, but....
Asenovgrad Host Families and the Rose Festival
We are about to spend our fourth and final night with our host families in Asenovgrad. 聽Everyone seems to have enjoyed the stay, but for some it was more stretching than others due to a larger language barrier. 聽My host brother George is fluent in English. 聽On the other hand, Kendal and Brandon, among others,....
Greetings from Bansko
May 21 2012 袟写褉邪胁械泄 from Bansko! We have arrived in Bulgaria after a very long day of travel. We left Harrisonburg聽at 12:30 on Saturday afternoon聽and arrived in Bansko聽at 4:30 in the afternoon Sunday, local time 聽With a seven hour time difference from the East coast, that is a travel time of 21 hours. 聽We were....
Introduction to the desert…and pruning
John 5:1-8 “I am聽the true vine,聽and my Father is the gardener.聽2聽He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit,聽while every branch that does bear fruit聽he prunes[a]聽so that it will be even more fruitful.聽3聽You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.4聽Remain in me, as I also remain in you.聽No....
Vayan con Dios
April 16th-April 22nd Monday was our last full day with our host families. This time, some of the goodbyes seemed to be a bit easier than they were in Guatemala City. We have had our share of practicing. As Abdu鈥檒-Baha said goodbye to a group of friends on this date 100 years ago he stated,....
Mexico
March 29 This week, our excursion was to the city of Tlaxcala. First, we tried the pulque we have been learning about. Pulque is an alcoholic drink made from the liquid honey-like substance in the maguey cactus. It is kind of thick and sour tasting. We decided that it tasted similar to sourdough bread. Many....
Hiking the Jesus Trail
Where has the time gone?聽 We have only two more days left in the Middle East!聽 Next is Athens, which I am excited about.聽 However, I will be very sad to leave Israel.聽 Middle Eastern culture is what I’ve known for almost three months now.聽 I’ll miss the calls to prayer from the mosques, the....
Open your heart
March 25 Wow, it is hard to believe that we are now in our final weeks of cross-cultural.聽 As the excitement of returning home starts settling in, I remind myself that I need to continue to be present in the here and now so that I can continue to learn and be blessed by the....
The God We Can’t Predict
March 3, 2012 Discovering the unexpectedness of God seems to be a theme these days. We talked in class this morning about God鈥檚 鈥渟ealing of the covenant鈥� with Abraham. Back in the day, there were little kings and big kings. The little kings would make pacts with the big kings to be loyal to them.....
From Guatemala to Mexico
March 4 Our time here in Guatemala is almost over. And I honestly am struggling to believe it. It seems as though just yesterday I was nervously anticipating meeting my family, struggling to understand anything anyone said to me, and marveling at the different new world I had found myself a part of. The past....