 |
Web Hosting by Netfirms | Free Domain Names by Netfirms |
|
|
|
Dear friends,
There are a lot of people
going hungry in our world today. In
Africa, South America, Asia, and even in some parts of Eastern Europe people
are short on food. But the time is coming
for a different type of hunger. There
is a greater hunger in our troubled world than the natural hunger we feel when
we don’t have our three meals a day.
Hunger for the word of God. Our
last three years in Bulgaria have revealed to us how great the need for His
Word and His truth is in the hearts of the Bulgarian people. Jesus told the devil that man shall not live
by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. Jesus offered Himself as a bread and drink
that will not end. It is also sad that
many of those hungry are rejecting the generous offer to be fed, given a drink
and clothed by the Savior who gave His life for them. Many of those choosing to go hungry are among the very people of
God.
“The days are coming,” declares the Sovereign LORD,
“when
I will send a famine through the land—
not a
famine of food or a thirst for water,
but a
famine of hearing the words of the LORD.” (Amos 8:11)
It has been a little over
three years since we moved to Bulgaria to work for what we believe was a call
from God—to shine with the Good News of Jesus, to challenge and encourage the
Christians in Bulgaria to live a life committed to be a disciple of the
Lord. We’ve been asking ourselves
questions about the last three years.
Did we do what we came here for well?
How was it redefined as we started the work? What is the fruit of our ministry? What mistakes did we make?
Which ones could we have avoided and how do we learn from our
failures? Did we influence people with
the Gospel of Christ or with our own personalities?
It sounds as if we are ready
to quit! But this is not what Teresa
and I have been talking about. Working
in Bulgaria is difficult—the culture is deeply rooted in atheism and paganism
and this affects both regular people as well as those that bear the name of
Christ. Missionaries working and
visiting other Balkan countries have shared the same impression with
us—Bulgaria is the most closed country in the region in regard to people (both
church-going and un-churched response to the gospel and Christian work).
We still feel that the 3
areas of our work—youth and orphans, prophetic discipleship and religious
freedom are legitimate fields for us to contribute for the expansion of the
Kingdom of God.
For a detailed review of the
work and events we have done during the last 3 years in Bulgaria you can visit
our web site in late September of this year.
The Lord is good to us and
the orphans. We held our third year of
Vacation Bible School with 40 orphans (ages 9-19) in Belogradchik and Novo Selo
in the Vidin region, in NW Bulgaria.
This year we had a team of 8 people total. My brother and I were the only men on the team. We had the usual prayer and team building
and training sessions which Viktor leads.
Teresa was the “playwright” of this year’s 5-day “productions.” The theme was the parables of Jesus. (Information and photos from both VBS can be
viewed at our web site by clicking
here.)
The dynamics in both
orphanages were different, as usual.
The kids in Belogradchik were emotional and undisciplined, in general,
and the ones in Novo Selo were quick to learn and participate. It is needless to say that those parables we
were studying (one each day) came to life for many on the team and for the kids
from both orphanages. As a result of
our investment with the youth, several teenage boys from Novo Selo gave
their lives to Jesus. They started
attending the Sunday services in Vidin (Yavor’s church) on a regular basis (To
see photos of some of the youth click here!). And they seem serious about what they learn
at those services about God and His family.
Our children also joined the classes and were a part of the VBS
activities. That cost them a few flee
bites but it was well worth it! They
made friends with the orphans and got to know a little bit about their
lives. Our boys are also learning a
great deal about ministry from an early age.
Finances also came through as usual. Praise the Lord! We had a little bit less money than what we estimated the project
would cost. We cut some costs, tried to
be creative with what we had, and it still worked. It was amazing to see how the amount which was spent was exactly
what we had and we were able to cover all costs for the 2 VBS’s. We thank the Lord for His faithfulness to
those kids, for His provision, and for giving us the privilege to influence these
kids lives with the gospel.
