Vinograd Church, Raising Money & St Giorge Day Service, Tornado & Tomatoes

Wednesday was market day again & again I was there buying more of the delectable daisy’s & some geraniums which meant more pots too. Very, very hot day, not one to be in the car as we then went off to Veliko shopping & in fact didn’t get home till gone 7pm. We got a major bargain in Metro though, with all tree’s & shrubs at only .99 stotinka we bought quite a few among them a Magnolia & a Lemon tree. The Lemon tree is in a pot as it will come in for winter & the Magnolia is in the front as you come down the stairs, hope they do well!!!

Tomatoes have to be planted tonight... We were not allowed to buy them till yesterday the 6th & not before :D We only have 25 hope that will be enough!

Mary came round with two ladies from the school and we have agreed to help raise money for the renovation of our church. We went to a St George day service there yesterday morning, one because we never know when the priest is coming & two we wanted to have a look at the damage etc. The story so far……..
 

The church was hit by lightening last year resulting in a fire. It is also now open to the elements as it hit the bell tower & there is now no cover from the rain, snow etc. The bell was downstairs for a while so they could ring it for services & deaths etc but some little gits stole it!!!!! Stole the church bell!!!!! So now not only do they need to repaire the bell tower & upper floor but they have to replace the bell!!! The villagers are putting their own money in & asking the Mayor & councils for help along with seeing if they can maybe get a grant from the EU. I don’t hold out much hope as we are a tiny little run down village with no worth. We will see!!!!

 

The service is very strange to us & I'm not sure if they are all similar or different!

Nigel walking to church a first for everything :)

I have never been to a church service where there was no worship!!! The priest, who by the way was really nice, did all his very fast reading in a sing song voice which went on non stop for about 30 minuets, most of which was in the back room with lots of sliding doors open & shut. I thought we were going to take communion as he came out & walked round us with a covered cup & covered bowl, but no, he came out with it twice but we did not get to partake!!!! I recognised the word grosne which is grape so he was definitely sing songing about it & was blessing us as he passed by. We did eventually get blessed with Holy water as we kissed a big cross, he flicks you with a bunch of branches & you get drenched LOL,Then when the priest finished everyone had a plastic bottle & they had them filled with the Holy water!!!!!
I need to find out from my Bulgarian friends what it all means!

The inside of our very pretty church.
I am well impressed & very pleased that our little village that everyone puts down, we seem to be the only ones that love our village, has such a lovely church!
In Bulgaria you cannot judge a book by its cover, what a building looks like on the outside is not an indication to the inside!!!

Its all very exclusive not inclusive at all, there was no evidence of a personal relationship with Jesus being felt by the few that were there. The people came & went, all lit candles of differing sizes for the dead, I didnt do this as I dont believe in the candle thing, I guess its a way of raising money & a visual thing for people to focus on but holds no relevance in christianity & the gospel.  They then went round crossing themselves & kissing photo's which were on alters?????
Some people went after doing this others came in for a gossip, others went & did a bit of shopping in the middle then came back for the Holly water LOL All very strange & I would love to know more about the way of worship here in Bulgaria but mostly I would love for my village to be released into a freedom of worship & Love then what a village we would be!!!!!

On the way home I saw a wind tunnel just appear from nowhere as I pointed it out to Nigel it headed for us got bigger & was a small tornado. I am not kidding when I say it changed direction headed straight for us whipping up all the dust from the ground & went through us!!!!! Then dissapeared, Leaving us amazed & covered in dust!!! I like to believe this was the Holy Spirit, this is too much of a coincidence with the thoughts that were racing through my mind after the service & was extreemly weird, even Nigel the ever down to earth Engineer was befuddled by it. Me I am Joanna ever willing to see God & learn new things & HOPE for a better future for us for our village & for the Vinogradians........ You, well you think I am MAD but then I'm used to that :D