In October and November 2019, the Lord allowed us to conduct evangelistic services in the cities in Southwestern Bulgaria – Sandanski, Petrich, Gotse Delchev. Here, local authorities provided us with the house of culture.
We were very impressed and encouraged by the testimony of one driver, an ethnic Turk, who brought people from Gotse Delchev to Sandanski, where the service was held. He
first attended the evangelism that we conducted in the House of Culture. He went to one of our sisters, who became a believer, and asked: “Is it possible for me to attend such a service again? I have never heard before what Christians say and preach. They bring peace, goodness, and love to this world. I am touched and shocked by what I see and hear. Next time when such events are held, contact me and I will drive you for free.”
A church from ethnic Turks was formed in this city. The surroundings of Gotse Delchev has 74 settlements where Muslim Bulgarians have lived since the time of the Ottoman Empire and here is not a single Christian church.
Dear sister brothers, we ask you to pray and support the project to build the first church in the area. Also pray for the Christmas events in Turkey, which are planned in various cities of the country! Thank you for your kindness and timely help!
The small tribal school that is up in the mountains with 140 students doesn’t have enough teachers and one teacher has to teach several subjects. English is being taught by showing videos. It seems like a very typical tribal school up in the mountains, but we believe that God has a special plan for this school!
Last August the teacher came to us with the request to teach in that school, but we said that we don’t have enough teachers who can go there and teach. A few days later we received a message from two young ladies. They said that they would like to come for one week and help in the ministry. We saw it as the answer to this need and planned a three-day camp at that school. It was such a blessed time, without any rain, during a rainy season, and at the end the teachers told all the students: “We didn’t have anyone to teach English in our school, but God heard and sent us these people who organized a camp for us”
And the principal said: Please come and teach our students about your God! These children come from poor families and by their believe they need to bring sacrifices, which make them suffer a lot, please teach them about God and how to live for Him!” This principle and teacher, who is a very strong Buddhist, is inviting us to teach about God in their school!
It is such a great opportunity, but we don’t have people who could do it! After that there was a school break and as a new semester was about to start, we thought again, how can we help: “Lord, but we don’t have enough people!” two days later I received a message from a young girl who said, “I just finished my school program and have two months to come and help in the ministry” Wow! That was the answer, these were exactly the two months before New Year! Even those it took her some time to come at the beginning of the month, God provided a team of young people who came spontaneously for two weeks, exactly for these two weeks that Irina needed for her preparations! God is great! We started teaching in this school by faith, that God will continue to bring people to continue the work! We have two days a week, where we teach English and one-hour Bible lesson for students with their teachers. Isn’t this great?
God’s work is great, and we invite you to join us, we are in need of a teacher for January and February, as it would be the end of the school year. Please if you can come and be a part of God’s work, or you can tell someone else who can come and maybe help financially for somebody to come. Or maybe you can pray that God would provide a person, this would make a big difference and bring glory to God! We also have a need for a teacher for our new school year May-July 2020. If you can speak English and have a big heart to serve the Lord, you are the right person!
We organized the first meeting for people with disabilities, which was attended by about 30 people. We offered refreshments at the tables. A few shared their testimonies, how in Jesus Christ, they can worthily overcome all obstacles, even with a disability. We had visitors who heard the first time about Christ. They heard not only about the possibilities of “limited” people, but also about the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
The other day, a sister approached me, who seemed to be far from the problems of people with disabilities. She shared her feelings about women who care for their disabled children but are often in hopeless despair. She offered to start praying for a ministry with them. This touched my heart deeply. Indeed, when building the House of Prayer, even at the design stage, we took into account all the necessary building requirements so that our new building would meet all conditions necessary and be convenient and accessible to any person who wants to be in fellowship with other Christians!
But today we are again in dire need. We want start using our new building. To do this, we need to insert the front door, insulate the ceiling and roof and purchase pipes and radiators for a total of $4900.
On November 12, we went on our first trip to Malawi. At the invitation of the Zambezi Gospel Church leadership, we arrived and started working with children and build a Sunday school Building! We had “only” 5 transfers and of course our bags were lost. This was our first inconvenience, but this is Africa and here this seems to be the norm. Just a day later, they called us from the airport to tell us that our luggage was found. We took a shower, changed clothes and our moods improved.
We were greeted by the leadership of the union and discussed the details of the work and the various possibilities of ministry and we began with construction. Local helpers work like ants – without any rest. It is gratifying to see that they are not indifferent to the fact that we came to help them. In other countries, we only dreamed of such help … The atmosphere is open and very brotherly, it is very nice to see and hear. Willard Muwalo, the Union General Secretary, not only gave us five volunteers, but also offered his strength and construction assistance! We have already filled the foundation with concrete and started to weld the steel structure. Pray for our team, that the Lord bless all the planned work!
God’s commission says: “go and teach … “. We had scheduled meetings in the Lamdong province, this is 87 miles away from us. We drove on mopeds. On our way, the electricity of one the mopeds failed. At the speed of 12 mph, one spare part fell off and hit the rear wheel. Our sisters fell off and a large truck, that was driving behind them, barely managed to drive around them. We instantly prayed for our sisters. The first sat on the road with bruises and torn hands, and the other lay on the ground for about a minute and didn’t move. We prayed, that she began to recover, we made an arm bracer from improvised materials and returned to the hotel. The first sister has two forearm cracks. The moped was sent as luggage home, and the sisters drove on the bus home.
A team from California arrived 2 days later. They lost 6 of their suitcases and they contained tools for a fruitful service. God created such weather conditions that it was impossible to drive to the planned places where we wanted to go, and then we used our Plan B. Apparently for Him it was always the main plan for our ministry to join the team from California.
We served together in the hospital. They handed out food packages to the poor, organized playgrounds and they also held joint services at which one woman turned to the Lord and repented. Praise be to Him!
Beloved brothers and sisters, we thank from the bottom of our hearts for our joint work. May God reward you with an endless abundance of His grace.
It was a holiday! But not only for children. Mercy invited all parents to school so that they could thank together for these new uniforms! Thank you very much to everyone who sacrificed and prayed for a school in Kenya.
Children at school never had uniforms before. Many of them received new clothes for the first time in their life! In the Maasai tribe, school is traditionally not a priority. The government needs to convince parents, to send their children to school. In our school, which we opened several years ago, we have more than 20 students.
Mercy, as the wife of a pastor, is not just a teacher, but also a mentor. She can pray with the children and invite non-believing parents to the ministry!
Thank you all for your open hearts to the Maasai tribe!
