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I was late applying for my visa, but the Lord had it authorised in record time and the postal markings showed that it arrived less than 24 hours after they received it at the Passport Office in another city! After I arrived in Bulgaria, Dancho and I bought Bibles, New Testaments, “Jesus” videos, and “Jesus” DVDs (the kids' DVD version of the “Jesus” movie is having great success). We went to Kardjali to visit the Georgieva family and pick up some materials which were stored there.
For the first 3 1/2 weeks, we lived in a nice condo in the city of Blageovgrad while we were evangelizing 81 villages in the area. On the second day, we were having success at a church festival of 400 people (and 3 priests) before the police threw us out. We came upon a gypsy “village” (which was really a tent-city) of 1500 cherry-pickers from all over Bulgaria; about 100 of them swarmed us and the car as they tried to get at our materials; some identified themselves as pastors, hoping to get preferential treatment.
A young lady from Sofia was helped in her search for the truth; she was always helping people, etc., but her life had always been full of problems; I know that the Holy Spirit made quite an impact on her as we promised that our 4 tracts would explain everything; a beautiful person, one of the elect whom God really had to shake up so she would be desperate enough to be open to the “foolish” gospel. In one Pomak Muslim village of 800, we had success evangelizing quietly on the side streets. One Muslim village was very closed, except for 40 ladies who were working in a sewing factory (most of whom were very open). Also, in this area we found quite a few mayors who were very interested in our materials.
A large area north of Blageovgrad is in the Pernik region (which has always been a strong communist area) and we did see a lot of the communist spirit in this area, but some open people were found in almost every village! One time we heard pension checks were being given out in the Mayor’s office; we rushed there to find several very open ladies (one almost cried after receiving a Bible and “Jesus” film poster). We met many elderly people who are living in hopelessness and despair; they are trying to live on pensions which are too small for their needs ... one lady was crying to us: “They came and took all of my pension money for water and electricity!”. We told many of them ... “God sent us to you to give you hope and the Truth, and these 4 tracts will explain everything to you (why God allows suffering, etc. etc.)”. We actually saw some people turn 180 degrees from being depressed to being anxious to read our tracts ... so they could find out why they’re in the terrible situation that they’re in! One older man said sadly, “Before communism came, we had church 3 times a week, high morals, etc., but now we have only corruption, low morals, etc.”
Like in past years, I got kissed on the hand by a lady after she received her materials. A very open lady shop-owner and her friend took materials to give out, and later we heard them seriously discussing how to distribute them. At a folk dancing festival, I felt led to sit next to a quiet lady (a strong believer) who was really excited to get a Bible (she never could afford one). One lady begged us to please give her a lot of materials ... her daughter and son-in-law have a large home church. A 12-year-old girl, who had been a strong believer from a young age and wanted to study religion, was really blessed to get a Bible and many other materials.
Next, we moved east to Samokov and went to 18 villages in that area. On the first day, we got hopelessly lost on a maze of terrible dirt roads ... many miles up in the mountainous forest, and it was a real miracle that we didn’t get stuck and found our way back! I know for sure that without God’s help, we would have gotten stuck somewhere, either going up or coming back down; praise God for His continual provision and protection. (You may have guessed that maps of how to get to some of these villages are non-existent.) A man with crutches cried when he saw our gospel tracts (his wife had died 2 days before). We met 3 Pentecostal believers who are being persecuted, and they are called insects (praying mantises) by their village. One of them (who talked in tongues a lot) said: “God sent you to sow seeds in the village; and also so everyone who hears the message will have no excuse”. She also said that our visit (and our materials) would really confirm what they have been saying to the people in their village!
God restored one lady who had lost her faith because of the terrible difficulties her blind husband was experiencing. We actually helped in this “restoration” experience with several people this year; some have kept the seed of faith inside for more than 60 years ... all through the communist years until now! This was true of 2 older men who cried while saying the sinner’s prayer. One Orthodox village of 600 was unbelievably open to receiving our materials, and so was the next one, which once was famous as the most communistic village in Bulgaria!
One grateful world-traveller ski-instructor said: (1) our work is fantastic
(2) he is very happy to have found the way to be saved, (3) my whole countenance shows I have an enormous heart, (4) if people believed us, things in Bulgaria would be totally different.
Next, we moved to Razlog and went to 8 Pomak villages in that area. While going to the first village, we had another experience of getting hopelessly lost in a mass of terrible dirt roads up in the thick forest. We came across an extremely open Muslim family very high up in the mountains, who said that if they share the Christian faith, they’ll be extremely persecuted. We found many Muslims in this region who are open to the gospel, but there are many more in this small region who are very content with Islam; there is so much evangelizing and teaching which needs to be done in this relatively small area of Bulgaria.
Often we heard: “Why are you here? We’re all (Orthodox, Muslims, atheists, communists, etc.) here in this area!” Also, we met people with strong religious spirits (Orthodox and communist). We led several people in the sinner’s prayer, and we prayed for several sick people, but we don’t know the results.
Weeks: 8 Villages: 118 Bibles: 27 NT&Psalms: 1,350 Tracts: 16,500 Videos: 92
Dvds: 80
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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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