May He bring you home rejoicing at the wonders He has shown you ...

No pictures today. The batteries in the camera died.

But what a last day. This morning we met another new friend. Venci Stoikov is the pastor at a Church of God congregation in Sofia. He's a friend of our new friend Jimmy Luchev from Stara Zagora and we hit it off immediately.

Venci drove us back to Samokov, to the Gypsy church we had visited last week. Pastor Sacho invited us to attend worship and he is a persuasive enough guy that we couldn't say no. And, being as this is Bulgaria, no visiting pastors get away without preaching.

Venci filled us in on the challenges and rewards of ministry in Roma communities. Evangelical Protestant churches are about the only groups in Bulgaria that treat Gypsies with respect, so they tend to respond really positively to them. But there are deeply rooted traditions of fear and superstition, along with generations of nomadic wandering make it really difficult to develop long-term commitments. However, he said, guys like Sacho are doing amazing work in developing their congregations.

There were about 150 at church. To our surprise, women sit on one side and men on the other. But we both joined Sacho's wife Reni on the ladies' side. One thing we have discovered -- that the concept of a woman being the leader of a congregation and of a clergy couple serving different churches is totally off the radar screen for people in this part of the world. Women's leadership is in its very early stages.

However, they graciously received messages from both of us and seemed genuinely honoured that we had come among them.

This afternoon, we met one of the most interesting guys that we've encountered on our entire trip. Hristo Berisov is an Orthodox priest who is one of the leaders in a movement trying to bring together Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Protestant Christians in one fellowship. Their efforts are rooted in the pre-Constantinian reality of the church in which local autonomy and diversity were common. Hristo argues that the official Orthodox Church in Bulgaria is not so much Orthodox as Byzantine in character. The Byzantine vision of the church was one of the church as Kingdom of God on earth, demanding uniformity over local context. Hristo's English was shaky and he brought a translator who was not all that effective. But his movement, the Christian and Ecumenical Apostolic Church, has a website, http://www.ceacbg.com/, which we're going to check out when we get home. And Jimmy Luchev will fill us in further.

This evening, we went to Crossroads, Venci Stoikov's church. Great music, passionate prayer, a lengthy but really thoughtful sermon by one of the young guys in the church, and, of course, obligatory greetings from two visitors from Canada. What we really appreciated is that they have headsets with simultaneous translation. Krasi Rafailov, a lawyer, who speaks excellent English, spoke the translation into a microphone which we received in our own personal earphone. Wow.

In my remarks, I commented on how we had arrived in all of these places, welcomed by people we had never met before, who took us into their homes, their churches and their hearts as if we had been long-time friends. Of course, we are friends -- friends in Christ who creates community among those who know him.

The Morning Office from the Northumbria Community closes with this blessing:

May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you
Wherever He may send you;
May He guide you through the wilderness,
Protect you through the storm;
May He bring you home rejoicing
At the wonders He has shown you;
May He bring you home rejoicing
Once again into our doors.

Those are the words that are in my mind as we wrap up this incredible trip.

It's 9:15 p.m. in Sofia. We leave for the airport at 5:15 a.m. and by this time tomorrow night, God willing, we will be "making our final approach" to Pearson Airport. Should you read this posting before that time, please pray for safe travel.