New Ministry Websites Released
Regardless of the busy traveling schedule which our ministry demands in Bulgaria, our team has been able to outsource and finish several major websites which have been released in Bulgaria during the past 60 days. Two of them offer free audio and video Christian worship and sermons, as well as entire Christian programs and Bible studies in the Bulgarian language. They have successfully reached a rating between 650-980 visitors per day just in the past month alone.
A website which presents a large volume of Bulgarian gospel songs (www.Hvalenie.com meaning “praise”) is an old dream of ours. We have begun working on it some five years ago as a sub department of another one of our websites, www.Bibliata.com. After much work and anticipation, the time came to release a stand-alone web interface which offers visitors a large database of Bulgarian gospel music to listen to and download free of charge.
The second website (www.Propoved.com meaning “sermon”) is surprisingly building a much larger audience than anticipated. It offers audio and video sermons online also free of charge. This is the first Bulgarian website to create and offer a nationwide database of video sermons by Bulgarian ministers. The website can be viewed on a regular computer as well as on internet enabled cell phones. This technology is so innovative, that we are being persistently asked by secular media companies and independent producers to partner in its future development and implementation. Although the website is in Bulgarian, you can also watch the current episode by opening www.Propoved.com and clicking on the “PLAY” button which will appear on the right hand side of your computer monitor or cell phone display.
National Chaplaincy Meeting in Yambol
A national chaplaincy meeting was held in the city of Yambol to discuss the recent agreement for placing NATO airbases on Bulgarian territory. The participants expressed their interest in joining forces with existing chaplaincy ministries in Bulgaria with a special focus on chaplaincy within the Bulgarian Army. The next step in the chaplain’s educational program was also devised and dates were set for its final presentation, accreditation and implementation as a graduate level course. Strategic meetings were scheduled with the head of the Bulgarian Evangelical Alliance and concerning the visitation of NATO’s chaplains in Bulgaria this fall.
Romani Evangelical Theology
The Role of Evangelical Theology among Roma Communities in Bulgaria
The Roma (Gypsy) ethnic group, which abides on the territory of virtually every country of the world, has found prolific context of existence within the borders of Bulgaria – a postcommunist, Eastern European country expecting its immediate merge within the European Union.
Despite the racial and religious tensions, quite typical for the Balkan region, the Roma ethnic group has historically flourished in Bulgaria. After the liberation of the country from the Ottoman oppression, Roma communities were freely established throughout the territory of the new Bulgarian Republic. During the brief nationalistic waves that followed, the Bulgarian state generally protected its ethnic minorities including Armenians, Jews and Romanies. The Communist Regime in the country presented a dilemma for ethnic minorities, especially when the infamous “Vazrozhdenski” (revival, renovation) process took place in its latter period attempting to assimilate cultural minorities within the Bulgarian nation.
Today, the Roma culture is an undividable part of the Bulgarian reality forming the third largest ethnic and cultural group in the country. Every Bulgarian city has a Roma suburb and every small village has Roma inhabitants. The last census shows their number is 313,396, but analysts insist that these figures should be handled carefully because many of the Romani prefer to declare external ethnic self-identification.
Most Romani are from the Muslim Roma circles that present themselves as Turks. A portion of the Christian Romani identifies themselves as Bulgarians, and a third as Wallachs or Romanian in origin. Most Romani speak more than one language at home. The most used language among them is, of course, the Roma language (67%), followed by Bulgarian (51%), and Turkish (34%).
The living conditions of the Roma communities are often dire. Many are still living in poor quarters resembling ghettos. The Roma child mortality rate is much higher than that of the Bulgarians: 240 per 1,000 versus 40 per 1,000.
The Roma community is characterized by lower levels of education. Consequently, its representatives are less competitive. Less than 1% of the Roma women in Bulgaria have higher education. The number of high school-educated among them is 4 percent.
A great deal of opportunities have been introduced for the Roma minorities in Bulgaria by the European Union. The integration of Bulgaria within the European Union has concurred with a general self-realization among Roma communities with political, economical and religious implications.
Much of the current revitalization of Roma communities is owed to the transforming power of evangelical theology actively present among them. Today, nearly a quarter of Bulgarian evangelicals claim to be of Roma origin and the number continues to grow.
Bulgarian Audio Bible
Several years ago, our team at www.bibliata.com adopted a very valuable project to record the Bulgarian Bible in audio format. The project was managed by Hristo Hristov from Shumen, an old time friend of ours and founder of the Prosteveten.com Project.
When we first started working with Hristo in 2002, he had begun recording the Bulgarian New Testament. Our team quickly implemented the audio files into a subproject of our website at: http://audio.bibliata.com. Soon after, the complete New Testament was ready and we were able to freely distribute it online to our visitors who downloaded over 3,000 complete copies of it in the first month alone.
