Services in Yambol, Bulgaria
I preached one of my first sermons in the Pentecostal church in my home city of Yambol over fifteen years ago. It was followed by many other speaking engagements there, especially at the youth services held every Saturday night at the church.
Many years passed since then and due to extensive travel for ministry and educational purposes, it has been awhile since we have been able to minister at the church. It was this past Sunday that we were fortunate enough to be in service with my home church. Upon the pastor’s invitation we were able to preach at the Communion service as some 400 were in attendance. Many more were also able to respond to the service via the media.
The Pentecostal church in Yambol is one of the first evangelical churches in the country. For many years, before and during the Communist Regime it served as a national center for Bulgarian Pentecostals. Many National Assemblies were held there and important decisions about the development of the Bulgarian Pentecostal Movement have been made in this church.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the Yambol Church again led the Bulgarian Pentecostals in a number of important ministry and public endeavors. The church initiated the first Bulgarian mission work during post communism, the Mission for Christian Upbringing. The first, and so far the only, Bulgarian evangelical political party was founded in Yambol in 1997. This event was followed by the first attempts for a Christian TV production and broadcast in Bulgaria. The city has produced many prominent evangelical ministers. But for me personally, the return to Yambol was much more sentimental. The Yambol Pentecostal Church was the placed where the Lord saved my soul and where for the first time in my life I felt free at last.
Services in Samokov, Bulgaria
We just returned from Samokov, which is one of the oldest industrial towns in Bulgaria. Almost 200 years ago the first protestant missionaries to Bulgaria discovered its strategic location and used it as a halfway point between Europe and Asia in their mission trips. Soon a modern American school opened its’ doors some of the brightest minds of the Bulgarian Renaissance were educated there.
Last October, our team visited with one of the Roma (Gipsy) Church of God congregations in the town and held a Sunday service followed by two youth rallies. Hundreds came to the altars as we prayed together in the presence of God. These services were part of our national ministry and support to the Roma people of Bulgaria.
This past Sunday the miracle occurred again. Led by the Holy Spirit we found ourselves in Samokov ministering to the same Church of God congregation there. We preached and prayed with the congregation and were to meet again with several old acquaintances. A citywide evangelization meeting in cooperation with the Assemblies of God Church was held in the center of town that same evening. Over three thousand were in attendance. We are already planning our next return to the city of Samokov to hold a regional youth conference there.
Rebecca St. James in Sofia
Grammy award winning pop-rock singer Rebecca St. James will be performing in Sofia this Sunday. She and her band will take part in a concert organized by Harmony Media. The event will also feature the popular Bulgarian duet Karizma as special guests who will promote their first long awaited album Ecclesiast. The concert will be held on Sunday, May 28, 2006 in the National Palace of Culture. The event will be part of Rebecca’s European tour for promotion of her new album ‘If I had one chance to tell you something’, released at the end of 2005.
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.
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.
New Wave Presentation
New Wave is an all-night Christian gathering for youth which meets every couple of months in different locations throughout Bulgaria. This time it was held in the largest auditorium in Bulgaria, the National Palace of Culture in the capital Sofia. Over 3,600 were present for an unforgettable night of praise, prayer, preaching and presentations. We were given a spot at 3:30 in the morning, when we spoke of the web ministry provided by one of our websites www.bibliata.com. In this early time of the morning, we sent a Bible verse via SMS to the cell phones of over 3,000 people many of whom were present in the auditorium. Our team presented the methodology and strategy of our internet ministry approach, accenting on the fact that although the method of delivery may change, the message must remain the same.
Services in South Carolina
After much prayer and anticipation, we were again able to hold a series of services in South Carolina. While through its history our ministry has been closely connected to churches in this region of the country, it has been awhile since we have had the opportunity to minister there. The services in Seneca, La France, Pendleton and Spartanburg reconnected us with our past history in ministry and reinforced our vision for the future. We are thankful for the given opportunity and the multitude of friends we were able to see once again.
