Kostov Missionary Newsletter                             

 

Those who trust in the Lord are like mount Zion, which cannot be shaken but endures forever.  As the mountains surround Jerusalem so the Lord surrounds his people both now and forevermore.  (Psalm 125:1-2)

 

In this issue:

• Praise report-generous gifts received
• Ministry in Alexandrovo, Silistra and Russe
• Home fellowship situation
• Family news—Danny and Matty started taking guitar and drawing lessons
• Prayer request turned praise report: Christmas orphan ministry
• Renewed web site launched on issues of religious liberty in  English and Bulgarian

 

PRAISE REPORT

Many thanks to all who generously gave to our work and support these last two months.  In our last prayer letter we mentioned serious financial challenges we faced in our ministry.  The response was overwhelming generosity from many of our supporters.  We thank God for all He does for us, and for the generosity of His people.  May the Lord reward you richly for your sacrifice!

 

MINISTRY TRIP

Our team of Stuart Watkins from Wales, Yavor Kostov from Vidin, myself and two translators spent a weekend ministering in the village of Alexandrovo.  We held a series of teachings on the prophetic gift and the need of the church to live in daily life the Christian faith. 

 

During the first service I was watching the people who attended—about 30 hard-worked village people, many of whom were of the gypsy minority.  As I looked into their faces I saw them as almost lifeless.  I wondered if we had come to the right place.  How could these people even understand a message in such  a state?  However, as the sermon went on I saw a visible change in the faces of the believers attending.  As if a new ray of hope had fallen on their souls.  As if a heavy spiritual oppression was lifting.  As the sessions of teaching and ministry went on the entire weekend, we released a number of prophetic words as the Holy Spirit was leading us. 

 

The need for encouragement in the place was great.  Even greater was the need for truth and repentance from living a Christian life that was full of compromises.  As we prayed for the leadership of the church, we felt that the Lord wanted to touch that desolate place with much healing and recommitment to following Him radically.  Please, pray as Yavor and I will be meeting briefly with Toshko, the pastor, on our way to Russe this week. 

 

The Monday following the weekend of the prophetic conference, we traveled 4 more hours east to the town of Sililstra.  It is a small but lively community with a relatively large charismatic church.  Silistra is the most north-east (larger) town in Bulgaria, situated on the river Danube and bordering Romania to the north. 

 

We were scheduled to minister there in the evening.  It was good to see the people there.  Stuart felt welcomed even more so because he had been there several years before and the believers still remembered him.  I was able to nonchalantly give an interview for the local newspaper, just before the service, on a pending religious freedom case in the region in which our hosting pastor was involved.  It was a pleasure to speak on behalf of the right of Christians to preach the gospel to the elderly in institutional homes (I guess once a lawyer always a lawyer—there is no way around it!).  After the ministry time we had a fellowship and a meal with our hosts.  Please, pray as our next conference will be in that same church in the beginning of February.  We will teach again on the need to practice our faith in our relationships, which is our church, and through the gifts that the Holy Spirit has given us.  It will be a good opportunity to get to know the saints in that region, encourage them and see God challenge them (and us, too!) and to see what God has in store for that town and area.

 

On the way back from Silistra we drove in the most tremendous fog.  The only discernible part of the road was the white, dividing line. We  ended up driving quite late into the night—we arrived in Russe, our next destination, at 2:30am.   

 

We spent some time with a Baptist pastor there and visited an orphan home in the town of Russe where we are starting a new chapter of  The Father’s Heart ministry. As you may remember this is our work with the orphan kids and this is yet a third home to work in. We had a good meeting with the director, Mrs. Lakova, who seemed to be a woman who cares about the kids she works with.  She was open to what we shared and could be a helpful partner in our attempt to build relationship with the kids and teach them about Jesus and the Bible.  Please, pray that we will be able to build and train a good group of local Christians to work in the project.  Before that happens Yavor and I (Viktor) will travel once a month to Russe to minister there.  I feel like our team is stretched a bit thin now with three homes to work in and so few good and willing people to serve.  However, Teresa and I have seen the hand of the Lord move upon this work because of His love for the kids,  and so I believe that He will provide. Yet, your prayers are most needed! 

