April 2004 Prayer Letter

 

Dear friends,

 

Thank you for your support in prayer, encouraging communications with us and with finances. The last two

months were busy with events, ministry, challenges in both our work and relationships. 

 

Psalm 45 states:       “Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever;

                                    a scepter of justice will be the scepter of your kingdom.

                                                You love righteousness and hate wickedness;

                                    therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions

                                    by anointing you with the oil of joy.”

 

God’s standard of freedom in His Kingdom is justice.  Justice is loving righteousness and hating wickedness and these must go together.  Just one without the other is not justice and will not give you the joy with which Jesus Christ was anointed in his earthly life and ministry by the Father.

 

BRIEF REPORTS

 

*   An emergency surgery for Matt went well

*    April 4-11: orphan work with the BIG team from Wales.

*   Four orphan youths gave their lives to Jesus in the last two months—we’re just starting to see fruit from our 3 year work in the two institutional homes in NW Bulgaria.

*   April 24: the 3^rd conference in Vidin on how to integrate orphans into society, TV reports and morning show participation of Yavor next week.

*   Preaching a hard message in Vidin—whoever does not hate his mother and father cannot be my disciple (Luke 14:25-26).

*   Visiting Russe and Silistra at the end of April—orphan work in Russe hindered, meeting with a pastor in a Russe church, looking for good people.

*   Meeting with Yanko Dobrev in Silistra and American missionary brothers from NY State.

*   Prophetic web site in Bulgarian gets more updates

 

SURGERY

 

Mattias had to undergo an emergency surgery in the beginning of March.  Most of you were informed by us in a prayer-request e-mail back then.  We want to thank you for your prayers.  Although it was a shock for us, as parents, and Matt went through a lot of pain and suffering after the operation when his bandages were changed, God took good care of him.  The doctor reported that Matt has healed OK and now Matt is fully recovered.  Praise the Lord!  We were additionally worried because Bulgarian medical workers are not used to explaining well but God’s grace was indeed sufficient.  Danny was a good friend to his brother and held his hand while he was coming out of the anesthesia after the surgery.  Then they enjoyed McDonalds and three days of movies at home.

 

VACATION BIBLE SCHOOL FROM WALES

 

The group from Antioch Church in Wales was made-up of 12 teens and 6 adults.  Yavor led the group on a bus tour from Sofia to Vidin while Teresa, the kids and the rest of the team went there by car.  We spent two days in each orphan home.  The missionaries from Llanelli had prepared a mini-VBS program for the two days—there were centers in crafts, games, and story-telling.  The art project was actually doing a mural on a wall of the orphan home building!  Check out some photos from the event!  The message of Christ’s love was yet once again delivered to the children and teens of the orphan homes.  Adult and young Christians from Wales, and our team from Sofia and Vidin worked together with the kids for a week.  God’s presence was made known for both the kids that were ministered to and those of us who went there to serve. 

 

THE FRUIT OF THE KINGDOM

 

Working with youth in the institutional homes is not easy.  Our team has to overcome many obstacles: spiritual opposition, challenges from the usual “teenage” hang-ups, the awkward environment in the homes, financial limitations, and the difficulties which the administration often presents to us.  Often the children try to act as if they are responding well to the message of change and to our relational discipleship.  However, it turns out later that things are not exactly what they seem.  For example, one of the girls, a 15 year old, although baptized and having confessed faith in Jesus Christ last year, has now turned to friends and attitudes that distance her from friendship with us and our work.  This comes to show how difficult this age and the influence of the environment is to keep the young consciences on-track.  At the same time four teens have recently given their lives to Jesus—two in each orphanage—according to Yavor, who leads the team and the weekly visits.  Those commitments are not just “saying the prayer.”  We believe this is the fruit of careful thinking and a decision to follow Jesus.  Please, pray for the solid establishment of these young souls, both in the spiritual and literal sense, into the Kingdom of God.

 

BRIDGES OF LIFE

 

Our project of 3 conferences and 1 seminar, which aims at raising the awareness of both the children and the community-at-large, about the issues the youth face when they leave the institution goes on.  On April 24^th we held the 3^rd event.  The youth from the orphan homes had to share their plans for how they will handle the details of life, like job, housing, friends and spare time when they leave the orphan home.  The sharing was both informative and emotional.  It was obvious that these children, left behind without parents, are in a great need to be given a hand.  The two local television stations showed part of their speeches on the local TV and I gave an interview about our work.  We were able to even negotiate a possible training job at a local restaurant for one of the graduating orphan boys.  Our whole team worked well and we were able to see how God cares practically about the lives of the kids.

