Prayer for the Pentecostal Theological Seminary
Chaplaincy Course in Yambol
The Military Ministry, with the support of the Bulgarian Chaplaincy Association and Cup & Cross Ministries, is holding a Chaplaincy educational course in Yambol, Bulgaria. The course comes after a year of preparation and is part of the national strategy toward the accreditation of a nationwide master’s level chaplaincy program, which our team successfully complied since its envisioning in 2005.
This year, the International Association of Evangelical Chaplains is sending their training team to conclude the annual chaplaincy training for Bulgaria. Classes will be presented by: (1) Chaplain (COL) Bernie and Eshter Windmiller, US Army Ret., Team Leader (2) Major General (MG) Clay and Clara Buckingham, US Army Ret and (3) Chaplain (Colonel) Rich Young, US Army Ret. The IAEC team members will be traveling with their spouses and conduct services in the local churches after classes. Planned for the concluding event is an official lecture on the ministry of the chaplain at the Bulgarian Military Academy in the capital Sofia.
Revival in the Dupnitsa Church of God
The Dupnitsa Church of God has been on our hearts for almost a year now, before we were able to return and minister there. The congregation is emerging from having undergone several church splits in the years past and is now growing stronger than ever. Ministry teams are being formed along small group studies and village extensions in the region. With no help from anyone and very small income for the area, the people of the church are completing a building project with over 1,000 square feet two story sanctuary, which will incorporate various ministries like computer courses for children, soup kitchen and ministerial training. When we visited with the church last year, they only had the foundations ready, but during this visit their team had been able to finish the roof right before the rainy season in Bulgaria.
It was only natural that our team had a desire to contribute to such a great project and upon the recommendation of the pastor during October 2-4, 2009 we held a three-day revival with services in the evenings and training workshops during the day. Several of the services had a powerful impact on the congregation as virtually every night we stayed in prayer and fellowship till midnight. At the end of our stay we were asked to return very soon to the Dupnitsa Church of God for two parallel events: a parenting seminar and a Bible Study on the Book of Revelation.
School is in Session: Leadership Training Retreat for the Yambol Region
The weekend of the 16-19th of September Cup and Cross Ministries, along with Yambol based Mission Maranatha, held a Leadership Training Retreat for the Yambol region. Ten delegates from the area were chosen to represent various areas of ministry including ministry to the villages, children, home groups, women, elderly and the military. Representatives from Spain and the United States were also present.
Throughout our time together we were able to share personal experiences of ministry successes and growth areas in order to brainstorm through appropriate techniques and strategies to effectively resolve dilemmas in ministry. We discussed topics such as burnout and addressed how to nurture on-going motivation within each specific area of ministry.
At the conclusion of the training each delegate was encourage to take the resources which they had acquired and implement them into their specific areas of interest and take on the responsibility of training those whom are under their leadership.
Unfortunately we were unable to broadcast this training event live due to the remote location, but we are hoping to be able to make it available again in the near future, as we are planning our next event in which we will be reviewing leadership and communication styles. This series of training events is a part of our humble contribution toward the redevelopment of evangelical education in Bulgaria and the move from static training methodology to a dynamic strategy of empowering ministers throughout church-wide discipleship.
Evangelical Education in Bulgaria
September 15th marks the beginning of the school year in Bulgaria. For us it is always a very special time, due to our continuous involvement in the development of Evangelical Christian education in Bulgaria through the years. This year we partnered with the Church of God of Prophecy in national leadership training held in Bulgaria. This is the second annual training event we are completing together here, as at the same time earlier this year we participated in the 2009 Development Institute of the Church of God of Prophecy in Cleveland, TN.
Upon the invitation of National Presbyter Peter Georgiev, we traveled to the Danube River port city of Rouse, where the training was held with special guests General Presbyter Clayton Endecott from Frankfurt, Germany and the director of the Tomlinson Ministry Center, Rev. Dr. H.E. Cardin from Cleveland, Tennessee. Lectures and discussions continued all day long as we were able to fellowship with one another during the breaks. The event was broadcasted LIVE on the internet and on Thursday it was watched at the chapel service in our Alma Matter, the Church of God School of Theology, now known as the Pentecostal Theological Seminary. During the brief webcast we prayed for a special blessing over the students and their instructors. The prayer video can be watched at the following internet location: http://worldmissions.tv/user/videos/bulgaria The training sessions and the church services of the conference were recorded and can be viewed online at: http://bibliata.tv/user/videos/peppiy
We will be dynamically involved in three more educational programs as the school year unfolds in Bulgaria as follows: (1) the Church of God national educational strategy in Bulgaria (2) the master’s level program in chaplaincy and (3) a mobile Bible School, with special focus on the practical and effective training of small ministry teams for the needs of local and regional congregations.
