We are blessed to have established a partnership with Friendship Church, Russe, Bulgaria (picture on the right) and The Trussell Trust, UK www.trusselltrust.org.  We need support to open the Baba Tonka House, a protected home for young adults in the region of Russe, Bulgaria.  We are also working in collaboration with TBACT www.tbact.org, Stara Planina, Inc., the Bulgarian Government and Municipalities to develop and deliver our mission to give a better life for these children.

Biliana Borimetchkova was born in Bulgaria and now lives in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. In Bulgaria she worked as a costume designer for the Bulgarian National Film Studio.  In 1991, Biliana came to the US to study at Gordon College, Wenham, MA.  She graduated with a major in Christian Theology and started a ministry with Slavic immigrants in the Baltimore-Washington metro area. She has volunteered at the Pregnancy Crisis Center in Baltimore and she helped elderly people who were disabled with their daily routines.

After watching the documentary movie Bulgaria’s Abandoned Children from BBC journalist Kate Blewett, Biliana’s life was changed completely and she started a children’s ministry to help these abandoned and disabled children in her native country.  She established the non-profit organization Karina Association in Bulgaria and has registered it in the USA as well in order to bring awareness to the public about the critical situation of these forgotten children in institutions in Bulgaria. She is working to establish medical and rehabilitation help for these children with government assistance, so they can be removed from institutions to small group homes to give them a better future.

Sister Davia Baldauf is an ELCA deaconess currently serving as a spiritual director at the Dwelling Place Retreat House in Pennsylvania. Her undergraduate work was in special education of emotionally disturbed and brain injured children with a specialty in movement and music therapy. While Sister Davia worked with these children she took graduate work in psychology. Then as a deaconess she received a master's degree in spiritual direction and master of sacred theology in Lutheran spiritual theology. She is a registered nurse with experience in both critical care and rehabilitation nursing. In a recent presentation about the Karina Association she said, "All I have ever done seems to be in preparation for the next call from God for my life. The film "In the Bleak Midwinter" touched my heart and I could not walk away without sharing my gifts, both here in the US and in Bulgaria. I hope that through the Karina Association people around this country will remember our own ugly history of institutional mental health/mental retardation and not allow that to be repeated in Bulgaria. Cooperating with the Bulgarian people and institutions, any skill can be used, rehabbing a building, program creation, management and administration, nursing, physical therapy, occupational therapy, teaching, and most important your presence & touch. You can bring to these children love, care and even if only for a moment the loving arms of God.

William Oliver is a partner with Clifton Gunderson LLP, where he serves as Assistant Managing Partner of the Mid-Atlantic Client Service Center and also serves as the firm’s Director of Federal Government Services.  Bill currently works almost exclusively with the firm’s public sector clients including federal government agencies, state and local governments and not-for-profit agencies.  Bill is active in the community, having been a United Way of Central Maryland volunteer for over 25 years and serving on the Board of Directors since 1997.  He is currently the Board Chair.  Bill is also the Treasurer of the Arc of Maryland Board of Directors and is a Director Emeritus of the Arc of Baltimore.  In addition, Bill is an active member of Mays Chapel United Methodist Church where he teaches Sunday School and Chairs both the Finance Committee and the Staff Parish Relations Committee.

Rev. Doug Hays is the pastor of Mays Chapel United Methodist Church in Timonium, MD.  He received his Masters of Divinity from Wesley Seminary in Washington DC and has served at Methodist churches in Maryland for over 25 years.  Doug is particularly adept at rejuvenating churches and was the founding pastor of Christ UMC of Ballenger Creek in Frederick, MD. He loves to help people experience the love God through Jesus Christ, discover God's purpose for their lives, and then turn them loose to serve the community. He has a strong emphasis on the local church getting involved in local, national, and international missions.

Rev. Richard Leland served churches in New Jersey and Massachusetts before moving to Summer Street Church on Nantucket Island where he has been pastor for twenty-three years.  Rich’s interest in world needs grew through his fifty-plus mission trips to thirty-five countries with WorldTeach, where he taught and trained others to teach Scripture. He has ministered in Bulgaria frequently and is committed to the strategic and vital work of the Karina Association among that country’s hurting children.

Nancy Curtis Eurich was born in San Diego, California, lived there most of her life and belonged to Baptist churches there. She and her husband relocated to the Northwest in 1998, and then to Baltimore in Dec. 2004. They joined Parkville Baptist Church in Jan. 2005, where she is a member of the choir, and at the present time chairs the personnel, decorating, & flower committees, and serves as substitute for the 4's & 5's year olds Sunday School class. She worked as an LVN/LPN in a Christian ob/gyn office and in various hospitals in San Diego and Indiana caring for patients of all ages from 1972-1991. She has had a heart for children all her life. She has 3 children and 5 grandchildren of her own. "Bulgaria's Abandoned Children" so touched her heart that there was no question of her becoming involved in helping them to live a fuller life. She feels God has called her to do whatever she can to help in this ministry.