Dear Friends,

We arrived in Bulgaria fine but the second leg of the trip Frankfurt – Sofia was hard. During the 10-hour layover in the airport, Teresa and Daniel were hit hard with the stomach flu and our heavy carry-on bags were yet heavier to carry. We had to go three times through security due to changes in the Sofia flight scheduled departure gates. But by God’s grace all bags arrived with us and the meeting party was well organized so we were happy to hit our bed a little after midnight and after over 24 hrs on the road. It has taken us 10 days to recuperate from jet lag and the trip itself.

Viktor was able to hit the ground running. The press here published information on the plans of Bulgarian legislature to introduce further limitations in the religious law in the nation. They now want to grant “registration” only to religious groups that meet a certain threshold of membership (over 2,000 or more). Viktor wrote a leading article for the third most influential daily newspaper in the nation critiquing such plans as basically completely turning the registration process for religious groups into a state permit to believe. Below we’ve included a link to the article online (sorry, it is in Bulgarian only).

Viktor Kostov’s article, “A State Permit for Faith is a Losing Bet,” was published in the Bulgarian daily newspaper Dnevnik in the “Analyses and Commentaries” section on Jan. 25, available online here:

http://dnevnik.bg/show/?storyid=451474

Homeschooling for the boys is back on track, Noah keeps saying “This is our home,” and Viktor will make his first trip to Vidin today to meet with the church there. We are still trying to figure out the car situation so keep this in prayer.

Thanks to all of you for your prayers, generosity and love.

In Christ,

The Kostovs