10/03/2006 - Martin's Update
Dear Friends and Family,
Greetings again from Bulgaria! As I promised I wanted to give you a few more
details about what has been going on with my move to Sevlievo. As I mentioned in
my previous update, I was in Hungary near the end of August when the Lord
finally gave me a peace—or at least when I was able to receive His peace about
making them move to Sevlievo. The decision was finally made, but there was still
much to do. I had a soup kitchen (actually a
restaurant) full of kitchen equipment, tables, chairs, and all the other
necessary things needed to run such a program. We had signed a three year lease,
and only a little more than a year had passed. I had my own apartment and an
office apartment both with more than a year left on the leases. It had been so
difficult to get out of the work contracts I was not sure what it would take to
get out of those leases.
I got back into Lovech on Aug. 30, and called a friend who is fluent in English
to come help me with the first of the month activities (paying rents and bills),
and also helping me write letters to two of the landlords (mine and the soup
kitchen’s) requesting to be released from the leases. My plan was to move out of
those two places into the office apartment which had a very large room where I
could store everything and a room for me to live in until I got everything moved
to Sevlievo. There is another apartment that belongs to Wayne and Sunne Gregg,
OLM missionaries here from America. They have returned to America a year ago,
and due to illness and other circumstances they have not yet been able to
return. I also needed to get their stuff out of their apartment into the office
apartment. This would be a lot of packing and moving.
My landlord seemed a little upset, but agreed to release me from the lease if I
would install a new water heater, and pay another months rent. That totaled up
to be around $150 altogether to get out of fifteen months worth of rent. I
agreed, and moved out with a happy landlord. He thanked me for taking such good
care of his apartment, and for cleaning it so well when I left. That is
something that they don’t expect you to do here, and they were pleasantly
surprised.
The soup kitchen landlord was very nice about the whole thing. We had made many
improvements to the facility like adding air conditioning, and I told him that
we did not expect him to reimburse us for those expenses. (He had been giving us
a monthly credit toward our rent for installing the air conditioning, but we had
not recovered the whole cost.) Not only did he let us leave without any penalty,
he offered to buy most everything that we had in the kitchen! He bought
everything except one stove, two gas bottles, the silverware, the glasses, and
the plastic storage containers. He paid us 85% of the original price that we
paid. It really worked out well. He offered to help me any way that he could,
and even arranged for my moving truck, and sent his own employees to help me
move the remaining things from the soup kitchen and also from my apartment into
the office apartment. We have remained good friends and have had lunch together
twice since the move. He has told me that I should come eat lunch with them
every day. (He is the local head of the nationalist party here, but he likes me
even though I am an American.) I stopped by his office today to give him the
warranty cards for the air conditioning, refrigerator and stove, and they were
getting ready to eat lunch. They were making veal head soup—I am not joking. I
was invited to stay and join them, but I graciously declined. It actually
smelled good, but I just wasn’t ready to go there yet.
As for Wayne and Sunne’s apartment, Ron and Michelle Smith came back to Bulgaria
thinking that the village house they were having remodeled would be ready for
them to live in when they returned. Unfortunately it wasn’t.
Fortunately they were able to go into Wayne and Sunne’s apartment, and I didn’t
have to move all of that out by the end of the month. Their landlord was very
happy to have the Smith’s come in. They can use Wayne and Sunne’s things until
they are ready to move out, and they will pack the rest of it up for me.
Then next step was to find an apartment in Sevlievo. Sevlievo is one of the more
prosperous towns in Bulgaria, because of American Standard, Ideal Standard, and
other related firms. There are a lot of jobs there, so it is difficult to find a
good apartment. They get snatched up quickly. After looking for over a week, one
of my friends there, Angel, called and told me that he had found an apartment
that sounded nice. It was freshly painted, in the town center, and ready to move
into. He wasn’t sure what the rent was, but when the owners got back in town he
would be in touch. On Sunday we were able to reach the man, and look at the
apartment. It was perfect, and at a good price too. It is a three room flat
(with a kitchen and bathroom—not considered rooms here) with two large
balconies. It is on the second floor of a small three floor apartment building
on a quiet street lined with trees. It is within easy walking distance of the
pedestrian shopping street, the open air market, and all important offices. The
man told me that I could come on Tuesday to sign the lease, but when Tuesday
came, he told me that his wife was not going to be able to make it, and that the
lease was going to be in her name. I was at the notary’s office, and she said,
“Well, she is a very busy woman. She is the head of American Standard here.”
Angel and I had no idea up until that point. I then asked what her name was.
They said Elitza Tzeneva. I looked in my palm pilot, and sure enough her name
was already there.
I mentioned before that American Standard owns about 25 acres (100 dekars) on
the outskirts of Lovech that I would like to acquire for the building of the
orphanage. I would actually like for American Standard to donate it to us. I had
heard many rumors about this tract of land, and decided that I would contact
American Standard myself to see what was really happening with that land. I
called the main office in New Jersey, and talked to the man in charge of all
land deals. He told me that he knew about the land, but they had no plans for
it. There was no offer on it, and it was not even for sale though they may be
willing to work out some deal. He then told me that I would really need to
contact the head of their Bulgarian operations to begin doing anything with it.
So he gave me the name, Elitza Tzeneva, and the number to her office. I had
called her about 18 months ago! I have not told her about that, because I don’t
want her to think that I have been trying to get close to her, or that I am
stalking her. It just really seems that God is doing something very special
right now.
Yesterday I gave my notice to the landlord of the office apartment, and
everything is just fine. They don’t ask that I do anything else, and I am free
to go at the end of the month. Things have just gone so smoothly and so quickly
in just one month’s time. Things have not gone so smoothly since we set up the
foundation in 2004. Since then things have been dreadfully slow, complicated and
difficult. Looking back it seems that we were just focusing on the wrong thing.
We came to minister to children, and in trying to please the social services
people, we turned our focus to the elderly poor and mentally ill. The soup
kitchen was beautiful, and good things happened there, but the blessing just
wasn’t there. I believe that it was a case of the good being the robber of the
best. If that was what the Lord wanted us to do, the financial support would
have been there. With the way things are going again at full throttle I am
encouraged that I am on the right track. I have an English speaking board lined
up, and they already are coming up with great ideas. I have a good church there,
and they have invited me to be on their leadership team. I have a great
apartment, and the people there are excited with what is going to happen. Pray
that we will not get off track again, but be led by God’s Spirit.
Things to pray about:
1. Pray that the meeting with the board of directors here in Lovech goes on
without any problems.
2. Pray for the finances needed in relocating the ministry. The apartment also
must be eventually furnished right down to kitchen cupboards, but this will come
in time.
3. Pray for favor with the city of Sevlievo, and the oblast (county) of Gabrovo.
4. Pray that I will be able to be home by the holidays, and that everything here
in Bulgaria will be in order when I leave. (I am ready to go home for a while. I
haven’t seen my family since Thanksgiving!)
Thank you so much for your faithful prayers and financial support. I also love
to hear from you by email. If you would like to make a tax exempt donation to
this ministry you can send it to Obedient Life Ministries, P.O. Box 267,
Clarion, PA 16214, or you can use your credit card by our PayPal link on our
website www.obedientlife.org.
Be blessed in Jesus’ Name,
Martin Sutton