Haun Family Updates
We are excited to send you the very first Serving in Sofia Monthly Newsletter from SOFIA, BULGARIA! We have waited quite a while to get to Bulgaria and we have finally made it!
We have had an adventure getting to Bulgaria. We found out shortly after receiving our visas that Bulgaria had closed its borders to anyone arriving from United States soil because of the number of Covid-19 cases in the country. This really messed up our plans to leave for Bulgaria on September 22. We quickly started strategizing with our Regional team and made plans to leave on September 22 for Switzerland where the Eurasia Regional offices are located.
According to Bulgarian officials at the Embassy in the United States, we could arrive in Bulgaria if we came from another country and not from the United States. We stayed in Switzerland for 5 days and prayed that when we arrived at the airport on September 28th we would be permitted to enter Bulgaria.
We held our breath through every step of the airport making sure everything was in order. When we finally arrived in Sofia, Bulgaria it was a huge moment of relief! We had FINALLY made it!
We've been here for a few days now and we are busy trying to get our home set up. We are currently renting an apartment (for about a week) as we clean, purchase furniture, assemble furniture and prepare to move into our permanent home.
Haun Family
Sofia, Bulgaria
Our family feels as if we are coming full circle from where we started almost ten years ago! Joshua and I got married on January 1, 2011 and by November of that same year we were living in Bulgaria as part of the Nazarene Theological Seminary 365M program. We were young, adventurous, and eager to go wherever the Lord lead us! We served in Razgrad, Bulgaria as volunteers with the Church of the Nazarene for 8 months. Little did we know the Lord would call us back to this place we once called home to begin a church planting movement in the capital city of Sofia. We are not as young, and maybe not as adventurous (2 young children will do that to you really quickly), but we are still ever so eager to follow the Lord wherever He may lead.
After returning back to East Tennessee from our short stint in Bulgaria, we jumped back into pastoral ministry. Joshua led the Cowan Church of the Nazarene from 2011-2015 and then was invited by another church on our district to join their staff as a Church Plant Pastor. We served at Real Life Community Church of the Nazarene for 18 months while we dreamed, planned, envisioned, and launched a new church in the Blackman community of Murfreesboro. A short 13 months after we arrived in Murfreesboro a new church was born, Blackman Community Church, and is still thriving today!
If you know us at all Bulgaria has been bound to come up in conversation. We have keepsakes around our home, we have conversations with Facebook friends from Bulgaria, and we have memories that we share often about our time in Bulgaria. It is a place we have dreamed about sharing with our kids someday. When the Lord put it on our hearts to accept the ministry assignment in Bulgaria we were so excited! Now we won’t just share our experiences about Bulgaria with our kids but they will get to have their own experiences!
We have two children, Jude Ezra who just recently turned 2 years old in April and Kaitlyn (Kate) Elizabeth who recently turned 6 months old in May. Although they don’t really have any idea what is happening or will be happening in the coming months, we are excited for the way the Lord will use Jude and Kate to glorify Him and to build the Kingdom in Sofia, Bulgaria.
We are excited to start a church planting movement in the heart of Sofia and to see the Lord move through a city of over 1 million people!
As we embark on this new ministry we ask that you pray for us, pray for our kids, pray for our families back home, pray for the Bulgarians we will meet and become friends with, and pray for the Church as it blossoms in Sofia, Bulgaria.
We are excited to be Serving In Sofia. We hope you will journey with us!
