Our year of furlough is coming to its end. We spent a week in the

beginning of December meeting with supporters. It was a great time of

connecting with friends and families, hanging out and sharing the

fellowship we have in Jesus. Regardless of everyone's busy schedules

we were treated generously and ate a lot of pizza!

SUPPORT

Thanks to all of you who are on our financial support team and those

who pray that God meet our needs.  So far we have been able to raise

about half of what we needed to meet our budget. This is not ideal,

but the Lord is faithful and we'll just have to trust that we will be able to see the rest of the finances come in. In the remaining time we will continue to do what is diligent in order to meet the criteria.There is only so much we can do in the remaining time in the US. So if you keep our financial needs in prayer we will be very grateful.

At the same time, our brief support raising efforts have been a great lesson in how raising support is in fact "raising friends." We

connected with people, spoke about our life and ministry and heard

where they are with the Lord. It was a good opportunity for mutual

encouragement and deepening old friendships.

NEEDING A VEHICLE

We will put out a note for prayer and consideration, however. As we

return our family will face an ever-falling U.S. currency, the need

to relocate to a different town, and the lack of a family/ministry

vehicle. You may remember that we sold our car on the way to the U.S.-

it was quite old and the proceeds helped us pay the rent of the

apartment in Sofia.

Please pray for this situation. If you feel led to contribute to our

need to buy a vehicle we will be very thankful.

STILL WELCOME IN THE NOVO SELO ORPHAN HOME

The old director of the Novo Selo orphan home is now working as a

construction worker in the UK. In one day, he says, he makes his

monthly salary as a director. After the unknowns during the latest

government changes in the orphanage system and the many staff members who quit their jobs, we were left uncertain if the new person responsible for the orphanage would be open to our team continuing the ministry. Yavor gave us the news that the new mayor of the village is in fact welcoming of our continuing effort in the

orphanage. Praise God!

ALTAN AND OUR ONLINE PRAYER

While I was working on my dissertation, Altan, one of the young men

who graduated from school and left the orphanage and now lives in

Vidin, started a chat over the internet with me. He told me how

difficult it was for him to find a job because there aren't many jobs in Vidin and because people are racist (Altan is of Gypsy descent). I suggested that we pray over the chat. I prayed that God would help him find a job that he would be diligent in it and that Altan will know that God loves him and has not forgotten him. We both typed "Amen" at the end and I went back to my research. Several days later Altan and I connected online again. I asked him if he had found a job.He answered that he found one "but it was only for 4 days in construction." To me this was an answer to our simple "online" prayer.

We prayed for a job for him; he got one. But it was hard for him to

see it as such.

First, he is quite young in the faith and I had to counsel him as to

what it means to pray and to see God answer our prayers. Then it

became clear that he had grander expectations of what God should do

for him. I had to bring him down to earth and encourage him to

realize that he should be thankful that he has a job for 4 days, and

that if he is diligent at it, he may gain the trust of the people who gave him the job and find another job. Altan was "listening" and

thanked me for the advice. Then it turned out that the whole

"household" was "tuning into" this chat! (Altan lives with two other

graduates from the orphanage and one of our youth workers from the

church in Vidin.) This is only one illustration of how important it

is for us to keep encouraging these young adults to make the right

choices, the ones that God has prepared for them in advance to walk

into for the glory of Christ (Eph. 2:9-10).

FULLER PH.D.

It seemed quite impossible but I have submitted my draft for

circulation to the committee and the external reader. We can only

claim that verse which says, "I can do everything through Christ

Jesus who strengthens me." I will be defending on January 7, 2008 at

3pm. I will be thankful for all of your prayers for God's presence

during the meeting and clear guidance as to the next step in

utilizing this work for the kingdom of God and the spread of the

gospel.

PRAYER REQUESTS

Please pray for Yavor's wife. She is still in turmoil. The brief info

we have is that she had another crisis right before the short-term

missionary team of women from Wales was due to arrive, as well as a

short-term minister from Jerusalem, Israel. Prayers for Yavor and his

family are also needed.

FAMILY

Dan is turning out to be a piano player (Link 2). Both boys took part

in the Pasadena YMCA flag football team. This time they had to face

defeat-they won only one of their games. Obviously the European blood

in them has determined them as better soccer than football players

 (Link 4).

GENEROSITY

A family friend of ours gave us three days of their time-share in

Palm Springs. So after the push with the doctoral work and traveling

we will be able to take a short family break. Thanks to the Theimers

for a generous gift.

MISSION VIDEO

Many of the DVD's which I distributed with a 10 min presentation of

the orphan and youth part of our work turned out to be difficult to

play. So I put it on the internet. Thanks again, Tim O'Hare for

putting this presentation! Watch the video (Link 1).

May your time of thought and payer during this Christmas time be

filled with the joy of God sending a Savior for the fallen humanity.

Love in Jesus,

Viktor, Teresa and the boys

LINKS

(Link 1) Video: Bulgaria in Focus: Abandoned youth and the ministry

of reaching out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUv1YqLxg4g

(Link 2) Video: Danny plays the piano:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8GhawWSfIs

(Link 3) Photos: Walking the land- personal evangelism in NW Bulgaria

poor village

http://blog.kmission.org/2007/12/17/walking-the-land-reaching-out-to-poor-areas-in-nw-bulgaria/

(Link 4) Photos: Family time

http://kostovboys.blogspot.com/

_________________________________

Thanks to all of you who pray for us and our ministry. To make a

donation visit this web page: http://www.kmission.org/support_us.htm

To be added or removed from our prayer letter list write a note to:

vikkostov@kmission.org