June 15
The prompt sleep-going from the previous night led, inevitably, to a prompt awakening at 4:00am, at which point I knew it was useless to struggle against being awake. Might as well go with the flow…So, I read more and got ready for the day. Breakfast wasn’t until 8:30am. I confess I downed the b
read, cheese, salami and hard-boiled egg rather quickly—so fast, in fact, that one of the Bulgarian pastors commented on my food’s disappearance as though it was a cosmic mystery. I tried to explain that it felt like lunch, but my explanation was lost in translation.The seminar arrangement at this hot springs spa would have been especially perfect if I had remembered to bring my swimming trunks. As it is, I must enjoy the warm, spring-fed pool with my eyes only. Probably just as well that I don’t have the opportunity. I’ve enjoyed napping extensively in the afternoons.
The sessions themselves are rather free-flowing, as far as content. I’m simply going from one topic/text to another according to whatever comes to my mind. I’d like to believe it’s revelation that’s guiding me—and several people have commented on the timeliness of the things I’m sharing—but as is usually the case in such prophetic-style ministry when I do not rely on notes or structured sequence in teaching, I have to proceed in faith.
The discussions in the morning centered around discipleship (surprise) and just how easy it is to do the one thing Jesus wants us to do—share with others what He first shares with us. I had the leaders do an exercise where they each shared a verse that had struck them, that morning in their devotions, with a new best-friend. The friend, in turn, shared the essence of that verse passed on to them with yet another new friend, who once more passed it along to someone else. At the end of the exercise, I asked how many people had really been touched by the Lord with the 3rd generation sharing of a verse someone else had read that morning. Almost everyone raised their hands to say, this really answered something in my life.
Many questions and subjects came up the rest of the morning—and again that evening after dinner. At dinner I asked Vania if she had any suggestions for subjects that I should talk about with the leaders, and she said that the Lord had been leading me quite exactly. The things I had been sharing were perfect for the people who were at the seminar.
To me, the most significant revelation from the day was just how much people long for revival—in the sense of God doing something that will make church and the whole atmosphere around believers become more vibrant. What we realized together is that what they remember about the revival that happened in the early 1990’s, as the Communists were swept from power, was that everyone was eager to share what God had been doing and teaching in their lives; they had all things in common; and they all served alongside one another doing whatever needed doing!
Hmmm. Sounds like the very things we’re encouraged to do—each one supplying his or her part; sharing with others what Jesus shares with us; serving one another. When we pray for revival, we ask God to do something different like He has done in the past. I wonder if we would experience more of what we call revival if we would do things differently like we did years ago…
Here are some pictures of my friends in Bulgaria:
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