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Dear Friends,

 

No one enjoys facing hard times.  Yet, we who believe in Jesus as our Lord are privileged compared to those who have no hope.  Suffering is part of the Christian life.  It comes in different shapes, from different sources.  This has been the case for us in the last two months.  Our baby died in the 9^th -10^th  week of pregnancy—this happened two weeks ago.  We have faced hard core misunderstandings because of our appeal for change in the attitude of discipleship in our house fellowship, which has left us wondering if the last two years of work with these people has amounted to anything.  The message “losing all you have to follow Jesus” did not go down well with our friends in the home church.  Yet, through hard times with Jesus we get out wiser and purified.  As long as we suffer for the right reasons and not as wrong doers. (1 Peter 4:12-19).

 

In this issue:

• New direction
• Visiting NE Bulgaria
• Calm before the storm
• New work with the kids
• Upcoming prophetic conferences

Prayer requests:

·        Finances

·        Wisdom for changes in the ministry

·        Protection from spiritual opposition

 

NEW DIRECTION

 

During our August vacation with my brother’s family we had good time in the sun and water.  However, we had a good time in fellowship as a small church together as well.  We felt that God is giving us new direction and a new call to work together more closely.  We will attempt starting a new work among orphans in Russe, NE Bulgaria.  I also felt that some changes in the leadership model of our Sofia house fellowship were necessary in order to respond to the latest challenges we were facing.

 

VISITING NORTH-EASTERN BULGARIA

 

In the first week of September Yavor and I traveled to several sites in NE Bulgaria where we will hold a prophetic seminar in November.  We met with the pastor and his family we’ve been in touch with and encouraged him that God is doing a new thing in the nation and its church.  We met with pastors and Christian workers in Russe and Silistra for a time of fellowship and discussing opportunities for future ministry.  Yavor and I wanted to explore opportunities to expand the work of the Father’s Heart Project which is our ministry to orphan kids in state-run homes.  It was good to see what opportunities God may have for this work to grow in that part of the country.  We will appreciate much your prayers in regard to finding the right and motivated Christians to join the team to work with the orphans in Russe.

 

CALM BEFORE THE STORM

 

That was the word from the Holy Spirit we got at the Black Sea in August.  It was correct and to the point.  As soon as our vacation was over we were back facing hard personal and ministry issues.  Teresa had been pregnant for 8 weeks at that time and our first visit to the doctor had showed a little fetus with a heartbeat.  Not so positive was our second visit in the 10^th week—the OBGYN did not find a heartbeat.  She was too quick to jump to action—she scheduled a D&C procedure for Teresa for the next day first thing in the morning.  We were not so eager to follow suit—after all it could have been a mistake.  We needed a second opinion, which we got the same day.  The second doctor was less sure that the baby inside Teresa had stopped growing and was certain that there was a heartbeat.  After a week of prayer, crying and heart-twisting decisions and talking to our friends and Christian doctors in the US, we decided that we would go with the procedure.  A third doctor had confirmed that the baby was not growing and had no heartbeat.  This decision was the one we chose also because of Teresa’s Rh negative factor—she needed a shot, difficult to find here in Bulgaria.  The doctor that did the D&C yet one more time gave us evidence that the diagnosis was correct.  This comforted us that we had done the right thing; yet the feeling of loss was overwhelming.  I have never felt so torn to pieces between different options and decisions.  Decisions are hardest when it is a matter of conscience or life and death.  This was about both.

 

The other difficult aspect of this experience was that doctors in Bulgaria have little respect for human life if it is in the womb and especially in the early stages of the pregnancy.  Our doctor was professional and very considerate, however, she easily made a statement that there are almost no birth defects in Bulgaria because they can spot defects in the fetus very early in the pregnancy.  It took me some time to realize what she was actually saying.  Such a concept could only make sense in a nation where the first question they ask the pregnant woman at her first doctor visit is:  “Is this a desired pregnancy?”  You can pray for all the unborn babies in Bulgaria whose lives are ended before ever having a chance.  Abortion is still a form of birth control in Bulgaria and the callousness that comes with such a view of life is tremendous.

 

During these couple of weeks we were also in the midst of a church conflict and we had very little support from friends besides a few here and many overseas.  I (Viktor) had suggested changes in the leadership format due to an evaluation of the current leader’s team which showed that the other two leaders were not showing serious commitment to the responsibility of leading.  Another reason for such a change was also due to the fact that one of these brothers had harbored resentment against me for almost a year without approaching me openly with the issue.  I realized this only after we had gone through all the steps of Matthew 18 (with the exception of the last one) of talking and discussing the issues in private, with others, and in front of the church.  The situation in our fellowship is at a critical point at this time and we would ask you to pray for wisdom and healing to come with truth and love.

 

NEW WORK WITH THE KIDS

We had received a grant for holding 4 seminars with teens graduating from orphan homes and at the end of this month is the first event.  The event will be held in Vidin and will have kids from the two orphanages we work with in that region.  The goals of this project and this specific one-day event is to have the kids start thinking about how they are going to cope with life once outside the institution.  We are trying to have other people and officials from the community join us in order to raise awareness to the need of these kids who are most often not given a chance and treated like criminals before trying to help them. 

 

PROPHETIC SEMINARS

Stuart Watkins will be visiting us in the months of November and December for three-day seminars with leaders and other Christians in north-central and north-eastern parts of Bulgaria.  Please, pray for discerning the spiritual needs we must address during these times of ministry.  Liz Watkins is visiting us as of this writing with a small team of Christian women from Antioch church in Llanelli, Wales, for a time of prayer walking and prayer at important sites representing the Bulgarian culture.

 

PRAYER REQUESTS

·        We are in need of finances for the orphan ministry.  Our support is also down significantly plus the drop of the US dollar versus the Euro has added to the shrinking of our finances by almost 60%.  Your prayers for us are much needed.

·        We felt that we are facing serious spiritual opposition for the work we do here.  One example is from last week--in a very unlikely possibility our car’s rear window was smashed by a piece of torn off plaster while parked near our residence.  The chances of that happening were minimal yet we had to deal with the consequences.

·        Pray for wisdom for us as we will have to do a major overhaul of our ministry and especially the home church branch of it.

·        Pray for honest good workers for the orphan ministry as we pray for its expansion

·        Pray for our events—the orphan teen seminar and the two prophetic conferences for strengthening the church in NE Bulgaria in Nov. and Dec. 2003

 

Besides everything else, we moved last month.  We had felt that the grace for renting the old place was lifting.  We are now in a new apartment—a larger place which is a total blessing from God.  It has more storage space and a guest room which we are renting out to a lady in our church.  Our hope is that by welcoming her to live with us she will be encouraged in following the Lord with greater faith and passion. 

 

Thank you all who pray for us, support us and encourage us to stand up for Jesus and the Word of the Lord in the small nation of Bulgaria.

Love in our Lord,

Viktor, Teresa and the boys

 

 P.S. For pictures and a report on last summer’s VBS in Belogradchik and Novo Selo go to our website http://kmission.netfirms.com/vbs2003