Faraway Family

Al and Diane Mellinger are American missionaries living in Petrich, Bulgaria, a city of about 14,000 people just a few kilometres from the Greek border. They are helping to develop local leadership in Bulgarian churches which often struggle because they are so young and inexperienced.

On Thursday evening, Al and his translator Peggy took us on a hair-raising trip through the mountains to the town of Gotse Delchev. I didn't bother to take any pictures, first because it was hard to stop on the winding road, but also because I knew my camera wouldn't do justice to what I was seeing. But it was nothing short of breath-taking. Here's a picture of a mountain that looks like where we were, that I lifted off the internet.

Gotse Delchev is a typical small Bulgarian town with the tile-roofed houses and apartment blocks that you see all over Bulgaria. And like most of those towns, it has an area consisting of rambling houses, existing in a kind of shadow land on the fringes of legality and modern services like proper roads. We parked the car and walked up a steep hill to a house where a Turkish speaking congregation meets. We were met by a group of young and astonishingly good looking young men, including Andrej, the pastor, who looks more like a member of the youth group.

Andrej was the youth leader at another church but became disillusioned by controlling leadership, so decided to start a new church with some of his kids. Those who gathered to talk to us in the late afternoon were all young men in their 20s. They were very soft-spoken as they described the peace and joy that they have found in Christ. Being Turkish, most of the people in the community are nominally Muslim, but in practice are nothing. Everyone in the community knows each other, but the church has given them a sense of purpose and togetherness that is new for them.

Employment is always a problem. A few are fortunate enough to work locally, but most travel to Greece to work in agriculture or the garment industry. Greece is the prosperous neighbor just over the hills. A lot of businesses in southern Bulgaria carry merchandise that Bulgarians can't afford. Greeks come over the border in droves to take advantage of cheap prices. But there was a sense of pride and hope that we had not sensed in some of the other communities we had visited.

Their meeting place is the first floor of a house owned by Sergei and his wife. Diane and I both had to use the washroom and Sergei, who really speaks no English at all, took great pride in showing us his lovely home.

They meet for prayer and worship on Thursday nights as well as Sundays. The young guys who were there were the music leaders. They sang songs in Turkish that had that slightly melancholy timbre that one associates with Middle Eastern music. It was a nice change from American praise and worship songs. I wish we could get young guys at home to sing like them!

The room where we met has room for about 40-50 and by the time the service started at 7 p.m. it was full. Everyone who came in recognized us as newcomers and greeted us with the words (in Bulgarian) "Praise God." It was genuine and unfeigned hospitality.

We have now realized that guests -- especially guest pastors -- can't get away without speaking. So we were both ready with a short message. Peggy (who is awesome!) translated into Bulgarian. Even though their first language is Turkish, everybody speaks both.

I spoke about 1 Corinthians 13 because we were told that one of their songs was based on that text. I said that even though we don't speak either Turkish or Bulgarian, we speak a common language because we are bound together by the love of Christ.

Al preached a sermon on the parable of the sowers. Pastor Andrej led in prayer. He also said some really gracious things about how important it has been for them to have people come to them with help, encouragement and prayer.

At the end of the service, everyone embraced us with spontaneous warmth and you got the feeling it was much more than a formality. They were really glad we had chosen to come and be with them.

Every day has brought a new surprise. Here we were, in a place more out of the way than we ever expected to be, embraced by this community of wonderful young people who are filled with joy at the faith they have found in Christ. We felt like we were in the presence of family.