Ministering at Holmes Bible College
After the successful completion of the Deliverance Revival at Pendleton, we traveled to Holmes Bible College. Holmes is the oldest active Pentecostal college founded in 1898 in the old Altamont Hotel on Paris Mountain in Greenville, SC. The long term success of the college has resulted from its dynamic leadership and its solid setup as an independent Pentecostal educational institution. These factors, along with God’s provision, have guaranteed that Holmes Bible College has remained active and effective in a time when most Bible colleges are closing their doors.
Upon the invitation of the faculty, we visited the college and participated in the annual mission’s week held their. The time spent in ministry and fellowship was a blessing, as to most of our surprise, we were able to reunite with schoolmates and teachers who now serve in faculty positions at the college. We delivered a message on “The Liberty of the Spirit” and prayed with the faculty and student body, that the ministry and legacy of Holmes Bible College continues into the future.
November Deliverance Revival
Covenant of Faith Church of God – Pendleton, SC
This Sunday, November 4, 2007, we are starting a Deliverance Revival at the Covenant of Faith Church of God in Pendleton, SC. Pastor Marion Snider and his congregation have extended a kind invitation to us for a time of ministry and spiritual renewal. Services will begin at 10 am and 6 pm on Sunday and 7 pm on Monday through Wednesday. If you are in the area, make plans to attend the services and experience anew the power of God.
The revival comes after we have been blessed with the opportunity to minister in a number of South Carolina churches this past month. We were privileged to hold missionary services at the Vineyard Church of God in Spartanburg, Newberry Church of God, La France Church of God, Liberty Church of God and the Seneca Church of God. We were also able to travel to Florida and minister at the Chokoloskee and Bradenton churches there.
Local Vote 2007 Results
Sofia incumbent mayor Boyko Borissov won re-election by a landslide on Sunday after securing 53.43% of the vote, shows data with 100% of the election protocols in the capital processed. A total of 202 800 citizens of the Bulgarian capital cast their vote for the popular mayor Borissov, who describes himself as centre-right.
Former deputy central bank governor and rightist candidate Martin Zaimov came in second with 17,77% (67 454 ballots), while Bulgaria\’s former top spy and Socialist runner Brigo Asparuhov ranked third with 15,48% (58 774 ballots). Nationalist Ataka party nominee Slavi Binev came in fourth with 4.02%, while ex-king Simeon Saxe-Couburg\’s NMSP candidate Antonia Parvanova won 2.55%, according to the final results.
Borissov, a former bodyguard to communist dictator Todor Zhivkov, was appointed secretary-general of the Interior Ministry in 2001 after ex-king Simeon Saxe-Coburg won the parliamentary elections and took charge of the cabinet. He has immediately won numerous supporters with his direct and uncompromising style, as well as his tough stance on organised crime, but his opponents accuse him of being too brash and lacking expertise. Even though that stands to change with GERB poised to win a plurality of seats, Borissov has repeatedly hinted he sought to knock the Socialists out of power and has not committed himself to seeing out his second term.Tip-offs about buying and selling of votes at Bulgaria\’s local elections on Sunday heated the situation throughout the whole day, with most of them being anonymous, officials from the Central Electoral Committee said Monday. The vote buyers have targeted once again the Roma districts the most, and the money offered for a vote ranged from BGN 15 to BGN 100 in Sofia, while in Bulgaria\’s second largest city of Plovdiv the offered pay-off reached BGN 50. More than 20 people were arrested around the country on charges of attempting to buy votes, but later all of them were released.
Public Administration Minister Nikolay Vassilev admitted Bulgaria had a serious problem with this issue, which could only be overcome by introducing mandatory voting. The biggest percentage of electoral law violations was recorded in the Black Sea town of Nessebar, where the percentage reached almost 70%. In the town of Silistra on the Danube River, vote-buyers found another way to pay for the “goods” – they offered bags with flour to the voters. In the capital Sofia tip-offs for attempted vote-buying were reported in the districts of Ilinden and Vladaya.
Municipal Elections 2007
The commission for declassification of the secret services archives announced on October 25 that of the candidate mayors registered by the election committee, 420 had collaborated with the former secret service, BTA said.
Of the candidates in Sofia and its regions, 10 had worked with the service, Focus news agency said. Only two candidates for the central city had worked with the secret service, Brigo Asparuchov, candidate for the Bulgarian Socialist Party and Radko Hadzhiev, , candidate for United National Front.
