Mega-Youth Rally in Plovdiv
Once again we were invited back to the Light of the World Church of Plovdiv, Bulgaria to hold the subsequently scheduled Mega-Youth Service. The Lord spoke to us back in 2006 for a series of mega-services to be part of our annual Bibliata.com tour. Plovdiv, being the second largest city in Bulgaria next to the capital was one of the targeted strategic locations of these rallies, which purposes to gather youth groups of various churches together in unity for a time of worship. At the 2006 meeting, in this same location, hundreds of teenagers gathered and our team will never forget how all of them knelt at the alter at the end of the service and recommitted their hearts and lives to God.
Regardless of the laps in time, this years Mega-Youth service in Plovidv was no different. There were over 200 youth present representing virtually all evangelical churches from the city and surrounding region. A praise band of 15 musicians and singers from the Life Church of God in Sofia, with whom we have partnered regularly in the past several years, attended as well to help us with the event. The local youth groups and their leaders were also very instrumental in organizing the meeting and inviting their fellow citizens for the event.
The service was opened by the youth pastor of the Light of the World Church and then their youth praise team presented the gathered people with a powerful time of worship followed by the Sofia praise band. Our team, who traveled from the Southern part of Bulgaria, then delivered a message on the Prodigal Son and challenged the youth to return to the Heavenly Father. After the Word, all present were again on their knees in prayer. Many of them made the decision to rededicate their lives to Christ and many were obedient to His call for ministry on their lives.
Chaplaincy Course in Yambol
The Military Ministry, with the support of the Bulgarian Chaplaincy Association and Cup & Cross Ministries, is holding a Chaplaincy educational course in Yambol, Bulgaria. The course comes after a year of preparation and is part of the national strategy toward the accreditation of a nationwide master’s level chaplaincy program, which our team successfully complied since its envisioning in 2005.
This year, the International Association of Evangelical Chaplains is sending their training team to conclude the annual chaplaincy training for Bulgaria. Classes will be presented by: (1) Chaplain (COL) Bernie and Eshter Windmiller, US Army Ret., Team Leader (2) Major General (MG) Clay and Clara Buckingham, US Army Ret and (3) Chaplain (Colonel) Rich Young, US Army Ret. The IAEC team members will be traveling with their spouses and conduct services in the local churches after classes. Planned for the concluding event is an official lecture on the ministry of the chaplain at the Bulgarian Military Academy in the capital Sofia.
RETURN 2009 Concert in Plovdiv
Revival in the Dupnitsa Church of God
The Dupnitsa Church of God has been on our hearts for almost a year now, before we were able to return and minister there. The congregation is emerging from having undergone several church splits in the years past and is now growing stronger than ever. Ministry teams are being formed along small group studies and village extensions in the region. With no help from anyone and very small income for the area, the people of the church are completing a building project with over 1,000 square feet two story sanctuary, which will incorporate various ministries like computer courses for children, soup kitchen and ministerial training. When we visited with the church last year, they only had the foundations ready, but during this visit their team had been able to finish the roof right before the rainy season in Bulgaria.
It was only natural that our team had a desire to contribute to such a great project and upon the recommendation of the pastor during October 2-4, 2009 we held a three-day revival with services in the evenings and training workshops during the day. Several of the services had a powerful impact on the congregation as virtually every night we stayed in prayer and fellowship till midnight. At the end of our stay we were asked to return very soon to the Dupnitsa Church of God for two parallel events: a parenting seminar and a Bible Study on the Book of Revelation.
School is in Session: Leadership Training Retreat for the Yambol Region
The weekend of the 16-19th of September Cup and Cross Ministries, along with Yambol based Mission Maranatha, held a Leadership Training Retreat for the Yambol region. Ten delegates from the area were chosen to represent various areas of ministry including ministry to the villages, children, home groups, women, elderly and the military. Representatives from Spain and the United States were also present.
