Preaching in Stara Zagora Again
Our next stop was the Awakening Church of God in Stara Zagora with pastor Dimitar (Jimmy) Lutchev, where we ministered during the communion service on Sunday morning. We were also able to schedule to speak at a national pastoral meeting, which will be held in Stara Zagora on August 22-23, 2008. This meeting is part of our ongoing strategy to minister among the Church of God congregations in the region as follows:
Bourgas: August 23rd, 30th (Art Festival)
Sliven: August 7th (Karandila Youth Camp), 31st (Regional Church Leadership Seminar)
Stara Zagora: August 3rd, 22nd-23rd (Association of Roma Pastors)
Yambol: August 6th, 13th, 18th (Jesus Film Project), 20th, 24th, 27th
We are now ready to proceed to the Karandila Youth Camp in the mountains where we will minister and promoted our next “X-Event,” which will be held on the 8th, 9th, and 10th of August. We will then return to the Gabrovo Church of God for the final preparation of the X 2008 Event. Please, pray with us that the local city authorities will not only grant us the necessary permits, but will also participate and support our event as a ministry event which will gather believers from all over Bulgaria to unite in calling on the Heart of God in the Heart of Bulgaria.
Speaking at NEW WAVE Youth Camp at the Black Sea
We just returned from the New Wave Youth Camp at the Black Sea where we were able to minister to the young people present. We have been ministering at New Wave for some years now, but this time the focus of our trip was promoting the X 2008 event at the Uzana Mountain. Our team began by showing a multi-media infomercial concerning what will take place at Uzana on the 8th, 9th, and 10th of August. We followed by delivering a brief message from Isaiah 3:10. As always, to participate in such a great ministry opportunity is an honor and we were truly blessed by the approximately 300 young people and ministers present at New Wave. After the service, we were able to personally meet with each youth pastor of the various churches which were represented at the camp to give them further information about the “X Event”, this year’s X-Poster and Military ID tags inscribed with “bibliata.com” to give to their youth.
Ministering at the Black Sea
During the national council meeting of the Bulgarian Church of God in Bourgas, our team took the opportunity to preach at several Black Sea churches. We traveled to the Black Sea city of Pomorie with Church of God Regional Overseer for Gabrovo, pastor Vasil Petrov. Then, we left Pomorie and traveled to Dolno Ezerovo where we held a Sunday morning service and then preached at the oldest Bulgarian Pentecostal church in Bourgas on Sunday evening. Our return to the Black Sea area was a long-awaited one, as there we have held our annual ministry training events for several years now. We were also due to speak at the New Wave Youth Camp at the Black Sea, which gave us the opportunity to minister to the young people there, promote the X 2008 event at the Uzana Mountain and schedule a series of regional leadership seminars for the months of August and September.
In preparation for X 2008 at Uzana, Bulgaria
One month has gone by faster than expected as we have been in preparation for the X 2008 event at the geographical center of Bulgaria, the Uzana Mountain. This has demanded virtually all of our time and our full attention. For the past one year we have prayed, planned and promoted the X 2008 as a national assembly of the Church of God in Bulgaria calling evangelical believers from the four corners of the country to come together in the Uzana area of the Balkan Mountains and seek the Heart of God in the Heart of Bulgaria. The event will begin August 8, 2008 and finish with a seven hour concert, prayer and preaching on August 10, 2008.
Preaching from the Gospel of Mark in Yambol
The pastor of the Pentecostal church in Yambol has invited us present a Bible study course on the Gospel of Mark. We have designed the course as a verse by verse exploration of the text, which takes under consideration various theological perspectives and practical applications.
Naturally, when dealing with the Synoptic Gospels, we touch on text criticism issues like the process of writing the Gospel, priority of Mark, authorship and purpose, Greek vocabulary and grammar and many more. It is a challenge to relate many of these issues to a congregation where most of the people have read only one Bible translation their whole lives.
Nevertheless, as we have trusted the Holy Spirit in the interpretation of the Gospel text, we have seen again how the Word of God is confirmed with miracles and wonders. These signs have surpassed simple healings, supplying of financial needs or family restoration and has proceeded into life transforming experiences expressed in salvation, sanctification, Spirit baptism and extraordinary illumination opening the spiritual eyes of many to receive the text in a practical experiential matter of which many have not been yet aware. We have literally seen how the Word, and not people, touches hurt hearts, heals sorrowed souls and transformers lives forever. And this is the miracle of preaching the Good News of God to the world. For if we want revival to go on, the Gospel must be preached …
Leadership Course Begins a New Level of Ministry in Sofia
By Kathryn Donev
After a very successful service at the Upper Room in Sofia on June 29th, we returned there for three new services this past Sunday. Our Sunday morning began at 7:30 a.m. when we were picked up by a member of the Salvation Church of God in Sofia for the prayer service which began at 8:00 a.m. and continued until 10:00 a.m. The church is located in the poorest of all parts of the two and a half million metropolis of Sofia, the gipsy ghetto of Phillipovtsy. As the church is built on the highest part of the subdivision where the services are held on the second floor, people naturally call it the Upper Room.