 

DISCIPLESHIP

 

Jesus put some hard demands on the ones who wanted to be His disciples.  How to hate one’s parents, spouse, children and even one’s own life?  Yet this was clearly the cost for those who want to be Christ’s disciples.  The message I delivered both to our small team in Sofia and in the Oasis church in Vidin was a burden on my heart from the Holy Spirit.  There is not just a generation gap in Bulgaria.  There is a tremendous rift between parents, of the old communist generation, and their children.  That Sunday I explained the practical ways the true disciples of Jesus had to hate their mother and father.  If we put the priorities which the world tries to impose on us by using even the closest relatives and relationships we have, we will miss out on being disciples of Jesus (Luke 14:25-26).  Jesus’ words that His mother and brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it must be our standard.  There are a lot of Christians in Bulgaria, of my age and younger, who became Christians at the fall of communism.  Their parents abused them and persecuted them for becoming evangelical believers.  Some of those sons and daughters gave up their faith under the pressure, others fought for it.  We want the Christians we work with to know that to be a true follower of Jesus one must go all the way and pay the cost.  At the end of the service in Vidin, a mother whose daughter also attended the service, confessed how she made every effort years ago to have her daughter leave the church and the “sect” she had joined.  The mother, now confessing Christ, repented in tears for even beating her daughter for choosing to become a Christian.  Others at the meeting also confessed sins of following God half-heartedly.  Many believers of the post-communist era have been mistreated by their families for the faith.  Many of those young people have yielded to the pressure and have given up Christ.  The family relationships are marked by scars that can be healed only by the truth and the forgiveness possible for those who understand it.

 

APRIL MINISTRY TRIP

 

Yavor and I traveled to Russe to connect with the administration of the orphan home there.  The director  declined our monthly visit to work with the kids.  We suspect that someone might have tried to convince her that she should not be letting us work there.  We did not meet with the director but submitted a letter in which I appealed for a clear communication and a statement of intention by May 15, 2004.  If our working relationship with the administration does not work out we will try to find another orphanage to work with.  Yet, we feel that this is an opposition of the enemy.  The kids in the current orphan home are in deep need to be loved and to be introduced to Jesus Christ as their Savior and friend.  We are asking you to pray that the Lord will open the door widely for the Father’s Heart ministry in the orphanage in Russe.

 

We attended a church service in Russe, while trying to meet local Christians who would be willing to help with the Father’s Hear ministry.  The pastor of the local church delivered an excellent message on how the church should look to the Cross of Jesus, and apply concepts like self-sacrifice, commitment, prophetic ministry and no compromise.  After the sermon we spoke to the pastor. It became obvious that he was affiliated with an evangelical denomination whose leader is documented to have been an agent for the Bulgarian secret service under communism.  When I asked him how does he reconcile the documented facts and his own position in the denomination, he defended his choice to not hold the leader accountable for his betrayal as ‘not judging” and as the right choice in line with the NT.  In the light of the sermon, which insisted for no compromise with sin, his position pointed to a different standard—that of compromise.  This example is only one of many where the new move of the Holy Spirit in the Bulgarian church can be welcomed in its terminology and externals, but if one goes deeper it becomes clear that compromise is still the way many do church in the nation.  Please, pray for the people of that church that they will be able to long for the truth more and more so that hypocrisy will give way to honesty.  It is still unknown who will be the Christians to help us with the orphan work in Russe.

 

Our visit to Silistra and pastor Yanko Dobrev was a time of relaxation in comparison to the spiritual opposition in Russe.  Yanko’s and his wife’s hospitality were put to work for the two of us.  There was a small team of American missionaries who were visiting Bulgaria, praying for the country and seeking the Lord on behalf of the Bulgarian people for the future move of God in the nation.  This time together was like a gift from God to encourage each other that God is indeed in control of the plans for His Kingdom in the nation of Bulgaria.  We will hold another prophetic conference in September 2004 in Silistra, at brother Yanko’s church.

 

NEEDS

 

Pray for the following ministry projects that are coming up in the near future:

• We will need the finances for three VBS’s  to be held in July;
• The administration of the orphan home in Russe is not communicating clearly and we suspect hindrances to our visits and work with the kids there;
• For God to open doors that we connect with other ministers of the Gospel who would care about the Kingdom of God and help us with the expansion of the orphan youth ministry;
• For our discipleship study groups in Vidin and Sofia;
• Visits from two short-term missionary couples in June—some friends from our former church in California and the head of the mission committee and his wife from Los Altos, CA Presbyterian Church, one of our supporting churches.

 

Thank you all for your love and support for our work in Bulgaria.  May God’s blessing be with you and your family.  Your prayers are always needed as we continue to serve our Lord in the nation.

 

Viktor and Teresa

 

Photos of the boys—homsechooling, guitar, reading, gameboy, pillows on the head and funny faces: click here!

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