Bulgarian Video Bible Project Launched for Easter
50% of the Video Bible is already recorded. See it at http://bibliata.mobi/
For several years now, our team has been working on a brand new project featuring unconventional technology, which combines social media and the message of the Bible. We call it simply VIDEO BIBLE – a complete video recording of the Bible text through reading, expository preaching, drama, congregational reading, visual arts and many other ways of incorporating the Bible with modern media. It is easier to use compared to the common reading and listing of text.
How does it work?
The introduction of this unconventional media model to the social networks is much more appealing and user friendly than texting the Bible or broadcasting it as an audio stream. But even more powerful than the message itself, is its effect on the people as the church comes together in a community of faith to fulfill the Biblical commandment for reading and living the Book. This internet ecosystem is truly Bible based and everyone can see it on the recorded videos.
Where do we stand?
Over 250 people, youth groups, whole churches and ministries have participated in the project until this point. Over 50% of the Biblical text has been recorded and published via our video sharing stream at http://bibliata.tv and this number is increasing daily. Every recorded and broadcasted chapter of the Bible brings new participants to the community thus exponentially increasing the effect of the project.
What’s next?
The completion of the Bulgarian version of the Video Bible is set by the end of 2012, when our team will introduce the API for other languages and Bible versions. The idea is to create a global community of believers who introduce the message of the Bible in a user friendly video format, thus making it available to anyone who wants to read through the Bible. And something more – through its unique technology, mobile capabilities and social networking, the Video Bible is a genuine evangelism tool that could be used by anyone.
Bulgarian Churches in North America
Bulgarian Churches in North America results from a comprehensive dissertation work on emerging Bulgarian American congregations. The book incorporates some twenty years of research, which the author began while involved with the establishment of the first Bulgarian Church of God in North America initially located in the city of Chicago. The work presents an overview of the historical presuppositions and immigrant dynamics associated with Bulgarian churches is offered to enlighten the current problem of ministry. Next, a detailed contextual analysis describes the churches participating in the project. The project model design explains the research methodology and the study’s findings, which provide the first ever statistical overview of Bulgarian American congregations. The work concludes with a series of prognoses of the explored movement of evangelical churches, various considerations and an A-to-Z church planting proposal to serve as a paradigm for ministry and church planting among Bulgarian immigrant communities in North America.
Video Bible in Bulgarian
The Video Bible project in Bulgarian was originally envisioned in 2008 by the Cup & Cross ministry team as a result of two consecutive endeavors. The first was the finalization of a vision for the Bulgarian Bible on the internet, which began in 1996 and continued in the next decade resulting in the development of Bibliata.com – a web community for Bulgarian and Slavic speaking Christians around the world. The second one was the Bibliata.TV web project released in 2007-2008 after a wide variety of oppositions ranging from purely technical to religious and political aspects.
Once Bibliata.TV had established its permanent place in the internet it grew fast to become one of the most successful interactive media projects in Bulgarian history. Currently, the project hosts over 11,000 original Christian videos uploaded by some 1,200 registered members. It provides a web platform for daily religious broadcast for some two dozen of Bulgarian churches and ministries active around the globe and in 2008 became the home of the Bulgarian Video Bible.
This last ambitious project of the Cup & Cross ministry team undertook the difficult task to recreate the Bible in video format one chapter at a time. Churches, ministers and lay people were asked to record a favorite portion of the Bible as a video and upload it to Bibliata.TV. Currently 6,672 videos are already completed. They can be all seen at: http://video.bibliata.tv/. The anticipated release date of the Bulgarian Video Bible is 1.11.2011.
Bulgarian Cookbook with Authentic Bulgarian Recipes Just Published
For many years, friends and partners have been asking us about Bulgarian cuisine. What does it include? Does it taste good? What are our favorites and so on? It has been our experience that Bulgarian cuisine is very attractive to the Northern American tastes. Actually, we do not have a single friend or partner who have visited us and worked with us in Bulgaria who did not fall in love with our food.
