Category Archives: Missionary Diary

The most general category after “uncategorized.” Articles on the meaning, purpose and practice of Christian mission, and ours in particular.

Prayer Letter — March 2008

Kostov Prayer Letter — March 2008

Dear Friends,

In this issue

1. Folding the orphan ministry. A new beginning at hand.
2. Viktor’s study/ministry trip in Czech, Germany and Romania.
3. The Lord provides a car – thanks for your prayers and contributions.
4. The upcoming Welsh invasion with Romanian participation.
5. Freedom for All: the 15th issue of the online magazine for religious freedom is online.

A new beginning:
Our ministry in the state-run home for orphans in Novo Selo has come to an end. On Feb. 13, 2008, our team was told that our group is a “sect” and is banned from visiting the orphanage. We are welcome to provide material help, but if we try to visit the orphanage the National Service for Fighting Organized Crime will be called. Imagine doing charity work for over 5 years with an impeccable record and then being called a criminal! This reminds us of the scriptures in 1 Peter 2:13-14:

“And who is there to harm you if you prove zealous for what is good? But even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed. AND DO NOT FEAR THEIR INTIMIDATION, AND DO NOT BE TROUBLED, but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence; and keep a good conscience so that in the thing in which you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. For it is better, if God should will it so, that you suffer for doing what is right rather than for doing what is wrong.”

And so this is the result after five years of weekly visits on our behalf and our team to teach the orphans about Jesus and about life, and helping the state’s administration to do its job better. Needless to say, we did not receive a “Thank you” letter for our efforts from any official including the Agency for the Protection of Children which instigated the “ban.”

You can pray for the souls of the children and youth who will now remain behind the walls of their “state-run homes” without hope and without immediate Christian spiritual help.

This act of ingratitude from the government officials does not come as a surprise. The Lord has been speaking to us to move the youth work to a rented facility in Vidin where in the format of a “youth club” we can provide an environment for ministry outreach. Thus we will not be at the mercy and whim of uninterested bureaucrats as it was with the state-run orphan homes. Please, pray that we will be able to find a proper facility to rent in Vidin and be able to raise the funds for the club.

Viktor’s study/ministry trip:
Viktor spent a little over 3 weeks traveling. He was advised by his doctoral committee to visit a seminary in Prague where he could use the library to finalize the dissertation work. It turned out to be a great opportunity for new contacts with Christians from Eastern Europe and such interested in the religious liberty and church and state aspect of our work.

The Lord provides a car:
I was then able to make the trip to Kempten, Germany, and within 24 hours of my arrival at our friends’ home, to purchase a good second-hand vehicle. It was as if the car was waiting for me! The price was reasonable and within the range of our expectations. We still have to raise 1200 USD to cover the car costs, but we feel like all our prayers and plans came through regarding getting a vehicle that would serve both our family and the ministry.

I (Viktor) took the opportunity to visit with a missionary friend from Fuller who teaches at a seminary in Germany. We (I was accompanied by my brother) then visited two ministries in Romania – a Christian publishing house in Timisoara, Romania, and a small church in Hunedoara. We had good fellowship with the brothers in Romania. The practical result of the visit is that a team of three Christians from Hunedoara will join us for the time of the Welsh-Bulgaria mission outreach this week in Vidin. We are also planning a training conference on spiritual growth and character in Hunedoara at the end of April – in our usual team format with Stuart Watkins and Yavor as the worship leader, for the encouragement of the saints there.

Welsh invasion:
As of this writing the Welsh spring outreach team is arriving with 31 kids, youth and adults. Teresa has been working hard in the organization of the event by buying supplies and organizing the women’s team in Vidin along with Yavor. We will have 10 days of fellowship and ministry in Vidin – going to the gypsy neighborhood for 2 days of VBS, a team outreach in a home for disable children in a village near Vidin, and “walking the land” (personal evangelism) in three neighboring villages. It is quite unfortunate that the VBS planned to be conducted in the orphan home in Novo Selo will not take place, but there is nothing else we can do. Please, pray for these activities that they will go smoothly and the participants will be relevant and bold witnesses for Jesus. Prayer is needed for the language barrier and cultural differences between the groups as well. Please, pray for Teresa who will manage the cooking for 50 people for 5 evening meals! All of our boys are excited to leave the homeschooling schedule for “ministry vacation” and join the Vidin outreach.