The other eight former agents were candidates for regions and included Boyan Boyadzhiev, GERB candidate for Vitosha, Dimitur Dimitrov, candidate for Bulgarian Socialdemocrats in Krasna Polyana, Ibrahim Karahasanov, candidate for the Green Party in Lyulin, Ivan Petro, candidate for the Green Party in Lozenets, Lyudmil Yordanov, candidate for GERB in Oborishte, Plamen Krustev, candidate for BDNIE in Ilinden, Boiko Koichinov, candidate for BDNIE in Krasno Selo and Stefan Gulubov, candidate for BDNIE in Triaditsa.
Two of the members of the Central Election Committee (CEC) collaborated with the communist-era secret services, the commission for declassification of the secret services archives said on October 23 2007.
The two are Roumen Elenski and Tsvetozariya Iosifova-Krusteva, mediapool.bg said. Iosifova-Krusteva was a secret collaborator and held agent quarters. She worked for the services until 1990. Elenski was on the staff of the services. In 1982, he become an intelligence agent and in 1985 was sent to the KGB school in the USSR. In 1989, he became senior intelligence agent. National Movement for Stability and Progress nominated Iosifova-Krusteva for the CEC in 2003, while Elenski was nominated by Bulgarian Socialist Party in 2005.
Some 15 000 to 20 000 voters are to arrive to Bulgaria’s Kurdjali on October 28, the day of the municipal elections, Citizens for the European Development of Bulgaria (CEDB) informal leader Boiko Borissov said on October 21 2007.
Bulgarian Parliament and the three ruling parties, Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), Movement for Rights and Freedom (MRF) and National Movement for Stability and Progress (NMSP) made that possible, Borissov said as quoted by mediapool.bg.
Borissov called “nasty and foul insinuation” the statements that if CEDB nominee for Blagoevgrad mayor Kiril Pandev won the elections, he would agree to storage of Sofia’s waste in Blagoevgrad. In the beginning I enjoyed these statements, there were similar rumour about Vidin and other cities as well, Borissov said. The administrative potential of Bulgarian cities, including Sofia, was small and European funding remained unutilised. “Only 10 to 15 per cent of the money is utilised and in the same time we complain that we are poor, hungry and weak,” Borissov said.
2008: Year of the Bible in Bulgaria
Bulgarian Evangelical Alliance, Bulgarian Bible Society and the Bulgarian Bible League are preparing to celebrate 2008 as the “Year of the Bible.” The preparation and some of the events, organized by the Bulgarian Bible Society and the Theological Faculty of Sofia University, will begin in 2007. The project will be achieved in partnership with the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, the Catholic Church in Bulgaria and the Evangelical denominations and organizations. The event purposes to uplift the role of the Bible in the Bulgarian society and raise the interest of the Bulgarians toward the Word of God.
X Event: Ten Analyses and Perspectives
by Dony & Kathryn Donev
X at the Black Sea 2007 was a spiritual breakthrough for Cup & Cross Ministries. At the same time the event served as a reality check for our abilities, strategies and expectations. As we approached the event as a spiritual encounter and experienced fully its developmental process and aftereffects, our ministry team was able to assess the advantages and downfalls of our active ministry strategy. Several observations were made.
1. The Gospel is stronger when preached to sinners who have not been saved.
2. Spiritual hunger in Bulgaria, which is expressed predominantly in the need for street evangelism and spiritual revival, has not changed or weekend in the years since the Fall of the Berlin Wall. It has only shifted perspectives from a strictly postcommunist to a rather westernized postmodern context. It has become the spiritual duty of the church to discover where and how this shift has occurred and to provide pastoral care for the unchurched in the new context through all applicable means.
3. Only unconventional ways of presenting the Gospel will draw people who have not yet been drawn by conventional methods.
4. It may not be easy for conventional pastors and churches to accept new methods of preaching the Gospel. Therefore, adequate contemporary training in ministry and leadership must be proposed beforehand in order to train local churches and leaders how to recognize, embrace and utilize new waves of spiritual revival. This is indeed an obstacle which has often remained forgotten while receiving training and leadership on a weekly basis within the comfort zone of the local church.
5. Since all transitions described above are deeply rooted in one’s personal spirituality and the spirituality of the church itself, a leap of faith is needed on every level of church leadership and ministry in order for the church to be transformed back to its original image of a movement testifying of the story of Christ and witnessing how others are being transformed by the power of the story.
