Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ!

As we start a new year, we reflect on what has happened in our lives over the past year, and look with anticipation to what God has in store for the upcoming year!It has now been just over a year since our arrival in Bulgaria, and we are thankful that God has seen us through the ups and the downs of the past year.Language study, adjusting to a new country and culture, getting the family settled in our new surroundings, becoming acquainted with new friends, and some travel has consumed most of our time.Missing our family and friends back in the United States has been the low point!

We spent Christmas and New Years in Sofia with friends who have become our "substitute family." God has blessed us by giving us wonderful friends here who have been a great support to us over the past year.We especially enjoyed a typical American Christmas dinner, complete with turkey, sweet potatoes and pumpkin pie!The Bulgarian tradition is to have a meatless dinner on Christmas Eve, and in recent years, "Grandfather Christmas" has begun to visit the children on Christmas Day.We found that non-Christian Bulgarians celebrate New Year's Eve much more than they celebrate Christmas.This comes from 50 years of communism when they were not allowed to celebrate Christmas at all.Many of the evangelical churches have worship services on Christmas Day.

Because of the generosity of the American Baptist Women of Colorado, the year ended on a high note!These amazing women collected nearly $4000 since September, and sent the money to us to buy warm underclothes as Christmas gifts for the children in the Baptist churches in and around Sofia.Terry and two ladies from the Sofia Baptist Church had a great time shopping for the items, then dividing them up into gift bags labeled for each individual child.Underwear, undershirts, socks and leggings, as well as bath towels and a bag of chocolates were included in the bags .These bags were given to the children on Christmas night, after they had performed their Christmas Pageant.All total, 150 children in the five Baptist Union churches in the greater Sofia area had a merry Christmas thanks to the women of Colorado!Many of the 150 children were Roma, or gypsy, who are among the poorest and most discriminated against people in Bulgaria.

The children of Sofia Baptist Church, where we attend, put on a wonderful Christmas musical.We were, of course, very proud of our own two boys who bravely sang songs and memorized lines in Bulgarian to say by themselves in front of "all those people!" They were rewarded with an appreciative round of applause from the congregation.The other attached picture is of the older children of the church performing on Christmas night.A.J. is the blonde-haired kid in the center of the group!

On January 4 we left for a week in Budapest, Hungary to see friends and to attend a conference for missionaries from all over Europe sponsored by Moody Bible Institute.It was a great week, which passed way too fast!We were truly refreshed and renewed by the conference, and our visit with IM colleagues Jim and Karen Ross from Poland was an added blessing.We highly recommend visiting Budapest—it's a beautiful city with a rich history.We hope to return some year in warmer weather when we can explore the city on foot without snow!

Since our return from Budapest, A.J. and Nathan have started a new semester at school and are doing well. The first week back after Christmas break was rough on all the students and teachers.The assistant director of the school was killed in a hit-and-run accident in Spain on New Year's Eve.Things seem to be settling down this week for everyone.The boys continue to have a private Bulgarian language tutor twice a week.Their parents are amazed at how quickly they learn!A.J is learning French at school, and he is doing a great job at managing to keep the two languages separate in his brain!

Tom and Terry are about to complete their first year of full-time language study.We have officially learned all the grammar, and will soon begin a review of all we have learned the past year.We will be cutting down on the amount of time we spend in the classroom, instead spending time with a "language partner" in one-on-one conversation.We know we have so much more to learn and hope to improve our language skills in everyday conversation with this method.

We are looking forward to beginning our actual ministry work in the upcoming months.Tom has received several requests for agricultural projects from the churches.Please continue to pray for God's guidance in the selection of the projects, and in their implementation.There are many opportunities within the church for Terry to use her gifts.It is now a matter of narrowing down those options to something manageable and effective!

Please pray for:

--Tom, as agricultural project forms are returned to him, and the actual selection of the projects takes place.

--Terry, as she begins full-time ministry and discovers where her gifts can be best used.

--Continued growth in Bulgarian language skills for all four of us.

Shalom,

Tom and Terry Myers
Missionaries to Bulgaria
International Ministries
American Baptist Churches USA