CPC group mission trip to Greece and Yastrebovo, Bulgaria

A word from Deana Dickerson:

What an incredible privilege it is to partner with Macedonian Outreach! One of my greatest joys as the Missions Director at CPC is to visit our partners and see first hand what God is up to. This July we took a team of eight to Bulgaria and Greece. Being back in Yastrebovo with Gopi and Reni is like being home. I am immensely blessed by them and consider them dear friends.

As a team we spent quality time with the children in Yastrebovo helping run a small kids camp and even took them on a day trip to the Black Sea! We also got to see the almost completed 13 homes being built in Pamukchii, truly an answer to many years of prayer! I was moved to tears as I remember my first visit to this village years ago where there was nothing. In Greece we enjoyed some downtime with Vula and visited two refugee centers and a soup kitchen. We also did a few small projects around the ministry house.

Lastly, Aaron came to help us capture the beautiful story of Macedonian Outreach. While there are many moving pieces and we could not possibly capture them all, we look forward to sharing an impact film with you all later this Fall. We are so grateful to have had this time together!

A word from Gracie Carpenter:

During the trip, God highlighted one specific verse to me, which was 1 Timothy 4:12. “Do not let anyone look down upon you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, and in purity.” Going on the trip, I was a bit nervous that since I was so young, my words would not hold enough weight to impact people. I came to find that leading in these ways that the Lord calls us to lead in, age does not hold the weight anymore. I saw this when I was given the opportunity to lead worship in English for the people of the church in Bulgaria. Most people did not understand any of the words I was saying, but still every person was impacted by the energy of Jesus flowing through me. My age no longer mattered and neither did the “language barrier”. With God, the weight of our authority is held in love. You are respected for the way you love others. When people see your heart, they will see Jesus, and that’s the goal..to make heaven crowded.

A word from Caleb Van Randwyk:

When you think of kids living in poverty in a country where they don’t have a lot of the things we take for granted you might assume they would be unhappy. However, I was recently blessed with the opportunity to interact with kids in a couple small villages in Bulgaria and I found completely the opposite. Even as we first walked into the room with the kids they were already smiling and wanting to talk to us. The joy they had was apparent on their faces and it’s crazy to think that I might have envisioned a scene with sad and dreary looking children. In fact the joy in these children was almost unfathomable coming from somewhere like the US. These kids didn’t cry or throw fits like I’m sure I did when I was younger. They were just happy to be around us and play with us. Somehow, despite their circumstance they had joy in their hearts and I feel we should all learn from this.

In Galatians Paul talks about the fruit of the spirit and joy is one of them that many of us struggle to exhibit or feel. Often I find that my happiness can determine how I act or speak and the problem lies in how happiness is temporary. Fortunately joy is eternal! If we can learn from these kids and base our joy in Christ then we can bear much fruit. If I let my actions and words flow from this joy then I will be better able to reflect Christ through my life, and be better able to witness to those around me. I feel like God really taught me to find my joy in him through this experience and I’m so glad I was able to be a part of this trip so I could have this experience and have a lot of fun.