6. Team work based on Biblical covenant relationships is the natural continuation of the revival initiated by the Holy Spirit and a key factor in the formation of the discipleship process among the newly converted.
7. Structural flexibility of the church, designed with the purpose of transforming it from a community organization to a community movement, complete obedience to the move of the Holy Spirit, as well as training in doctrinal reformation of methods and praxis are necessary to accomplish the said transition.
8. Following of the leadership of the Holy Spirit will not only help the church to return to being a movement again, but in fact will spark, motivate and inspire movements of fragmented religious groups, churches and denominations to return to the basic mission of the church namely: salvation of eternal human souls
9. Resistance to such movements, within and without, must be accepted as a normal reaction and must be embraced as the solemn way through which new spiritual movements and fresh waves of revival come to existence.
10. Finally, personal lives, carrier goals, and ministry objectives may need to be compromised before one fully surrenders to the move of the Spirit; beyond a shadow of a doubt, however, Gods response to one’s full surrender is undoubtedly supernatural confirmation of the Word through signs, miracles and wonders while fulfilling the Missio Dei: salvation of human souls for eternity.
X 2007: A Miracle in the Making
by Kathryn N. Donev
As you walk in the garden area going to the Black Sea coastline to catch a glimpse of the sailboat exhibition, you begin to notice posters for an event. Before you are able to read any further you hear off in the distance what appears to be preparations for a concert. Your curiosity draws you closer and you inquire what will be taking place. The sound person tells you that at 7:00 o’clock sharp the Christian music group “Extremum” will be performing here at the open air sea garden auditorium.
It is only 30 minutes till 7:00 so you find a free seat on the bleacher in the back and watch as a large crowd gathers with standing room only. Then the concert begins strong. Before you realize, an hour has past and the call for intermission is given. Shortly you see something being thrown to the crowd. You run to the front and catch a small plastic bag the size of a business card. You open it and find inside a bracelet with the colors of the Bulgarian flag and the text “www.bibliata.com” embossed on the white silicone surface. Instead of returning to your seat you put on your bracelet, remain upfront and the band returns to perform another set of songs.
Twenty minutes until 9:00 pm, just as the sun is setting, a message is delivered which encourages freedom from sin and deliverance from drugs and alcohol. This message is one that you have never heard before and honestly do not think much of it at the moment. You are just interested in hearing more music. To conclude the band takes the stage for their final songs. After, the crowd cheers for more, the band comes back to perform two more songs. The lyrics proclaim “Just show me a moment in your presences” and the band has the crowd repeat after them. At 9:00 pm it’s over and you are ready to go home.
As daylight fades, you find your way back through the garden to a nearby street where you catch a taxi. During the drive you revisit the delivered message of “being free”. You are still a bit confused and want to know more. You look down to the bracelet you put on and before taking the elevator up to your apartment block you stop at the internet café and log on to the website address “Bibliata.com.” As you surf the site you find that you can read the text of the Bible, listen to sermons about the Bible, and even download music from the concert you just attended. At this site’s consortium is where you begin to have your questions answered.
Church ministry must reach beyond the church walls to the places where the oppressed, hopeless, alcoholics and addicted are found, whether that be on a street corner, a sandy beach or even the Internet highways. God\’s love has no limit and as His arms and legs neither should we, as we strive to share His love with those who so disparately need deliverance. The above account illustrates how the event, X at the Black Sea we held on July 28, 2007, may have influenced a single life, but in faith we believe that this event is only the beginning of a much larger ripple, the effects of which will be felt long after the band packed up, the sermon concluded and the sun set. A price cannot be put on this event for it was truly a priceless experience and one that occurred only by the grace of God.
Many obstacles had to be overcome and it is only a miracle that X at the Black Sea became a reality. When the mayor’s offices denied a permit, when funds and means of transportation were limited, when it seemed impossible to acquire the needed equipment and when friends said it would not work, is when God receives the full glory. For it was not with the efforts of money or men that this event happened but by the intervention of the Holy Spirit. As long as you have the Holy Spirit all things are possible. Praise be to God for what He has done and for the miracles He has yet to perform!
