Is There Revival in Bulgaria?
This question has been asked time and time again in the past 15 years since the fall of the Berlin wall. However, revival in Bulgaria is not a post-communist element alone. Regardless of the severe persecution of the Communist Regime, the underground church was in a state of nationwide revival and unstoppable growth. Through the testimony and the endurance of the saints, thousands were saved and sanctified. In the larger Pentecostal wing of the underground church, almost 100% were baptized in the Holy Spirit. Although the ruling atheism had proclaimed the death of the church and the communist regime had denied its existence, the Protestant church in Bulgaria was very much alive. Read more
Protestant Revival in Bulgaria
On November 10, 1989, a day after the border between East and West Berlin opened, the Bulgarian Communist leader of over 30 years resigned and change toward democracy began (Lalkov, 62-63). For those of us, who lived in the final days of Communist Bulgaria, the Fall of the Wall was a modern-day miracle. Emerging from severe Communist persecution and surrounded by the Balkan religious wars, the country of Bulgaria suddenly experienced a time of liberation. Before our very eyes, began a national spiritual revival despite a collapsing economy and political insecurity. Read more
Chaplaincy in Bulgaria
Since 1995, Cup and Cross Ministries International has worked toward a vision of the establishment of a Bulgarian Chaplaincy Association – an organization that incorporates pastoral care to prisons, military, police and hospitals. Our outreaches have been able to provide pastoral care and social services to the needy in a time of severe economic crises and political tensions. Our presence has been an answer for people in need for both physical and spiritual support. In the beginning of the 21st century, we are witnesses of a miracle as this vision comes into reality. Today, police and military officers participate in services led by the same ministers and pastors who once, during communism, they were ordered to arrest for the preaching of the Gospel.
History of Events
In September of 1944 the Communist revolution took over Bulgaria. All prior Protestant activates were outlawed. Pastors and ministers were imprisoned. Some were brutally executed. Any attempt for ministry in public was equal to a death sentence. The church went underground for 45 years until the Fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and a Holy Ghost revival swept through the country. In the summer of 2000 the Bulgarian Church of God organized a chaplaincy seminar in the Military School in Veliko Turnovo. This was done with the partnership of NATO’s head chaplain along with the representative of the Orthodox Church in Bulgaria, the director of the school under the patronage of the vice-president of Bulgaria Mr. Kavaldjiev. More than 250 officers, spiritual leaders and civil representatives participated. The goal of the seminar was to awaken the interest of the community and appeal for changes in the Bulgarian constitution, which would guarantee the freedom of military personnel to access the chaplain’s services and care.
The Bulgarian Chaplaincy Association
In February of 2002 a chaplaincy seminar, organized along with the Church of God Chaplains Commission, was held in the National Palace of Culture in Sofia. More than 60 pastors, chaplains, students and church workers from different denominations attended. These were people actively involved in military, hospital and prison ministries. The seminar was a stepping-stone for the development of the chaplaincy ministry in Bulgaria. It served as a beginning point of the structural development of the department of chaplaincy and caregivers in the Bulgarian Church of God and facilitated to the establishment of the Bulgarian Chaplaincy Association of which Cup & Cross Ministries became a charter member.
HEALTHCARE CHAPLAINCY IN BULGARIA
David Wilkerson in Bulgaria
On April 7, 2005, David Wilkerson arrived in Bulgaria for a nation-wide crusade. The services were held on April 8-10 in the National Palace of Culture to enhance the work of local pastors and ministers. Believers from virtually all evangelical denominations in the country were present. Representatives from various denominations and whole congregations joined together on Sunday morning in auditorium 1 of the National Palace of Culture in Sofia for the largest evangelical service held in Bulgaria in recent years.
How Do We Do Ministry in Bulgaria? (Part 2: Pastoral Teams)
The foundation of the Pastoral Teams ministry paradigm is the use of ministry teams in the parallel provision of pastoral care for a group of churches located in close proximity. The method has proven useful in situations with shortage of ministers, newly found churches or satellite church model. It is designed to dynamically accommodate the needs of all congregations included in the program and provide for the training of local ministers who can continue the work.