It was there during the prayer meeting, around 9:30 a.m., that a man accompanied by several people from a nearby Church of God came and requested prayer for being diagnosed with having a large tumor in his head. As we anointed the man and prayed for him, we learned that two people had already received a healing from tumor and cancer in the past two weeks.
At Gabrovo Church of God Again
This weekend we returned to the Bulgarian mountain city of Gabrovo to prepare for the 2008 X Event which Cup & Cross Ministries will hold on August 8-10, 2008 in the geographical center of Bulgaria in the Uzana Mountain. Our return was a long awaited one, as we have been working together with the regional overseer, Vassil Patrov and the national leadership of the Bulgarian Church of God in the past year toward the successful realization of this project. For the brief time that we spent in Gabrovo, we were able to minister to the congregation, speak with representatives of the mayor’s office, inform the local authorities of the upcoming gathering and arrange all necessary accommodation for the X Event. We are praying, preparing and hoping that X 2008 in the Heart of Bulgaria will be a true blessing to all who attend.
Ministerial Meeting in Sliven
We just return from a very fruitful meeting in Sliven on which important leadership decision were brought to the attention of the ministers in the region where we have been ministering as a team for the past 20 years. We were able to reacquaint with old friends, schedule a series of revival meetings in the area for the month of August and September and participate in the decision making process to secure a new focus of ministry in the Southeastern region of the Bulgarian Church of God, which includes the major cities of Yambol, Sliven, Stara Zagora and Bourgas. While in Sliven, we were also able to visit with the Church of God Men and Women of Action team led by our good friend Rich Tonti, working on a church in the area. As part of our ministry in the region, we have scheduled leadership courses for pastors of Sliven in August and of Bourgas in September. We are hoping that through these ministry endeavors, both ministers and churches will turn their focus from the ongoing crises toward the real goal of ministry – the salvation of human souls.
Ministering in Sofia: Three Services in a Day
At 10:00 a.m. our first service was at the Grace Church of God in Sofia where we delivered the message of Isaiah 3:10 “Tell ye to the Righteous that it shall be well with them.” The brief sermon was followed by an hour long alter service in which we prayed for people and anointed them for their needs. Through the prayer a number of people reported various healings. A father and son we prayed for were respectively baptized in the Holy Spirit and delivered from drugs.
At 5:00 p.m. we preached in the service of the Catholic Ecumenical Apostolic Church of Bulgaria where we encouraged the people and delivered to them the new translation of the Gospel of John printed by our ministry.
At 7:30 p.m. we arrived at the Gipsy ghetto of Phillipovtzyi, on the Westside of the capital Sofia, and had one of the greatest worship services we have ever experienced in the Upper Room church there. The service continued till late in the night as people kept on praying at the altars and receiving from God. Among many healings that happened, one miracle in particular stands out. A father of a little girl came into the service requesting to be anointed with oil and prayer from for his two month old daughter whom he left in hospital with double pneumonia. He returned the next day to report that he girl was healed after the prayer.
From the Heart of God to the Heart of Sofia
Cup & Cross Ministries was instrumental in the envisioning, planning and promoting of a national ministry crusade which was brought to a close with a series of evangelization meetings at the National Palace of Culture in Sofia June 11-12, 2008. A number of Bulgarian and international five-fold ministries gathered together in the heart of Bulgaria, the Uzana area near Gabrovo, to pray and prepare for a new level of ministry. A great contribution to the organization of the seminar modules was given by Church of God Pastor Vassil Petrov of Gabrovo. The organization of the meetings in the capital was entrusted in the hands of pastor Stanislav Todorov. Special guest speakers were Apostle Scott Hunter from South Carolina and Nigerian prophet Emmanuel Babalola. The praise and worship was led by worship pastor maestro Ilia Panov, whose ministry is located in the poorest of all ghettos of Sofia, Philipovtsy. Evangelist Encho Enchev, who ministers among the Turkish minorities of Southern Bulgaria, was invited to share his heart and experiences with the people. The meetings were attended by Eastern Orthodox Bishop Hristo Pisarov and Father Michael Novak of the Catholic Apostolic Christian Church of Bulgaria, who shared their vision for a Bulgarian national unified ministry network. Read more
