the BigHouse
Serving Bulgaria with faith, hope, and belief in a better tomorrow
Five years ago, we arrived in Bulgaria with a vision: a place in the neighborhood to serve as a community center, and as a base of operations to shine the light of Jesus in our new home. For over a year now, the BigHouse has been a reality – but without help, we won’t be able to keep it open.
@the BIGHOUSE!
International Bible study
This has been an unexpected blessing from day one. We began this group in our home, and later moved it to the BigHouse. We have had the opportunity to teach, disciple and share the Gospel with young adults from all over the world. There have been nights when we had 18 people from 12 different countries gathered together to study God’s Word!
Game Nights
We have done six game nights over the past year, allowing us to share about who we are and what we do with people we might never have met otherwise. Some have gone on to join us in Bible study, serving others, and English Club.
Football/Basketball nights
We have had a lot of fun inviting friends to come and watch NFL and NBA games at the BigHouse. This allows us to not only enjoy sports, but to have a time to talk with and develop relationships with people from the community.
English Club
This past year was an experiment. We focused mainly on conversational English groups, and usually had anywhere from three to twelve people. Beginning in the Fall, we hope to have a more structured schedule for beginner, intermediate and advanced English, adding grammar and listening instruction.
Clothes/Food
We have a lot of clothes, and an entire room dedicated to organizing and storing them. Because the need has not equaled the effort put into maintaining and organizing this, we are going to scale back the number of things we keep on hand, focusing more on blankets, gloves, socks and baby clothes. Last Fall, we opened our food pantry, and have been able to bless multiple people, including during the quarantine. We will continue to maintain this ministry, having both a place for people to come to, and a place from which we can take food to the streets as we have from the beginning.
Pray n Play
Earlier this year, we hosted our first Pray n Play event (we had planned to do more, but ‘Rona has interrupted this for now). We had more than 20 people come to meet, prepare meals, and head out into the city to pray and to find people who needed food. Several had opportunities to talk about Jesus with those they met. Afterward, we met back at the BigHouse for pizza and to play games. We definitely plan to do this again soon and often!
Adoption care
We have been actively involved in serving families from the US who are adopting from Bulgaria. This has included just being available to answer questions both about Bulgaria and about adoption in general, as well as doing family photo sessions when they come to bring their kids home. Soon we will begin offering meetups for families who are in country to meet each other, as well as asking questions and learning more about Bulgaria and orphans here.
Orphan care
The BigHouse has also served as a hub for some of our orphan-care projects, like Christmas in Roman. For this, we found out Christmas wishes for each child at the home in Roman, raised funds, purchased and gift-wrapped every gift (plus something for each member of the staff) and delivered them to the kids.
Other ministries of the BigHouse Foundation
In addition to the things above that happen at the BigHouse, we also sponsor other orphan-care related projects. Right now these are focused primarily on two homes – the children’s home in Roman, and the home for special needs babies in Pleven. The projects include visits, providing supplemental high caloric/nutrient formula, funding for doctor and hospital visits, and funding to pay for grandmothers (Babas) from the community to come and hold, love on and care for the babies in Pleven.
We need people like you to commit to funding the BigHouse for one month, with a donation of $800. This could be from you, your church, group, organization, business or school, and will cover all of our costs to keep the BigHouse operating. All donations go through our sending agency Beautiful Feet and are tax-deductible.
Q: How soon do you need the money?
A: As soon as you can get it, but as long as we have a commitment from you, anytime before July 2021.
Q: What will my gift cover?
A: These funds are specifically for the operational costs (rent+utilities) of the BigHouse, not for our personal support.
Q: Is my gift tax-deductible?
A: Yes. All donations are administered by our sending agency, Beautiful Feet, a 501(c)3 organization.
Q: Can I come and see the BigHouse and join in the ministry?
A: Absolutely! Contact us and we can talk about you, your family or group coming to serve with us.
Q: Does the money need to come entirely out of my pocket?
A: No. We think this would be a great way to get other people involved in supporting missions! Think about involving Sunday schools, churches, having trivia nights or other fundraisers – we can provide you with photos, information, even video clips.
Q: Will you be adding any more events?
A: Absolutely. We have a few plans in the works (e.g. a city-wide scavenger hunt, kids events, movie nights, craft nights). All of these rely on keeping the doors open and having volunteers to staff the events.
Q: Can we talk to you in person about this?
A: Of course, we would love to talk to you. Contact us to set up a time, and we can video chat.
Q: I’m in! What do I need to do next?
A: Awesome! Fill out the form below, or contact us if you have questions or need more information.
ADOPT the BIGHOUSE!
the BigHouse Foundation
the BigHouse Foundation is our non-profit foundation registered in Bulgaria. Through the foundation we are able to have the BigHouse, as well as work with orphanages, homeless, poor and outcast people throughout Bulgaria. Your financial contributions designated for the BigHouse help us to keep all of these very important ministries operating!