There were a number of
stories for us on the team that showed us God’s constant care. In Belogradchik the people of the small town
are usually very ill-intended to the children in the orphanage and to us, who
work with them. Part of the work was
outdoors, in the adjacent little public park (the Music Center led by
Yavor). The passers-by usually throw
nasty glances or openly make derogatory comments about what they see. Yavor, who sings worship songs with the kids
at his Music Center, often gets cuss words, unwanted remarks or hateful
gestures. One of the mornings, at our
team morning prayer meeting, Yavor asked for prayer because his voice was
fading and he would not be able to lead the center. He could produce a sound
only by whispering. We initially
thought that it was a natural result of working his voice 4 hours a day. During the prayer, however, I sensed that a
curse was released against him for singing worship music. I specifically addressed that issue and we
all agreed in asking the Lord to break the curse and the enemy’s resistance
against Yavor’s ministry outdoors.
Amazingly, Yavor felt that something happened with his voice as we
prayed that prayer. His voice slightly
got better on the spot, and several hours later it was completely
restored! The enemy has his schemes but
by the grace of God and His Spirit we are not unaware of them (2 Cor. 2:11). Praise and worship is much hated by the
enemy because it confronts the dominance of his control over people’s souls
with depraved and godless music.
It has always been our idea
to multiply in other parts of the nation and in other orphanages the ministry
with orphaned youth. However, as I have
written before, it is hard to find partners for this ministry. There isn’t much glory, as far as this world
is concerned, in ministry to abandoned children and youth.
Yet, we do believe that this
ministry is a prophetic statement to the church and to the nation. Bulgarian fathers are so detached from their
families on such a large scale that even the youth in regular families grow up
like orphans. As I meet different
people, Christian and non-Christian alike, when the subject of parent-child
relationship emerges, I am amazed at the repetitive pattern of abuse and
disregard of fathers for their children.
These fathers have learnt these patterns from their fathers, and so on…I
myself come from a generation of “orphans” not in the literal but in the
metaphorical sense. Relationship with
our natural fathers was a dream or a standard available only from Hollywood
movies. Therefore, the Father’s
Heart project has a meaning not only for these orphaned kids but also for
the many “fatherless” Bulgarians who grew up with dad’s whom they never got to
know. The results of being raised in
such an environment are sad—weak and insecure men, unable to make decisions,
trying to show-off strength in all sorts of wrong and superficial ways. I believe God is calling ministers of His
word to become fathers in a nation which has not known the true and beautiful
love of a father. Going into the orphan
homes will help us be responsible with the call of our Heavenly Father to be a
“father” to all the fatherless.
You may have read in a
previous prayer letter that the work in Russe had to be put on hold for
now. Yavor and I traveled to Burgas,
a city on the Black Sea coast to try to make contact with a church there and
see if there would be people willing to partner with us in reaching youth in
orphan homes in that area of the country.
We held several meetings with church people there and had a good time of
prayer and getting to know each other.
The result of this trip was
that we met a couple that works in the church and have paid a couple of visits
to a remote home for orphans with dangerous or criminal behavior. We decided to
meet with them again on our next visit and possibly form a partnership in
working on a regular basis with the youth in that orphanage. Please, pray for wisdom as we seek to
possibly work together with this couple.
On the way to Burgas we had
a strange and dangerous experience.
While driving on a two lane road with heavy traffic, a car was
dangerously passing scores of vehicles on the road. As oncoming traffic was approaching, the car swerved and almost
hit us! I honked to avoid a crash and
to remind the guy to be careful. As a
result, the passenger in the car got angry and showed half of his body through
the window, bald head and sunglasses, and started screaming obscenities (I
assume) at us. I kept tailing the car
since the traffic was quite tight without any reaction on our behalf to this
violent behavior. I was watching the
road when Yavor told me that the guy had pulled out a gun. He waved it in plain view and at a
convenient moment loaded the weapon in a way so that we could see what he was
doing. We realized that we may be in
serious danger. We started praying
earnestly. I did not back off from
driving right behind the car with the violent passenger. The guy with the gun and his companions (a
man driving and a woman in the back seat) seemed willing to be excited about
showing-off their power. But as we
prayed something strange was happening.