Freedom for All:
In the mean time, Viktor just published the 15th issue of Freedom for All in which 4 authors discuss the introduction of mandatory religious classes in Bulgarian state schools. Please, pray for the translation of the web site into English which we hope to start and finish by September 2008 – for the right translators to be found. Viktor was able to raise the funds needed through the generous giving of two supporters.

Thank you for all of your prayers and generous support!

In His ministry,
Viktor, Teresa and the boys

_________________________________
Thanks to all of you who pray for us and our ministry. To make a donation visit this web page: http://www.kmission.org/support_us.htm
To be added or removed from our prayer letter list write a note to: vikkostov@kmission.org

Prayer Letter – January 2008

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

Walking the Land: Reaching Out to Poor Areas in NW Bulgaria

Walk the Land village evangelism in NW BulgariaWalking the Land is the “code title” of personal and door to door evangelism the Christians in Vidin often do in poor villages where the Gospel of Christ is hardly ever heard. Teresa is involved in these outreaches and sometime leads short term missionaries from Wales, US and the local women of the Vidin church. These photographs were taken during the distribution of some gospels of John in Bulgarian. The booklets were genereously supplied by a Welsh Christian group which found our ministry on the web. Then the saints in Vidin made sure the booklets got to those who need the hope of God’s Word.

Poor Gypsy family receives the booklet with the Gospel of John

An old village couple gets the booklet with the Gospel of John

  Kids with the booklet of the gospel of John

Outdoors photo of several recepients of the booklet 

Financial Support for Mission

money treeMoney is the god of this world. Yet our faith in Jesus is revealed not by rejecting the worldly system but by giving it meaning from the perspective of the Kingdom of God. In order to work as a missionary one must consider as part of their calling the issue of support for the ministry. There are various methods and ideas of how this can be done in the New Testament. One of the ways that stands out is the community of believers sharing their finances with those dedicate their life to serve the Kingdom of God. Jesus lived on support; many of the teachers and preachers of the Word were being supported by the church; often the receiving church did not support the ministers who had raised support from other churches to do their mission. Paul the apostle states that it is God’s command that “those who preach the gospel should receive their living from the gospel” (1 Corinthians 9:14).

Either way, money was circulating in the NT church for the purpose of doing the work of the ministry: sharing the Word of God with those who God had called to eternal life and caring for the helpless and poor and needy (Acts 11:7ff).

One of the main obstacles for people to enter their call for minsitry is the lack or at least the scarcity of finances. The need for financial security is a decisive component of one’s decision to go or not to go. But the Lord has said: seek first the Kingdom of God and everything else will be added to you; ask and you will receive, knock and the will opened to you; and seek and you will find (Luke 11).

One of the most serious casues of fear or discomfort to Christian ministers and missionaries, who have to raise their own support in order to be able to go into the ministry, is the support-raising process. We all love the work God’s assigned to us; but we hate to raise the support needed to to do the work. And this attitude is wrong because we are limiting God. He has commanded us to ask and to seek and to be persistent in our pursuit of His will and His Kingdom. He has commanded us to be a body of believers who share not only their gifts, but their possessions as well. He also has told us to give especially to those who have devoted their life to the teaching of God’s word.

Why is it so difficult to ask then? Why is it so “unpsiritual?”

There is one major distinction that needs to be addressed by all missionaries and workers, who raise their support in order to serve the Lord. Is asking people to support the missonaries begging or a legitimate request?

Well, if  your perspective is that it is embarrassing to ask people to support your ministry then you have an issue of pirde that overshadows your calling and desire to obey God’s direction. I know this because I am struggling with similar thougts myself. If you think that people support you becuse of pity for you and your finanical situaion then maybe you should not be raising money to go into ministry.

It is not pity but conviction that moves God’s people to give. That’s what the purpose of support raising is–to make those in the body of Christ interdependent with the means of this world to achieve the goals of the world that is to come.

There is an opennes and vulnerablity that happens on both sides the giver and the receiver in support raising situations. The giver is vulnerable to the intent and motivation of the one he gives to. The receiver is vulnerable by showing his need and trusting it to the will and judgment of the giver. In this transaction however pity is not an emotion that is valid. It is the belief of both the giver that he is giving to a worthy person for a worthy cause, and of the one on the receiving end that he is called to humility and responsibility with what is entrusted to them, beacuse they represent a worthy cause, that are the right outlook on this almost covenant relationship. But pity? Who pities the ambassador of the United States for representing the nation? How much more so the ambassadors of the “kingdom that has no end?” However, when external circumstance of lack become the standard and faith is not, then the wonderful relationshihp of generosity in the body of Christ may turn into something it is not.

