Nancy’s Kitchen

Hi All,
Here’s a .pdf copy of my returning newsletter with some photos. I hope you enjoy it and join me on my next trip in person or virtually.

Back FROM the Gypsies - 2007

Blessings!
Nancy

The Global Celebration team is in Bulgaria!  We have had an awesome three days!  For instance, last night we made a “surprise visit” to a small gypsy camp, the poorest group in Varna GC has found yet.  Turns out, it’s about 5 minutes from our hotel!   Sweet, sweet people!  So beautiful, so open, so receiving!  A number of people were healed, including one lady who’s many lumps in both breasts totally went away, and a man confined to a wheelchair got up and walked!  He walked with help, but he stopped every few steps to do some shallow knee-bends — as if to say, “Look! I can do this!”  It was totally AWESOME!!  Check out the link to Global Celebration above and see photos and the team journal!! 

Please keep praying, as we also encountered some drug-related people who were not at all happy about us being there, but all was quiet and peaceful.  One man called the police, but since we had committed no crimes, the policeman told his superiors that he could not legally stop us.   

Other healings include a tumor dissolved off a man’s back, a child with cerebral palsy’s muscles completely relaxed in her father’s arms, another child healed of a hearing loss, a man’s severe vision problems cleared up and he invited team members who visited him in his home to come stay at his house next year! 

Packages of bread, rice, oil, and other essentials were distributed in the small community in Varna.  In Romania, we provided food for a sheep-soup & bread feast with watermelon for dessert… this meal has been known to bring tears to the people’s eyes, who have not had this favorite dish in many years. 

Today we are in Nessebar, an ancient shipping port on the Black Sea.  This is a tourist place and we are taking a break before we go to another new work in a Gypsy community near Burgass.  We will stay in Burgass tonight and head for Kazanluk, stopping in a small community in Sliven on the way.

As I was sitting waiting for dinner last night, I was telling a new friend that when Richard asked me why I am going on this trip again this year, I told him that I need to fulfill a promise to Lubcho (Sophia church musician) to take my violin again.  So I am here.  However, as I told my friend, how could I NOT return again?!!   I love it here!!

By the way, for you Kansans reading this, much of Bulgaria’s landscape looks so very much like the Eastern Kansas peneplain (flat-topped hills) that we grew up in.  The elevations of the hills are higher, but the look is exactly the same!!  OH!  And fields full of sunflowers, too!!  SO BEAUTIFUL!  and SPACIOUS SKIES!! 

Love you all,

Nancy

Back to the Gypsies…

As I sit in the car, being chauffered to Washington, D.C. to catch my plane, my brain feels like a whirlpool and I watch the long list of items and ask, did I bring them, or did I forget them?  I’m excited, but not the exhuberant excitement I’ve felt in past years.  I have a suitcase that most likely exceeds the weight limit, full of 91 boxes of crayons, 25 toothbrushes and tubes of toothpaste, little girl things, matchbox cars, stickers, stickers, & stickers, clothes.   I am thanking God for last-minute monetary gifts that will likely cover any excess weight charge!!

Whew!!!!!    I must somehow decompress from all this preparation while my emotions are building, looking forward with expectation to seeing my friends on the mission team as well as the Gypsy friends I’ve been making over the last 2 years!!  It’s a good thing that I DON’T have problems with HIGH blood pressure!!  ☺

My biggest anxiety points seem to be:
1.    Looking for the people I took pictures of last year so I can give them prints.
2.    Staying focused among so many people and activities.  PLEASE COVER ME IN PRAYER FOR THIS ONE!!  I want to be where my Heavenly Daddy wants me to be at every minute, with every person He wants me to connect with.  John 2:5 – I want to do what He tells me to do, and say what He tells me to say.

God has consistently told me through His messengers to “Just be you!  You cannot imagine all that Jesus is going to do!  Jesus!  It’s just that easy!”  When I had not spoken it to anyone, He said that I don’t have to be “adequate” for anything, to just be myself!  It’s about spilling out God’s Love (Jesus) and Light and Joy all over the people!!  “Well,” I thought, “I can do this!!”

“Love them, Nancy.  Just be you and let my power and my light flow from you.  Remember Paul?  ‘I come to you NOT with fancy words to wow you, but in the power of the spirit!’  (1 Cor 2:4)  I call you to love and encourage, to BE MY LIGHT.  Go to the highways and the byways and love my people.”

Wandering with His Purpose,
Nancy

“What happened to TESOL?” you may be asking. The Lord has that “on hold” right now. My heart is there. I am looking for and at different curricular materials I might use. I am getting a clearer picture in my mind of what I’m looking for in curriculum. So TESOL continues to simmer on the back burner, periodically being tasted and seasoned as needed for a great dinner.

In 4 weeks, on August 2nd, I’ll be driving to Dulles International Airport to leave for Romania, Bulgaria and the eastern coast of Turkey to again minister God’s love and grace to the Gypsies there. I don’t feel the high level of excitement I have in past trips, but I do hear the Lord telling me to “prepare quietly”. So I am. Things are falling into place nicely. Having been there twice, deciding what I need to pack is much easier and low-key. I know I want to take about 1/2 of what I took last year!! Heavy suitcases are such a drag!! I am also asking God what He wants me to take as a blessing and a gift to the people.

