Dear friends,

Sorry for the delayed (by much) update! Our time in Sofia so far has been exciting but also extremely busy. With work, church tasks and the need to sleep there’s very little time left for chatting with you all. I hope that after the holidays, soon after the new year begins things will finally settle and I’ll be able to get back in touch with you on regular basis.

What’s happened so far?

Petra has a full-time substitute job at an Anglo-American school in Sofia. All is in English and she works with children. It’s a blessing for us, and she’s enjoying it a lot.

Still no progress has been reported onthe situation with our apartment. It’s become a frustration as now we need to work hard to pay off the loan for it but are unable to actually use it. We hope and pray that God will resolve this and give us the necessary patience and peace until this happens. Please, do pray for us in this respect. Read more…

When a ministry dies off for one reason or another, yet the need for its existence remains, a church is left with a dilemma – do you “move on” and try to serve that need in a different way, or do you restart the initiative. One can argue either way for each of the two options… or even suggest a third and fourth option.

At the moment, however, I’m encouraged by the restart of a youth ministry in our church (New Life Christian Fellowship – NLCF) in Rotterdam. There were no activities for youth for several months now, but just yesterday we had a great first meeting of the revamped youth ministry. The vision is new, the form of it is new, but most importantly – the passion for it is still enormous. Starting off a meeting with just 10 people when it used to be in the 30′s before isn’t easy and one thing is sure – it requires a lot of prayer and persistence. This is where the presence of passion is crucial. I believe that besides all else, it ensures that we’ll remain faithful in what we’re doing.

Here are some shots of the fun and discussions we had. As you look through them – please, remember the face and pray that the ones who are organizing it will remain strong and always be on track with God’s leading.

Sunday, October 5 2008 – The International Church of the Nazarene celebrates its 100th anniversary (centennial).

Although I’m tempted to, I’ll try to keep myself from commenting much on the celebration itself (partially because I slept till 2:30pm on that day… and haven’t been to a Nazarene local church for months). The only thing I’ll share is that I’ve remembered the event because of the word centennial… Didn’t like it the first time I read it on the news site, still don’t like it today. But I doubt that’s life changing for you, so I’ll move on…

In the past few years the fact that the Church of the Nazarene is reaching the 100 mark brought quite a few questions in my mind. I’ll just share them below and give my brief answer. In my (not humble) opinion, these questions ought to be answered by everyone who takes the gathering of believers seriously. After all, when we don’t question we don’t progress (Communism is a good example; wouldn’t like to see Church right next to it). Read more…

This is going to be just a brief update with a few photos to show you a bit of the celebration of the 4th anniversary of the church we are currently attending – New Life Christian Fellowship (part of Church of God, Tennessee) in Rotterdam. The anniversary was on the first Sunday of March.

Although we’ve been attending there only since November, it’s really become a home for us and we do feel a part of the church. Petra, as you probably know from previous updates or e-mails is doing the Sunday school for children once a month, and I already got to preach once there. It’s encouraging and amazing to see how God is working through a very international bunch of people to change the community, as well as the people from the church themselves. Although only 4 years of age, the church is very energetic and active. The youth night they have is a blast – and now they’ve just started the youth Alpha course which gets it even further. I’ll see if at the end of this month I feel like taking photos at the youth night and upload them.

Anyways, here’s just a bunch of photos. I hope you’ll enjoy seeing the people we hang out with and celebrate Christ weekly.