The whole Bible was recorded in the Bulgarian vernacular in 2003 and became the first Bulgarian Audio Bible ever. Through our website, www.bibliata.com our team was able to distribute the Bulgarian Audio Bible free of charge for the next two years.
During our National Bible Tour in 2005, we released a new version of the audio Bible making the product more user-friendly, easier to navigate and download through a streaming media server. The intention was to include the audio Bible in the online parallel of Bible versions hosted by our website. This vision was realized in 2006, when 20 text versions of the Bible were included in the online parallel along with four audio versions of the Bible (KJV, Hebrew, Greek and Bulgarian).
Since then, over 10,000 copies of the full Bulgarian Bible have been distributed over the internet. This amounts to 30,000 GB of information or the equality of some 40,000 CDs. Two larger projects will be implementing the Bulgarian Audio Bible in the near future. One will be its official DVD release next month, and the second will be its incorporation with a live broadcast through a dedicated radio station. Until then, the Bulgarian Audio Bible is available for free download and use by all visitors of www.bibliata.com.
You can listen to Psalm 23 in Bulgarian here.
The Oldest Pentecostal Church
May 1, 2006 by Cup&Cross
Filed under Publication
Regardless of the persecutions before and after the Communist Regime, today Bulgarian Pentecostals remain the largest evangelical group in Bulgaria. But the national Pentecostal revival that has swept the country goes back to humble beginnings in the city of Bourgas where in 1920, Ukrainian immigrants Zaplishny and Voronaev preached a message of Pentecost and several were baptized with the Holy Spirit. Since then, the Bulgarian Pentecostal movement has grown to be a major part of the Bulgarian reality.
Our team was fortunate to receive an invitation to minister at a historical youth event which took place in Bourgas on May 1st. Each year at this date Pentecostal youth from all over the country gather for a day of prayer, preaching and proclamation. The meetings continued even during the Communist Regime although May 1st was declared by the government as the International Labor Day accompanied with parades in which everyone was force to attend.
We traveled to Bourgas and ministered in the Sunday morning service at the oldest Bulgarian Pentecostal Church and witnessed a great move of the Holy Spirit with an extraordinary anointing present as congregational prayer continued after the message. A youth service was held in the evening at which we were able to speak of our Pentecostal heritage and Biblical foundations, the future of Bulgarian Pentecostals and the role of the new Pentecostal generation in the movement. This recent ministry among youth in Bulgaria has confirmed our expectation that the sixth Pentecostal generation in Bulgaria will be able to restore Pentecostal unity and set the course toward a new style of ministry of transforming church leadership, effective social involvement and moral integrity based on personal Biblical holiness.
Bulgaria and the U.S. Sign Agreement
Bulgaria’s Foreign Minister Ivaylo Kalfin and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice signed Friday the agreement for the location of US military bases on the territory of the Black Sea country. Bulgaria and the US reached an agreement on the defense cooperation accord, including the conditions of the shared use of several military facilities on Bulgarian territory, at the end of March.Rice was in Sofia for the informal NATO Foreign Ministers meeting. In her words the agreement would further develop the cooperation between Sofia and Washington, which, she claims, would improve economic relations. “We are very happy to sign this accord,” said Rice at the signing ceremony. “It will enhance our cooperation with Bulgaria and strengthen our ability to operate in the region.” “This accord is a successful step in strengthening the cooperation with the US and it will serve the interests of both countries,” said Bulgarian Foreign Minister Ivaylo Kalfin. “It will enhance Bulgaria’s security.”
Under the agreement the US will be able to use three Bulgarian military bases – the Novo Selo range and the Bezmer both near Bulgaria’s border with Turkey, and the Graf Ignatievo airfield in central Bulgaria. US forces will also use a storage facility near Bulgaria’s port of Burgas. As many as 3,000 soldiers can be deployed on short rotation in Bulgaria, which at some point may overlap and reach 5,000. The first US troops will arrive in 2007 and 2008. The agreement, which will be valid for 10 years, must be ratified by Bulgaria’s parliament. It provides mechanisms for bilateral consultations over the actions of the US forces in Bulgaria. Washington will also inform Sofia about the actions of the US army that concern the bases in Bulgaria. The bases will remain Bulgarian property and will be jointly operated by the US and Bulgarian militaries.
X The Event
We arrived in Sofia, Bulgaria with a vision for a youth event, which would become a Christian national phenomenon. Youth events for Christian teenagers are not rare in Bulgaria, as we have taken part in many of them in recent years. The difference in the approach we took this time was to establish a context where both Christian and non-Christian teenagers turn to the Bible and its moral values.Easter was the perfect time for such an event, as many teenagers now openly express their faith in God and attend church services. The event entitled “X” had no intention to change their views or convert their beliefs. It simply anticipated gathering youth for the celebration of a life time. By the time we were able to announce the event in the churches, and via the web and radio, everyone was asking, “What is X?”
