Journeying

The Mann-Sunberg friendship started many years ago. My path crossed with Jay and Teanna when I was a kid and my parents were hosting the Sunbergs for some home assignment…unfortunately, they remember that interaction more than I do!! Then, many years later I happened to start dating their colleague and close friend. Doug and the Sunbergs had been neighbours for years. Doug served in the Ukraine whilst the Sunbergs were in Russia and then Doug in Romania whilst J&T worked in Bulgaria. Jay Sunberg married Doug and me in 2003, with sweet 7-year-old Lexi as our flower girl. The past 8 years have been filled with sweet Mann-Sunberg get-togethers. As our families have grown (in size and age!) and as our paths have increasingly intertwined, we have become family.

When as our bosses and our friends they came to us in April and asked in light of their potential move to Hungry for us to consider a move from Kosovo to Bulgaria, it was painful for us all. Jay & Teanna have grown their family, built a mission home and ministered for 13 years here in Bulgaria. After 3 different country assignments over 6 years we decided that enough was enough and Kosovo was home. Our roots had grown deep into the Kosovar soil. Yet, here we all were presented with change. We thought, we prayed, we discussed, we prayed and we thought some more!

Well, many of you know the rest of the story…  Within a few weeks of each other, the Sunberg Six moved to Hungry and The Mann Clan moved into their house here in Sofia, Bulgaria.

Our families just spent a wonderful weekend together here in “OUR” house. J, T, Doug and I had time to talk, reflect and enjoy each other’s company whilst the kids… well they just had ball! Along with the fun, food, meeting with friends and fellowship something significant happened this weekend.

Teanna and I had been able to spend time together chatting about our moves. We both carry heartbreak over leaving our homes and ministries and we both have a deep desire to sense God’s continued calling to the places that we have now found ourselves setting up home, ministry and life. I guess we both needed God to say “You did good, now continue.”  We both have felt guilty, confused and maybe even scared that the we “heard God wrong” during the spring when we sensed God leading our families to move. We talked, we reasoned, we shared our opinions, we committed to pray for each other. Then, last night I overheard Teanna quoting Proverbs 3:5-6 to some of her friends. My ears pricked. As I listened to her sharing that God had given her these verses during the time that they were seeking God’s will over their move my heart started to jump! Anyone who heard our home assignment presentation this year will remember me quoting these verses and sharing how during praying over whether we should stay in Kosovo or move to Bulgaria God spoke to me through this section of Proverbs. A quick summary for those who didn’t have the “pleasure” of hosting the Mann Clan this year. In the eyes of the world, logic, even to our families and church supporter,s moving again made no sense.  Yet however crooked our path looked, this was God’s straight path for our family…how my understanding always stinks in light of God’s. Only when trusting in Him can we begin to understand our lives! And here I am hearing Teanna express that God gave her the same verses at the same time. Wow! I had been praying for Teanna on and off all day that God would give her something… a sign, a word, something that would give her a renewed confirmation that The Sunberg Six are in the right place doing the right thing. And God did it again…he spoke to me, and The Mann Clan. He so often does that. As I erupted from the other side of the room with “No way T! Those are the same verses that God gave me too!” I was confronted again with how grand and awesome our God is. He has this whole thing planned out, but more than that. We have come away from this weekend with a picture of how God works and how interconnected the body of Christ is. We have a sense of being a part of the big picture…the picture that we cannot see or understand but that God is totally Lord over. God is teaching us to trust and submit to His will, leave our own logic and understanding to the side and follow him. Some of the confirmation or clarification that we were looking for and praying for came in those moments of God showing us our joint journey. These moves are His will and plan not simply our desires or based only on organizational strategies, finances or logistics. He is taking us and our families on a faith and character building journey… a joint journey… a journey that has so much history yet one that we are just beginning

Birthday Week =)

Its been a fun, cake, gift, excitment filled week! Quite exhausting for the mom of the house! October is the month for the Mann Clan. Sarah turned three on the 19th, Doug got a little older on the 26th and then Jonathan turned five on the 27th. There were 3 small family celebrations, 2 friend filled parties and one crazy, costume wearing kindergarten class party! We are thankful for life and family, for years of health and happiness. Here are some photos of the birthday peeps!

Education and Training

I don’t know if I’m crazy or not, but before we traveled to the Regional Conference, I made a day trip to Prishtina for some meetings.  We were planning out our Theological Education classes for our students in Albania and Ko sovo.  The trip, when I’m on my own, is about 4 1/2 hours one way.  I happened to hit the borders at times when there wasn’t much traffic and that helps a lot.  In addition, there weren’t any kids needing potty breaks, etc.

