Kostov Prayer Letter

Strengthening and challenging the church to serve God	Kmission You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene. He is risen! (Mark 16:6)
Home News Work About Us Support Us Contact Us	Kostov Prayer Letter – March 2007 Dear Friends, Grace and peace from our Lord Jesus Christ to you. We are into the third month of our furlough now…. REPORTS Christmas Youth and Orphan Ministry, Continued The Plovdiv team where we ministered last Dec. reported some problems. When we visited we had run out of gifts for the kids and gave away Yavor’s and my book as gifts. My book (we published it back in the end of 2005) is practical Christian theology fitted for the Bulgarian context. The orphan home administration found out that some of the youth were reading the book and got upset. The local teams got scared that they could be kicked out of the home for being a ‘sect’ (in Bulgaria all evangelicals are considered a sect since they are not Eastern Orthodox). That caused some friction between them and me—they felt that it was inappropriate to give away a Christian book to the youth! I explained, emailing back to them, how important it is in this ministry to combine wisdom with openness about Jesus Christ. Yavor and another team member traveled to Plovdiv to further discuss things which we had started over email. Please, pray that these teams will have divine wisdom to deal out of faith and not out of fear in such situations. Our Trip to the US and visit with friends and Supporters We had almost a “miracle” getaway from Bulgaria. Due to heavy fog, the Sofia airport was closed for days on end. On the day of our flight the situation hadn’t changed. Our airline however was the only one to fly out! We still had to be bused two hours away to a different airport. And with all the bags and the kids it was a difficult exercise. Since then we have visited family and friends in Louisiana and in California. We want to say a special “thanks” to all of our supporters who were so kind and generous to us during our visit in the Bay Area in California. Your love means a lot to us and to our ministry! Religious Freedom Website – New Commentary Section added, March 3 In the midst of all other things, I was able to work with a new web master on changing the way we publish content. This change gives us more control over the publications and will make the site more dynamic. We have added a new section on the web site where we will post commentaries, and news related to our regular web site issues, or such pertaining to freedom of religion and church and state in general. Please pray as we look for grant funding to translate the website into English and Russian. Getting Ph.D. work done Viktor will work more intensively on his Ph.D. in church and state in post-communist Bulgaria/ Christian mission while at Fuller. His goal is to finish 20 seminars, 4 comprehensive exams, and the writing of the dissertation by the end of August 2007. Quite a heavy task provided that we’ll be involved in our regular work as well. You can add this request for prayer, if the Lord so leads you. *PRAYER POINTS* Prayer for Noah. Noah is now 21 months old. He will have to have an outpatient surgery for child hernia. The surgery is scheduled for March 15. Please, pray that the surgery goes well and he recovers well with no trauma or consequences and that he will quickly be restored to full health. Viktor’s trip back to Bulgaria. Our furlough is not exactly an eventless vacation. We feel that we should keep the work going. I will be traveling to Bulgaria at the end of March to the beginning of April to help out with the Spring Vacation Bible School in the Novo Selo orphan home. The Welsh short-term mission/teenage group will also be there during a part of my visit. Please, pray for traveling mercies for going through airport security. Pray that the Holy Spirit will fill us and guide us in our ministry and in relating to one another within the teams. Homeschooling. It is such a blessing to homeschool—Teresa loves the time and the challenges with the boys. Please pray for the homeschooling situation in Bulgaria. There are less than 100 homeschooling Christian families there. Recently we posted information on our web site about the harsh treatment of German Christian homeschoolers by their government. In both Germany and Bulgaria homeschooling is virtually not allowed by the government regardless of constitutional provisions to the opposite effect. Now that Bulgaria is part of the EU, the Bulgarian homeschooling Christians may experience some hardship if the government follows suit with the German state crackdown on this fundamental right of parents to rear their children according to their beliefs. Thank you again and again for your prayers and for being a part of the Church of Christ that helps us in our work. Visit our website: www.kmission.org. Many thanks to all of you who pray for our work and give generously. Make checks payable and mail to: Door of Hope International S-15, P.O. Box 303, Glendale, CA 91209-9984. To use your credit card or donate via PayPal go to the Support Us web page on our web site. To subscribe to, or unsubscribe from, our e-mail newsletter, write to vikkostov@hotmail.com
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Kostov Prayer Letter – March 2007

Dear Friends,

Grace and peace from our Lord Jesus Christ to you. We are into the third month of our furlough now….

