Church of God Children Ministry in Sliven, Bulgaria
Chaplaincy Conference and Master’s of Chaplaincy for Bulgaria
The International Association of Evangelical Chaplains just held its first global conference in Eastern Europe. The chosen location was the country of Romania, where the army now has one full-time paid evangelical chaplain. This is the first conference of such caliber held on the Balkan Peninsula and it was natural that representatives from most neighboring countries attended. With this conference the issues of chaplaincy within the Bulgarian and Romanian armies, now members of NATO, is adequately finalized.
Bulgaria was represented by the president of the Bulgarian Chaplaincy Association as the conference marked an important point in the resent development of Bulgarian Chaplaincy. As a result, chaplain col. Rich Young of the IAEC, who last year taught an Introduction to Chaplaincy course in Yambol, Bulgaria, will present a lecture on chaplaincy in the capital Sofia on May 31, 2010. The lecture is brought with the help of the Bulgarian Evangelical Theological Institute in effort to promote the Masters’ of Chaplaincy Program which will begin in Sofia this fall. With it, the Bulgarian Chaplaincy Association has reached an important stage of its long-term educational strategy which purposes the proper and adequate presentation of the chaplaincy ministry to local church, educational institution and government agencies. The Masters’ of Chaplaincy program is one of few taught around the globe on a graduate level and the first one ever to be presented in Eastern Europe.
Revival BULGARIA
150,000 Evangelicals in Bulgaria
BUREAU OF DEMOCRACY, HUMAN RIGHTS, AND LABOR International Religious Freedom Report 2009
Section I. Religious Demography
The country has an area of 42,855 square miles and a population of 7.6 million. The majority of the population, estimated at 85 percent, identifies itself as Orthodox Christian. Muslims comprise the largest minority, estimated at 13 percent. According to the Council of Ministers Religious Confessions Directorate, there are approximately 150,000 evangelical Protestants [in Bulgaria] ….
Source: http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2009/127303.htm
HERALDS OF THE TRUTH: A History of the Evangelical Churches in Bulgaria
From the author of “Imprisoned for Christ”, now the first comprehensive history of Evangelical Christianity in Bulgaria is available in English. With the arrival of the first Congregationalist missionaries in 1844, more Bulgarians heard the Gospel than ever before. Despite resistance from the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, Evangelicals increased both in number and in favor with royal officials after the overthrow of the Ottoman Turkish Empire in 1888. The era of Communism brought new waves of persecution, but the Church in Bulgaria stood strong. This is her story.
Mobile Bible School in Bulgaria Implements Three Online Programs
As our Mobile Bible School demands constant upgrade and the addition of various new modules, we have been able to implement three complete Bible training schools available in the Bulgarian vernacular within our program. They are presented as media resources to the students and now we have been successful in posting them online to a larger audience, which has interest in them. This include church pastors and independent churches, lay ministers and ministry teams, all the way to the common folk who want to learn about the Bible. These three programs have been historically present in Bulgaria since the Fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and it is our hope that with their internet presentation they will continue to serve for the purpose of ministry training. They are:
1. Oasis of Love Bible School which was taught in Bulgaria by American missionary Keith de Mayo and his colleagues in 1990-1994. After the Fall of the Berlin wall, Oasis of Love became the first major ministry training center on a national level in the capital Sofia. Several hundred ministry students finished the school and entered the ministry by 1994. We were blessed to be able to gather the recordings of the lessons and publish them online. (icon)
2. The School of Christ International directed by Rev. B.H. Clendennen (May 22, 1922 – December 13, 2009) was introduced in Bulgaria around 2000-2001 and for a brief time received great attention, especially among the Roma Gipsy churches of Southwestern Bulgaria. It introduced a new approach to Bible training through media resources, which were flexible to present and easy to replicate in the local church, thus becoming an important training device for the ministry in the Bulgarian context. (icon)
3. International School of Ministry (ISOM) is a largely recognized training tool for churches around the globe. It comprises the teachings of leading ministers and renowned theologians, who have gathered together in one team to impart to a next generation what they have learned about the ministry. The chosen theme series covers virtually every aspect of Christian ministry and are invaluable training tools for both ministers and members within the local church (icon)
Mission Bulgaria 2009
Mobile Bible School in Bulgaria Implements Three New Courses
In the past six months in which we have implemented the mobile Bible school into the Bulgarian context of ministry, our team has added three more courses which will be included in our 2010 class program. They are:
1. Systematic Theology. This is a course that we developed back in 2001 to respond to the need for Bulgarian contextualized studies in systematic theology from a Pentecostal perspective. After teaching the course at the Pentecostal Department of the Bulgarian Evangelical Theological Institute, we published a small Sunday school series on the subject, which have since then been used for congregational Bible studies within the Bulgarian Church of God. We are planning to reprint this publication in 2010 and present the course not only to the students who study Bible doctrine, but also as a practical model for teaching Systematic Theology from a Pentecostal perspective in the context of the local church.
2. The Christian Chaplaincy course was first presented within the context of the Bulgarian Evangelical Theological Institute in 2006 as part of the educational program of the Bulgarian Chaplaincy Association. It purposes to introduce students to the ministry of the chaplain and help ministers recognize a calling to chaplaincy ministry they may have in their lives and set them forth to a higher level of education on the subject. The course has been taught several times in the past five years in various locations across Bulgaria and has been instrumental in the development of the Master’s Program in Chaplaincy, which we will begin teaching in September of 2010 in partnership with the Bulgarian Evangelical Theological Institute.
3. Demons, Disease and Deliverance is the latest class developed along with two Church of God pastors. Vasil Petrov and Plamen Petrov who have served with the Bulgarian Church of God for over two decades now. Their healing and deliverance ministries have extended beyond the borders of Bulgaria, as they are frequent guests to Bulgarian emigrant communities in Europe and the United States. Plamen Petrov is currently serving with the Bulgarian church in Malaga, Spain, while Vasil Petrov is a regional overseer for the Gabrovo Church of God region. They both hold weekly online programs on the subject of healing and deliverance and were instrumental in the developing of this class as practical training which the Mobile Bible School now offers as an online training course for ministers and lay leaders.
Record Low Temperatures in Yambol, Bulgaria
Record low temperatures were reported this morning in Yambol our ministry base location. Thermometers in the early morning in showed minus 8.14 degrees Fahrenheit and in the most southern point of the Yambol region in Elhovo thermometers showed minus 9.4 degrees. This is the lowest temperature measured in the city of more than 40 years. Similar freezing temperatures were reported in 1979 of minus 5.26 degrees Fahrenheit.
January 26, 2010
More Snow in Yambol, Bulgaria
