On Thursday and Friday we were in Smolyn. This is a resort town in the Ridopi mountains, not far from the Turkish border. Because of the history of the area (too long to go into here) there are a lot of Muslims here.
The pastor, Nikki, has been here for about six years trying to build a church from scratch. As you might imagine, it is difficult in this area. However, he is making headway. Here is a picture of Nikki and his family.
We were invited to come and speak to the church about stewardship. So, on Thursday night Pat spoke about the stewardship of spiritual gifts and I spoke about stewardship of time, talent and money. They really seemed to enjoy it and thought it was very timely for them. Due to some issues we had that night, we didn't get pictures. Sorry!
On Friday evening, I had been asked to give what amounted to a lecture on the topic, "Leadership During Times of Crisis". The pastor is trying to make inroads into the community by bringing in speakers on topics that attract business and political leaders and then leveraging that to develop relationships. He worked hard to set it up and I was interviewed by the local newspaper and they sent several people and a photographer to the lecture. Of course, afterward there was a lot of conversation in Bulgarian that we didn't understand. Nikki seemed thrilled with the result so I assume it was good.
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