Ministry among the Bulgarian Pomaks

The villages in Southern Bulgaria where pomaks live are very closed communities. The prominent population there is Turkish and many of the villages use only Turkish language. Being close to the Turkish border, this area of Bulgaria has been populated with over 150 mosques built in the past 10-12 years, which produces a new religious culture of the deep Bulgarian South enforcing the Muslim religion. It is often that a stranger, especially a Christian, is not well accepted in these communities. 

However, the larger cities are much Europeanized and there are no issues of this kind there. The city of Kardjali has a great Pentecostal community represented by Church of God and Assemblies of God congregations. The same is true for the city of Smolyan. These urban centers have created a context in which Christian organizations and missions have freely evangelized and established churches in the surrounding areas. Our team’s trip and ministry there in the cities of Kurdjali and Dimitrovgrad was more than satisfying. There is much that could be done besides open preaching. Humanitarian aid, literature, educational courses (especially in the English language), media and children’s ministry have proven to work well there as the population is amongst the poorest in the country.