When a Weekend Turns into a Lifetime . . .

So, I arrived in Sofia, Bulgaria on Friday afternoon - a bit more than 24 hours ago. It's nothing like what I expected. What did I expect?! I'm not sure - but it wasn't this.

Something inside of me broke wide open. This is a city full of hope.

It's a city with new life. The communist regime fell in 1989, leaving this little nation in ruins - and a generation of people with nothing to hold on to but obstinate despair. Now, 20 years have passed - and a generation of babies have grown up in a world of hope. They're entering the job force, and the nation is transforming . . .

I'm here visiting my friend Tausha - who directs an American Englsih School here in Sofia in partnership with an elderly American couple who founded it in 1992. She and I drove down the city streets, and I could see so easily the difference between building built during the time of Communism and those built after its fall - there are businesses sprouting up all over, new housing communities, and light in the eyes of the people. We went downtown to take pictures of old beautiful churches and the fantastic infrastructure - and saw old men playing chess next to a fountain in a community park.

This nation, like many, has been hit by the economic crises of this past year - but there's still hope pulsing in the city. I met a young Bulgarian woman for coffee today, and she expressed the tension between the generations - as the old cling to their cultural roots and the young reach for something new. How do you hold on to the Lexus and the olive tree, as Friedman would put it? It seems a particularly poignant argument here - in a developing nation that just entered the European Union and is bursting with opportunity and growth.

Late last night, we drove the track . . . I saw women working in prostitution on a street so similar to Pac Hwy in Seattle (where our girls sometimes walk) . . . except there were no street lights. So dangerous. And there is no one here to stand with the women - stand for the women.

I went to lunch today with my friend Tausha and her friend Mark - a man who started the Cedar Foundation and is just now dreaming and organizing to launch some new projects in about a year - one part, working with women involved in prostitution. Crazily, on Thursday night I went on outreach in Athens with a woman whose directing an organization that just started in Thessaloniki last fall working with women involved in prostitution called A21. It's connected with and funded through Hillsongs in Australia - which is also what's beginning here in Sofia this coming year in partnership with the Cedar Foundation.

All that to say - our conversations have been seeded with destiny. Whereas in Athens, I felt overwhelmed and excited but fearful, there's a strange peace that has somehow washed over me here . . .

And I've begun to wonder. More than begun. Lord Jesus, are You in this? Will You send me here? I'm willing . . .

There are so many details I don't have time to share now, but I feel dizzy with vision for this place. I'm excited to look back on this weekend in the future . . . to see what happens with these conversations and these first meetings . . .

Perhaps this will be a weekend that turns into a lifetime . . .