Mission Bulgaria 2009: Ministering at First Assemblies of God in Sofia
From ministering in the Ghetto, we traveled to the heart of the capital to preach at the First Assemblies of God in Sofia located in the downtown area of Sofia. This is the oldest Pentecostal church in town, which was established in the 1930s as a direct result of the Pentecostal revival which has swept through Bulgaria. Today, the church is pastured by Rev. Victor Virchev, who also currently serves as the President of the Bulgarian Pentecostal Union. In recent years, the old building was remodeled to create a modern ministry center which serves as headquarters of the Bulgarian Pentecostal Union in its partnership with the Assemblies of God and has become an important religious symbol of Sofia in its downtown location. We ministered in the main service on Sunday morning and were able to present Pastor Virchev with a copy of the revised Constantinople Bible, which our ministry published in the beginning of 2009.
Mission Bulgaria 2009: Ministering at the Gipsy Ghetto of Phakulteta
The Gipsy ghetto of Phakulteta is located in the northeast side of the capital Sofia with a population of some 120,000 people, which makes it larger than the average Bulgarian town. It comprises a substantial part of the population of Sofia, which now numbers over two million people. In recent years, Phakulteta has been a place of ethnic tensions produced in the middle of extreme poverty and the war of local crime clans which rule the area.
There, we have focused our ministry efforts in the past several years through regular preaching, prayer meetings, and leadership seminars for pastors, youth rallies and music fests. As many have noticed in the recent months while we have ministered at the Life Church of God in the Sofia gipsy ghetto, the extremeness of the context in which we minister there and the deep needs of the people, often draw the attention of God with powerful anointing and supernatural miracles. However, this last service was so powerful in the Spirit that it put all present on their knees for prayer in the alter service which followed the message. We were able to broadcast live the event and we are grateful that video recorded from the service can be now watched by many showing the heavy presence of the Holy Spirit, which no words can truly describe. We are scheduled to return to Philpovtsy soon for a series of revival services, which will reunite the local churches in a regional seminar on Last Day Prophecy.
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Mission Bulgaria 2009: Ministering at Samokov Church of God
It is always a delight to return to the city of Samokov near Sofia and minister there. Recent developments have dictated that two Church of God congregation in near-by locations minister to over 3,000 Spirit filled members from the gipsy ethnos in the area. The growth is so tremendous, that one of the congregations have baptized in water 207 people last month alone. The other congregation is led by the national overseer of the Bulgarian Church of God, Pastor Alexander Todorov. We ministered in Samokov on the subject: 20 Signs of the Last Days and were also able to schedule other ministry appointments with the churches in the area. The regional leadership seminar was also discussed for a
time convenient for all pastors in the region, as it has been in the plans for sometime now due to our ongoing ministry in other areas of the country. It is our heartily desire that this ministry event combined with the prayers of the saints will result in the union of the Spirit-filled believers in the city of Samokov producing a mighty wave of revival in the lives of the people which will change the spiritual landscape of this area forever.
Mission Bulgaria 2009: Ministering Along the Black Sea Coast
Our recent ministry appointments have taken us beyond the borders of Bulgaria and we have thoroughly enjoyed and celebrated this event. However, from the moment we landed in Bulgaria our phones have been ringing with back to back invitations for ministry. Some unfortunately overlapped and we had to respectfully decline, but we are thankful for the many doors which are opening. We continue to ask for your prayers of wisdom and support as we need much strength to take on what has been set before us.
After successfully arriving at our base location, Yambol nearly 48 hours after leaving the states due to missing our connecting flight in Germany, we headed for ministry at the Black Sea coast. In the town of Aheloi, where we have anticipated going for sometime now, we were able to minister and fellowship with the local church over the weekend.
Among the topics we discussed with the congregation were: (1) the new Constantinople Bible publication and its upcoming jubilee 2011 edition, (2) the new Bulgarian literal translation of the New Testament, which we have now completed for publication in 2010 and (3) the role of media and live broadcast in the life of the traditional Bulgarian Pentecostal church. Of course, we shared from the word as well, a message from Philemon on Paul being a Prisoner of Christ over which the Secular Empire has no authority.
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Bulgarian Elections 2009
Boyko Borisov, Sofia mayor, leader of the winner in the general elections GERB and already self-proclaimed prime minister of Bulgaria, embarked on his voyage for the higher office with the promise that Bulgaria is a different country and the guilty will be brought to justice.
“I don’t have the right not to lead Bulgaria’s next government,” Boyko Borisov said at his first press conference after the vote, warning, however that no miracles are to be expected in the next half a year.
“No miracles should be expected to occur in the next five or six months. And we haven’t promised any,” Borisov told reporters at the press center of the National Palace of Culture in Sofia.
“This is the first time that Bulgarians vote for someone whom they know what he can and cannot do. Even if you are in love, you can fall out of love for ten years,” Borisov said, referring to his time in office as Interior Ministry Chief Secretary and Sofia mayor.
Asked about his promise to enter the office of the prime minister only in case of emergency, Borisov said:
“The total collapse of the three-way ruling coalition made me step into the prime minister office.”