REPORTS

Christmas Youth and Orphan Ministry, Continued

The Plovdiv team where we ministered last Dec. reported some problems. When we visited we had run out of gifts for the kids and gave away Yavor’s and my book as gifts. My book (we published it back in the end of 2005) is practical Christian theology fitted for the Bulgarian context. The orphan home administration found out that some of the youth were reading the book and got upset. The local teams got scared that they could be kicked out of the home for being a ‘sect’ (in Bulgaria all evangelicals are considered a sect since they are not Eastern Orthodox).

That caused some friction between them and me—they felt that it was inappropriate to give away a Christian book to the youth! I explained, emailing back to them, how important it is in this ministry to combine wisdom with openness about Jesus Christ. Yavor and another team member traveled to Plovdiv to further discuss things which we had started over email. Please, pray that these teams will have divine wisdom to deal out of faith and not out of fear in such situations.

Our Trip to the US and visit with friends and Supporters

We had almost a “miracle” getaway from Bulgaria. Due to heavy fog, the Sofia airport was closed for days on end. On the day of our flight the situation hadn’t changed. Our airline however was the only one to fly out! We still had to be bused two hours away to a different airport. And with all the bags and the kids it was a difficult exercise. Since then we have visited family and friends in Louisiana and in California. We want to say a special “thanks” to all of our supporters who were so kind and generous to us during our visit in the Bay Area in California. Your love means a lot to us and to our ministry!

Religious Freedom Website – New Commentary Section added, March 3

In the midst of all other things, I was able to work with a new web master on changing the way we publish content. This change gives us more control over the publications and will make the site more dynamic. We have added a new section on the web site where we will post commentaries, and news related to our regular web site issues, or such pertaining to freedom of religion and church and state in general. Please pray as we look for grant funding to translate the website into English and Russian.

Getting Ph.D. work done

Viktor will work more intensively on his Ph.D. in church and state in post-communist Bulgaria/ Christian mission while at Fuller. His goal is to finish 20 seminars, 4 comprehensive exams, and the writing of the dissertation by the end of August 2007. Quite a heavy task provided that we’ll be involved in our regular work as well. You can add this request for prayer, if the Lord so leads you.

PRAYER POINTS

Prayer for Noah. Noah is now 21 months old. He will have to have an outpatient surgery for child hernia. The surgery is scheduled for March 15. Please, pray that the surgery goes well and he recovers well with no trauma or consequences and that he will quickly be restored to full health.

Viktor’s trip back to Bulgaria. Our furlough is not exactly an eventless vacation. We feel that we should keep the work going. I will be traveling to Bulgaria at the end of March to the beginning of April to help out with the Spring Vacation Bible School in the Novo Selo orphan home. The Welsh short-term mission/teenage group will also be there during a part of my visit. Please, pray for traveling mercies for going through airport security. Pray that the Holy Spirit will fill us and guide us in our ministry and in relating to one another within the teams.

Homeschooling. It is such a blessing to homeschool—Teresa loves the time and the challenges with the boys. Please pray for the homeschooling situation in Bulgaria. There are less than 100 homeschooling Christian families there. Recently we posted information on our web site about the harsh treatment of German Christian homeschoolers by their government. In both Germany and Bulgaria homeschooling is virtually not allowed by the government regardless of constitutional provisions to the opposite effect. Now that Bulgaria is part of the EU, the Bulgarian homeschooling Christians may experience some hardship if the government follows suit with the German state crackdown on this fundamental right of parents to rear their children according to their beliefs.

Thank you again and again for your prayers and for being a part of the Church of Christ that helps us in our work.

Visit our website: www.kmission.org. Many thanks to all of you who pray for our work and give generously. Make checks payable and mail to: Door of Hope International S-15, P.O. Box 303, Glendale, CA 91209-9984. To use your credit card or donate via PayPal go to the Support Us web page on our web site. To subscribe to, or unsubscribe from, our e-mail newsletter, write to vikkostov@hotmail.com