2006: The Year of Promise
In the beginning of 2006 under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, we declared 2006 the Year of Promise. It was natural then as the year began that we sought the Lord’s will in prayer and fasting to discover and possess the promises. As the months passed by the considerable amount of ministry overtook most of our time and attention. At times we held 3-4 services per day, an evening revival service, had just enough time to eat a meal, go to bed and prayerfully start the new day. But we never stopped wondering about the promise of the Holy Spirit.
Having spent over seven months of the year ministering all over the country of Bulgaria, at the end of 2006 we are in the process of evaluating our work, available resources and plans for the next year. We are reviewing the videos, going through the thousands of pictures, checking our reports, over viewing our rapidly growing ministry’s media presence, reevaluating our statistical information and ministry results and looking for the points of success and failure. Over 55,000 traveled miles, two and a half broken cars, multiple trips with airplanes, buses, trains and sometimes even on foot; close to a hundred congregations involved, tens of thousands of people touched through the internet, but most of all countless handshakes, prayers through laying of hands, encouraging words and always finding strength through the struggles to give to other. And as everything comes together at the end of the year, we slowly but surely realize that the Year of promise is not about us. It is not about a promise which God wanted to give to us, but it is about His promise which He wants delivered to the others. All ministry results are nothing, if His promises have not reached the people He loves. And sitting in the office with video, audio, photos, numbers charts, maps, analyzes, satisfaction from the much success and pain from the many failures, we come to the recognition of this one thing – we have been granted the privilege to bring the promises of God to the people whom He has loved from the foundation of the world. And this is the True Year of Promise.
Thus, our payer remains the same: “May God use us to bring His promises to the people around us.”
Happy New Years from all of us at Cup & Cross Ministries.
Over 3,300 Receive Bible Verse
Over 3,300 Bulgarians worldwide receive daily a Bible verse directly to their cell phones from the Christian mega portal www.bibliata.com. Similar active applications include the English website “Ecclesia”, the Australian Bible Society and the American mFaith and OSministry. The service offered by www.bibliata.com was initiated in 2002 and it has remained free of charge for all subscribes since then. The service is offered via the major Bulgarian GSM operators MTel and GloBul. Registration is done online at: sms.bibliata.com. There is also an option to receive the verse via email.
Give Thanks
Everything you do or say, then, should be done in the name of the Lord Jesus, as you give thanks to Him through God the Father (Colossians 3:17)
The Scripture advises us to give thanks to God at all times and on all occasions. It also gives thanks itself: Genesis gives thanks for the creation. Exodus gives thanks for the deliverance. Leviticus gives thanks from generation to generation. Numbers gives thanks for each generation. Deuteronomy gives thanks for the law. Joshua gives thanks for the Promised Land. The historical books give thanks because His mercy endures forever. Psalms give thanks with a song. Proverbs give thanks with a word of wisdom. The Prophets give thanks for the coming Messiah.
The Gospels give thanks for the Messiah who has come to the world. Acts give thanks for the Holy Ghost. The Epistles give thanks for we were delivered from sin, saved, sanctified, baptized, adopted to the family of God, healed, restored, blessed and wonderfully placed on the firm rock who is Christ Jesus. Revelation gives thanks for He is coming again to deliver us from the trials and tribulations of the present world and to bring us to the abundant life in the Heavenly City.
We are thankful to God who is our hope for both today and for eternity. Happy Thanksgiving, from all of us at Cup & Cross Ministries.
Healing in the Midst of Revival
After the Monday night service of the revival we held in Sofia, a lady came to us and testified of a healing in her left arm where she had been experiencing tremendous pain to the point of not being able to move it. She further reported that during the service the pain completely left her body.
While in revival services in Bourgas a similar healing took place. In the middle of the alter call, an elderly lady testified with a shout and with her hands raise to the Lord in thanks for a physical healing. This lady testified that before the service she could not move her arm or leg on one side of her body and that during the time at the alter she received an instant healing in which she was able to walk without hindrance and could move her arm and open her crippled hand. We also just received confirmation that a lady was healed from cancer during the revival in Bourgas.
Revival is a time of restoration but it is only after we humble ourselves, pray, seek his face and turn from our wicked ways that our sins will be forgiven and there will be healing in the land. We praise the Lord for this dynamos healing power and know that He in not finished with the work He has begun.
Cup & Cross in the Church of God News
The work of Cup & Cross Ministries was again recognized by the World Missions Media Department. Two reports were published, the first one dealing with our October ministry appointments (http://www.cogwm.org/news.cfm?sid=2638) and the second one covering the tour in Bourgas, Mega Youth Rally in Varna and the Ten-Year Anniversary of Bibliata.com (http://www.cogwm.org/news.cfm?sid=2640).
