Ministering in Bulgaria

Andrew and I just returned from a week of working in Bulgaria, a former Soviet Union nation in Eastern Europe. Andrew taught a Nazarene History and Polity course for European Nazarene College to two students, and preached in the church on Sunday morning. I worked with our regional communications team to gather written and video stories of all that God is doing in Bulgaria.

God is at work in this economically depressed nation. But it is a hard place to work. Rampant unemployment has led to a mass departure of young adults and families who have sought jobs and a new, more hopeful life in Western European nations. This leaves children and elderly people to try and prop things up in Bulgaria.

With vast rolling plains and gentle mountains, Bulgaria is a beautiful and peaceful country on the surface. Underneath there is still a lot of pain caused by the struggle to transition from a Communist government to a democratic one. There are pockets of Roma (gypsy) communities that are generally segregated from the majority Bulgarian population, and the two ethnic groups have no love for each other.

In Montana, the poorest region and also the birthplace of Communism in Bulgaria, the Nazarene church has faced repression from governing authorities, resistance and harrassment from neighbors, and does its best to reach out to people who are involved in the darkness of the occult, are in bondage to alcoholism, or struggling to make ends meet due to unemployment. The congregation has become a beacon of hope for not only young families but the elderly and Roma people.

We sensed the powers of darkness hard at work to discourage, divide and resist God's people in their work to expand the Kingdom. We invite you to pray with us for the Church in Bulgaria, that it would be empowered by the Holy Spirit to overcome all spiritual and physical opposition and would be victorious in the name of Jesus Christ, who is greater than all who stand against Him.

Our communications team first spent time investigating a brand new compassionate ministry center that is being organized by the Montana Church of the Nazarene. The church is setting up this foundation to assist local people in accessing information and grants from the government and the European Union to start up small private businesses that will infuse new funds and energy into the local economy, and help families no longer be dependent on government welfare. We interviewed
two people who are building this foundation, and we also visited a Roma family that has been able to purchase land and start an orchard of their own, as a result of help from this foundation. The father of the Roma family said he is the first in 10 generations to own his own land. In a nation where people are too hopeless to dream about the future, this family now has hope and big dreams to grow their own agricultural business.

We also spent a day with a woman, Geroyka, who travels around to different villages with a truck filled with household items and clothing for sale, and while doing business with the villagers, she tells them about Jesus and plants churches. She then returns to the new church plants every week to disciple the new believers. She does this entirely on her own initiative and funds her ministry through her market business.

We interviewed the Nazarene pastor in Montana, Valeri, who has an amazing testimony, and who shared with us the exciting story of how his church was started and how it grew to more than 100 people who now worship in their own building, which in decades past was the home of the very first Communist mayor of Montana.

We also spent a few hours at a home for poor elderly people, where two singers performed for the residents and members of the church handed out chocolate and cookies along with hugs and smiles. That elderly home was a hopeless and not nice place, and it was a sobering experience.

Then we spent a day with Zhana, a young woman who overcame personal prejudice against the Roma people to work full-time with Roma children in a local government school, as well as planting churches among Roma families in the surrounding villages. We visited a small Bible study group of Roma for lunch and to see Zhana at work among the people who are open and hungry to hear each week about the goodness and love of Jesus Christ.

Roma are not typically open to strangers, so we felt incredibly privileged to be invited for food and fellowship without hesitation on their part.

It was a full and eye-opening week and we are grateful to have seen and heard not only the struggles but the victories of God's people in Bulgaria. I'm excited to share our videos and articles in the coming weeks and months. Thank you for your prayers for us while we were on this trip.