July 2002 Ministry Report
May 2002 Ministry Report
REVIVAL 2002
Mission Bulgaria Week 31
NEWS – Week 31 – March 18-24, 2002 – Sofia, BULGARIA
Greetings from Bulgaria:
This morning Bulgaria woke up covered with snow. The temperatures are in the 20s, but the weather is expected to be very warm by the end of the week. This is a usual March weather for Bulgaria.
On Thursday and Friday I traveled to the Yambol area where several churches are in revival. We had a really good time rejoicing in the Lord. The trip coming back was more difficult as a strike of 10,000 Bulgarians had gathered in downtown Sofia to protest against the politics of the present government. None of the politicians at the Bulgarian Parliament came out to speak with the crowd, which stayed for hours under the pouring rain. This is perhaps only the first of many strikes, which are expected to follow.
On Saturday, March 23 the ministers of the Sofia region gathered together at the Bulina Livada Church of God to take important decisions on the development and the future of the region. The Sofia region includes 1/3 of the total membership of the Bulgarian Church of God and extends to an area of approximately 20,000 sq. km. The Sofia region includes 37 churches and more than 5,000 members.
A new strategy was developed for providing for the needs of the churches, and a regional government was elected. It included 14 men plus the regional overseer. Among them were elected men to work with the Roma communities in the region, Social Work Regional Pastor, Evangelism Regional Director and Educational Regional Director.
I was elected for the position of Educational Regional director for the Sofia region. This election comes in time with the organization of the first of its kind round table for Evangelicals. It will occur on March 29, 2002 in the Aula of the University of Sofia as Orthodox and Protestant scholars and pastors will present lectures on “The Influence of the Protestant Missionaries for the Spiritual Upbringing and Political Liberation of the Bulgarian Nation.”
Mission Bulgaria Week 30
NEWS – Week 30 – March 12-17, 2002 – Sofia, BULGARIA
Greetings from Bulgaria:
This Sunday marks the 50 days (actually 7 weeks) before the Orthodox Easter (Easter in Bulgaria this year will be on May 5th). This also marks the beginning of the Easter fast which starts on Monday. As an old national custom tonight every household in Bulgaria gets together and has a nice big dinner in preparation for the fasts. The tradition also includes a request for forgiveness from relatives, friends and enemies. While as Protestants we do not observe the Orthodox holidays, in our church today we did request forgiveness for our mistakes, errors and sin. We had a wonderful time of seeking the Lord, worshiping and calling upon Him.
The week was exciting for our ministries. I finished teaching the three-weeks systematic theology module at the Department of Pentecostal Studies at the Bulgarian Evangelical Theological Institute in Sofia. I praise the Lord for this opportunity and the successes of the students. Our studies on Pneumatology, Ecclesiology and Eschatology ended with a revival service that moved from Sofia to the Pravetz Church of God, where we went with 2 vans loaded with students and ministered to the people there.
On another note, Pastor Doneva just came back from Yambol on Friday, where they had revival services with prayer and fasting at the churches she pastors. The church in the village of Polyana, where they shot at Mom and her team, officially reopened for services. Filled with great joy the people have restored the building to its original state and are having three services a day. I am planning to travel there this week and participate in the revival, which is going on there.
Mission Bulgaria Week 29
NEWS – Week 29 – March 4-11, 2002 – Sofia, BULGARIA
Greetings from Bulgaria:
Our ministry was again mentioned in the chaplaincy report Church of God Chaplaincy Commission. However, the best news is that the church, which I asked you to pray for, has its building back. Not only that the man who wanted it gave up on the idea, but he and the mayor will personally give the keys to the congregation this week. My mother is traveling tomorrow for the service at which this will be done. We are praying that the church will have the opportunity to purchase the building for the price at which it was originally offered.
Again I had the opportunity to speak 19 times this past week. It has been a time of self-examination and consecration as the whole institute, students, teachers and administration have devoted ourselves to prayer and fasting through the week. The time of seeking God continues as more pray for afresh anointing, power from above and a vision of the glory of God. We are also planning a trip to Pravetz on Thursday, with some 10 students who have had a desire in their hearts to travel with me.
Mission Bulgaria Week 28
NEWS – Week 28 February 24 – March 3, 2002 – Sofia, BULGARIA
Greetings from Bulgaria:
What an exciting week we have had. Our ministry has found place in the reports of both Church of God World Missions, the Church of God Chaplaincy Commission and the Church of God FaithNews Network.
This week I began teaching Systematic Theology in the Department of Pentecostal Studies at the Bulgarian Evangelical Theological Institute. This week we had three lectures a day on the subject of Pneumotology. The class ended with a debate on 1 Corinthians 14 on Friday in which professors and first, second and third year students participated.
We also had a wonderful service on Wednesday as I perched a sermon called “… and don’t’ you be afraid.” The altar call lasted for more than an hour as we ministered to the people with needs. On Thursday we again traveled to the town of Pravetz and held a service in the Church of God there. On Saturday our crusade services continued. I preached a sermon called, “There is power.” Although the attendance was a bit law due to the soccer game in town, we had a very good service as many pastors from Sofia attended with their families and congregations.
So far I have preached 50 times this year and have spoken 19 times only this past week. I am physically exhausted, but I rejoice in the Lord for what He is doing and I personally feel fulfilled in what I am doing.
My mother Eva Doneva traveled to her churches and gathered the congregations for a three-day of fasting and prayer. They received good results on one of the buildings they wanted to purchase for a church auditorium. The men who pretended for the building, has brought them the keys of the building himself. He declared that he does not wish to purchase the building any longer and that they can use it for their services. The mayor has approved this settlement and now the church in Polyana has a real opportunity to buy the building for a church.