After many requests, Kathryn has taken a personal interest in collecting our favorite Bulgarian recipes and putting them in this small cookbook. Now, these are much different than the modern Bulgarian diet that today includes fast food restaurants and junk food snacks. The book has 25 personally customized recipes of authentic Bulgarian cuisine. Not only that they carry the typical Bulgarian flavor, but each recipe comes with a personal story. You will enjoy cooking them with your family and friends most of all, you will enjoy serving and sharing them with everyone.
Bulgarian Village Motifs
Bulgarian Churches in Western Europe
Bulgarian Churches in Spain
View UntitledBulgarian Churches in Spain in a larger map
Bulgarian Churches in the United Kingdom
View Bulgarian Churches in the United Kingdom in a larger map
Bulgarian Churches in Cyprus
View Bulgarian Churches in Cyprus in a larger map
Bulgarian Church of God in Cyprus
For the past three years the community of Bulgarian immigrants on the island of Cyprus has been swept by a Holy Ghost revival much similar to the revival which brought freedom in Bulgaria some 20 years ago after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Similar phenomenon was observed in the mid 90s in the Chicago Metro area, where several Bulgarian churches spurred up into a revival and as surveys showed years later, this has become the main characteristic of the establishment of Bulgarian immigrant churches across the world.
But the similarities with the Chicagoland revival of the 90s do not stop here. Just like in Chicago, some 65,000 Bulgarians live and work on the island of Cyprus. And this is the number of only the registered ones. But while the Bulgarians in Chicagoland are spread across only 220 sq.m. of the city, the island area of Cyprus has 3,500 sq.m., which makes their networking and communication much harder.
Pentecostal ministry among the Bulgarian Diaspora began somewhere around 2005 with small groups that reached 30-40 people. In this context of ministry, in the spring of 2008, the first Bulgarian Church of God congregation was formed in the city of Nicosia (Levkusia) with Bulgarian trained Church of God minister Rumen Metodiev as the pastor, under the supervision of Bishop Michael Charalambous, overseer of the Cyprus Church of God of Prophecy.
After a series of deliverance revival meetings, the growth of the congregation exploded and within a few months reached some 200 people. When special services are held once or twice a month over 300 people show up, making it impossible for the congregation to meet in their current location. Bulgarians from other parts of the island reached out to the new church and soon a new Bulgarian congregation was started in Limassol, a Mediterranean resort an hour way from the capital Nicosia. And then another Bulgarian Church of God was started only a few months ago in the city of Paphos and already numbers some 55 parishioners.
As the network of Bulgarian churches in Cyprus is growing, congregations are facing important decisions that demand immediate answers in the areas of leadership training, finances and cultural contextualization. After successfully recovering from some initial dilemmas through the establishment of a strong leadership team, the congregation in Limassol is already looking for a new larger building to rent in order to accommodate their growing attendance. The congregation in Nicosia is at a point where they need to acquire their own building for their meetings, but with their rapid growth, such may be difficult to find on the small island.
Our purpose in visiting with the Bulgarian churches in Cyprus was to hold a two week revival and to train leadership teams to assist the local pastors. We had a total of 14 services with the Bulgarian congregations and one with the Greek Church of God of Prophecy congregation in Nicosia. Our team held over 20 training sessions covering the areas of Bible study, the ministry of preaching, types of ministry, team building and church leadership. Pastor Iliya Panov joined us during the second week of training and covered the topic of praise and worship as well as provided a powerful presence of worship during our time together.
During the course of the revival, a Bulgarian pastor from Paralimni attended the meetings. Upon their invitation, we held an evangelization meeting on Saturday night, which brought many new souls to Christ and strengthened the faith of this new congregation.
Now, after having our annual “X” youth events in Bulgaria for four years in Sofia (2006), Bourgas (2007), Uzana in the Balkan Mountains near Gabrovo (8.8.2008) and the city of Samokov (9.9.2009) we are anticipating this new level of global ministry on 10.10.2010 in Cyprus, when “X” will be held for the first time outside of Bulgaria. The event will be hosted in partnership at the Cyprus Church of Prophecy in cooperation with all Bulgarian congregations on the island.