Cup & Cross Ministries first implemented the ministry model using pastoral teams in 1995 during the establishment of the Bulgarian Church of God in Chicago. A similar strategy was designed for our outreach team in Bulgaria, Mission Maranatha. The strategy has been in use with the churches in the Yambol region for over eight years.
In the beginning of the process, two separate teams provided pastoral care through 12 services per week to 5-6 local congregations. In less than six months, the work of the pastoral teams brought to existence two brand-new congregations.
Once the number of churches participating in the outreach passed ten, it was time for the implementation of the second phase of the strategy. The number of ministers in the pastoral teams was increased gradually. The newly included members were trained and then assigned to a group of churches. At the same time people within the local congregation were trained to participate in the ministry process.
Today, Cup & Cross Ministries’ teams provide pastoral care to 19 congregations through over 100 services per month. Since in the Bulgarian Church of God tradition, pastors do not receive salary, the model of pastoral teams has given an opportunity to enlarge the outreach of the church beyond the traditional scope into a larger vision for the future.
How Do We Do Ministry in Bulgaria?
The prime characteristic of our ministry is revival and church planting. Incorporated in a long-term vision, these characteristics demand special attention to preaching, teaching and publishing of the Word as well as ongoing training of ministers.
In the current Bulgarian reality, however, long-term planning is virtually impossible as the Bulgarian people are immobilized by the economical and socio-political crises and among all their mentality which still resembles the way of thinking enforced by the half-century Communist Regime.
But even in such context, God remains faithful confirming the preached Word with undisputable signs and miracles. It is through this confirmations of the Spirit that we can continue our work in Bulgaria. The end of 2004 was such a miracle. In the month of December extraordinary signs occurred virtually every day in almost every area of our ministry.
Prayer and Fasting
As part of our evangelistic ministry we setup a schedule where each week one of the nineteen churches under our care holds an all-day prayer and fasting meeting. On December 4th our team held an eight-hour prayer meeting in the Liulin church. Many relationships within the churches were reconciled through forgiveness, as the team had fasted for a long time in preparation for the meeting. The following day, the team with 15 members from the Liulin church traveled to the churches in five other village churches where similar meetings took place. The last one, which was in the Kamenetz church, lasted until 10:30 pm. On the next day, the group ministered in the churches of Polyana (morning) and Leyarovo (afternoon).
Church Building
As the church congregations are growing, the need for buildings becomes more demanding. Only a few of our congregations can afford their own building. The majority rent one, and the congregation which are in a beginners phase meet at the home of one of the members. In December our team was able to provide a meeting place for the Leyarovo church. With the help of many of the members, the building was refurbished and is now used by the congregation.
Ministry to Children
Protestant churches in Bulgaria are very closely monitored when working with minors. Often, church building permits are denied when in close proximity to schools and evangelistic work within the schools themselves is always difficult.
For over four years now, our team has been blessed with the opportunity to hold Sunday School lessons for hundreds of children in the Yambol region villages. In December, we established a new connection within the Child Services Agency which will allow us to work with underprivileged children in their custody or under their care.
Revival Among Traditional Pentecostals
Pentecostalism was introduced in Bulgaria in the 1920s establishing a congregation in virtually every Bulgarian town in its almost centennial history. The Pentecostal Revival which has swept Bulgaria in the past 15 years has had a transforming effect on both unbelievers and believers. Our ministry’s work focuses on areas where the Gospel has not been preached before and reaches people who have never been saved. At the end of 2003 and during 2004, however, our team noticed an opportunity to minister among the members of the older Pentecostal congregations. Since then, we have had representatives of these congregations in every regional meeting, training seminar or conference we have organized. We have also been able to incorporate pastors, church choirs and other ministry teams in our work.
Bulgarian Churches in America
In May, 2004 our team participated in the Annual Conference of Bulgarian Churches in North America in Minneapolis. Since then, three pastors and their families have made mission trips to the Yambol region in Bulgaria. The last one was the pastor of the newly established Bulgarian Church in Ontario and his wife who worked with our team in Bulgaria. in December 2004. This has given us opportunity to invite all of them to minister with us in the field where they can familiarize themselves with the work and prayerfully consider future involvement.
It has been our prayer for over ten years now, that the Bulgarian Churches in North America recognize their call for mission to the motherland. We believe that the events which have been taking place recently will become the first steps toward this direction and will encourage and enhance the work of the Church of God in Bulgaria.