The time in Prishtina was fantastic even though it was very short.  I was able to meet up with some of our friends, including Selim who leads our group in Suhareka.  It reminded me just how much I miss living in Ko sovo.  Nevertheless, hanging out with friends wasn’t the only purpose of the trip.  Planning for the future with regard to our Theological Education program was the main reason.  I met with Gil Thibault and Steve Beiler and we were able to hash out a two year plan for classes…and aggressive schedule to move our students along in their education and training.  I’m very excited about it.

One thing that causes me some concern, though, is that funds are tight.  We are in the process of increasing tuition for the students.  But the tuition costs don’t cover things like airfare to bring in a professor (all of our professors are kind enough to donate their time to teach) and other costs.  We would love to find some supporters to help us with this incredibly important ministry…the training of pastors and leaders.  If you are interested in helping us in some way, please let us know via email, Facebook or phone call.  Thanks in advance for your interest and support!

Retreat-Conference Reflections

As I, Jen, reflect on the last week I have a bunch of mixed feelings. Last week saw 638 (or so) Christians from around Europe and Aisa congregate for a time of rest and renewal before celebrating and seeking the Lord together at our Regional conference. Being together with so many nations and languages yet all christians is definatley an amazing experience. The surroundings were beuatiful and the fellowship, when I had time to talk for more than a quick “hey”, was wonderful. It was great to not have to cook, clean, study, errand run etc. for a week. Yet, for me, the word that comes to mind that sums up my conference experience was sacrifice. This motherhood thing continues to stretch me and teach me in the area of sacrifice. Going into the retreat conference I knew that it would be challenging with three little ones along for the ride, and challendhing it was! Mealtimes saw me dashing from one buffet table to the next trying to feed 3 hungry mounths (and my own!), rest times saw me running around with the kids at the water park and between the indoor outdoor pools, and service/workshop times were inevitably interupted by the needs of one of the kids or my own inability to relax and enter into worship without worrying about when I would be needed! Was the sacrifice of my own rest and retreat worth it? Was the time invested in the kids rather than my friendships well placed? A resounding “yes” springs from my heart. Jonathan and Sarah loved mixing with the other MK’s. They benifitted so much from the wonderful kids program that was run by folks from Texas. They feel loved, accepted and normal when we get together with our multi-cultural family. I believe that some of the experiences that they had, lessons that they learned and seeds that have been planted in their hearts and minds will last far beyond the conference week or even this year. Therefore, exhausted as I am from being away for the week, coming home with a sick baby and a sick self, I can say that it was worth the effort. It was a god conference

Misho Home =)

Here is an update from Jessica on Misho’s progress. Thanks for all who prayed and helped!

“Last week on Friday they released Misho from the hospital. He and his mom spent the night with me before travelling home to Razgrad with some friends headed that way.

Before he left, we got some good news from the doctor. It appears that the first surgery might be enough and the second might be needed on a cosmetic basis only. In 4 months Misho’ll be back in Sofia for a scan and then they’ll be able to tell us more.

Due to your generosity, there’s still more than $2,000 which remains from what was raised for the first operation. We have left that in a bank account and are waiting to see about the second operation. They’ll use that money to come for the scan and future medical treatment. The Razgrad church has been gathering homemade canning and jams for the family to make it through the winter. Thank you for your prayers and your help for this wonderful family! Tanya headed back to work yesterday and Misho will go back to school in a couple of weeks. I’ll keep you updated…”

A month ago today…

… we arrived at our new house here in Sofia. It’s been a busy month! The first week was full of unpacking boxes, buying and making up flat pack furniture and getting somewhat settled. We still have a “junk room” that is filled with odd bits of furniture and a few boxes filled with office stuff and decorations. This time we WILL open and organize our office stuff… you could say that in ALbania and Kosovo we didn’t exactly accomplish that goal! We are starting to feel at home. Today, for the FIRST time as we drove up the road Sarah yelled with excitment “There our house!” Up until now she has called it Uncle Jay’s house (AKA Jay Sunberg who we often visited here).

Each Monday, Wednesday and Friday we pay someone to give us an all day headache. In other words, we start our day with a couple of hours of language study! We are encouraged by Bulgarian. A lot of it sounds familiar to our ears, and if we can find the time to memorize vocabulary, we believe that we will suceed wth this language! However, it still is headache inducing in these first weeks! In fact, being immersed in a new culture and language is physically exhausting. A least this time around we understand and can predict some of things we will experience with this latest transition. We hope that in a few months we will at least be able to get around in Bulgarian.

