Make sure you have stamp

After a great tour in Bulgaria we took a 9 hour overnight bus ride through Macedonia to Pristina Kosovo.  The Bulgarian border officials had some trouble deciding what to do with Dustin because he appeared to be in the country illegally.  The officials on the Turkey/Bulgaria border had not entered him into the system and did not stamp his passport.  After some questioning and delay for the entire bus, one of the officials declared "We are good police, you can go...make sure you have stamp next time."  

Upon our arrival in Kosovo we had some great orientation and great food.  We have a super host here who has a big heart for the people of Kosovo.  He has organized a full line up of venues for us and is very enthusiastic about our partnership with him.  We are the first international group to come to Kosovo and share a message of true Hope and Love through creative outreach performances.  We feel extremely privileged to be here in the newest country in the world (only 2 years old)!

On our first performance day we did 2 shows at a preschool for the cutest 3-6 year olds ever.  Though we made our message very simple, we know they, as well as their teachers, thoroughly enjoyed it and heard about God’s love.  It was actually quite special to share with these precious children who need to know that they are known and loved.

Next we shared with students at a gypsy camp.  Their eyes were full of the heaviness of the world but they were well behaved and seemed to drink in the Prodigal Son parable about God’s love.  That same day we visited a city with a large Turkish population and did a spontaneous show on the sidewalk near the city center.  Several hundred people gathered and seemed totally into the performing and message.  We had great conversations with many who stayed after wanting to talk.

God has really blessed our events and kept doors open and we look forward to the rest of this amazing tour.

"Happy Kids" children's center

 

with some Roma gypsy kids

NATO, European Union, USA, Kosovo
we see the US flag almost as much as the Kosovo flag

getting some "help" from the audience...
and a few laughs

Good Times In Bulgaria

We can hardly believe that we started out this TACO tour nearly 2 months ago in the scalding heat of temps over 100F/40C.  The temperature dropped quite a bit during our second week in Bulgaria.  One show was rained out where it was impossible to set up in the beautiful town square where we had received permission to perform.  The band, however, did a simple acoustic set outside under a café awning.  We handed out flyers of the band StoryBox with the Prodigal Son story and though Dustin was just sitting in the café chatting with some Bulgarians, his flyers with his testimony were high in demand among the small audience the band drew.

Dustin did great keeping the message clear and succinct while, during some shows, his message was translated into Turkish and then into Bulgarian.  We again had very attentive and helpful hosts who have been busy preparing for us, transporting and serving with us and will be busy with all the follow up once we leave.  We know and trust that though we didn’t have huge crowds, God drew those who did attend and He will use the truth we shared to make an eternal difference.  He is worthy to be proclaimed, regardless of the results we can see!

making the jump in a village near Razgrad, Bulgaria

Katie's smokin' "Joyful, Joyful" dance

in the shadow of  Bulgarian kahn Asparuh

singin' in the rain

watch out for those potholes!
a disco parking lot in Razgrad