Revival BULGARIA
Ethnic Minorities in Bulgaria
The country of Bulgaria was established in 681 A.D. on the Balkan Peninsula. Through the centuries of its existence, ethnic and religious groups have crossed its territory, reforming its borders and creating a multicultural context where more than 100 languages and dialects are spoken. Today the Bulgarian people live along with several ethnic minorities in the clash between Christianity, Muslim and Judaism.
Bulgaria could be referred to as a country of emigration, since there were several major migration waves mostly toward Turkey during the 20th century. Nevertheless, the population’s ethnic composition remains relatively homogeneous, 85.7% being Bulgarians, yet characterized by ethnic and religious diversity among the rest of its population. The two major ethnic groups are Turks and Gypsies, which represent 9.4% and 3.7% of the Bulgarian nation. The number of Jews has decreased tangibly both in absolute and relative figures due to a massive emigration of about 45,000 people to Israel in 1848. It is worth mentioning that Bulgaria is one of the few European countries which preserved its Jewish community during the World War II. Not a single Jew from Bulgaria was deported to Nazi concentration camps.
As regards religion and language, Orthodox Christianity and Bulgarian are the most widespread ones. The huge majority of Bulgarians (and around 60% of Gypsies plus 1% of ethnic Turks), declares adherence to the Christian cultural tradition. The second significant religion is Islam, professed by most Turks, all Bulgarian Muslims, and 39% of the Gipsy/Roma population. All Bulgarians speak their mother tongue. Almost the same is true for the Turks who speak Bulgarian as a second language beside Turkish (one third of their families even speak Bulgarian at home).
The Turks are the largest minority group and at the same time the one with the highest degree of ethnic consciousness. They are basically concentrated in two regions – in northeastern Bulgaria and in the Rhodopes region at the Turkish frontier. The Turkish population is mostly rural: 68 out of 100 people live in villages and 32 in cities.
The Turkish Minority
The Turkish community in Bulgaria is conditioned by two opposite factors: a birth-rate higher than the national average and numerous, massive emigration waves. The first emigration of Turkish people occurred after Liberation from the Turkish yoke. In the 1878-1912 period, Bulgaria saw the exodus of 350,000 Muslims (Turks, Bulgarian Muslims, Circassians, and Tartars). Roughly 100,000 of them had emigrated by 1884, 250,000 after unification of Eastern Romenlia and the Bulgarian Principality from 1885 till World War I. Until 1934, the average annual number of emigrants was 10,000, and after the nationalistic coup d’etat in 1934 it became 20,000. The next massive wave of emigration occurred at the beginning of the 1950’s: 155,000 persons. Another 115,000 left the country after the signing of the Bulgarian-Turkish Agreement on reuniting separated families in 1968. The emigration peak was in 1989-1992 when more than 300,000 left the country.
The Roma Community
The third largest ethnic and cultural group in the country is the Gypsies (or Roma). According to the last census, their number is 313,396. Analysts insist that these figures should be handled carefully because, as they say, 30% of the Gypsies prefer to declare external ethnic self-identification. Their larger part is from the Muslim Gypsy circles that present themselves as Turks; a part of the Christian Gypsies identify themselves as Bulgarians, and a third small part – as Wallachs (Romanian origin). The variety of empirical references of self-identification is manifested in regard to both the ethnic adherence and denomination, and to the language. Most Gypsies speak more than one language at home, the most used being the Gypsy language (67%), followed by Bulgarian (51%), and Turkish (34%). The situation of the Roma population in the country is extremely complicated. Their living conditions are more than poor. Despite the fact the at the end of 1970’s about 15,000 Roma families obtained long-term, low-interest loans to construct homes, a lot of them are still living in poor quarters resembling ghettos. The Roma child mortality rate is much higher than that of the Bulgarians: 240 per 1,000 versus 40 per 1,000, and some diseases like tuberculosis is three times more frequent. The degree of unemployment is three times higher than the national average. The Roma community is characterized by a lower level of education, which makes its representatives less competitive. There are strong prejudices against the Gypsies shared by the Bulgarian majority and other major minority groups. Unfortunately, the media and especially some nationalistic-oriented newspapers play a considerable role in reproducing and expanding these negative attitudes by emphasizing that Gypsies have a higher crime rate than other groups.
