Why I Blog . . .

For me, blogging is a lot of fun and yuks. But if there is one thing that has won me over to the dark side of the blogosphere it's that blogging creates a way to re-connect with old friends.

Case in point: I received an email early this morning basically saying:

"Wade, I got your email address from your blog and I'm curious to know if you are the same Wade I met in Varna, Bulgaria [15 years ago]. I am Konstantin - please write back if you remember me."

At this point I practically fell out of my chair - of course I remember Konstantin!

Long story short: Me and two friends from Richland Hills Church of Christ spent the summer of 1993 on a mission trip to Varna, Bulgaria to work with a church that RHCC was supporting. While I was there, I met Konstantin.

Konstantin was quite literally the voice of the church. Since none of us spoke Bulgarian (including the missionary), Konstantin was the guy who would stand up at the podium and translate as Peter gave his sermon. Konstantin also did a lot of ground work to help get the church established.

I'm sure the Bull's can talk all day long about having 'that guy' who knows the language, the culture and can help get things done. Konstantin was that guy!

Something that I'll always remember about Konstantin was that he taught me how to deal with the men on the street who kept asking me if I wanted to exchange my American Dollars into Bulgarian Leva - which you never wanted to do because (1) it was illegal and (2) you'll get ripped off!

As you can see, since I stuck out in the crowd as being an American these guys were constantly badgering me to 'change money? change money?'. So I got Konstantin to teach me how to say in Bulgarian, "What do you think I am - some stupid American?" I can still say it today - although Konstantin would probably say it sounds a little rough.

But from then on I couldn't wait for some guy come up and and try to change money. By the end of the summer I could rattle off my pseudo-Bulgarian so quickly that many of them would turn and walked away shocked. Although one guy did respond, "Da!" ("Yes!")


So in a show of gratitude for helping me develop a little Bulgarian street cred, I helped Konstantin develop a love for America's favorite past time - baseball! He would have been a .300 hitter, for sure!

By the way, no one could pull of the red t-shirt, black & white striped shorts with red socks look quite like Konstantin! Needless to say, he was a big hit with the ladies!

(Just playin' with ya', Konstantin!)

This is me in my flat eating what is still the most delicious ham sandwich I've ever tasted. Everything there was so fresh - the bread was baked that morning and the ham was smoked just the day before - top it off with a Coke and you've got yourself quite a meal!


These are some kids who came to our VBS. Brad should go to Varna to recruit for his team @ UMHB. These kids played full contact soccer on a concrete playground - and everyone of them was a striker!

Anyway, I'm so glad Konstantin emailed me. I've been rushed with memories of Varna all day - what a great time that was!

Like I said, I enjoy blogging and trying to come up with all my random posts - but the big pay off is when I bump into a great guy like Konstantin!
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PS: Please refrain from leaving comments saying "Wow, Wade! You were quite the bean pole in high school, weren't ya'?" Yes, I was a bean pole . . . and God loved me just as much then . . . and he definitely didn't snicker to Himself when he read my blog . . . and, yes!, God reads my blog! Ever heard of WWJB? What Would Jesus Blog? So stop laughing at my bean pole-ness!