Election Results

Sunday was election day in Bulgaria.  The results are now in, and the result is . . . gridlock.

There were four winners in the election.  The GERB party took the most votes at just over 31%.  GERB is a moderate-conservative group.  Their name "GERB" is both an acronym and a word play.  "Gerb" is the Bulgarian word for "coat of arms."  This was the party that stepped down earlier this year under the pressure of nation wide protests.

The socialist (also know as the communist) party also took some seats with just over 27% of the overall vote.  The other two lesser parties were the "MRF" or "Movement for Rights and Freedom" party (sometimes referred to as the Turkish party because most of its members are from the ethnic Turkish minority of Bulgaria), and the nationalist "Ataka" party.  Both of these groups won less than 10% of the vote, but enough to win seats in parliament.

So what does all this mean?  As you probably notice, none of the groups scored a majority victory.  As such, no party can form a government unilaterally.  There are talks of a coalition between two parties to achieve a majority and get things done.  Right now it seems that a coalition between GERB and Ataka is the most likely.  For now the election has left a feeling of uncertainty.  There was no decisive victory, so there is no certainty as to the the direction of the country.

We shall see what happens.

So You Want to Teach, Eh?

This morning I read Matthew 22 and 23.  In these chapters Jesus had a very heated confrontation with the first century religious leaders of Jerusalem.  What got me was what Jesus said in Matthew 23:30:

"And you say, 'If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.'"

You see, the first century teachers did not view themselves with the harsh criticism that Jesus and the writers of The New Testament did.  They thought highly of themselves.  They did not realize that they were making the same mistakes their ancestors made.

Are we making the same mistakes?

Those of us who teach the Bible today need to be very careful not to copy our first century counterparts.  The first century teachers pushed very hard to do good things.  They told others to do them too. Jesus even said that what they taught should be listened to.  In Matthew 23:1-2 Jesus said, "The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat.  So you must be careful to do everything they tell you."  But Jesus didn't stop there, "But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach.  They tie up heavy cumbersome loads and put them on people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them."

How easy it is to tell someone the right thing to do.  How difficult it is to do it ourselves.  What good is a teacher if he tells people to not lie, gossip, or slander; to love our neighbors and do good to those who do evil to us?  If the teacher does not follow his own teaching he is worse than useless?  Make no mistake my fellow teachers, we will be seen for what we are.  Let's not strain out others' gnats but swallow camels ourselves.  Let's not make the same mistakes our first century counterparts made.  Let's practice what we preach.

Election Season

Just a quick update today on the political situation in Bulgaria.  Some of you may remember the demonstrations earlier this year across the country that caused the government to resign.  Elections will be held on May 12th to elect a new government.  This means that election season is in full swing.  Every day I see adds on my Facebook news feed encouraging me to vote for one party or the other.  Of course I will not be voting.  Like most republican countries, Bulgarians tend to frown on non-citizens casting ballots.  I only wish my lack of citizenship had some power to prevent the daily advertisements.

I tend to stay out of local politics in Bulgaria.  I have my opinions to be sure.  Everyone has an opinion.  Yet, I always remember that I live in Bulgaria as a guest of the Bulgarian people.  It is their country to run.  I have no right to live here any more than a Canadian has a right to live in Texas.  Still, I can't help but be interested in the direction my host country will move in the next few weeks.

Please pray for wisdom for the Bulgarian people as they make an important decision about the direction of their beautiful country.

Szczecin

Tomorrow we go to Szczecin, Poland.  This beautiful city in Western Pomerania was our home for two years.  We have not been back since we moved in 2008.  It is much colder there than Sofia.  Winter has not left Northern Europe according to the news.  Yet we are very much looking forward to seeing several old friends.

Spring break in the snow?  Why not?  Good company makes every day warm.

Szczecin at night

Tsarevets

Let me tell you about one of my favorite structures in Bulgaria.  Tsarevets is a fortress on a hill in the former Bulgarian capital of Veliko Turnovo.  To enter the stronghold an invading army would have two choices.  Either they could cross the long and narrow bridge to attack the main gates, or they would have to scale the cliffs to attack the outer wall.  Either way would be very difficult and costly.

The stronghold did eventually fall.  On July 17, 1393 the Ottoman Empire succeeded in taking and burning the fortress.  This event marked the fall of the Bulgarian Empire, and for 500 years Bulgarians would suffer as slaves before regaining their freedom in the late 19th century.

