| Strengthening and challenging the church to serve God |
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Kostov Prayer Letter – June 2006 Dear Friends,
Reports --Update on the Conflict with Director of Orphan Home in Belogradchik. About a month after our meeting with the regional office of the Ministry of Education, the government structure in charge of orphanages, we received an official response to our complaint. In summary, the regional office investigated our claims and requested a written explanation from the hostile director. They appealed to our “non-profit organization” to cooperate in the resolution of the conflict so that joint work continues “in compliance with all laws and regulations of the Ministry of Education on teaching of religion.” Obviously, this response was a recognition of our work in the home yet the government officials were wary of the fact that we are Christians and teach the kids about Christ. However, they stopped short of telling us that religion should stay out of our work in the home. I wrote them a letter thanking them for their effort and explaining that before the Fall we will begin negotiations with the director about the terms of our work in the home. Back to square one. Yet we see this as a victory since the state bureaucracy acted on our complaint. Please, pray that Teresa, myself and Yavor have wisdom on how to proceed in the Fall.
--Training missionary youth workers from around the nation. Our 2nd training seminar was held in Sofia, March 24-26, 2006. It was a time of teaching, training, discussion and fellowship. The teams from six cities around the country were much more excited to participate this time. We had already established a relationship with them through the first event and an online forum which Viktor started. This time we had two new team members, men, and this was exciting for the predominantly female membership of this ministry. The general feeling was that God was bringing us and the teams to a new level of trust in each other. Our teaching, pointing out that work with orphaned and abandoned youth is a tough missionary task, gave each participant a deeper understanding of his/her own work and calling. We are looking forward to encouraging them in their ministry in the future and maintaining contact through the web forum and personal visits. As Teresa looked back in her diary we remembered that training and preparing youth workers for special orphan ministry was our desire and a dream a year ago. Now it is part of our reality.
Some of the themes of the training were: _Youth work with orphans as a missionary task; _How to deal with desert places: loneliness, lack of finances, spiritual opposition; _A case study on relationship with the officials running the state orphanages; _God as Father to the orphan and to the youth worker.
Please, pray for the teams that are part of the work nationwide. You can see their photos, and the towns where they work, here. --Bible teaching. Viktor taught on two occasions in May and June, the Vidin house church fellowship. Although few, the believers there are committed to live as worthy disciples of Christ. We continue our twice a week Bible-study home meetings with the two members of our ministry team in Sofia.
--“Walking the land” with Welsh Christian women, June 8-12, Teresa's Report. A group of five ladies (Liz, Anne, Debs, Jen and Karen) from Antioch Church in Wales came to "walk the land" and pray for Bulgaria. I was blessed to be able to participate in the travels and took Noah along on his first "missionary" outing. For five days we walked and prayed in several villages: Zgorigrad, Chiprovski, Zhelezna and Martinovo. Along our walks we stopped and entered into conversation with many people - we handed out gifts and asked the people if we could pray for them. Everywhere we found the villagers hungry for relationship and open to receiving prayer. Many people cried as we told them that Jesus loved them and that our gifts and prayers were a small example of His great love for them. The Lord showed us many things along the way that deepened our understanding of the work of the enemy in that part of the land and that assisted us in ours prayers for freedom of the land and people. On July 6 I will be traveling to Wales with Noah to participate in a women's conference -- my hope is to bring back some Welsh "fire" for the women in Sofia and Vidin that we work with!
As usual, funds are on the edge. We’re lacking nothing but please pray that we will be able to meet the increased cost of living in Bulgaria and the new level of ministry to which God is calling us to. Or at least to have a new level of faith to not see finances as an obstacle to moving forward in God’s work. Photo LinksOn our photo web site you’ll see pictures from: _ Shoes to orphan kids in Novo Selo and Ministry in the home fellowship in Vidin, May-June 18, 2006
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Boys and
baseball and Noah’s first birthday
Thank you
for your love and prayers. |
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