X Log 2007 Bourgas, BULGARIA
12:00 am Our media team left Sofia in route to Bourgas
12:35 am Christian rock band Extremum arrived in Bourgas
4:40 am The bus carrying our media team arrived in Bourgas
5:00 am Putting up posters for X in the streets of Bourgas at dawn
6:00 am Final check for the X location at sunrise
6:30 am An early visit to Sarafovo for final preparations
7:45 am Final cut for signs and banners
11:00 am Transporting the drum set
2:30 pm Meeting with pastoral team to finalize the X schedule
3:00 pm Media team arrived at the X location
4:00 pm ProAudio arrived at the X location
3:30 pm Extremum arrived at the X location
4:15 pm Permit for the X was brought by the president of Bulgarian Christian Coalition
4:30 pm Police and security teams checked permit, approved schedule and secured the X location
5:00 pm Sound check
5:25 pm Viara TV and Shalom TV arrived at the X location
6:00 pm Last minute preparations
6:45 pm Prayer
7:00 pm X began with a brief introduction of the event
7:07 pm Extremum took the podium with the song “…”
7:45 pm Krasimir Momchev, president of Bulgarian Christian Coalition addressed the public with a political alternative for the restoration of Bulgaria as a Christian country
7:55 pm Extremum continued
8:40 pm Dony K. Donev of Bibliata.com took the podium with a brief message on “Freedom from Sin” and led the crowd with a prayer for deliverance from alcoholism, drugs and addiction
8:50 pm Extremum closed X ‘07 with two new songs
9:00 pm Breaking down
9:30 pm Packing up
10:00 pm Dropping off drums
10:30 pm Picking up audio recording from sound providers
11:00 pm Meeting with pastoral team to review successes and growth areas of event
X Youth Event at the Black Sea
After six months of planning, five weeks of negotiations and four consecutive days with hardly any sleep, it finally happened. The X Youth Event at the Black Sea in Bourgas, Bulgaria is an undeniable fact. It took us over a month to obtain a permit for the event due to its religious orientation, but with the help of our partners at the Bulgarian Christian Coalition the permit was finally signed by the mayor the day before the concert.
X Day: July 28, 2007
A little after midnight parts of our team began arriving to Bourgas from various locations in Bulgaria. The Christian band, “Extremum” traveled across Bulgaria to be able to participate. The Faith TV team arrived from Sofia along with the Media and PR team members. Around 4 a.m. at the crack of dawn, the media team began hanging the posters for the event and the final check of the location for the concert was performed at sunrise. The pastoral team continued with the finalizing of the schedule through the morning. Everyone gathered at the X location directly at the Black Sea coast in the early afternoon.
X The Event ‘07
Unpacking, putting everything in order, sound check, setting the lightning and broadcasting test took place along with countless last minute changes in the program. Due to the open location people began arriving at 4 p.m. At exactly 7:00 pm X opened strong and the music did not stop for the next two hours despite the solid watch of the present police. Extremum sang an unbroken set of Christian hard rock bringing many to the podium. The leader of the Bulgarian Christian Coalition addressed the crowd challenging young people to search for a Christian alternative for the status quo. Our team concluded X with a brief message on “Freedom from Sin” followed with a prayer for deliverance from alcoholism, drugs and addiction. Many responded to the message and prayed with us at the end of the event, proving again the power of the Gospel when confronted with the people of the world.
X Afterglow
After hours of packing, around midnight our team left Bourgas with satisfied hearts. We thank you for your prayers and support. With thousands in attendance and many more watching live on television, the X Youth Event has completed its purpose. Because the Gospel must be preached to the people who need it.
National Chaplaincy Conference
The national conference of the Bulgarian Chaplaincy Association took place on the Bakadjik Mountain near the town of Yambol. Founding members gathered for an annual account of the results of the Association. In the course of the round table discussion, Chaplain M. Buchukov of Agape Bulgaria brought a report of the registration process and its finalization through the Sofia Municipal Court, while Dr. D. Donev gave an account of his interrogation in the Bulgarian Ministry of Defense and consecutive reactions. Chaplain I. Kovachev informed the delegates of the ongoing work of his ministry in the Sofia correctional system and Father M. Yonov spoke briefly of his work as a hospital chaplain. Reports were given of all areas of chaplaincy ministry in Bulgaria as delegates from all regions of Bulgaria addressed current issues concerning the future strategy of the Association. The assembly further discussed issues of national security, Bulgaria’s status in the European Union, NATO’s personnel expected to arrive in Bulgaria this fall, chaplaincy educational endeavors as well as various problems and solutions on a local level of chaplaincy ministry. The attendants moved toward a declaration for the official legal reestablishing of chaplaincy ministry in Bulgaria. This was the second annual work meeting of the Association since its conception in August of 2006.