The stronghold remains to this day, and an evening light show now tells the story of the fall of the fortress.  It is quit the sight.  I would recommend a visit to Tsarevets to anyone who has an interest in Bulgarian or Ottoman history.

John Son of Thunder

Yesterday, Sasha and I saw a great performance of "Йоан Синът на Гърма" ("John Son of Thunder") at Theater Sofia.  It's the story of Jesus' close friend John.  It was very good.

From a technical aspect, the show was well put together.  The music was great, and the dancing was amazing.  There was significant artistic liberty taken in the story, but that didn't bother me as little is known about John's early life.  You have to make stuff up to write an interesting story about young John.  Besides, the world was represented as a train station, so it's not exactly like this was supposed to be a pure historical play.

There were many powerful songs and great moments in the play, but my favorite was at the end of the first act.  John and his friends had been waiting their whole lives for the Messiah to come and free them from Rome.  Additionally, John had been seeking the meaning of life since he was a boy.  John, his brother James, and friends Peter and Andrew were attending a synagogue service.  The synagogue leaders invite a man sitting in the back to come share a word from the scriptures.  The man stands up, comes forward, and reads, "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”  He then finished by saying, "Today, this scripture is fulfilled."

I know this story well.  The man reading was Jesus, and He had just announced that He was the Messiah.  But to see it from John's perspective, where this nobody stands up, reads a passage, then drops the bombshell that the prophecy is referring himself was powerful.  This was who John was waiting for and suddenly he was there.  What a powerful moment!

I really enjoyed the play.  It was well done and the message was a message of freedom from sin and death that can be found through the light of the world, Jesus.  I told Sasha afterward that if understanding that play was the only benefit I ever received from learning Bulgarian, it was worth it.

Athens

This week, Sasha and I took a trip to Athens for a conference with the ReachGlobal Europe-South leaders.  While there we visited several amazing sights in Athens.

We started our sight seeing day at the parliament building.  This building was built in the early half of the 19th century which makes it one of the youngest sights we saw.  I was interested in seeing this building as it has been on the news quite a lot frequently (usually with protesters in front of it).

After seeing the parliament building we stumbled upon the Greek version of The White House.  This guy was very busy keeping the palace grounds safe.

A few blocks later we saw the Olympic Stadium.  This stadium was used for the ancient and modern Olympics.  It is also the ending point for the Athens marathon.

The next two sights were the temple of Zeus (top) and Hadrian's Arch.  These two ancient relics of a time long gone were impressive, but not nearly as impressive as what was to come.  (Look through the arch and you can see where we went next.)

We worked our way toward the Acropolis.  To get there, we walked through a very tiny path that almost felt like it was running through back yards and along the roofs of the good people of Greece.  It afforded a great view of the city though.

Acropolis means "Sky City."  This is a fitting name.  High above the city it can be seen from far away.  It takes quite a climb to get there, but it is worth it.  It was an ancient sight of worship that has been there for thousands of years.  I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.  This is but a portion of what we saw.  It truly was a city in the sky.

It was unlike anything I have ever seen before.

After seeing the Acropolis we climbed up nearby Mars Hill.  This ancient sight was where the local Roman approved Greek government convened during the time of the Roman Empire.  It was also the sight of Paul's famous sermon.  As we stood on on the hill a friend of ours read the message Paul delivered to the leaders of Rome nearly 2000 years ago.

“People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious.  For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.

 “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands.  And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.  From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands.  God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’

“Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill.  In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.  For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”

That is what he said, and this is what they all saw as he was speaking.

For years I thought of this passage as one of Paul's softer messages.  He certainly does show a great tolerance as he compares the Greek gods to the true God who made heaven and earth.  Yet there is still a very real element of confrontation as Paul speaks of God not living in temples built by human hands.  These words would have brought to mind the massive temple that was right in front of them.  "God overlooked such ignorance in the past but now he commands people everywhere to repent."  This sermon would have been hard for the learned men he was speaking to to hear.  It is interesting that this sermon is overwhelmingly used by theologians today as an example of making the Gospel more appealing to a specific audience.  It would appear that Paul had an intent to hit at the heart of the pagan worship of ancient Greece.

That was most of our sigh seeing day in Athens.  We ended the day with a sunset walk on the Aegean Sea.  It was a great day, and a great week.