Bible League - Narrative report - January, 2021

Sunset over the mountain hills

In these challenging times, it is so encouraging to lift our eyes and see our Heavenly Father still sitting on His throne, holding the whole world in His mighty hands! Then we turn back to the reality around us and again we can witness God’s glory in the lives of so many people. This month we are so happy to share with you many testimonies of God’s miraculous work in people’s lives.

BIBLE LEAGUE - BULGARIA 1 Testimony of Ventzi Mihnev from

Gancho Iliev, the coordinator for project “Philip” for the region of , shared with us the testimony of Ventzi Mihnev from the town of Sliven. Gancho met Ventzi in the latter's own coffee bar. A gregarious person, Ventsi immediately started sharing his life experience. It turned out that Ventzi was part of the local mafia and he was very proud that the whole city was afraid of him. He was involved in prostitution, kidnapping and harassing people. When Ventzi finished bragging, he asked Gancho what he did for a living. Gancho told him about his work in the Bible League, particularly Bible distribution. Ventzi was intrigued, so he asked Gancho for a Bible and gladly exchanged contacts with him. Then they both went their separate ways. Ventzi with his new Bible However, in December 2020 Ventzi got infected with Covid-19 and was convinced that his life will be cut short. Scared to death, he began reading his new Bible, but many questions came up. So, he contacted Gancho and for more than a week, they talked every day for at least an hour. The first question that Ventzi asked was if it was at all possible for him to be saved because he'd realized how sinful he was. When Gancho told him that God was able to forgive every sin, Ventzi asked how much money it would cost him to get saved. (Here in Bulgaria many rich people give generous donations to the Orthodox church believing that in this way they obtain salvation. Тhey even receive a special title for doing this – “Archon”). When Ventzi realized that a person cannot buy his or her salvation, he wanted to confess all his sins to Gancho and offered to write a list of all the women he had seduced to prostitution, аs well as all the people he had harassed. Gancho encouraged him to confess his sins to God and led him in prayer for repentance and salvation. After that Ventzi had even more questions about God and asked how he could pray to Him. He wanted to know how to save his wife and daughter and how to become a good man. Ventzi told Gancho that all the bad things he had been doing before, were now repulsive to him, and he wanted to change his life. Ventzi began sharing his new faith with his mafia friends. Most of them thought he’d gone crazy after the Covid-19 infection, except one - who asked for a Bible. Gancho provided a Bible for him too and now both men read the Bible together and discuss their questions with Gancho.

BIBLE LEAGUE - BULGARIA 2 Plamen Borisov visit in Sliven

Plamen Borisov, a teacher in the CP training program visited CP Dimitar Drumev. They had time for fellowship and encouragement, but they also organized a special service for the church in Debelata Koriya (Sliven). The event was attended by 60 men, mostly Turkish-speaking, who had many questions for our teacher Plamen Borisov. They asked how to be men of faith, good husbands and caring fathers. Some of them attended a Christian meeting for the very first time. One of them was Rushdie (33), brother-in-law of CP Dimitar Drumev and a wealthy businessman. During the prayer, he was touched by God's Word and through tears decided to surrender his life to Jesus Christ. Dimitar Drumev praying for Rushdie

During the gathering in Sliven

BIBLE LEAGUE - BULGARIA 3 Testimony of Mihail Rangelov – 49 years old from

Our coordinator for the region of Sofia – Filip Filipov – shared with us the testimony of Mihail Rangelov from Radomir. Misho has two daughters and 3 grandchildren. His mother and father have been believers for over 20 years. His wife has been going to church regularly and he considered himself to be a believer as he visited the church sporadically. He had been baptized around 10 years ago. But he experienced a transforming change when he faced serious problems in his marriage. He got separated with his wife and this really crushed him. This is the moment when he turned to God with all of his heart and for the first time he felt that God was beside him and enveloped him in His presence. Misho started praying and reading Mihail Rangelov the Bible regularly. The Word of God helped him to understand how he can change his life. He realized that it was not good for him to be alone in the faith and not to be part of the family of God – the church. After these experiences there came a strong desire in him to evangelize especially those who once have been in church but were now far from God. Then Misho became acquainted with the project Philip and this helped him to understand the Bible even better. He started leading three home groups in which they studied the Word of God using the materials of our project Philip. Misho believes that these materials help people find true purpose in their lives.

