Bulgaria
My Husband and I, were on our way to Bulgaria for a holiday.After we had booked ,we met a young Bulgarian man, he was looking for a lively church in Hastings so we brought him to our church.In conversation he told us he'd had to leave his home because of his Christian beliefs and he had been to a bible college in Scandanavia. But now that Communism has collapsed he had been back to his home to see his parents and to Burghas where he had been a member of a evangelical church, which had just reopened . He had come to England to improve his English. Has we talked he realised we were going to be staying just three Kilometer's from his parents. So he asked if we would visit them so we said we would be happy to meet them. He then told us of the plight of his church has all their bibles had been confiscated when the communists took over the country and now they were very scarce and materials for children's work were non existent. So we decided to try and help them. We contacted a company called No Frontiers that translated Bibles and other Christian materials in every language.So we bought a supply of bibles and children's material
So here we were on our way, the flight was delayed, but we eventually boarded just before midnight.The plane was very antiquated , it looked like it had been hand painted. Our seats were at the back of the plane, I looked under the seat for the life jacket but their was none there, my husband had one, well I expect they would have spares if we needed them, hopefully we wouldn't.
At about one am in the morning they put a plank across the aisle and said the bar his now open, all they were serving was spirits and vodka mostly, all I wanted at that time was a cup of tea.So i declined and tried to sleep. we eventually landed in Bulgaria, you could tell the Russian influence, it was very regimented, but it was in the early nineties and so it was not surprising we had to queue for everything, we had to pay for visa's to get in the country.Then I noticed people were in a queue with their luggage and has I watched I saw they were scanning there luggage before they were allowed in the country, at that time we had never experianced that before.
We joined the queue apprehensively. We weren't sure about our case full of literature, I rather felt we would be in trouble, I looked at my Husband and could see he was worried too, but we just had to bluff it out, I started praying desperately for a miracle.I came out in a cold sweat and started shaking, my Husband held my hand to hide our nervousness..Our cases were just approaching the scanner, when suddenly there was a
tremendous argument going on, a Bulgarian lady was screaming and shouting at one of the passport control officers, she was waving her arms and everybody stopped to watch including the officer in charge of the scanner. Our cases passed through the scanner without anyone watching what was in them. when the shouting stopped the officer didn't seem to realise our cases had not been examined, he smiled at us and we were through. I have no idea what the commotion was about but I know the timing was of the Lord's, he was looking after us and his word.
The church was very grateful for the Literature which made it all worth it
We went on to enjoy our holiday and meeting the Parents. of the young Bulgarian, his mother and sister later became Christians We remained friends with his mother and we had her staying with us when he later married a English girl. But we will always remember our first experience of Bulgaria.
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