May God give us wisdom how to guard this precious relationship in the use of our worldly resources for adavncing the message of eternal life. 

Why The Life of a Missionary Is Hard

This was part of Daniel and Mattias’ shool assignment on writing and composition. This is the perspective of a 11 and 10 year old.

“The life of a missionary is hard. The first thing you have to do is find a country where there are orphans or poor people. Next you need to choose a city to live in. The city where you live must be close to an orphanage. The last thing you need to know is how to teach them about God. It isn’t easy to live like a missionary.
–Written by Daniel V. Kostov

The life of a missionary is hard. People make fun of missionaries and tease them. They usually have very little money. People sometimes even threaten to kill them or their families. Sometimes missionaries are even murdered because of their beliefs. Missionaries don’t give up their work even if it costs them their life.
–Written by Mattias P.A. Kostov”

Amen to that.

Great commission: Go, give, pray

The Great Commission (Matthew 28:16-18), at a closer reading, is not a wishful thinking. It is a command of the Lord. We participate in this endeavor accroding to our ability and calling. to whomever much is given much will be required from at the day of account. We cannot all be missionaries. We cannot all be apostles and prophets. We cannot all be businessmen. But we are all to be “commissionaries” with Christ for the glory of His name. Not all have the same calling yet the call is issued to all–Go and make disciples. We can be a part of this “salvation business” of the Kingdom of God as we put our trust in Him first and learn how to be dependent on God and interdependent on the community of the brothers. Some will go, some will give, and some will pray. But we all can come together in this most revolutionary and most wonderful enterpirse of all times: Living for Jesus and teaching all who are hungry for meaning and life the same.

Teresa’s Short Term Mission Trip to Bulgaria and Serbia June 24-July 5

Kostov Prayer Letter – July 2007

Wearing the Special Missionary Head Band

Dear Friends:

Due to the call of God and the generous giving of two church communities (CWOW in Berkeley, California, and Antioch in Llanelli, Wales), Naomi Fa-Kaji and I traveled to Wales and then onto Serbia and Bulgaria on a short-term missions trip. Naomi is the 15 year old daughter of our good friends Troy and Margie Fa-Kaji from Berkeley. Together we embarked on a two-week “wild wandering” adventure with God! And boy did we ever wander wildly!

Gathering the Team 

We joined the church in Llanelli for a gathering of individuals who would be wandering throughout Europe to pray and share the gospel with the poor in various countries. We had an amazing four days of fellowship, worship, prayer and teaching on mission and the cost of going. Feeling well prepared for the challenges set before us, two Welsh ladies joined Naomi and myself for the second leg of our trip: Sian and Valerie.

The Women's Team in SerbiaDuring a prayer time before arriving in Eastern Europe, I was asking God to speak to me about the trip. One word came to my mind: Forgiveness. I didn’t fully understand what that meant, other than that God had planned a change of heart, a softening and repentance that would one day lead to healing for the people of Serbia and Bulgaria. I was excited about what that would look like for us as His instruments of healing.

Once in Bulgaria we were joined by six Bulgarians, five of which we have been discipling over the past 4-5 years. After a night of rest in Sofia, Bulgaria, and a time to reconnect, we traveled by train to Serbia. I planned on us staying two nights in Nish, the third largest city in Serbia. I felt that visiting two historical sites in the city would give us not only an understanding of the Serbian people, but much to pray about during our stay in the country.

Mission Encounters 

One site we visited was the Red Cross concentration camp, built during WWII, to house prisoners before sending them off to the death camps of Western Europe. The camp existed for four years and 30,000 men, women and children (Serbian, Jew and Gypsy) were imprisoned during that time.

Nis concentration camp groundsThe main building of the camp was quite small and was comprised of three floors – the third floor being a row of small, dark cells with barbed-wire floors used to hold prisoners. As the 10 of us moved from room to room and from floor to floor, the heaviness of the place weighed in on us. By the time we reached the third floor, most of the women were either crying or close to crying. I felt led by the Spirit of God to gather on the stairs and worship God right then and there – to glorify God in a place where prisoners had once etched their prayers onto the walls, hoping God would answer them and free them from their hopeless surroundings. As we worshipped on the stairs, the lady who served as the grounds keeper of the camp came in.