Mission Bulgaria Week 27
NEWS – Week 27 February 16-23, 2002 Sofia, BULGARIA
Greetings from Bulgaria:
Indeed this is a report of a blessed week. We had a very successful Chaplaincy Seminar with the participation of Dr. Crick and Dr. Popejoy from Cleveland, TN. More than 60 people attended and listened to the lectures during the week. These were people actively involved in military, hospital and prison ministries, students and church members. The seminar helped greatly and was a stepping-stone for the development of the Chaplaincy Ministry in Bulgaria, and served as a beginning point of the structural development of the department of chaplaincy and caregivers in the Bulgarian Church of God.
I also must report and outstanding outpouring of the Holy Spirit at the Wednesday evening service as we finished the expository preaching on the Epistle to the Galatians. At the altars people prayed and cried out to God for hours. Some were slain in the Spirit, and several reported that they were baptized in the Holy Spirit.
A National Presbyters Meeting was held in Sofia on Saturday with the purposes of electing a new central leadership of the Bulgarian Church of God. Pastor Pavel Ignatov was reelected for a National Overseer. A significant detail of the meeting was the election of two assistants to the national overseers instead of one. This was done with the purposes of larger representation of the minority groups within the church (Roma, Gipsy, Turks, Pomaks, etc.). Again for the purposes of equal representation the same reason 2 Roma people were added to the 11 members of the Presbyters Council. Total of 269 pastors and deacons were present and represented 25,422 members of the Bulgarian Church of God.
I was able to prepare small 40-page booklets with the 20 Sunday School lessons in a 6,000 circulation. The books were freely distributed to all ministers present at the meeting.
MISSION 2002: 6 Months in Bulgaria
6 Months in Bulgaria
Six months have passed since I returned to my home country Bulgaria. Although the many difficulties, limited finances and lack of advanced infra structural organization, I was able to:
1. Serve as a pastor of the Pravetz Church of God (40-60 members)
2. Serve as an Associate Pastor of the Central Church of God in Sofia (1,400 members)
3. Developed and integrated a Sunday School Pilot Program with 20 lessons in more than 70 local congregations nationally as more than 30,000 lessons were distributed freely
4. Start a Saturday crusade services and successfully build it up to a 380 attendees
5. Actively help a mission team ministering to 11 churches in the area of my home-town Yambol
6. Organize a chaplaincy seminar for more than 60 Bulgarian chaplains active in hospitals, prisons, military and police force
7. Completed an expository series on the books of Revelation and Galatians
8. Organized and led a Bible-study home group of 12 in the Buxton suburb of Sofia
9. Began weekly services for English-speaking people
10. Preach a total of 61 times in various church services, crusade meetings and ministerial conferences
11. Teach at Pentecostal Department of the Bulgarian Evangelical Theological Institute (BETI) in Sofia
Bulgaria: Politics
Through the past 12 years Bulgaria has become one of what is now known as a Post – Communist countries. This rather explicit name integrates a low life-standard, negative economic status, and the hopelessness of the people. In the summer of 2001 as the Democratic Party lost the elections, a newly formed movement led by the son of the ex-Bulgarian King whose family was expulsed by the communists in 1944, headed the Bulgarian political life. The royal descendant, Simeon Saxcoburggotsky, became the Prime-minister of the Bulgarian Government. Furthermore the Presidential elections that followed shortly were won by a socialist, George Parvanov, who entered the office of President of the Republic of Bulgaria in January 2002.
Bulgaria: Economics
The political changes reflected significantly on the economic situation of Bulgaria. Considerable changes took places in the already high tax-laws in parallel with significant increase followed in the costs of fuel ($2.49 per gallon), electricity, central heat, water and services. Yet, the drastic changes were unable to satisfy the $8 billion external debt and the 3 times higher internal debt of the Bulgarian economics.
Bulgaria: Society
The only hope that the Government gave to the people was to wait until the 800 days program of the Government was fully integrated and the first results were seen. This did not help much the seven million Bulgarians who had to go through a heavy winter with 15 inches of snow and constant temperatures of 20° C bellow zero.
Bulgaria: Church
The past 12 years of democratic government and politics in Bulgaria have created a relatively balanced atmosphere of religious tolerance. Although the Orthodox Church is still the official religious denomination, and that single anti-Protestant actions still exist, the evangelical churches in Bulgaria are experiencing a time of freedom and revival. As a result, the Protestant churches have grown more than 780%. For example, while in the mid 80s the Bulgarian Church of God had only 800 members today there are more than 380 churches with 31,000 members, as 37 churches with 5,200 members are in the capital Sofia alone. This is the context in which we minister every day, preach the Gospel, advance the Kingdom and declare that Jesus is Lord of Bulgaria.
Mission Bulgaria Week 25
NEWS – Week 25 – February 3-10, 2002 – Sofia, BULGARIA
Greetings from Bulgaria: The new crusade/evangelization Saturday service was given an extraordinary start. The meeting was held in an auditorium called “The Bulgarian-Soviet Comradeship” in the building of what used to be called the Russian Club, a building used by the Communist party before the fall of the Berlin Wall. This past Saturday a great more than 340 attended a Pentecostal worship service there. The crusade meetings purpose to gather predominantly teenagers and young families and provide for them Christian fellowship on Saturday. It offers a more alternative style of worship and preaching that targets specific needs and problems of the young people. On Sunday we held a Communion service in the Pravetz Church of God. There, the more traditional for the Bulgarian Church of God style of taking Communion is still preserved, as it includes foot washing and a special prayer for the sick with anointing. After the service two reported instant healing. More than 40 attended, and I am personally encouraged by the church that is being revived by God before my very eyes.