These are two precious Gypsy children selling souvenier tops to the tourists in Istanbul. I find myself really wanting to give them full price because I have seen the Gypsy “camps” (walled ghettos) in person. I pray as I look at their picture, “Lord, set Your People free! Bless Your Children!”

One young man asked me this, and I said, “Yes, I will.” So here you are. I’m sorry I don’t remember your name, but I remember your face! Blessings to you both, in the Name of Isus, our Redeemer.

These are two of my Gypsy friends who live in Kazanluk, Bulgaria. The Gypsy neighborhood here is huge. These two young ladies hold a special place in my heart.

And this is my friend, Lubcho, the worship team leader of the Sophia Bulgarian/Gypsy church. Mo cho, Lubcho. (”My son, Lubcho.) We enjoy making music together.

I am sitting in my husband’s office, web-surfing. As I read over some posts from our Gypsy trip this summer, I see something that strikes my heart. I quote it below. I have to ask again, HOW can people be so cruel to each other? I mean, the people meant well to the Americans, but what about God’s beloved Gypsies? Lord Jesus, please forgive us all… some of us don’t know what we’re doing, some of us do. We ALL really need Your forgiveness and changing grace.

After the big group left, Niki and I (Karen) stayed behind in Istanbul for a few days with Georgian and Winnie, Sandy Sandifer, Pastor Zhoro, and our Gypsy Pastors: Mitko, Altunka, Peter and Effise, and Angel. It was very interesting to be able to witness firsthand the outright blatant discrimination that exists against Gypsies, which we were unable to see when we were in such a large group. Constantly policemen and different shopkeepers would pull us aside and caution us to be very careful, explaining to us that Gypsies are very dangerous and that we shouldn’t be with them. Also in restaurants we saw the disdain of the waiters. Even though I already understood that this happens, it made me realize even more how much of an impact the loving hugs and smiling kisses that Jesus used with our ‘European faces’ had on all of the Gypsies as we came into their cities.

I don’t have my photos quite ready to post yet, but when I do, they’ll be in my gallery at Kodakgallery.com. Scroll down the menu on the right and you’ll find the link labeled “Party with the Gypsies 2006”
Thanks!

Monday, June 12, 2006 - Putting it together, Thinking it Through:

“The Barbarian Way” – Pgs 137-138, “But my favorite of all is the group designation for rhinos…” I read this book during this tour. It only reinforces my desire to be involved in missions.

Here is a general summation of what I have seen. Not every Gypsy has every situation described here, and those growing in the Faith seem to be better off… although I do not have any research to prove this.

Simplicity of Life ‡ Survival basis, demonstrated by
o Asking for our things
o Begging with learned, pitiful facial and body expressions that said, “please feel sorry for me & do what I want”
o Taking items
o Snatching & running

Hungry ‡ Every way – physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually

Clothing ‡ Mostly second-hand or discards
o Often old, torn, worn
o Some shoes, but mostly socks and/or slippers or barefoot sandals, flip-flops
o Weather seems to make little difference in what is worn
o It appeared that the people wore their best clothes for us in most of the places we visited. I’m not sure of this.

Amenities of Life ‡ Homes
o boxcars
o handmade huts from scrap materials found in dump
o small ancient ramshackle houses
o small rundown (slum) apartment houses
o often whole family sleeps in one room on beds and the floor

Sanitation services
o field, bush, tree
o outhouse-style squat-potty
o squat-potty with a pitcher of water or a hose or a tap nearby
o some measure of flush toilet

Water – none to limited availability
o central water trough with flowing pipes
o river
o limited or no indoor plumbing
o limited or no water service

Electricity – none to whatever is affordable
o many gypsy families keep only 1 lightbulb in a socket in the whole apartment. This keeps the electric bill down.

Exterior Environment – run down buildings and dirty streets in the city, dirt paths in the country
o Littering is common and without thought

HOWEVER,
o Satellite TV is their ONLY luxury
o Interior of home is kept VERY neat, & as clean as possible
o Laundry is hanging on clotheslines
o Bathing is evident in that the people don’t carry an odor

Transportation ‡ some cars, a few bicycles, walking, and horsecarts

Employment ‡ I only have observed these:
o Run own small neighborhood shops
o Shepherds
o Sidewalk vendors
o Migrant farm workers
Drugs & Prostitution are reported to be continuing problems

Education ‡ In Turkey, school is mandatory through the 8th grade.
o Kids are learning English & loved practicing on us
o Government schools are not as good as the private schools, but obviously the Gypsies go to the government schools
In Bulgaria, the kids can read our phoetically-spelled names, so they are getting some education.

Discipline ‡ is a firm smack on the head with a sharp word –
no warnings, just swift correction.

Responsiveness ‡ “Instant in season and out of season” –
smiles, hugs, hospitable, fighting, discipline, dancing, making music, and receiving God’s Wonderful Love and Grace in Jesus Christ!