Church in Hungary, and trip summary

On Sunday morning, Bubu and Władek and I joined pastor-in-training Attila Hajdú and his family for worship in Diósd. This church, the Hungarian Reformed Evangelical Mission, is the one that I (Jeff) will be working in for the next year, Lord willing.

Here's Attila leading worship during the service:

After church, Bubu and Władek left to return to Poland, while I stayed on in Diósd.

We thank God for a very blessed trip. In those eleven days, we passed through seven countries and had meetings with Christian workers in three of them (three cities in Bulgaria, plus Turkey and Hungary). We pray that what we did on this trip will continue to bear fruit for God's kingdom throughout the next year and into the future.

In Hungary

Bubu, Wladek, and I arrived in Budapest (Hungary) this evening. We haven't had time to do much more than find the way to our hotel and eat a light supper before bed. But we're planning on meeting tomorrow afternoon (Saturday) with Attila Hajdú, the church planter that I'll be working with here. We'll also be worshiping at his small mission church this Sunday, before Bubu and Wladek leave to return to Poland and I stay here to work with Attila for the church.

Churches in Bulgaria: Orthodox, Presbyterian...

This morning Bubu, Władek, and I drove to Rila (a couple of hours south of Sofia) to see the primary monastery of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. The monastery has greatly declined from its glory days, with about 300 monks, to now have only about 10 in residence. But we were deeply impressed by the godly example of St. John of Rila, the founder of the monastery.

In the afternoon and evening Niki Valchev introduced us to a number of pastors and other Christians who live in the Sofia area. Niki teaches at a seminary affiliated with the Bulgarian Reformed Presbyterian Church. We went to an evening worship service in the evening at one of these churches, "Emanuel," which is a Gypsy church in a part of Sofia mostly populated by Gypsies. Here's the street just in front of the church building, with a horse-drawn cart on the left (we saw a bunch of these).

A new believer, a young lady named Stuyanka, was baptized at this service. Please pray for her, for Pastor Metodi (who is baptizing her in this photo) and for all of Emanuel Church to be blessed and obedient to the Lord.

And finally we had dinner at the seminary, along with Kiril (the moderator of the church denomination), Metodi (who is also the denomination's secretary), and several other pastors and seminary students. It was a very busy day, but well worth it. Here you can see Bubu and Władek at the table as we were sitting down to eat.

Istanbul, Plovdiv, Sofia

We had a day and a half free, so Bubu and I traveled to Istanbul. We were amazed by the sights of this old city of splendor -- especially Hagia Sophia. It was once the greatest church building in Christendom, later used as a mosque, and since 1935 has been a museum.



















Today (Wednesday), Bubu and Wladek and I met up with Niki Valchev and several local pastors and other Christians in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. We also got to see the Roman ruins there. Plovdiv formerly belonged to Alexander the Great's father, Philip of Macedon, and was known as Philippopolis. Later it was an important city of the Roman Empire, and the early Christian leader Hermas was bishop of the local believers.













In the evening we drove to Sofia, the Bulgarian capital, and had dinner with a few local church leaders, including Pastor Metodi. I will be preaching tomorrow at an evening worship service at Metodi's Presbyterian church made up of Gypsies.

Sights of Sozopol, worship in Burgas

Yesterday was Sunday. In the afternoon Bubu and I (Jeff) went with Yavor to the old city of Sozopol (formerly Apollonia, a Greek settlement going back to ancient times). We toured the marketplace there and had lunch by the Black Sea.














Afterward we returned to Burgas and went to the evening worship service at Yavor's church. This evangelical Reformed church meets at a club for retired people. Yavor led the service, and I preached on Philippians 3:7-16 with Yavor interpreting into Bulgarian.














A photo of some people enjoying fellowship after the worship service:













It was another excellent day.

In Bulgaria

We've done a lot of traveling since I last posted on this blog. On Thursday morning, Bubu and Władek and I left from Wrocław, Poland, and passed through five countries on our way to Arad, Romania, where we spent the night.

Some highlights of Thursday's travels...

Lots of picturesque Czech towns like this one:














A quick visit with Attila Hajdú in Budapest, Hungary, so that I could drop off some of my luggage there:













A walk around Arad to see the sights of the city:














On Friday we continued on into Bulgaria and arrived in the evening at Obzor, where we will be staying for the next few nights. There's a beautiful view of the Black Sea from our hotel window:














Yesterday (Saturday) we drove to Burgas and had dinner with Pastor Yavor Rusinov and some people from his church here.

Yavor, his wife Jechka, and little Yavor:














Around the table with people from the Bulgarian church:














Please pray for us today as we worship with the saints here in Burgas in the evening. I (Jeff) will be preaching from Philippians 3:7-16. In the next few days, we'll be meeting with Yavor and other Bulgarian Christians, and hopefully also doing some sightseeing around this corner of the world.

Starting out (Wrocław, Poland)

This blog chronicles the trip that Bubu, Władek, and Jeff are taking across several Eastern European countries. We'll be visiting mission churches of the CREC and other friends in Bulgaria and Hungary, and doing a little sight-seeing on the side.

We leave from Wrocław, Poland — Bubu and Władek's home town — early tomorrow morning, Thursday. We'll go through Romania and arrive in Bulgaria on Friday. During the next several days, we hope to meet with people in the cities of Burgas, Plovdiv, and Sofia, and worship at the church in Burgas on Sunday.

On August 28 we drive from Bulgaria to Hungary. In Diósd, just outside the Hungarian capital of Budapest, we'll be seeing my friends Attila and Kati Hajdú and their family. We'll go to church with them on Sunday, and then Bubu and Władek are returning to Poland while I (Jeff) stay in Diósd where I'll be working for the church along with Attila for the next year.

Today I got to tour Wrocław with Bubu. It's a more than 1000-year-old place with a rich history and cultural heritage. Here are a couple of pictures — for more, take a look at my Wrocław photo album.