This morning Bubu, Władek, and I drove to Rila (a couple of hours south of Sofia) to see the primary monastery of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. The monastery has greatly declined from its glory days, with about 300 monks, to now have only about 10 in residence. But we were deeply impressed by the godly example of St. John of Rila, the founder of the monastery.
In the afternoon and evening Niki Valchev introduced us to a number of pastors and other Christians who live in the Sofia area. Niki teaches at a seminary affiliated with the Bulgarian Reformed Presbyterian Church. We went to an evening worship service in the evening at one of these churches, "Emanuel," which is a Gypsy church in a part of Sofia mostly populated by Gypsies. Here's the street just in front of the church building, with a horse-drawn cart on the left (we saw a bunch of these).
A new believer, a young lady named Stuyanka, was baptized at this service. Please pray for her, for Pastor Metodi (who is baptizing her in this photo) and for all of Emanuel Church to be blessed and obedient to the Lord.
And finally we had dinner at the seminary, along with Kiril (the moderator of the church denomination), Metodi (who is also the denomination's secretary), and several other pastors and seminary students. It was a very busy day, but well worth it. Here you can see Bubu and Władek at the table as we were sitting down to eat.
This morning Bubu, Władek, and I drove to Rila (a couple of hours south of Sofia) to see the primary monastery of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. The monastery has greatly declined from its glory days, with about 300 monks, to now have only about 10 in residence. But we were deeply impressed by the godly example of St. John of Rila, the founder of the monastery.
In the afternoon and evening Niki Valchev introduced us to a number of pastors and other Christians who live in the Sofia area. Niki teaches at a seminary affiliated with the Bulgarian Reformed Presbyterian Church. We went to an evening worship service in the evening at one of these churches, "Emanuel," which is a Gypsy church in a part of Sofia mostly populated by Gypsies. Here's the street just in front of the church building, with a horse-drawn cart on the left (we saw a bunch of these).
A new believer, a young lady named Stuyanka, was baptized at this service. Please pray for her, for Pastor Metodi (who is baptizing her in this photo) and for all of Emanuel Church to be blessed and obedient to the Lord.
And finally we had dinner at the seminary, along with Kiril (the moderator of the church denomination), Metodi (who is also the denomination's secretary), and several other pastors and seminary students. It was a very busy day, but well worth it. Here you can see Bubu and Władek at the table as we were sitting down to eat.
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