PRAY for #UKRAINE

They are bringing the bodies out of my hotel pic.twitter.com/hjDHjOlQIM

— Daniel Sandford (@BBCDanielS) February 20, 2014

Live Updates: Crisis in Ukraine

FOX News: EU reportedly agrees to impose sanctions on Ukraine as truce falls apart

Reuters: After Ukraine’s bloodiest day, EU tries to broker peace

BBC: Ukraine unrest: EU sanctions imposed

FOX News: Following whipping, anti-Putin punk band posts new video criticizing Sochi Games

CNN: Truce ends, death toll rises in Ukraine

BBC: Why is Ukraine in turmoil?

Make America PRAY Again

Pray for our Chaplains on Mission

Pray for our Bulgarian chaplains who were recently deployed on their next mission in the Middle East. We are not at liberty to publicize their names or current location, but we can mention that they have been a part of our Masters of Chaplaincy Ministry Program now affiliated with the New Bulgarian University (NBU). In the past three years they have successfully undergone the chaplaincy training by Maj. General C. Buckingham, USA (ret), Chaplain Col. R. Young of the IAEC and Dr. J. Ellis of Union University as part of our masters program. We are continuing to pray that they come home safely after their mission and be able to participate in the commencement graduation ceremony with their cohort from this year’s class.

Restoration of Chaplain Ministry 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.

PRAY for #UKRAINE

They are bringing the bodies out of my hotel pic.twitter.com/hjDHjOlQIM

— Daniel Sandford (@BBCDanielS) February 20, 2014

Live Updates: Crisis in Ukraine

FOX News: EU reportedly agrees to impose sanctions on Ukraine as truce falls apart

Reuters: After Ukraine’s bloodiest day, EU tries to broker peace

BBC: Ukraine unrest: EU sanctions imposed

FOX News: Following whipping, anti-Putin punk band posts new video criticizing Sochi Games

CNN: Truce ends, death toll rises in Ukraine

BBC: Why is Ukraine in turmoil?

Does the God To Whom You Pray Answer?

Response to Rev. Jesses Jackson’s “There’s Still More to Be Done” lecture at the University of Nebraska | by Kathryn Donev

We as a society, as a culture, have come a long way indeed. And this is a good thing. Equality is a good thing. Independence is a good thing. Rights are a good thing. Voice is a good thing. And here comes the “however”. When our right to all of this freedom becomes perverted into selfishness is when I begin to question this idea of social justice. What is the purpose of such? Is it not for equality and solidarity together? When the latter is lacking there is no social justice. When your rights begin invading on mine then there appears to be a contradiction with neither social nor justice. Does freedom of speak serve it’s function when it invades on the opinions and belief system of another? In the midst of this rising post modernistic mentality, it appears that there is freedom for all but one group called Christians whom are becoming the minority not even standing up for themselves.

We have turned into a culture who is loyal to nothing and everything at the same time; those whom occupy for a purpose unknown to themselves, those who fight for the right to be right. All values are acceptable, all beliefs are true, all gods are God. This protest for social justice confuses and in turn controls. I do believe that everyone should have the right to fight for the right to fight but when we are fighting for acceptance of no absolutes and only objective truths there is something wrong and I cannot remain silent sitting at the back of the bus. Of course I agree with the stand against classification however a line needs to be drawn when we begin to fight against the distinction of right and wrong, of good and evil. I remember a time when right was right and wrong was wrong; when white was white and black was black and I am not talking about the color of your skin. If there is no distinction between good and evil, righteousness is obsolete. With all being relative, there is no literal Heaven or Hell. Spirituality is no longer synonymous with religious. You can pray to which ever god you choose or all gods at the same time just in case. Yet, regardless of your beliefs, the true test will be if the god to whom you are praying answers. There most definitely is still more to be done.