Sandanski is a town near the border of Greece. Friends from the UK, Ann and Sue, took us to Sandanski for the first time in summer 2016. On our first trip there, we visited a church that, on one side, housed a hospital and on the other, a dental clinic. Both the hospital and the dental clinic were owned and built by the church. While visiting this church, we met with a GP who worked at the hospital. He told us that the dental clinic and hospital would charge a small fee for medical care, but the fee was only enough money to keep the hospital and dental clinic running, as they cared for the poorer people of the town. He told us that while caring for their patients, they would tell them about Jesus. At the end of our meeting with him, we gave him some toothbrushes to distribute to the people who used the dental clinic
A few days later, we went to the a Baptist church which is the sister church to the one with the medical church. They told us that they were running a children’s program, where they feed the children, play games with them and tell them about Jesus. The next year, we went back to Sandanski and helped out with the children’s program. We did arts and craft with the children, told stories from the bible and gave them school bags filled with school equipment for the next school term.
The second year of going to Sandanski, we were able to go up into the mountains and pray with some of the villagers. We met for lunch with the villagers and gave glasses to those who needed them. We were also able to pray with anyone who wanted prayer. Then, we went around the mountain villages, praying with people and giving supplies as we went. In one of the villages, we were invited into a family’s home. During our time there, we began to speak about Jesus, and the whole family gave their lives to Jesus!