We have enjoyed becoming part of the weekly fellowship in Sofia. The church is made up of some young couples and a bunch of sweet Grandmas. We are enjoying getting to know everyone with our (very broken) Bulgarian! Most of the couples have some English, so right now that helps!

I (Jen) have started a MOPS group on Thursday mornings. This is something that in Kosovo was a weekly lifeline for me! Getting together as a group of young Christain moms is so fun and refreshing. This week there were three of us moms with 5 and a half of our kids (one lady is pregant). There are a couple more moms who I know will be joining us next week

Jay Sunberg, previous man of the house that we are now living in, came “home” for a few days this week for a District Advisary Board meeting this weekend. It was fun and weird to have him here! We have visited the Sunbergs at this house many times over the past 9 years. It was strange to have Jay here without all of his girls and it was strange that he was in the guestroom… it was strange, but it felt great to have him here! We hope that soon the whole Sunberg family can come visit. Over the weekend, we had 5 extra people stay. It was fun to use the house to entertain. We certainly have the space here!

We have also visited Zhana, one of the national leaders here, to celebrate the beginning of the school year in Vidrare, a village that she works in. We thouroughly enjoyed our time with her. Sarah wanted to stay at school with the other kids and then with Zhana at her house. We will post more about Zhana and her work in another post (soon.. I hope!).

Jonathan continues to enjoy school. He is making friends and learning a bunch! Check out this little movie of him in school =)

The Least of These

In recent weeks there has been growing unrest within Bulgaria. It all centers around a sence of nationalism and the Roma populations. The Roma (also called gypsy) populations have lived accross Europe for generations yet they are still very much the minority and recieve much presecution. SOme of you will know that I (Jen) have a real soft spot for them. I am excited that here all of our churches are accepting to the Roma and work closely with them and Zhana who works about an hour out of Sofia spends much of her time working with Roma. Her work has been effected in the past week by the unrest. Please pray for our nation and the national leaders as we work amongst the ‘voiceless and persecuted’ here in Bulgaria.

Here is a link to a BBC report on the unrest and the rallies that are now starting in Sofia. Click Here

‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ Matthew 25:40

Misho – News just in from Jessica

“OPERATION SUCCESSFUL BUT NEED ONE MORE…

Today Misho came through the surgery well. He woke up and when he saw his mom, he said, “I love you, Mom!”. It’s significant that he recognized her and seems to have no memory loss. During the surgery, Misho’s brain membrane opened again and they had to spend some time closing it. As a result they weren’t able to reconstruct his forehead fully and in 6 months he’ll have to have another surgery. We also have to pay extra for all the special supplies that they used, but we have the money to do that thanks to all of you and your generosity! On Monday we’ll get more information about what that this next surgery involves. Please pray that Misho won’t get any infections and for Tanya (Misho’s Mum), who’s exhausted. Thanks for everything from both of them and much love”.

MISHO – SURGERY TODAY!

If you have been follwong Misho’s story – or if you haven’t – please be praying for him specifically this morning as he goes through a surgery to check the statues of his cerebral membrane and to repair the bones in his skull. May God’s hand be upon him ad the Dr’s throughout the hours of surgery and days of healing ahead!

Misho Update

Together with the BG church we are praying that Misho can wait for the consultant surgeon to return to Sofia to complete his first surgery. Please pray with us!

MISHO UPDATE FROM JESSICA MORRIS: They’ve now taken the drain out of Misho’s back because it can only stay in 7 days. As a result, the fluid is building up in his brain and the severe headaches are back. Sunday and yesterday he had a fever and was vomiting. If the fluid begins to come out of his nose again, they will operate immediately for the first surgery. We’re still hoping that we’ll be able to wait until the professor is back from vacation to operate on the 19th.

Please also pray for Tanya, Misho’s mother. She’s staying with Misho in the hospital. Until Sunday night, there was a free bed in Misho’s room that she could sleep on but the hospital has reached capacity and she’s been sleeping on a kitchen chair. I took her a sleeping bag and backpacking air mattress that are compact. She is continually by Misho’s side, only leaving the hospital when I go daily to take things and to drink a coffee. When Misho had the drain in his back, his head had to be the lowest part of his body. So, he couldn’t stand to go to the bathroom and could not get out of bed. I’m not sure now if he can get up or not, but all the stress and the lack of sleep are really wearing on her.

Also, a big praise is that this weekend several Bulgarian churches took offerings for Misho. The family had already raised more than half of the money for the first surgery and the Bulgarian churches raised the rest for the first surgery. We’re now raising the money for the second surgery and it’s possible that we might be able to combine the money for the surgeries and only have one – depending on what they find when they go in. I’ll keep you updated!

Thanks so much and God bless you!
Jessica