Our leadership team has been discussing the vision of our church and ministry in Vidin. At this point we have agreed on the title Christian Mission Center – Vidin. Our tag line that sums up all of our work is: A place for Biblical study, worship and outreach. The genetic code of mission is being placed in the church Teresa and I helped nurture since 2000 through all of our activities.
To the question – where do we see the Center one year from now – the joint agreement was that we want to have a renovated new facility to hold about 100 people (the church was packed last Sunday and we have no space for a kids’ ministry), to have possibly 5 new workers join actively in leadership and ministry tasks, to get ready for publication in Bulgarian two missionary texts: God’s Smuggler by Brother Andrew and the life of Adoniram Judson, the first American missionary to Burma, the notes for a Bible study on the Book of Revelation in a first-draft format; and to continue with our low-key community service outreach through guitar and English lessons, and arts and crafts and writing courses.
We will continue to be a place for short-term missionary visits for an exchange of spiritual and practical help between the Eastern and Western churches.
Financial challenges. The church, which is approximately 30 people including children, is an average-sized evangelical church for Bulgaria and was in a dire state financially last February. The collection for the month then was 80 leva, about $50, enough to cover only 2/3’s of the rent for the meeting room. Slowly as I added some teaching on generosity for the work of God’s people, we were able to have more people connect with the vision and the ministry. Now the church collects over its monthly minimalistic budget of 500 bgn ($400). The Youth club is aiming at being self-sustaining through the English, arts and crafts, and guitar lessons we are offering.