In less than two weeks I will be on my second ministry trip to Bulgaria. My coworker Dana and I will leave July 14 and return July 23.
Last summer our Keynote team trained three Bulgarian staff members how to coach the workshop portion of Keynote’s Communication Training, and together we taught public speaking skills to a group of church leaders. (You can hear comments from the staff members and trainees here: http://tinyurl.com/noza3zz.) This year, Dana and I will oversee the Bulgarian coaches as they help lead the seminar portion of the training. After this, they will be fully qualified to lead and teach the curriculum on their own.
This trip will have an additional twist: we usually train Christians who want to learn to share Christ, but many of the university students attending this conference do not know Christ. The public speaking training will be just one part of an English Camp sponsored by Campus Crusade for Christ. Our sessions, especially those on The Power of Story, will provide many opportunities for each student to talk about his or her life and perspective. The believers will naturally share stories about connecting with God, and the relational environment of the English Camp will give them many more chances to engage in further spiritual conversation with nonbelievers.
I will be honest with you: I have a love-hate relationship with international travel. The multiple flight changes with long lines for security scans, the cramped economy-class seating during long flights, and working while jet-lagged are stress factors I would much rather do without. But the ministry that happens during an overseas mission trip far outweighs the stress of getting there and back. I love helping ministry-minded Christians share the good news of Christ!
Please pray…
- for safe and uneventful travel
- for effectiveness in encouraging and equipping our Bulgarian partners
- for God to open the hearts of the nonbelieving students to the gospel.
Thank you for praying!
