11:7,6 - The Mennonite

Lamar Myers
Eastern
Mennonite
Missions worker
Pat Myers, left,
shares pot holders
with Tanka,
Mimi and Tinka,
women in southern
Bulgaria. The
Landisville (Pa.)
Mennonite
Church sewing
circle made the
pot holders as
gifts for women
in Bulgaria.
26 TheMennonite November 7, 2006
Pot holders carry prayers to Bulgaria
Landisville (Pa.) Mennonite Church sewing circle made 126 for missions.
Since coming to Bulgaria earlier this year,
Eastern Mennonite Missions workers Lamar
and Pat Myers have been visiting Turkish,
Bulgarian and Gypsy villages outside Kardjali in
southern Bulgaria. They serve on outreach teams
with Bulgarian pastor Hari Atanasov and other
members of his congregation.
“We are amazed by the openness we see,”
Lamar says. “On our first visit to Vishigrad we met
about a dozen Christians who wanted to get
together to pray. We were struck by the peace and
joy on the face of the woman in whose home we
met—in stark contrast to many others. This group
is mainly women and children because the husbands
are away, employed in larger towns because
of lack of work in the area.”
Atanasov noted that it is easy to get groups
started but that he doesn’t have time to maintain
all of them. Currently the team is working with 15
different groups of believers. In one village where
Either the door will swing into Bulgaria and Islam will become
stronger in Europe, or the door will swing into Turkey and the
gospel will bring hope, peace and salvation.
Atanasov distributed Christian literature two years
ago, he learned that several people had become
Christians and wanted follow-up.
On a recent visit a mission team made to
Devisilovo, near the Greek border, they started at
the mayor’s office, renewing friendships from last
summer, when the Song for the Nations choir, led
by Pat, gave a joint concert with their folk choir.
On this visit, the Bulgarian choir director, who is a
follower of Jesus, called many of the Christians in
the village together for a time of fellowship.
In the Gypsy village of Voivodovo, a woman had
been hosting a small group of believers in her
home for a time of worship—until the leader of the
local mosque warned her to stop.
“She stopped for a while,” Lamar says, “but the
group wants to start meeting again. Twenty crowded
into a 10- by 10-foot room on our first visit. Pat
taught the children a song in Bulgarian, and they
sang for us in their Gypsy language. On our next
visit, there were 40 in the room, overflowing into
the hallway. Several in the group have asked for
baptism.”
Lamar says the Christians in Bulgaria feel an
urgency to reach out with the gospel.
“One put it this way,” Lamar says: “ ‘There is a
swinging door between Turkey and Bulgaria.
Either the door will swing into Bulgaria and Islam
will become stronger in Europe, or the door will
swing into Turkey and the gospel will bring hope,
peace and salvation there.’ ”
As they continue to learn the Bulgarian language
and join the village visitation team, Pat had
an idea about how to link her home village of
Landisville, Pa., more closely to the villagers.
“It’s the Bulgarian custom to always take along
a small gift when you visit,” Myers says. “I wondered
if the ladies at Landisville Mennonite, our
home church, would consider making pot holders
for us to take along as hostess gifts. While the
Americans are making the pot holders, they can
be praying for the Bulgarians who will be receiving
them. When we give the pot holders to people
here, we can say they are symbols of love and
prayer from the women in our home church.”
Joan Gingrich, president of the sewing circle at
Landisville Mennonite Church, loved the idea and
took it to the circle.
By the time Myers returned to Bulgaria after
their visit to the United States this summer they
had a suitcase full of 126 handmade, prayed-over
pot holders. The pot holders were crocheted, quilted,
knitted, appliquéd and sewed. Several young
girls even made old-fashioned woven loop pot
holders. Pat had noted that Bulgarians especially
love orange, yellow, red and brown, so some
women focused on those colors.
“We know the harvest is plentiful and the laborers
are few,” Pat says, “but we’re grateful to see
that the Lord of the harvest is mobilizing workers
in Bulgaria and in Landisville.”—Jewel Showalter of
Eastern Mennonite Missions