Socialists Win Elections Again
Incumbent President Georgi Parvanov was re-elected with a majority of 77.6% votes vs. 22.4% in favour of nationalist opponent Volen Siderov, according to exit polls of Scala agency. Exit polls were released by Bulgarian media immediately after the last polling station closed at some time after 7 pm on Sunday. Alpha Research quoted preliminary figures of 77.1% for Georgi Parvanov and 21.9% cast for Volen Siderov.
Voter turnout averaged the levels from the first round and hardly exceeded 40%, preliminary data showed. Unlike the first election round, the turnout doesn’t play a role here and the candidate who garnered the larger amount of the ballots cast became Bulgari’s next president. Parvanov faced Siderov in a run-off because the turnout in the first round of the elections fell below the 50 % of eligible voters required for a straightaway victory.
10 Years Bibliata.com
September 2006 marked the ten year anniversary of the creation of one of our ministry websites, Bibliata.com. Ten years ago on an old computer running on a 386 processor and 4MB of memory, the first texts of the Bulgarian Bible were prepared into a digital format. Now ten years later a consortium of over a dozen Christian websites is creating a new subculture in Bulgaria’s internet to form a context where Christian values and Biblical principles for life are again becoming motivating and governing powers of society.
For us, this anniversary is a sign that dreams can become reality. As part of the anniversary celebration in July we initiated the National Bible Tour 2006. We have already held, with great success, mega youth rallies in the towns of Stara Zagora, Yambol, Shumen and Bourgas along with our team’s direct participation at the New Wave-Sarafovo and Karandila summer youth camps. We have scheduled youth rallies in Varna, Plovdiv and Sliven for the months of September and October. Two weeks of revival services in Sofia and Bourgas are also planned as part of our Revival Harvest Campaign 2006.
Stephen Baldwin in Bulgaria
Stephen Baldwin has been in Bulgaria filming one of his latest movies, The Harpy to be released in 2007. It is becoming an annual tradition for the Hollywood actor and producer to visit the country. He is a newly born again Christian who, among his many titles, is the director, co-producer and host of Livin’ It, a Christian based broadcast which features extreme sport athletes. This show is the newest addition to the worldwide ministry of the Luis Palau Association. While in the capital of Sofia, He and his wife Kennya Deodato visited with several churches. When in attendance with the Blaga Vest Church in Sofia, the secular television station, bTV filmed the service with Baldwin testifying and aired it later that night.
At New Wave Again
New Wave is a Bulgarian based movement which calls Christian youth for a nationwide gathering every couple of months. The movement which begun several years ago, has grown to be a national phenomenon where youth from all over the country can come and experience the power of God.
We were first invited to present www.bibliata.com and other projects of ours at New Wave in March, 2006. At the end of June, we spoke on their web radio station and were invited for a second presentation. We were able to respond as we traveled to the Sarafovo youth camp, near the Black Sea port city of Bourgas where New Wave was held. Five from our team were able to attend the presentation: Mitko, who heads the GSM Bible project, Dani who supervises the Constantinople Bible project, Vladi, who works with the CLC bookstore bus, Kathryn and myself. We presented three of our newest projects: (1) the national Christian news database, (2) the website for audio and video sermons and (3) the Bibliata.com web radio station. During our time we also spoke to the youth concerning their priorities and about walking the waves of life with the greatest of Wave Walker, Jesus Christ. We were able to meet with many of our partners in ministry and most important of all with the people who visit and use our websites every day
Meeting the NATO Chaplain
After an endless number of protocol procedures, we were finally able to meet with the NATO chaplain in the Bezmer Airbase near Yambol. Chaplain (Maj.) David G. Waweru is a Kenyan national who serves in the United States mission to Bulgaria. He has spent the past two years stationed in Germany and has served in Iraq. This is his second trip to Bulgaria as part of a united training exercise between the United States’, Bulgarian and Romanian army forces and he is hoping to come back next year for a longer period of time.
Chaplain Waweru and his assistant met us at the gate of the Bezmer Airbase and we were able to spend time discussing a wide range of current issues such as: United States military presence in the country, army morale, integration of military models in the joint forces, the role of the chaplain, the Bulgarian attitude toward war, the NATO bases and chaplains in the Bulgarian Army. Some helpful points were reached on the expected visit of United States Chief Chaplain to Bulgaria. We also spoke about the Bulgarian Chaplaincy Association and the training course that it will offer through the Bulgarian Evangelical Theological Institute in the fall. We agreed to pass information through the chain of command and work toward future mutual projects.
