On our first day, out in the middle of nowhere, we encountered many terrible dirt roads. We took a wrong road and got lost and I managed to back the car half-way into a ditch, but 5 minutes later a man drove up and called on his cell-phone for his son to bring their 4-wheel-drive and a tow chain! We found a “super” village with several Orthodox ladies who were very open to our materials. We met the mayor of another village who promised to show the “Jesus” video on cable tv, which goes to 4 villages. One day in the rain, we went to a remote village of 100 people and those we met were very open; the first man gave us goat’s yogurt and goat cheese, and the mayor promised to show the video in the village’s only gathering place. One very tiring day, we went up into the mountains on bad roads and we left early to get back down the mountain before the rain would make the muddy roads even worse!
The next day, we started with a “super” village of 800; this was an amazing experience: the Holy Spirit fell, and the more we worked the more open the people were as we moved from one location to another, and we ran totally out of materials! Later, we had another “super” village of 600; the mayor said to us, “They need spiritual teaching; they’re uneducated in spiritual things”. One day we met a lady who was extremely blessed to get a Bible; someone once told her that she wasn’t good enough to deserve one! As in other years, we met people who just simply could not believe that our materials were free. This year, I evangelised in more clothing factories than ever before; it’s always a blessing to find a large group of people all together in one place. We met a pastor from a large village who was eager to evang-elise his village, so we supplied him with a lot of materials.
One mountain road had 3 villages on it, and in one of them was an Orthodox church which was celebrating St. Peter’s Day; 40 people (including the priest) were extremely receptive, and about 30 ladies received New testaments.
Some of the men in the church village warned us that the next village was not accessible with our car. My diary says it was a miracle that we didn’t get stuck on this terrible dirt road; finally we just took the materials in by foot for the last ½ mile. We arrived home quite early (at 4 pm); and at 6 pm there was an enormous thunder-shower over the whole area. If we had been delayed up on that mountain for a couple of hours for some reason, the huge ruts and pot-holes would have really filled up with water and we wouldn’t have been able to get off that mountain for days!
We were using a front-wheel-drive station wagon; they’re okay going downhill, but not for going UP steep dirt roads which have loose stones (because most of the weight is on the rear wheels). One time we had a real problem with this situation out in the middle of nowhere. After 20 minutes of analysis and 5 minutes of fervent prayer, off I went up that steep hill. Truly, we were saved by God’s mighty angels who had to push (or pull?) us up; at one point Dancho saw one of the front tires spinning in the air, but the car never stopped moving upwards!
For the last week, we moved north to the city of Blageovgrad, and went to 17 villages in that area. On the first day, one lady said it was a miracle that we came to her village. To get to one village we had to take a path up the side of a mountain for ¾ of an hour; 50 people live up there with no road and no electricity! On the way up the mountain, I commented wryly, “I wonder how many Mormons or Jehovah Witnesses have been up here lately!” Dancho asked one man, “Is your village Christian or Muslim?”; the man answered, “I think we’re Christian.” On the next day, we came across 3 villages in a row that were “super” open. An elderly man was really blessed to be brought back to the faith he had when he was younger. In a village of 1800 were 8 quite sophisticated men standing along a wall, speechless at God's power and boldness; I could sense enormous peer-pressure going on, but they all accepted tracts, and one-by-one 6 of them accepted New Testaments.
On our last day, the transmission broke down and we were towed back to the city. I went to the motel while Dancho had the experience of a lifetime ... as he watched the Lord perform miracles so the car could be repaired in time for our scheduled trip to Kardjali on the following day; a lot of welding had to be done, and he was given priority over other jobs ... the whole process took until 10:30pm.
Weeks: 7 Villages: 131 Bibles: 23 NT&Psalms: 1,575 Tracts: 14,500 Videos: 83
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The gospel tracts we used were the #1 source of truth that God wanted
the villages to have! CLICK HERE for information on these excellent tracts.
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