The armed man’s anger, irritation and showiness seemed to calm
down. We came into a town and stopped
at a traffic light—the possible attackers right in front of us. This was a dangerous situation. Anyone with a gun, who’s shown a disliking
of you, could pose a serious danger at a traffic light. All he had to do was come out of his car and
point the gun at us. We kept on
praying. Strangely enough the people in
the car in front had changed dramatically!
They acted as if nothing had happened and as if just a minute ago the
passenger was not waving a gun at us!
They quickly took off and we lost sight of them soon after that. Later we assumed that they may have become
more scared than us, since we did not react to the threat the way the armed man
had expected. We thanked the Lord for
His protection and covering. We
informed the police as soon as we saw them and they warned patrols in
Burgas. When we arrived there the
patrol cars told us that they had not seen the car. The police suggested that
the car may have made a turn before they reached Burgas. We thanked God again for keeping us safe and
drove on to our work.
PLOVDIV CHURCH
VISIT
On the way back from Burgas
we stopped to visit a church and our friends there in the second largest
city—Plovdiv. We attended the church
service and spent precious time with our evangelist friend from Greece—Nikos Mitilineos,
who’s now with his wife residing in Plovdiv and establishing an evangelisitic
mission work with local congregations. (See photos here)
In August Viktor and another
Christian attorney, part of our team, worked on the preparations of a project
we call “Freedom for All.” This project will gather people from
different religious backgrounds and the government to discuss freedom of
religion in the nation and the surrounding region, specifically Romania and
Serbia. The project would entail
round-table talks and an electronic publication which will help the general
public and Christians understand the fundamental importance of freedom and
religious liberty. We are hoping to
better the attitude of the government to religious activity in the nation. Recently the government intervened in
radical (and some describe it as brutal) ways concerning an internal argument
among two E. Orthodox factions, taking a side.
There are voices of concern that if the state disrespects the freedom of
the most popular Christian denomination in the country, then what could be
expected for the smaller, evangelical churches? Governments are the minister of God to help the ones who do good
and punish the evil-doer (Rom. 13).
However, governments left to the morals of atheist and non-believing
people within them tend to go oppressive.
It is good for a Christian voice to remind the commitments of those who
rule the country of Bulgaria that the freedoms that they have adopted in their
constitution are real and not just a piece of paper. We are hoping to help this process, which will eventually benefit
the church, with this project and our religious liberty ministry. (For the
English language text of an article Viktor published in a Bulgarian periodical
on the church-state crisis of this summer click
here.)
·
Our prophetic
conference in Silistra is coming up (Sept 17-19). There will be people from Romania attending as well. Pray for finances for the team, for a true
word of God to be released over individuals, the church and the area of
Silistra (the far North-East corner of Bulgaria), for traveling mercies of the
brothers from Wales, UK (Stuart and Nigel), for good interpreters from English
to Bulgarian;
·
God’s protection of our family and work--I have faced a lot of
discouragement lately; pray for protection of our call and vision for mission,
for protection of our finances and health (Vik’s ATM card got “swallowed up” by
an ATM machine w/o any reason or warning and our whole family lately suffered
several 24-virus infections); for covering over our strategic partnership
relationships and the forming of new ones as God gives us wisdom;
·
For the grace of God to
keep the vision alive and to advance in the areas of ministry He’s given us.
Love in Jesus to all of you
from us,
Viktor
Teresa and the boys
Please,
visit our website for more photos and information: http://kmission.netfirms.com.
We are grateful to all of you who pray for our work and give
generously. The work we do is possible
due to the sacrificial giving of God’s people. To support us financially, mail checks to: Door of Hope International S-15 PO Box 303,
Glendale, CA 91209-9984. To use your
credit card click
here. To subscribe to our
e-mail newsletter write to vikkostov@hotmail.com with the text “send prayer letter”
in the subject line or in the body of the message. To unsubscribe write: “stop prayer letter.”