Pat, left, shares the prayed-over potholders with Tanka, Mimi, and Tinka, women in southern Bulgaria.

KARDJALI, Bulgaria – Since coming to Bulgaria earlier this year, EMM workers Lamar and Pat Myers have been visiting Turkish, Bulgarian, and Gypsy villages outside Kardjali in southern Bulgaria. They serve on outreach teams with Bulgarian pastor Hari Atanasov and other members of his congregation.

“We are amazed by the openness we see,” Lamar said. “On our first visit to Vishigrad, we met about a dozen Christians who wanted to get together to pray. We were struck by the peace and joy on the face of the woman in whose home we met, in stark contrast to many others. This group is mainly women and children because the husbands are away, employed in larger towns because of lack of work in the area.”

Atanasov noted that it is easy to get groups started, but that he doesn’t have time to maintain all of them. Currently the team is working with 15 different groups of believers. In one village where Atanasov distributed Christian literature two years ago, he learned that several people had become Christians and wanted follow up. 

On a recent visit a mission team made to Devisilovo, near the Greek border, they started at the mayor’s office, renewing friendships from last summer when the Song for the Nations choir, led by Pat, gave a joint concert with their folk choir. On this visit, the Bulgarian choir director, who is a follower of Jesus, called many of the Christians in the village together for a time of fellowship.
 
In the Gypsy village of Voivodovo, a woman had been hosting a small group of believers in her home for a time of worship – until the leader of the local mosque warned her to stop. Lamar said, “She stopped for a while, but the group wants to start meeting again. Twenty crowded into a 10’ by 10’ room on our first visit. Pat taught the children a song in Bulgarian, and they sang for us in their Gypsy language. On our next visit, there were 40 in the room, overflowing into the hallway. Several in the group have asked for baptism.
 
“On our first visit to the village of Chiflik we met a group of believers who had friends in another village. In that village we met a woman who said that she had been praying that God would send someone to pray with her. There were 25 who gathered in the shade outside.”
 
Lamar said, “The Christians in Bulgaria feel an urgency to reach out with the gospel. One put it this way: ‘There is a swinging door between Turkey and Bulgaria. Either the door will swing into Bulgaria and Islam will become stronger in Europe, or the door will swing into Turkey and the gospel will bring hope, peace, and salvation there.’”

As they continue to focus on learning the Bulgarian language and joining the village visitation team, Pat had an idea about how to link her home village of Landisville, Pa., more closely to the villages of southern Bulgaria.

She explained, “It’s the Bulgarian custom to always take along a small gift when you visit. I wondered if the ladies at Landisville (Pa.) Mennonite, our home church, would consider making pot holders for us to take along as hostess gifts. While the Americans are making the pot holders, they can be praying for the Bulgarians who will be receiving them. When we give the pot holders to people here, we can say they are symbols of love and prayer from the women in our home church.”
 
Joan Gingrich, president of the sewing circle at Landisville Mennonite, loved the idea and took it to the circle. They ran with it and by the time Myers returned to Bulgaria after their visit to the U.S. this summer they had a suitcase full of 126 handmade, prayed-over pot holders.

The pot holders were crocheted, quilted, knit, appliquéd, and sewed. Several young girls even made old-fashioned woven loop pot holders. Pat had noted that Bulgarians especially love orange, yellow, red, and brown, so some women focused on those colors. Others just used what they had on hand.

Gingrich said that excitement mounted as the women brought their completed pot holders to church and strung them on clothes lines in the church lobby for everyone to see. She was amazed by the creativity displayed and is excited that they can have such a “hands on” connection with people in Bulgaria as well as be a support and encouragement to missionaries from their congregation.

“We know the harvest is plentiful, and the laborers are few,” Pat quoted. “But we’re grateful to see that Lord of the harvest is mobilizing workers in Bulgaria – and in Landisville.”

-Jewel Showalter

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