Bible Study group led by Mihail

BIBLE LEAGUE - BULGARIA 4 Our brother Mihail has as well been through phase 1 of Bible League’s training for Church planters. This is what Mihail said about this training program: “I felt deep love among brothers and sisters from different churches and the training helped me to understand from the Word how to effectively follow Jesus in my life. From this training, I remember the calling “Go and make known God’s name.” I accepted this as a call for me personally. This training for Church planters was one of the most powerful experiences in my life, equal to the birth of my children and grandchildren.”

Testimony of Yanis Papazov – 34 years old from

Last year a friend of mine invited me to his house for a consultation regarding a renovation of his bathroom and kitchen. I went there, looked at the place and gave my opinion. We discussed our future work and I was ready to leave when his father expressed his desire to introduce me to brother Vasko Tendjerkov. I figured out that he was a pastor. I had many questions concerning the faith and he answered all of them. I was pleased and I liked Vasko. In two weeks we met again. He gave me some booklets that were part of the project “Philip”. I was able to learn even more about God and the Bible from these books. For several months I studied the Bible with the materials Vasko gave me and I met regularly Yanis Papazov with him. One day he asked me if I was ready to receive Jesus Christ as my Savior. To tell you the truth, I was not ready yet. Then Vasko challenged me. He made the following comparison: “If you start working on a building as a man in the construction business and if you work hard and give up everything right before it was ready, this is as though you have done nothing in fact.” This is how it is with our faith in God, Vasko told me. He continued, “It is possible to learn a lot about God and His Word but if one does not accept Jesus as Lord, then there is no use of one’s efforts.” I thought about that. Vasko was right and I accepted Jesus Christ as a Savior. Then I went to church. I was very impressed by what I saw there. The people were very kind, gracious and loving. I became a member of the church. God blessed me abundantly. Although I spent lots of time going to church, meeting with believers and studying the Bible, the Lord was taking care of my business. I had great offers and thus everything was going smoothly and it still is.

BIBLE LEAGUE - BULGARIA 5 A newly formed group of young people in Kotel

Last year just before the pandemic, we started a long-planned seminar in the little mountain town of Kotel (5 thousand people live there). It was a great challenge for us and a responsibility to train so many young people who have a calling from God to evangelize. These are young believers who are hungry for the Word of God but have no clear direction. One of them was our brother Victor Konchev, a musician. During our last Modul in Kotel (October 2020) Gancho Iliev who is teaching the course on Administration asked the participants how many home groups they had started between Modul 1 and Modul 2 of our program. Victor felt ashamed because he did not even make a try to do something in this regard. When the training was over he became active and started looking for opportunities to start a group for Bible Study. God put in his heart a desire to gather some of his friends - young men and women from the surrounding towns (, Omurtag, Veliko Tarnovo, Vezenkovo and Tchubra). In the beginning, there were only 5 of them. Then each of them invited two more. In a month the Online Bible Study group group grew to 14 people. Gradually all participants repented and gave their lives to Jesus. Brother Victor rejoices greatly and is thankful for the ministry of the Bible League. At the moment the group is meeting online for prayer and Bible Study. Our director of the CP traini ng program – Sergey Chaikovsky shared with us: “Victor had lost his focus and motivation in ministry; he had stopped going regularly to church. He was interested only in playing his guitar and performing. But the Lord allowed us to see the great potential and longing for God in him. We are encouraged that our efforts to encourage him and support him in his ministry gave good results.”

Prayer needs

• CP Dahil Emin became ill with Covid-19 and after a brief treatment at the hospital in Omurtag he is quarantined at his home. Let us pray for his quick recovery.

BIBLE LEAGUE - BULGARIA 6 • CP Ilcho Antonov After we began sponsoring him in September Ilcho started expanding his activity in many villages around the town of . He faces opposition in some places. Let us pray for God’s guidance.

• CP Dimitar Drumev is led by God to start regular men’s meetings. He desires to gather God’s ministers from the region, predominantly Turkish-speaking ones and to enlarge the work of God as they form new groups and churches (in the regions of Sliven and ).

• Let us pray for the strengthening of the faith of Ventsi Mihnev from Sliven.

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