It was truly a heartfelt reunion with many dear friends we recently met in Bulgaria. Many memories surfaced from our pioneering trips there in the early ’90s when the country was still communist. Powerful spiritual breakthroughs were mixed with persecution. When our Bible school was shut down by riot police, we instead trained Bulgarian believers at our Bible school in Brno, Czech Republic. Quite a few of the pastors also studied at Livets Ord in Uppsala.
At the end of January this year, a team of five preachers from Sweden traveled. Our missionaries in North Macedonia joined us. On Sunday, we preached in eight churches, making a massive impact. I had the joy of preaching at the Livets Ord congregation in Sofia as well as in two Roma churches. There is a large Roma population in Eastern Europe, and many gather in congregations where the meetings are marked by a strong atmosphere, much prayer, and worship. It almost has to be experienced to be understood. Their worship music, with Roma Balkan rhythms, is very joyful and contagious. During the after-meetings, many came forward for prayer. Carl-Gustaf Severin preached at the Livets Ord congregation in Plovdiv with very good attendance, and next time we hope to have a meeting there during warmer weather to reach even more people.
Then came the main event, a two-day pastors’ conference in Sofia. Pastors from all over Bulgaria and even from beyond the country’s borders attended. The atmosphere was at its peak, and we had many warm encounters with both our old friends and many new ones.
We were overwhelmed by the warmth and spiritual hunger, especially after the teaching on faith and the Holy Spirit. We experienced it as a renewed, deeper connection and truly look forward to increased collaboration going forward. Now that we are once again focusing more strongly on Eastern Europe and the Balkans, we believe that Bulgaria is an important part of this.
The country is spiritually open. We have many friends in the congregations there, and it’s fascinating to hear how many people they reach. Some of them have strong media presence and reach hundreds of thousands of people.
It was also a joy to visit Awakening Church, led by a young pastor who studied at Livets Ord over 10 years ago. The young congregation is growing strongly; they have just purchased a beautiful church building very centrally located in Sofia. They reach young people and especially those in the media and cultural world. There, too, we met pastors—about 25 pastor couples from various parts of Bulgaria, many of them young. It is incredibly encouraging to be interviewed by young, hungry, and enthusiastic people who want to learn more about spiritual ministry, revival work, and how to lead congregations in our time.
It truly feels like the Lord is connecting congregations beyond the Balkans for a new step forward. This is a challenging part of Europe—parts of it are Muslim, and there are social challenges as well. But there are also opportunities here. Many years ago, we received a word from the Lord that the Balkans are in the balance. Either Islam will spread into Europe from here, or the gospel will spread from here into the Muslim world. We want to work toward the latter and will continue sending teams and missionaries here, envisioning how we can train local believers in the future. We believe this is the beginning of a new fruitful era for the gospel in this exciting region. In the long run, I also believe our brothers and sisters in faith there will be able to make great contributions in other, more secularized parts of Europe.
The name of our conference was “For Such a Time as This.” It really feels that way too—that we are living in a special time and that the Lord is bringing us together for the next assignment.
