December 31, 2010 by Viktor.

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December 27, 2010 by Viktor.

In the beginning of November 2010 Viktor was part of a one-hour talk show on one of the minor national TV stations. A link to the show here (in Bulgarian): http://www.skat.bg/products.php?type=10&genre=1547 

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December 27, 2010 by Viktor.

After the August 2010 conference in a remote Bulgarian town the Association for Home Education filed papers with the local court to register as a non-profit. The registration was denied in October. The founders of the registration voted in majority not to appeal the court’s decision to the higher courts. Since then a new homeschooling family in Sofia, a Christian couple with four children, withdrew their children from the state school system. Since then the officials have been writing thretening letters insisting on the immediate return of these Christain kids in the state-schools. This they insist even though their social workers had gone to the family’s home and have established that the children appear calm, comfortable and well care for. The parents have only been threatened with fines so far. In an even more sinister development a single mother in Sofia, who withdrew her son from the state-schools to homeschool has been threatened, not in wriring, by the principle of the school, that she will be given to the prosecutor’s office to begin a procedure for taking her parental rights from her. This principle had had the boy enrolled in his school to keep state funds coming in although the boy has not been going to this state-run school. Any schooling outside of state schools or state-controllee “private” schools is technically illegal in Bulgaria. Please, pray for these families to stand firm for their God-given rights to choose the form of upbringing and education for their children.

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August 24, 2010 by Viktor.

August 20-22 the whole family drove to Silistra, to the annual conference of Bulgarian homeschoolers. Viktor was the co-founder of the Association for Homeschooling earlire in July. There were families from Romania as well as the situation there is very similar to that in Bulgaria. In both countries the law supports mainly state-run education which is mandatory and the legal status of homeschooling families is uncertain.There was a guest from the US as well, attorney Mike Donnely, counsel with the Homeschooling Legal Defens Association, a powerful Christian organization in the US with international contacts in Europe.Viktor delivered a talk on the importance of homeschooling in adverse laws and conditions, as those in Bulgaria, for the Christian family and for freedom of religion and conscience.Dan and Matt appeared on a short report about the event on Bulgarian National televsion - Chanel 1 - speaking about their homeschooling experience - view the video of the one minute report in Bulgarian, here: http://testbnt.bnt.bg/bg/news/view/35310/uchene_u_domaAnd yet another 1 min segment on TV7, where both Matt and Dan are interviewed:http://www.tv7.bg/news/91102.htmlOn the way back we stopped in Russe, where Viktor was born, and dad showed the boys and mom the place where he’d spent most of his childhood. We drank cappucino on this occasion, at the restaurant built where Viktor’s grandparents once stood, overlooking the Danbe river.

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August 24, 2010 by Viktor.

In July we held our church youth camp. It was held in Bosnek, a village not far from Sofia. The themes were creation vs. evolution, God in education and the schools and relationship with God and others. Our theme was from Psalm 14:5 - “God is in the generation of the righteous.”

We had worship and devotionals in the morning followed by practical Bible lessons and games in the afternoon. In the eveneing we had BBQ, camp fires and smores (very American but the the kids loved the smores).

At the end of the camp and at the next church meeting Dan, Matt, Sarah, Emo and Biser testified that they feel that they had important questions answered and feel that their faith in God was strengthened.

Soon we will posts some pictures here.

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July 19, 2010 by Viktor.

Apologetics of the Christian Faith on Bulgarian National Television from Viktor Kostov on Vimeo.

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April 24, 2010 by Viktor.

I still remember how 30 years ago, during the years of the atheistic communist regime under which I was growing up we, 10-12 year old boys, had a fun thing to do. We used to go to one of the central streets of our town to look at a window which displayed items of Western diversion and propaganda. Among those items were pornographic magazines and films, and…Bibles and evangelistic tracts.

Today, 20 years after the collapse of communism faith and pornography remain on the same plane for the local city legislators. I realized that the deception about God and Jesus Christ still has a grip on this society and its leaders. Thus the ministry of fighting for religious liberty remains a critical missionary work which can expose these lies and will open up witnessing opportunities for the church.

Recently we published our 23rd issue of Freedom for All – our online magazine for the freedom of religion, conscience and speech in Bulgarian. The main theme was how the local authorities in Bulgaria violate these constitutional rights and freedoms and hinder the ministry of evangelical churches. One article included many examples of local ordinance which directly regulated this constitutional matter, and in a very restrictive way. One of the municipalities violating these fundamental freedoms of faith and speech was the one in Vidin.In their Ordinance for the Preservation of Public Order and Security on the territory of the Vidin Community they have the following text in article 17, section 6:

“It is forbidden to show pornographic films in all publicly accessible paces and to distribute printed an advertising materials belonging to religious sects, as well as their events in public places.”

This text effectively and illegally diminishes the Christian evangelical faith, widely known as “sects” in Bulgaria, to mere pornography. It also deprives people of some of their fundamental rights, like freedom of speech, freedom of expression, freedom of gathering and disseminating information, freedom of gathering indoors without permission from the authorities. As a result I called on the pastors of churches in the community to get together and discuss my proposed action to protest this illegal and unjust provision in the ordinance.

After two meetings four churches in Vidin signed a letter which I wrote demanding the renunciation of the text by the end of May 2010. We are still waiting to hear from them. If they do not revoke the text we will file a law suit demanding the court to strike down the quasi-legal travesty of the local legislators whose thinking about religion and the faith has not changed a bit in 30 long years.

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March 4, 2010 by Viktor.

The state-run orphan home in Novo Selo got in the national TV news several weeks ago. Not for a good reason however. One of the staff was caught showing pornography to the children “for educational purposes”, as he claimed on TV. There was also an incident of child-abuse by one of the staff members.This is the same facility where we had our ministry and bi-weekly visits to train the youth and children in the Bible and in practical life-skills. This is also the place where after change of administration in 2007 we were denied access and once we were even threatened by the interim director that she would call the National Service for Fighting Organized Crime if we showed up on the premises!

“The Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials and to hold the unrighteous for the day of judgment, while continuing their punishment.”– 2 Peter 2:9

“Woe to him who builds his palace by unrighteousness, his upper rooms by injustice.”– Jeremiah 22:13a

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November 21, 2009 by Viktor.

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.

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September 18, 2009 by Viktor.

Here are several photos of the delivery of the fridge and stove we will use in the kitchen of the Youth Club. Thanks to a generous donation by one of our supporters:

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