Update from Bulgaria September 2013 brochure

Abbreviated - 2010 Summary of the Work in Romania and Bulgaria

“And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.”  1 Cor 13:13

-         Over 100 churches have been established in Romania & Bulgaria since 1991. During the past few years the churches have grown from around 1,500 families to about 2,000.

 -         In 2010 over 100 adults professed faith in Christ and were baptized.

 -         Many have been saved and encouraged through our preaching and singing DVD’s & CD’s, one of our main evangelistic tools.
      Wherever our Turks travel they take the DVD’s & CD’s with them.

 -         12 church feeding centers have been established in Romania and 20 in Bulgaria, where children and adults get one good meal per day.

 -         In 2002 Casa Julia Children’s home was established in Romania. They are raising ten abandoned children, giving them a safe, loving, Christian home.

 -         During the winter we assist our church members with 110 lbs. of flour and 5 liters of cooking oil for about $25. We also help those in need with firewood.
     A cord of firewood costs about $150.

-         “Coats for Kids” was started in 2009 by the Leach family. They distributed; 200 winter coats, 300 pairs of socks, and 25 pairs of shoes to the neediest children in his Bulgarian village churches.

-         8 Missionary families minister in 3 languages: Turkish, Romanian, and Bulgarian. 18 National pastors help us oversee this work. About $1,000 a month extra is needed to support these men. We try to help each pastor offset the costs of their food and fuel (fuel is presently $6.20 a gallon). Our men look after 5-10 churches and several even more than that!

 We thank you for your faithful praying and giving. 

To God be the Glory!

UPDATE ON THE WORK IN ROMANIA AND BULGARIA 1991-2005

October 2005

Dear Brother Fred,

 We are still excited about Bulgaria opening up and allowing us to register churches. It is more than we could ever have hoped for, God is so good.  Now 4 of us have registered churches in Bulgaria, Brother Matt, Brother Zach, Brother Frank and Brother Ralph.  According to the lawyer Brohter Joe's church should be registered by the end of this year. Brother Larry is still waiting on his papers from the States.  We are expecting even greater things from the Lord this coming year in Bulgaria.  Soon with 6 families living there, and with the national pastors and dedicated believers, we should be able to reach many new towns and villages.

 Here is a summary of the work.  We started in May of 1991 in Bulgaria with 1 missionary family, after having talked with you from Istanbul earlier the same year.  We now have:  8 missionary families: 2 families will be working in Romania, and 6 families in Bulgaria; 18 national pastors: 12 in Bulgaria, and 6 in Romania.  We also have several young men starting to preach, but are not as yet pastoring churches.

90 churches: 72 in Bulgaria, and 18 in Romania.  Most of these are Turkish house-churches, but we also have some Romanian and Bulgarian. Several of the churches now have their own self-standing buildings. 33 feeding-centers: We feed between 1,300-1,500 children daily in homes. 22 in Bulgaria, and 11 in Romania.  These feeding centers are done through the local churches we have established.  The ones who do the cooking are all volunteers.  We give them a small love offering each month.  We also invite the older widows and others, who are destitute, to eat with the children each day.  Through these feeding-centers and morning prayer meetings bread is also distributed to the poor.  Over 14,000 loaves of bread are given out each month in Romania.  Most of these children are very young, but some of them can pray like adults.  They sing hymns, testify and pray before they eat.  They all thank the Lord for the food and pray for the Lord to bless you folks who provide it.  We have heard many testimonies from the neighbors of  what a blessing the children's singing is to them.  Many of them have told us that their husbands won't let them come to church, but that they worship the Lord as the children sing.  Since we have been doing this work now for several years, many of these children have grown up and gotten saved and are now in one of our churches.  Many of them have now gotten married and have moved to other villages.  Recently we have started meetings in some of these villages.

 1 children's home in Romania with 9 children.  We are currently in the process of taking in a 2 year old boy.  We also have 3 churches meeting in the children's home complex, English, Turkish, and Romanian.  In August we had our first camp meeting.  We all were blessed.  We know one thing for sure: The Lord is with us!

 2 Bible Translations: Turkish and Bulgarian. The preparation for the Turkish translation was begun in 1980. We have been using the newly translated Turkish New Testament among ourselves (missionaries and national pastors and churches) since 1998.  We duplicate them on a copy machine and bind them by hand, about 20 copies at a time.  We are now ready to start producing them in larger quantities and giving them out to everyone who wants one.  The Turkish Old Testament is also now ready, and was put into use among ourselves in early 2005.  The translation of the Bulgarian Bible was begun in 1994 and is nearing completion.  We will begin using it among ourselves within the next few months.  We hope to have both translations of the entire Bible, Turkish and Bulgarian, perfected and ready to be published in 2007.

 Everywhere we go they ask us for tapes of singing and preaching, and also for hymnbooks and bibles.  May the Lord help us to reach everyone who has a desire to know Him.

All For His Glory,

Brother Ralph Cheatwood

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