Borisov vowed to launch investigations into all shady deals of the government and the land swaps in particular, backing his words with probes that he has initiated in his capacity of mayor of the capital Sofia.
“If we mislead the voters, we will get where Simeon Saxe-Coburg is now,” Borisov said, referring to the sorry results of the former king and prime minister, who didn’t make it to the next parliament.
Asked about the date when he will leave the office of the mayor of capital, he laconically said:
“I will inform you of that when the time comes.”
Borisov was also cautious about the coalition possibiolities he is willing to enter into, saying that after the final results come out, he will invite the parties in the center-right part of the political spectrum for negotiations.
“We want to be a government of all people,” Borisov said.
“I want to thank those, who voted for us and assure those who did not that we will try to lead politics good for all Bulgarian people,” he added, referring to the ethnic Turks in particular, who in his words, “should not listen to those, who play on their fears.”
Liberty Leadership Seminar in Sofia
The Liberty Leadership Seminar is beginning in the Bulgarian capital, Sofia under the teaching of Cup & Cross Ministries and partnering churches. This year the seminar will be held at the Elitsa Conference Center on the very top of the Vitosha Mountain which overlooks Sofia. The seminar is a week-long training event, which purposes the equipping of pastors and lay leaders within the Bulgarian Church of God. The seminar will be broadcasted LIVE on the internet according to the following schedule:
July 3, 2009 12:00 PM ET: Opening Ceremony
July 4, 2009 7:00 AM ET: Liberty Leadership Seminar
July 5, 2009 2:00 AM ET: Morning Prayer Service
July 5, 2009 12:30 PM ET: Sunday Evening Worship
July 8, 2009 12:00 PM ET: Closing Events
Follow Cup & Cross on Twitter: http://twitter.com/bibliata
Watch Cup & Cross LIVE on uStream.TV: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/bibliata
WebMinistry 2.0 for Churches {Step-by-Step Guide} Part 5: 5 Things to Learn about WebMinistry 2.0
1.To have a website that is seen by search engines is as important as having a website itself. After all, the idea is to tell the world, not just yourself, about your ministry.
2.Write regularly. Rank-based search engines like Google-like websites that are updated regularly, simply because the visitors like new stuff as well. News is the very purpose of communication. You would not leave your church without a new sermon for weeks. Why should you leave your website without new posts?
3.Keep up with new developments and upgrade your website backend often. To look for new alternatives is not a waste of time, because what took days to program by hand a few years ago, is now available for free and ready to use.
4.Use video. Shoot, edit, publish, embed or broadcast live. Always, always use video. If a picture is worth a thousand words, a video is worth 25,000 words per second {a thousand words for each of the 25 picture frames it plays every given second of its length}.
5.Communicate with your visitors. Provide way to receive and respond to feedback. Communicate with other web ministries. The web is about networking. Use it as prescribed.
READ THE COMPLETE SERIES:
- WebMinistry 2.0 for Churches {Step-by-Step Guide} Part 5: 5 Things to Learn about WebMinistry 2.0
- WebMinistry 2.0 for Churches {A Step-by-Step Guide} Part 4: Ten Useful Plug-ins
- WebMinistry 2.0 for Churches {A Step-by-Step Guide} Part 3: WordPress and Its Famous 5 Minute Installation
- WebMinistry 2.0 for Churches {A Step-by-Step Guide} Part 2: 5 Reasons to use WordPress
- WebMinistry 2.0 for Churches {A Step-by-Step Guide} Part 1: The Web Process
WebMinistry 2.0 for Churches {A Step-by-Step Guide} Part 4: Top 10 WordPress Plug-ins
WordPress includes the unique option of adding small programs that modify and/or enrich its capabilities. They are called plug-ins. The newest version of WordPress includes a special part in the administration panel for these plug-ins as follows:
{1} Event Calendar – WordPress includes a built-in calendar, which can be used to announce future events on their respective dates. Additionally, the calendar helps categorize the stored information by date, which gives a chronological timeline of the events in your ministry.
{2} Akismet is also a built-in plug-in, which helps manage the unwanted comments in your WordPress based site. This is a helpful tool against blog spammers.
{3} Post-notification does not come with WordPress, but it could easily be installed. It is basically a mailing list, with which your website automatically notifies your subscribers each time a new post is published. Read more
WebMinistry 2.0 for Churches {A Step-by-Step Guide} Part 3: WordPress and Its Famous 5 Minute Installation
To have WordPress installed on your server as a base for your church website you will need the following 7 tools {if the previous statement sounds a bit strange to you skip these steps and go to www. Blogger.com}
{7 Tools Needed For a WordPress Installation}
{1} Obviously, you will need a computer, internet connection and a good browser. Chances are you already have several of these, but for an internet browser, we recommend the new Chrome browser from Google, which can be found at http://google.com/chrome.
{2} Your visitors will need to be able to find your website on the internet through an appropriate and descriptive web name called a “domain.” We suggest that you use http://GoDaddy.com to purchase a domain name from. Read more
