Indianapolis District Nazarene Missions International
As the Ebola virus continues to grip areas of several West African countries, Nazarene churches and NCM are responding with prayer, community sanitary efforts, food supplies and training.
Hands tied, faces and bodies bruised, the team huddled together as best they could inside the dark building. The village elders said they would be back to kill them in the morning.
As I write you from the Frankfurt airport, waiting to catch my connecting flight between Sofia and Amsterdam, the sun is setting behind the clouds. I’m headed to Rotterdam to spend a week with the Bulgarian group that is there, see some ministry partners, and translate between the Dutch Nazarenepastor and the Bulgarian group since they don’t share a common language. This is the third time in a year and a half that they have specifically asked me to come for a visit.
I apologize as this post is long overdue. It’s unbelievable to me that we are now entering the holiday season with Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years. This year has been one mixed with many highs and lows. I’d like to give you a rundown of some of the highlights and give you a prayer list as well. I appreciate all of you and pray that the light and peace of Christ will flood your life today in a special way. May you be encouraged as you read these words and as we share the journey together.
Montana Mentoring and Business Consulting Center
With the help of God, Valentin, Kameliya (second from the left in picture), and I launched a brand new compassionate ministries initiative and center in Northwest Bulgaria this summer. Many statistics claim that this area is the most economically deprived area in the European Union (EU). Kameliya (who is the pastor’s wife in the Nazarene church in the town of Montana) and Valentin (the electric guitarist in the praise band at the church) were tired of seeing people suffer and hearing week after week the same thing: “If we only could find work, we’d be so happy to have a job. We appreciate the NCM ministries of the church but we don’t need someone to feed us. We want to feed ourselves.” The population in this part of Bulgaria has greatly decreased as factories have closed and people have been forced to immigrate – most often leaving their children behind with their parents and going to Western Europe) to find jobs.
The idea for the center, which was introduced by Valentin & Kameliya, was actually inspired by two successful business men from the Nazarene church in Rotterdam, Alderik Bos and Bob Kagenaar. Two years ago Bob and Alderik made a visit to Bulgaria with a couple of Bulgarians who had immigrated to Rotterdam but dreamed of returning to Bulgaria. They led some seminars in the Montana church on entrepreneurship. The majority of those who attended scoffed at their ideas saying, “Things just won’t work that way in Bulgaria. We can’t start a business. Who would buy our goods and services?” However, little by little the words that they planted began to grow and develop.
At the same time, Kameliya and Valentin kept hearing about the grants and subsidies available from the EU for new businesses. They talked to me, as the director of the NCM Foundation in Bulgaria, explaining the need for a center where we would mentor people in how to start their own businesses and how to apply for the grants and loans necessary to realize these projects while finding effective markets. We needed people on-site to mentor, help, write, and encourage people to follow their dreams. We started working on the project proposal and praying for wisdom and direction.
To fast-forward now from July to November, not only has the center been started but we have already reached our maximum capacity. The official opening was on October 15th with approximately 65 attendees. We need to add more staff to service all the people who are coming.
In addition, we have received 3 donations that will cover the costs for the center for one year: one from some churches in the States, one from a US farmer, and a large amount from the Helping Hands (the German foundation for NCM in Europe). Hermann Gschwantdner, who leads Helping Hands and who was the field director when the Church of the Nazarene was opened in Eastern Europe, cleared his schedule this summer and came to Bulgaria for 4 days collaborating with us to re-write, tweak, and mentor the project in it’s fledgling stages.
If you would like to read our center proposal and be a part of the ministry there, let me know. Also, if you want to read more, check this out: http://engagemagazine.com/content/nazarene-church-bulgaria-opens-small-business-start-center
Theological Library in Razgrad
The European Nazarene College, which accredits the theological education classes that I organize, has released money for us to build and catalogue a theological library. All of our churches boast a library but the Razgrad church’s is the largest. As such, this summer I began working with Georgana and Ani (pictured above) to catalogue the books according to the wonderful Dewey system, label them, stamp them, and everything else that is entailed in the process. Our mandate is to reach more than 5,000 theological volumes in Bulgarian. We have almost reached 700. 🙂 The college is helping us yearly to finance the growth of the library but we need the evangelical world to publish more volumes because we have nearly everything that is available. My next step is to go the Orthodox seminary and see if there’s anything that could be useful to us that we could purchase from them.
Our 8 literature projects are still moving along and I’m hoping by the end of the year to at least have 1 in print. Help me, Jesus!
Nikolay’s Ordination & Theological Education (TE)
This past year was really busy in TE as we offered more than 24.5 European credits or 14.7 US credits. I’m getting ready right now to teach Intro to OT with my Mother, who is coming for a New Year’s visit!
My work in TE came to happy fruition in the ordination of Nikolay Kolev, the pastor of the Razgrad church, at the District Assembly just last weekend on November 15th & 16th. (The fabulous, Teanna Sunberg, was the other ordained minister at the assembly!) Two other pastors are also very close to finishing their educational requirements for ordination: Valeri Muneslki, the pastor of the Montana church, and Galin Ivanov, the associate pastor of the Sofia church. With Zhana Georgieva’s ordination 2 years ago, Nikolay’s this year, and hopefully Valeri and Galin’s next year, we will have 4 ministers ordained! We only need one more ordained minister to reach the minimum number of ordained elders that is one of the requirements to achieve phase 2 development status. It is a joy to support our leaders and share the journey with them. TE is an area where I feel God’s nearness as I prepare for classes, work with students, and even grade assignments. While I could do without all the administration that comes along with TE, it does bring me joy.
August Journalist and Film Team
In August, I had the privilege of hosting a journalist and film team from the regional office. We went to many towns and villages in Bulgaria as they filmed people’s stories and interviewed them about their lives and spiritual journeys. Here are some links to articles that were written by that team and that have been made available on the on-line magazine Engage. Many of the stories focus around the NCM center and people who are in the church. May you be encouraged and inspired!!!
The Montana church – an alabaster story:
http://engagemagazine.com/content/alabaster-bulgaria-church-overcomes-challenges-reach-community
Cameo on Zhana, Bulgaria’s first ordained elder, and one of the many ministries that she’s involved in:
http://engagemagazine.com/content/sharing-christs-love-elderly-bulgaria
Valentin (one of the NCM center employees) and his testimony:
http://engagemagazine.com/content/denied-his-dream-bulgarian-helps-others-achieve-theirs
The first NCM center recipients, Sergo & Daniella:
http://engagemagazine.com/content/roma-couple-transformed-christ-start-new-business
There are more articles that will be coming out in the next several months about people in Bulgaria and their stories. If you like, you can subscribe to Engage magazine and they will send you updates when new articles are published.
Conclusion
The year has not been without it’s challenges: working on improving my communication and active listening skills, choosing to decrease my involvement in the Sofia building project to have more time to invest in NCM, and feeling that I can never keep up with all that must be done.
However, it has been a year of personal growth and also explosive development of some monumental things – such as the Montana center. One of things that I love most about the center is that it clearly expresses our commitment to holistically care for people and it underscores our conviction that we are not just about meeting short-term needs but about helping to provide long-term solutions in that can have a transformative impact on communities.
Prayer Requests
Peace of the living Christ to you,
Jessica