 

A PRAYER REQUEST TURNED PRAISE REPORT

While I was still drafting this prayer letter I had put in it a prayer request for the funds we needed for the usual Christmas outreaches we do with the orphan kids during this time of year.  This year our schedule is even busier because of the new work in Russe.  But instead of prayer request now I have a praise report!  For yet another time we were convinced of God’s favor for this outreach to the kids in the orphan homes.  This time our mission—Door of Hope International—approached us with a suggestion to help financially for Christmas and the funds came in again!  We also asked for new youth Bibles to bring to the new kids in Russe and God was faithful to provide that as well through another local ministry we work with.  All thanks to God for His faithfulness!

 

HARDSHIPS

I don’t want to sound cheaply enthusiastic as I give these praise reports.  We mean them because we have also tasted struggles, trials and disappointments in our work this year, especially in the second half.  As we wrote in our previous prayer letter we did face some unpleasant times with friends in our house fellowship.  After I decided to bring in some changes due to realizing that our ministry could not limit itself to nice gatherings and family hangouts without addressing the more serious issues of discipleship (honesty, forgiveness, openness, responsibility, accountability, proper leadership and authority) our little group did not take it well.  I don’t need to go into much detail—most of you are not unaware of arguments and divisions in Christian fellowships.  I can only say that we learned some good lessons the hard way about people and ministry in Bulgaria.  And although before we came to Bulgaria we were warned by the Spirit in prophetic words and through Scripture that we are sent to a tough place, it is still difficult to take the facts as they happen.  I learned two things:  things are not what they look like (especially when we consider people and relationships), and after much testing of my own heart and struggling I realized that the direction that we are taking in our ministry is the right one.  This of course, led us to also rethink some of the formats and activities we would have God focus us on in the next year.  Repentance is always a good strategy when you find out that you’ve made some serious mistakes.  We are thankful to God for those of the disciples and co-workers, here in Bulgaria, who understood and stood by the teaching and the life we have here.  We are also thankful for many of you who supported us in prayer in those hard and often lonely times for us.  May the Lord richly reward you for your kindness!

 

DAN AND MATT

Our two boys are continuing full force in home schooling and new lessons in drawing and guitar.  Matt is more interested in theological discussions with his guitar teacher than devoting himself to guitar.  He recently told his guitar teacher that he would face serious eternal problems if he does not get to know God.  And although true, Matt’s blunt approach, as you can imagine, does not fully excite Mr. Krustev, the guitar teacher.  Both of them had their drawings exhibited at a local community hall for the children’s art fair.  They are both much better at speaking Bulgarian and they seem to qualify for being bilingual.

 

RELIGIOUS FREEDOM

I was part of the work of yet another conference on the issues of the new Bulgarian religious law today.  Societal attitudes have improved significantly mainly because of the Bulgarian striving to join the European Union.  However, the situation of church-state relations is far from being at a place where a person of Christian faith would feel fully secure that the state bureaucracy would treat them properly.  My main concern, of course, is with the Christian witness, but unfortunately not all denominational leaders share the opinion that less state intervention is good for the work of the church.  I have also launched a new web site: religiousfreedom-bg.netfirms.com which is both in English and Bulgarian and addresses certain issues relevant to the freedom of religion and freedom of conscience in Bulgaria.  For some, this issue may seem sideways to the work of the Gospel, yet I am convinced that the work in the area of political liberty can have some good effect on Christians for being bolder witnesses or even for directors of state-run orphan homes to be less suspicious when we introduce ourselves as Christians who want to reach out to the kids with the love of Jesus.

 

THANKS

We wanted to thank all of you who are a part of our ministry by prayer, financial support, or by just writing to us for encouragement.  We feel like 2003 was a very long year.  Many things took place and we learned many things about God, about ourselves and about people.  Our hope remains that Jesus Christ, our Savior will soon return to this earth to establish His Kingdom.  May the joy of this expectation fill your hearts and take away the weariness of the world in this season of many celebrations, gift exchanges and Christmas cards, but also a season of the wonder of the birth of Jesus Christ as a baby in a manger by a virgin.

 

Thank you, God bless you, and Merry Christmas!

 

Viktor, Teresa and the boys

Sofia, Bulgaria