Throughout our time together we were able to share personal experiences of ministry successes and growth areas in order to brainstorm through appropriate techniques and strategies to effectively resolve dilemmas in ministry. We discussed topics such as burnout and addressed how to nurture on-going motivation within each specific area of ministry.
At the conclusion of the training each delegate was encourage to take the resources which they had acquired and implement them into their specific areas of interest and take on the responsibility of training those whom are under their leadership.
Unfortunately we were unable to broadcast this training event live due to the remote location, but we are hoping to be able to make it available again in the near future, as we are planning our next event in which we will be reviewing leadership and communication styles. This series of training events is a part of our humble contribution toward the redevelopment of evangelical education in Bulgaria and the move from static training methodology to a dynamic strategy of empowering ministers throughout church-wide discipleship.
Fresh Revival Fire in Yambol
After the storm in Plovdiv quieted down some, our team returned to one of our bases in the city Yambol for a special service with Bulgarian Church of God Roma Bishop Iliya Panov. As his praise band from Sofia’s Life Church of God worshiped the Lord and ministered the Word, the Holy Spirit fell with power over the Yambol congregation. Some hundred people came to the altars raising their hands toward the heavens, crying and praying. They pleaded with God for a spiritual revival in a way that we have not seen in Bulgaria since the early 1990s.
While this mighty move of the Spirit was literally being absorbed by the people, the director of our regional ministries gave a call for prayer for the baptism with the Holy Ghost. Immediately, prayer groups were formed around the people who raised their hands for prayer and only minutes later several received the baptism and were speaking in heavenly languages. People were crying and praying all over the church house now transformed in a heavenly sanctuary by the presence of the Holy God. A lady with a spiritual gift reported seeing a vision of the Holy Spirit descending as a cloud over the church during the service.
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We realize while writing these words how close they sound to the reports of the Azusa street revival from the beginning of the 20thcentury. And having seen the power of God moving through churches and people all across the country of Bulgaria, we cannot remain silent any more. We must testify what our eyes have beheld, that we have seen the glory of God and He is doing a new thing in Bulgaria again.
RETURN 2009 Concert in Plovdiv
Having successfully completed the national leadership training in Rouse and the Bible training module in Veliko Tarnovo, we traveled to the second largest Bulgarian city of Plovdiv for the annual BREAKTHROUGH youth conference. During the conference, we presented a module on ministry to youth through the internet in the first national meeting of Bulgarian Christian Bloggers, urging the attendees to become a part of the growing wave of Bulgarian ministries that use extensively the power of the internet.
After members of our team arrived at the meeting from different parts of the country, we changed locations to setup our equipment for the live webcast of the RETURN Christian concert held as part of the conference at the local open-air amphitheatre. At 7:30 PM, we began broadcasting the concert, which had over 2,000 in attendance and several thousand more watching online. An hour in the concert the weather surprised us with heavy rain, yet only a few people left the concert as worship teams continued praising the Lord with thunder and lightening falling all around us. Unfortunately, the storm picked up and we were forced to stop the concert around 9:00 PM. While the DVD of this LIVE event is being prepared for publication, some of the pre-released videos can be seen on the internet at: http://bibliata.tv/user/videos/x
Ministering at the Newly Founded Church of God in Veliko Tarnovo
As soon as the national leadership training in Rouse was over, we traveled to the ancient Bulgarian capital of Veliko Tarnovo and held service at the newly found Church of God there. The church was started six months ago by Rev. Vasil Petrov, who serves as the pastor of the Gabrovo Church of God and regional bishop for the Bulgarian Church of God. The humble beginnings in the midst of economic, political and church crises have not stopped this congregation of growing and they are now looking for an appropriate size building for meetings. While together we did a practical Bible lesson from the New Bulgarian Translation of the Gospel of John and were encouraged by noticing the eagerness of the people to learn and practice the Word. We were asked to return to Veliko Tarnovo for another Bible training module in the near future. Giving the urgent need for leadership development in the area, we are planning to implement our mobile ministry training strategy in order to support the development of this newly founded local Church of God and to ensure its continues growth and effectiveness in ministry.