“X” turned to be a three day festivity filled with praise, prayer and presentations leading to a deep spiritual transformation. It opened on Good Friday with a message and an extraordinary concert by a band called “Face 2 Face.” Saturday afternoon, the youth gathered again for a combined concert-presentation of Freedom Generation and one of our ministry websites, www.bibliata.com (The Bible). We were also able to provide food for over one hundred young people as many of them came directly from the gipsy ghetto. Saturday night ended with an extreme concert lead by a band by the name of “Extremum”. With the sound provided by a Christian company called “Clear Sound,” this suburb of Sofia will remember “X” for a long time. The Easter service was held three times; once at midnight, once in the morning and once in the afternoon. We were able to minister in two of these services with an Easter message entitled, “The Alphabet of Life.” “X” was featured on the internet to become the first Bulgarian Christian live broadcast online.
Pravetz Lectures on Protestant History
I preached my first sermon 16 years ago in Pravetz, Bulgaria where a small group of Pentecostal believers had kept the faith during the long years of the Communist Regime. At that time, Pravetz was known as a stronghold of Communism where the Communist president who ruled Bulgaria for 36 years was born. It was there that the Lord called me for ministry and I saw and testified of how hundreds received the Lord as their personal Savior and their lives were transformed forever. We studied the Bible and practiced what we learned from its words. All night prayer meetings were a weekly event, and chain fasting almost never stopped. None of us knew or had ever experienced a genuine spiritual revival, yet deep inside ourselves we all wanted to be closer to God. Many, including school officials, did not receive our faith and openly tried to suppress its expression.
Sixteen years later, the Pravetz Computer Technical School I graduated from, invited us to lecture on the role of Protestant missionaries in Bulgaria’s national revival. We were able to present the lecture on April 17th along with other presentations and a small talk about career challenges. The students were eager to discuss their worldviews, faith and problems which they experience as young people. We urged to face the challenges in their lives, study and work hard and make a difference in the world around them. Consequently, we spoke with several teachers and met with the school’s director who discussed with us the upcoming celebration of the school’s 20th anniversary which will take place this summer.
Azusa Centennial Celebration
In cooperation with the Pentecostal Department on April 14, 2006 our team held a centennial celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Azusa Street revival and the beginning of modern Pentecost. The celebration was held at the Bulgarian Evangelical Theological Institute with a series of lectures on the history and development of the Pentecostal Movement in North America and Bulgaria.
Two of the lectures were part of our published series on Bulgarian Protestant history, which is printed biweekly in one of the largest Bulgarian Christian medias, the Evangelical Newspaper. The first lecture dealt with the founding history of the Pentecostal Movement in Bulgaria while the second one spoke of the future dynamics within the Bulgarian evangelical churches in the context of postcommunist postmodernism. Pastors, professors and students present at the event agreed toward the organization of a larger event to celebrate Bulgarian Pentecostal heritage on the Day of Pentecost in the summer of 2006.
Chaplaincy Developments in Bulgaria
Just days before US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice arrived in Bulgaria, our team was called to the ancient Bulgarian capital of Veliko Tarnovo where we met with the regional leaders of the Bulgarian Chaplaincy Association. This was our second meeting with the Association which was officially introduced in 2005 at a similar national convention. We were asked to present the curriculum of a new chaplaincy class to be offered this fall as part of the Theological Institute’s masters program. The need of such education is well understood as the chaplaincy movement in Bulgaria is rapidly gaining influence in the context of Bulgaria-NATO relations. Eastern Orthodox circles are already talking about implementing their own priests into the new army structures, as the government is secretly subsidizing the building of Eastern Orthodox churches in at least two military schools. Meanwhile, active Evangelical chaplains were denied political defense in Brussels with the argument that the lack of legal procedure for training and implementing chaplains within military units, cannot be classified as restriction of religious freedom or intolerance toward Protestant ministers.
Nevertheless, such limitations can hardly limit the spreading wave of chaplaincy advocacy as many organized and independent groups are putting strong pressure for change. In March 2006, the Church of God in Bulgaria held a successful weekend seminar for prison chaplains which involved a number of Bulgarian prison directors. Subsequently, this week Nova TV aired an interview with a well-known evangelical chaplain who has worked for many years with the Sofia prison system. In this context, the chaplaincy meeting in Veliko Tarnovo was one more step closer to an adequate legal system allowing chaplaincy in Bulgaria and more specifically in the Bulgarian Army. We have also released a website dedicated to the work and ministry of the chaplain.
The reform within the Bulgarian Army anticipates the implementation of chaplains. As U.S. Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice finishes her visit in Bulgaria to ratify the agreement for NATO bases on Bulgarian soil, this long-expected opportunity for ministry within the Bulgarian Army may finally become a reality.
