Mission Bulgaria Week 9

Week 9 – October 13-20, 2001 – Sofia, BULGARIA

Christian Greetings from Bulgaria:

A main priority for me has become the Sunday School project given to me by the National Overseer Pavel Ignatov and the Bulgarian Church of God Council of Ministers. The pilot program already has six lessons on the Declaration of Faith, which are in the process of being published and given to all local Church of God congregations. Our vision for education on a national level includes the developing, publishing and distribution of this National Sunday School Program for the Bulgarian Church of God. For the past two months, since its beginning, the pilot program has been implemented in several local congregations including the Central Church of God in Sofia where it has been taught each Sunday morning prior to the worship service by myself.

The future of this project is its fulfillment as a National Sunday School Program for training and discipling of the members of the local congregation. Since the Bulgarian Church of God has never had a Sunday School Program before in its history, this present project represents the effort of the church for education on a national level, which is accessible by members of the church of all ethnic groups and educational levels. The development of the program in Bulgaria will include the training of Sunday School teachers/ministers as well.

Every called minister in Bulgaria must pastor a church. My short-term pastoral objective consists of local and distant work. The first is connected my job as an associate pastor at the Central Bulgarian Church of God, where every Wednesday I present a lesson from a 12-part seminar on the Book of Revelation. These lessons will also become a part of the Sunday School literature. My distant short-term goal includes pastoring the Pravetz Church of God due to the sudden leave of the pastor there. I have developed a team with which I will travel each week and hold services in the town. My work there is more than a duty, since the church in Pravetz is the church where I first began perching and pastored my first youth group.

Finally, as a bridge between the religious and social activities of the church, comes the ministry of chaplaincy. More than twenty Bulgarian Church of God congregations feed homeless men, women and children daily. The Central Church of God in Sofia alone provides daily lunch and basic medical care for more than 500 people. With the finishing of the new building for the Central Church of God, the ministry in Sofia will increase tremendously, and will include the care and education of more than 160 orphan children from the Sofia area. In this work, I have found my training as a chaplain extremely helpful. Therefore, under the patronage of Dr. Robert Crick and Pastor Pavel Ignatov, I have dedicated time and efforts to work toward the establishing of a Chaplaincy Commission in Bulgaria for the purposes of training and endorsing active ministers for social context establishments such as social centers, hospitals and the Bulgarian army.

My further work has daily included a few hours as coordinator at the Bulgarian Church of God Headquarters in Sofia and the participation of the last four crusades organized in the cities of Lom, Samokov, Varna and Sofia. The numbers total to more than 300 saved and 450 healed. Thank you for your continuous support and may the Lord bless you richly. Please remember us in your prayers!