Prison camp cellsThe Skull TowerWe told her that we are Christians and that the camp was a significant place for us – that we were able to see man’s brutality to his fellow man, and how difficult it is to crush the hope for freedom out of man in spite of the worst of circumstances and conditions. One of the Bulgarian women felt led to ask the Serbian lady for forgiveness in regards to the Bulgarians who turned in Serbs who were fighting against German occupation. The Serbian lady was impressed and shocked at the same time, and gave her forgiveness. After that we were able to pray for her.

The Missionaries Pray and Anoint with Oil the Skull Tower in NisAnother high point of our travels was the delay of our train from Serbia to Bulgaria. Upon hearing that we had several hours to wait, one of the women mentioned that God must have something for us to do right there at the train station. Three other women jumped at the opportunity to discover what that might be and left to begin walking and praying about the station. Soon they were talking to a disabled man suffering from muscular dystrophy. The young man’s father soon joined them and the women were able to encourage the father and pray for the two of them.

In Bulgaria we also had the opportunity to walk throughout a large gypsy neighborhood and talk and pray for men, women and lots and lots of children! We also spent two days singing and doing all sorts of fun arts and crafts with orphaned and abandoned children in Novo Selo.In the Gypsy Neighborhood

Naomi is happy she's flying back homeFreedom for All

We published our 12th issue of the religious freedom online magazine in June. For this issue we had evangelical Christian leaders write about their view of the Bulgarian post-communist evangelical church. In a separate commentary article Viktor addressed the moral and spiritual issue of those leaders who had worked for the communist regime and against the church—a subject that has never been honestly and openly addressed by Bulgarian evangelicals. We continue to feel that the work on this web site is creating an atmosphere of openness to the Gospel and honesty in addressing issues of importance for the church and society. Please, pray for our finding means to support this web site and the work we do through it.

Some funny photo links

Some of Vik's and the boys' relax time while mom was on a mission trip:

Dad and the boys   img_0462.JPG

Many blessings,
The Kostovs

A Thorn in the Flesh

This was the famous expression by Paul the apostle in the NT passage:

And because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me–to keep me from exalting myself! (2Corinthians 12:7)

There are various interpretations as to what “thorn in the flesh” means exactly here – a person, a medical condition, or even a demonic harassment. Whichever it is I found that a thorn is an indeed a significant presence in ones life from a persoanl experience.

Several days ago I got a splinter in my index finger. It was so minsicule that I had no concerns about it – it did not affect my daily routine in any way. In a sense – it was no big deal. But the funny thing is that this little splinter was always reminding me of itself. I would type on the computer, play the guitar, or just hold a glass, I would feel a sharp pain in my index finger. Not a life threatening situaiton – but quite annoying and constantly present.

I imagine this was what Paul the apostle describes in his expereince. A thorn in the flesh can be the mercy of God so that we are alaways reminded, in a vigorous, but not impeding manner, of our limitations and of our need for Him. But after several days and after I got the spiritual lesson I asked Teresa to help me get the splinter out. I felt that I had learnt the lesson and was relieved to have the splinter removed.

Isaiah 42:1-9

I have read this passage from Isaiah numerous times. Today however it seemed to have a much deeper and personal meaning to me. I am realizing that the Spirit of God is encouaraging me to not stop looking to Jesus and to God for my inspiration for life and purpose. This passage is part of my callig as a servant of God. Although it originally describes the ministy of Christ, and I have been somewhat reluctant to apply it to myself, in an attempt of humility, I realized that God’s promises cannot make us proud. They humble us, if we would respond in the right way. And to be a bit more specific about the passage – I think that the ministry God’s called me to is indeed setting captives free, through the Word of God and through calling people to fall back on the basic need – to make right with God. I realize how incapable I am of this unless God really blesses me with His presence and guidance so I can do His will.

1 Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.
2 He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street.
3 A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench: he shall bring forth judgment unto truth.
4 He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he have set judgment in the earth: and the isles shall wait for his law.
5 Thus saith God the LORD, he that created the heavens, and stretched them out; he that spread forth the earth, and that which cometh out of it; he that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein:
6 I the LORD have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles;
7 To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house.
8 I am the LORD: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images.
9 Behold, the former things are come to pass, and new things do I declare: before they spring forth I tell you of them.

Looking Back

Looking back This is one of my favorite photos of our third born son. He looks back but his mom is carrying him forward. He is full of peace and security because he knows he’s in good hands. This is how we often are in the hands of our heavenly Father. We can look back with peace and security, because He is lovingly carrying us forward. This photo was taken by someone on our ministry team during time in one of the orphan homes we serve.