Easter and MTW Area Retreat

These past couple of months have been very busy! This year, the Orthodox Easter was over a month later than when you all celebrated in the States.  Since most people here spend Easter (Великден – literally translated Great Day) with their families back in their villages, we decided to hold our English Club Easter Party halfway between the two Easters so we could share what some American traditions are and they could share with us the Bulgarian traditions. We had some Easter candy from the States which we hid around the Cultural Center for them to find, and one of our interns even made kozunak, a traditional Easter bread which takes hours to make. 

We also copied excerpts from Matthew and Luke that told the story of Jesus' death and resurrection. These were in English and Bulgarian to make sure that everyone, no matter how little English they spoke, would understand the story. After reading, we had some questions that led to really good discussions about what forgiveness costs.

 

For Easter, since most people spend the day with family, we had just a few friends over for lunch to celebrate.

In April, MTW had a retreat in Spain for all the missionaries based in Europe. During the retreat, there was teaching by Paul Kooistra, the head of MTW, seminars for times of learning and networking to hear from other teams, community groups for times of fellowship, and worship where we could sing in our heart language. This last part was something I hadn’t even realized just how much I missed. 

While at the retreat, we did get to go and visit Tavira, Portugal, which was a small touristy town that was very beautiful.

And we also were able to stop in Sevilla, Spain to see some of the sights.