In this issue:
The foundation of the church is not its building, the programs or even the leadership. It is relationship. Relationship with Jesus and with one another in Him. The New Testament is clear about the issue—we must be master builders, not of meeting facilities and church programs, but of human lives in the faith of Christ and in serving each other. Church buildings and activities can help, but when they become idols that run our faith or define our relationship with the Lord and with one another our only chance is to repent and change. A ministry with this message is not very popular in Bulgaria but we find it to be very rewarding and desperately needed. Doing church as relationship is what we find more and more pleasure in. And so does our Lord, we believe. (Eph 4:2,16,25; 1 Cor. 3:9-11; John 15:1-17)
THE NETHERLANDS
I was in the Netherlands for a 3-week conference in January. The event, called Religion and Society in the Context of Bulgaria, was organized by the Hendrik Kraemer Institute—a division of the Global ministries desk of the Uniting Churches of the Netherlands. The uniting churches have 2.7 million members on the books and consist of two Dutch Reformed denominations and a much smaller Lutheran church. There were 14 Bulgarians in the conference, representing different Christian denominations. Two of the participants were Bulgarian Muslims.
The organizers’ goal was to promote dialogue among us—representatives of different Christian and religious traditions—and to introduce us to Dutch society and the way it deals with issues of difference and communication. The 3 weeks living and learning among the Dutch were informative and helpful. It became clear that the process of uniting Europe has gone quite far and Bulgaria seems to be heading toward this end. Some of the lecturers we heard pointed out that an intense work is going on to draft an European constitution. It was also interesting to learn that the Netherlands, a country of only 16 million people, takes third place in the world in agricultural production with only 2% of the population involved in this business. The Dutch peoples’ punctuality and high level of organization has brought an effectiveness in human production that is among the highest in the world. However, the mission of the church, as our hosts understood it, was limited only to social work and charity. The gospel of Jesus Christ had no, or little meaning, to most of the people we interacted with, as the means to God’s love and salvation. For many of those involved in the social projects we visited, all religions led to the same goal. Dialogue had become a purpose in and of itself, rather than a means to understand the other as they exist.
One picture struck me as a metaphor of the Dutch Protestant churches—with such a rich history and yet so far from following Christ today. When we traveled around the countryside by train or car one could see fat and calm sheep diligently grazing in the distance. However, a shepherd was nowhere in sight. Later I found out that they have electronic devices to keep sheep in line so a shepherd was not needed. This was quite a striking parallel to the church picture I was presented with in the Netherlands—an organized, wealthy, self-sufficient group with no need of a Shepherd. Then I realized that being generous out of wealth is not the same as being generous out of love. My heart was saddened and my prayers go out to the churches in the Netherlands that need to turn from the spirit of humanism and self-sufficiency and turn to the Spirit of God so they may find the true blessing of generosity in Christ Jesus.
TEAM BUILDING
Two months ago our team held a prophetic conference and initiated a prayer group in the Gypsy neighborhood of Vidin, and we have already run across some hardship. The gypsy brothers who have been meeting three times a week have found it difficult to move beyond their relational conflicts. As we got together with the group last week we had an honest conversation, although in the beginning the gypsy Christians spoke only positively and were not willing to recognize the problem. The time was difficult but God’s Spirit brought up some real issues like: unhealthy leadership ambitions, racist attitudes toward us (Bulgarians) and our ministry, lack of direction of the group and lack of understanding of its goals. We ended up with asking the group to come up with a clear idea who are their leaders, what is their short-term goal and how can our team be of help to them. Please, pray that both these men and our ministry team have wisdom how to proceed with the ministry in the gypsy neighborhood of Vidin.
Also, please pray for us as our church is in the process of building a ministry team and we go through a lot of struggles ourselves: relational issues, encouraging people to enter their calling as ministers, defining our goals and gifts in our ministry team. We are praying for God to open the door for the next prophetic conference which will be held in the last weekend of March. We are asking for God to lead us to the church that will be the host of the training. At this point we will be traveling to Svishtov, a small university town in the North Eastern part of the country, to meet with one of the church leaders there.
A praise report: a new family and two more single women have joined the house church. We are thankful for this growing community! The women’s group has now reached eight and soon we will not be able to meet outdoors in cafes! Please pray that we as a church would be committed to serving the Lord in Sofia and beyond and that the women’s group would be a safe place for the women to be vulnerable and open to the Lord’s work in our lives.
YOUTH: ORPHAN MINISTRY AND NEW PROJECTS
We plan to hold two VBS’s this summer in Belogradchik and Novo Selo. The budget is at $1,000 per VBS. This includes room and board for the workers and volunteers, supplies and sports gear for the students, transportation and a small banquet for the participants at the end of the VBS. Please, pray that we will be able to raise the funds before the end of June 2003.
Teresa has been developing a new project which aims at integrating graduate orphans into society. These youth are undereducated, inadequately nurtured and socialized, have weak or nonexistent social safety nets and are despised because of their ethnicity and culture. With these odds stacked against them, they have a 20-30% chance of integrating normally into Bulgarian society. Therefore, with a view toward implementing a project as intervention in the future, we will seek to first build ‘thinking’ on the issues of the future of these kids among the youth themselves and the members of the community that care and support them. We plan on holding four one-day events to bring the needs and concerns of the youth to the forefront and invite the residential institutions, local government agencies, and NGO’s/churches to respond and cooperate for the benefit of the youth. Please, pray for us so we may put these events in place by September 2003.
Also, during our last week’s visit to the orphan homes we found out that some of the 16-17 year old girls may be engaged in prostituting themselves for money. Please, pray that the team will have the wisdom and the opportunity to find out the facts and to talk to the girls.
VISITING THE US
We will be back in the USA for 2 months, April and May. The Lord is providing for our work here. Yet, our support has dropped by almost 20% because of the plunging US dollar exchange rate in light of the latest international developments. We live by faith and month by month yet the needs of the work are pressing. One of the goals in our trip is to meet with our supporters and tell them about what has happened in our ministry in the last 2 years. We are believing that the Lord will lead us to connecting with new partners in our ministry in order to broaden the base of our work and to allow for new relationships to come about and to bring up our support to a more regular level. If you know a church that is interested in supporting the type of work that we do in Bulgaria we will be most thankful if you let us know. During this trip Viktor will also do some Fuller school work, and Teresa will be a bridesmaid in the wedding of one of her closest friends in the Bay Area. We are looking forward with excitement to seeing some of you and enjoying fellowship with you.
Thanking you for your prayers and your love for us,
Viktor, Teresa and the boys
To support us financially, please
send checks to: Door of Hope International S-15, PO Box 303, Glendale, CA
91209-9984. Visit our web site for our mission
statement, our vision, photos, and additional information: http://kmission.homestead.com