Dear friends,
How are you?
Just wanted to say thank-you for your prayers for our national conference. We just came back from the city of Stara Zagora where it was held. There were representatives from all our 7 student groups there. Main speaker was Tsonko Atanasov, a Bulgarian pastor, and the theme was “Breakthrough”. We hoped this conference to become a forum where our student groups could share how the Breakthrough (Probiv) project is going in their cities, and be encouraged by this.
Pastor Tsonko encouraged the students to experience a breakthrough in their character and relationships by letting go of their pride, prejudices, complexes and guilt. Craig challenged them through giving some insights on John 15 to remain in Him and to have love to each other, so that they bear fruit; he had another session on Acts 8-10 with which he motivated the students to listen to Jesus, to go to their friends and to share the good news with them. I had the opportunity to open the conference. I pointed to Moses and his fears in implementing God’s will, relating that to the students’ experience in evangelism and encouraging them to respond to God’s calling to them for a breakthrough at their universities. There were also 4 more multitrack seminars on the themes of communication, time management, media and postmodernism, and discipleship – all of which were much appreciated.
We had a great time praying for a breakthrough in our groups and universities. The groups had drawn illustrations with prayer requests on them showing their strategy for reaching out to their campuses. Craig and Petyo asked different groups to move around in the room praying for all these universities/groups.
We also celebrated 8 December which is the National Student Day in Bulgaria. The program provided lots of space for informal conversations. So, students were able to make friends with one another and reinforce the links between the groups. This also increased their overall awareness that they belong to a national movement.
And, finally, we thank God for 3 of the non-Christians from our last Summer Project, who came to this conference. Two of them stayed all the time and participated in all the sessions and activities. Several months ago they were considering leaving the Summer Project after they heard it would be ‘only a Christian stuff’. Now they worshipped together with us and asked for a copy of our song book!
Please, pray
- That our groups would finish well the semester; the groups in Blagoevgrad, V. Turnovo, Varna and Plovdiv are considering some Christmas outreaches right after the conference
- For a safe trip back home for Craig; he is going to visit his family, then go to Urbana and meet with some of you J; may God lead him and use him as he shares about the BCSU ministry
- For my family; we’re hoping to be able to get out of the city round New Year and visit Vanya’s parents but are still not sure whether this will work out.
Thanks for reading this!
Have a great Christmas and a blessed New Year!
Love,
The Trifonovs (Trif, Vanya, Debi, Moni and Stefan)
P.S. You can see pictures from the conference at www.bhss-org.com/bg/probiv.php You can also download the video from the conference at the same address; if you want to watch it online go straight to www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bq7f1rfpnag
How are you?
Just wanted to say thank-you for your prayers for our national conference. We just came back from the city of Stara Zagora where it was held. There were representatives from all our 7 student groups there. Main speaker was Tsonko Atanasov, a Bulgarian pastor, and the theme was “Breakthrough”. We hoped this conference to become a forum where our student groups could share how the Breakthrough (Probiv) project is going in their cities, and be encouraged by this.
Pastor Tsonko encouraged the students to experience a breakthrough in their character and relationships by letting go of their pride, prejudices, complexes and guilt. Craig challenged them through giving some insights on John 15 to remain in Him and to have love to each other, so that they bear fruit; he had another session on Acts 8-10 with which he motivated the students to listen to Jesus, to go to their friends and to share the good news with them. I had the opportunity to open the conference. I pointed to Moses and his fears in implementing God’s will, relating that to the students’ experience in evangelism and encouraging them to respond to God’s calling to them for a breakthrough at their universities. There were also 4 more multitrack seminars on the themes of communication, time management, media and postmodernism, and discipleship – all of which were much appreciated.
We had a great time praying for a breakthrough in our groups and universities. The groups had drawn illustrations with prayer requests on them showing their strategy for reaching out to their campuses. Craig and Petyo asked different groups to move around in the room praying for all these universities/groups.
We also celebrated 8 December which is the National Student Day in Bulgaria. The program provided lots of space for informal conversations. So, students were able to make friends with one another and reinforce the links between the groups. This also increased their overall awareness that they belong to a national movement.
And, finally, we thank God for 3 of the non-Christians from our last Summer Project, who came to this conference. Two of them stayed all the time and participated in all the sessions and activities. Several months ago they were considering leaving the Summer Project after they heard it would be ‘only a Christian stuff’. Now they worshipped together with us and asked for a copy of our song book!
Please, pray
- That our groups would finish well the semester; the groups in Blagoevgrad, V. Turnovo, Varna and Plovdiv are considering some Christmas outreaches right after the conference
- For a safe trip back home for Craig; he is going to visit his family, then go to Urbana and meet with some of you J; may God lead him and use him as he shares about the BCSU ministry
- For my family; we’re hoping to be able to get out of the city round New Year and visit Vanya’s parents but are still not sure whether this will work out.
Thanks for reading this!
Have a great Christmas and a blessed New Year!
Love,
The Trifonovs (Trif, Vanya, Debi, Moni and Stefan)
P.S. You can see pictures from the conference at www.bhss-org.com/bg/probiv.php You can also download the video from the conference at the same address; if you want to watch it online go straight to www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bq7f1rfpnag
