Dear Friends, “We always thank God for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers. We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ” -- (1 Thess. 1:2-3)
Thirty years ago, during the time of the atheistic communist regime under which I grew up, we, 10-12 year old boys, used to go to one of the central streets of our town to look at a window. There the local party displayed items of “Western diversion and propaganda.” Among the items lined up were pornographic magazines and films, and…Bibles and evangelistic tracts. Today, 20 years after the collapse of communism, faith and pornography remain on the same plane for local city legislators. The deception about God and Jesus Christ still has a grip on this society and its leaders. Consequently the ministry of fighting for religious liberty remains a critical missionary work which can expose these lies and will open up witnessing opportunities for the church. (Read the posting in our blog, depicting the action we have taken to address this gross violation of law and freedom of religion -- http://is.gd/bJOmJ). Joel and Karen Pearce: April 4 & 5 Some friends from Shreveport, Louisiana, were able to visit us here in Vidin before the Welsh "invasion." As usual, God worked things out with our schedules so that we could get two days in with them before driving to Sofia to welcome our Welsh friends. Last summer we had the pleasure of being guests in the Pearce’s home and were welcomed with an amazing southern hospitality. It was a joy, therefore, to have the chance to welcome them into our home. Though the time we had together was short, Viktor managed to organize a talk for Joel to share on the theme: God as the source of human rights and religious freedom; and their international and local meaning. The local TV station reported the even in their evening news showing Joel and Viktor talk about the event and God as the source of justice in society. Currently Joel and Viktor are in the initial stages of planning for a religious liberty conference for Bulgarian pastors in October 2010. Please, pray for wisdom. Welsh Spring Break Youth Trip: April 6-14 A wonderful group of youth from Llanelli, Wales, spent their spring break from school here in Vidin. Tim and Ann O’Hare brought worship and song to this small town in an amazing way. Lead by Ann’s direction and beautiful voice and Tim’s guitar playing, the Welsh youth performed Christian songs to the young children in the Orphanage “Mother and Child” in Vidin, a home for disabled youth in a small town of Gomotartsy, and gypsy youth on the streets of their neighborhoods. Several friends from our church joined in with them to do arts and crafts with the kids, make balloon animals and swords and paint their faces. The presence of God was felt and seen on the children’s faces every place we went. The local television news station reported on the Welsh group’s visit and performance in the Orphanage “Mother and Child”. Viktor was interviewed by the journalist and was able to share that the reason for us being there is because we are evangelical Christians and that we have partnered in charity projects and outreaches with Christians in the UK since 2002. We were also able to organize in the youth club, for two afternoons in a row, guitar lessons for a group of about 14 of our guitar students. Tim has a unique way of teaching and making difficult things seem easy, such as strumming, improvisation and adding layers of sound to a song. The Bulgarian youth were saddened to have such a short time with him and are looking forward to next year’s visit. Dan, Matt and Noah greatly enjoyed having a week with their friends from Wales. They spent every free moment with them and did a great job leading them about town to give their poor, tired parents a few extra minutes of rest. Youth Club English and guitar courses are going strong. The guitar students got an extra boost of zeal to play, sing and make music due to the Welsh’s music workshops. We are hoping to add some fun weekly arts and crafts classes during the summer months for youth aged 10-16 years and are still planning on bringing a drawing workshop to the club at some point this summer. Please see below the link for pictures from our two-day Easter arts course. More on the religious freedom front At the end of March a popular TV show on one of the national TV stations showed the “personal story” of a woman of former Christian evangelical conviction. The 47 min. show was filled with unproven statements, insinuations and sweeping generalizations by the anchor. Some accusations included: that Christians were involved in pedophilia, embezzlement and mishandling of donations, as well as shamanism. Viktor wrote an open letter to the producers and TV station expressing the moral and legal outrage such an irresponsible treatment evokes. After a while the offended congregations who were named in the show and a total of 35 churches and denominations gave Viktor the power of attorney to negotiate with the TV show producers on the right to respond to the flagrant accusations. At this point we are waiting for their response after sending them a minute-by-minute breakdown of the offensive parts of their show. Please, pray wisdom for Viktor, as this case is of defining national importance for the church. Academic Work Due to the volcanic eruption and following airline chaos in Europe, Viktor’s flight to the Netherlands to attend a theological conference was cancelled. He had to submit his paper by email to be read in one of the sessions. Viktor’s paper was entitled “Church, State and Family: Missiological Implications in the Bulgarian Post-communist Context” and was written for the 7th Conference of Protestant Theological Faculties from Central and Eastern Europe and the Netherlands. The event was held at the Theological University of Apeldoorn, April 21-25, 2010. Family Homeschooling is going well. The boys are writing reviews of Shakespeare’s plays with impressive, for their Dad at least, insight. Please, pray for Noah, as he is a strong-willed boy and it does take a lot of effort to train him in obedience to his parents and authority. If you could also pray about Teresa’s health – she was down with the flu again for 4 days, her 3rd time this year. We appreciate your kindness, prayer support and giving! In Christ, Viktor, Teresa and the boys Pictures: With visiting editors of a Christian website; the Daily Bible Study group; the Welsh outreaches; Before and after Joel Pearce's lecture in Vidin; Welsh-Bulgarian team outreaches; Easter arts-and-crafts courses for the community -- http://is.gd/bJOxN
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