Some Special Cases (Pomacs and Macedonians)
Both groups represent special cases in terms of history, magnitude, and impact on political life. More significant are the Bulgarian Muslims (‘Pomaks’) because of their number and ‘borderline’ position between the Bulgarian majority, with which they share a common mother tongue, and the Turkish minority whose religion they profess. Bulgarian Muslims are ethnic Bulgarians who were converted to Islam during the Ottoman yoke. Their number was approximately 20,000 immediately after restoration of the Bulgarian state in 1878, and by the 1920’s reached 88,000. The sharp increase in figures between 1910 and 1920 was due to re-integration of Bulgaria with newly liberated territories in the Rhodopes and Rila regions. Present day their number is estimated between 200,000 and 280,000. In spite of their ethnic origin, Bulgarian Muslims’ historical fate is identical in many respects to that of other Muslim groups. Bulgarian Muslims have been subject to influences for assimilation in both possible regards. On one hand, study of Turkish language has been stimulated in order to integrate all Muslims into Bulgarian society as a whole. The result is that the Turkish language is perceived as a mother tongue by some 6% of community members.
The issues of ‘Macedonians’ are not any less complicated or controversial. One thesis defines them as a regional community based on the argument that they are an Orthodox population speaking a Bulgarian dialect in common with Bulgarian history, traditions, and values. Based on the right to self-determination, a contrary thesis defines them as a separate ethno-cultural community. Both views have political expression in the activities of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization -VMRO (a party seated in Parliament), and the United Macedonian Organization – OMO Ilinden (an unrecognized and unregistered separatist movement). Bulgarian policy towards ‘Macedonians’ has swayed between two extremes. In the 1940’s, much support was given to the idea of a socialist-oriented Balkan Federation (to includes all Balkan states and thus to resolve every and each ethnic and religious problem in the area). The population of the Pirin district bordering FRY Macedonia and Greece was stimulated, even forcibly, to identify itself as ‘Macedonians’. According to the 1956 census, 187,789 Bulgarians declared themselves as ‘Macedonians’. Later on, the policy altered sharply, and ‘Macedonians’ disappeared from official statistics. They have not turned up there till today.
Chaplaincy in Bulgaria
Since 1995, Cup and Cross Ministries International has worked toward a vision of the establishment of a Bulgarian Chaplaincy Association – an organization that incorporates pastoral care to prisons, military, police and hospitals. Our outreaches have been able to provide pastoral care and social services to the needy in a time of severe economic crises and political tensions. Our presence has been an answer for people in need for both physical and spiritual support. In the beginning of the 21st century, we are witnesses of a miracle as this vision comes into reality. Today, police and military officers participate in services led by the same ministers and pastors who once, during communism, they were ordered to arrest for the preaching of the Gospel.
History of Events
In September of 1944 the Communist revolution took over Bulgaria. All prior Protestant activates were outlawed. Pastors and ministers were imprisoned. Some were brutally executed. Any attempt for ministry in public was equal to a death sentence. The church went underground for 45 years until the Fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and a Holy Ghost revival swept through the country. In the summer of 2000 the Bulgarian Church of God organized a chaplaincy seminar in the Military School in Veliko Turnovo. This was done with the partnership of NATO’s head chaplain along with the representative of the Orthodox Church in Bulgaria, the director of the school under the patronage of the vice-president of Bulgaria Mr. Kavaldjiev. More than 250 officers, spiritual leaders and civil representatives participated. The goal of the seminar was to awaken the interest of the community and appeal for changes in the Bulgarian constitution, which would guarantee the freedom of military personnel to access the chaplain’s services and care.
The Bulgarian Chaplaincy Association
In February of 2002 a chaplaincy seminar, organized along with the Church of God Chaplains Commission, was held in the National Palace of Culture in Sofia. More than 60 pastors, chaplains, students and church workers from different denominations attended. These were people actively involved in military, hospital and prison ministries. The seminar was a stepping-stone for the development of the chaplaincy ministry in Bulgaria. It served as a beginning point of the structural development of the department of chaplaincy and caregivers in the Bulgarian Church of God and facilitated to the establishment of the Bulgarian Chaplaincy Association of which Cup & Cross Ministries became a charter member.
