Dear friends,

There is much to report. For convenience you can use the table of contents below to scan the stories.

Contents:
Apologetics on National TV
The Vidin Case against the City
Osikovo Case
Homeschooling Association Established
Issue 24 of Freedom for All is online: Freedom of Conscience – God or State?
Youth Club
Church
Life in Vidin
LINKS TO PICTURES
 
Apologetics on National TV

Thank you for your prayers regarding the media case of seeking a response to an anti-Christian TV show which aired in March, 2010. After months of correspondence and negotiations with the producers, and consultations with Christian evangelical pastors, Viktor won 20 minutes of air time on this national TV network. This was a God-given opportunity to defend the Christian faith and speak the truth about the Gospel of Jesus. The support of the Bible study prayer group was paramount. There was a struggle to get this result every step of the way, but it is victory won by the Grace of God and for His great purposes in this nation. You can watch the actual video which aired on the Nova Televizia national network here: Bulgarian audio with English subtitles - http://vimeo.com/13246990.

The Vidin Case against the City

After two letters in which we addressed the anti-constitutional ordinance of the local authorities in Vidin, with no response from the city officials, Viktor, after careful consideration and along with several other local pastors, filed a lawsuit. In it we are asking the court to make the city of Vidin repeal their anti-religious ordinance, which bans public display of pornography and religious speech and activity by putting porn and religious faith in the same category. Several of the pastors who initially stated that they would support this action have backed off without giving any reasons. We perceive that fear, or lack of Biblical theology to stand for what is right, still grips many of the Christians and their leaders here.

Osikovo Case

Earlier this year Viktor was invited by a pastor to help the mayor of Osikovo, a small village located in the mountains of Southern Bulgaria. The people have no road to their village and have pleaded with local and central authorities for years to help them get connected to the world. The mayor of the village is a former Muslim, converted to evangelical Christianity. He had prayed that God would show Himself powerful in solving this issue as the Christians in this viallge face a lot of social and political pressure from local Muslim-oriented authorities to change their names or give up their faith in order to receive the benefit of public funds for a road.

Last May Viktor and the mayor visited the office of the Bulgarian Prime Minister’s Advisor on the Issues of Local Communities. After the one-hour meeting the high-ranking government official saw the importance of the case and promised to introduce it to the attention of the Prime Minister. Earlier this month the Minister of Finance personally visited the village in the Rhodopi Mountains and was reportedly shocked to see the state of the road to the village. At this point the financing for the road to Osikovo will come from the central Bulgarian government. The prayers of the mayor, our Bible study group, and the Christians in Osikovo have been answered.

Homeschooling Association Established

Viktor’s work has led him to connect with the small Christian homeschooling community in Bulgaria. The state schools are still laden with an educational philosophy which is reminiscent of communist times and unchallenged atheism in the curriculum. In early July the first Bulgarian Homeschooling association was established and Viktor was one of the founders. The goal of the association is to introduce the benefits of homeschooling to Bulgarian families and society, provide support and legal help to homeschooling families, as Bulgarian law allows for only state-controlled education.

Issue 24 of Freedom for All is online: Freedom of Conscience – God or State?

The theme was meant to explore the various views of the origin of freedom of conscience with the suggestion of God or the State being the source of this fundamental human right. The four authors, writing independently, all presented and supported the thesis, in one form or another, that government is a God-given instrument for order and justice in society, but it must not overstep its realm and dictate the faith and the conscience of Christians. When the state, the contemporary form of government, begins to engage in doing unjust things it must be peacefully opposed and critiqued by the Christian church. This view maybe somewhat developed in the West, but for Eastern Christianity, and in a post-communist context it sounds radical and almost revolutionary. In fact it has ample biblical support as the ministry of justice is part of the Gospel of Jesus and his Great Commission (“teach them to obey all I have commanded”).

Youth Club

We want to thank all of you for your prayers for our activities in the youth club in Vidin. We are thankful on several different fronts:
(1) We were able to raise the funds for a club vehicle. Though it is a second-hand Citroën (1996), we are glad to have this vehicle for around-the-town errands and even on occasion to make the 3.5 hour trip to Sofia. Since it is a diesel engine it saves us money in fuel costs as well!  (2) We decided to hold 8 weeks of special classes (aside from the ongoing weekly English and music lessons) for youth. Every Friday afternoon in June Teresa and her team were able to offer classes in jewelery making and crafts (keychains, hand-made fans, summer bags) and in July we have been offering cooking classes. The youth that have been coming have been relieved to add some fun to their summer week without it costing them extra. Thanks to the generous giving of friends we were able to offer these classes free-of-charge. The real success, however, has been the depth of relationship that has grown as we have gotten together to create something new.

(3) We are planning for a drawing teacher, who is also a dear friend and artist from Sofia, to come to Vidin for several days in August and give art lessons to the youth that want to apply for the course. We've been planning this for awhile now, and do ask your prayers that the finances would come in to be able to hold this special art course. There are not many opportunities for the youth in Vidin, and so we are always looking for ways to use our connections and people's talents in order to offer good things in the club.

Church

Both our Sunday meetings and daily Bible studies are going well. The prayer group has now finished the discussion of the book of Romans and has moved to Proverbs. We have seen God answer prayers in concrete ways: one example is Tanya who was unemployed for 4 years and has recently found a job. It's been such a joy to see her attitude toward life and people change as she has begun to work on a steady basis. As we've shared before, unemployment is very high in Vidin and there are many in the church that are unemployed. Please pray for the others that have been looking and not able to find work yet, that God would have mercy and open up the right opportunities to them.
  
Another answer to prayer has been the organzing and preparing for our first-ever church youth retreat. We've been raising funds, as well as making and selling products the entire year, to collect enough funds to go away for a week as a youth group. The 10 youth/young adults will be away, along with 5 staff members, from July 26-August 1 to a small village called Bosnek just 30 minutes out of Sofia. The theme of the retreat will be on relationship with God and one another and we're planning on having lots of time to both explore the mountains nearby the villa as well as play games and teach the kids camping techniques and how to BBQ! Please do keep us in your prayers, especially for the logistics of getting everyone there and back and having hearts willing to learn.

Life in Vidin

The summer heathas been beating down on us here in Vidin in a mighty way. That combined with the high humidity has made it almost unbearable - but there's no way around it! Noah has taken to running around the house in his underwear, unfortunately the rest of us are not so young to be able to enjoy the same freedom. The older boys have been enjoying not studying, playing tons of computer games and going out with their friends and cousins.

The beauty of a small town like Vidin is the safety we get to enjoy and extend to the boys - they don't need to be chaperoned about town, nor driven anywhere since everything is within walking distance. Viktor and I will continue our schedule (both youth club duties and law office work) until the beginning of September. We've planned to take off most of September - there will be no club activities and we will take our vacation at the beach then. The end of September and the entire month of October will be packed with the school year starting, club activities in high gear and a law conference which is scheduled in Sofia. Please beinprayer for us: strength, safety and God's provision for the different times of work and rest that are ahead of us.

In His service,
Viktor, Teresa and the boys

LINKS TO PICTURES
The youth retreat place, arts and crafts – jewelery making and cooking classes, our ministry new old car, and others: http://is.gd/dB7XV

To donate in support of our ministry visit:
http://www.kmission.org/support_us.htm