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August 2006 |
Dear Friends, My family and I have now been missionaries in Bulgaria for over 9 years now. During this time, we have seen many changes and have occasionally faced opposition from the government and other people, but God has given us many victories in our endeavor to win Bulgarians to Christ. We are confident and resolved that this is where God wants us and that we are in the center of His will planting churches in this former communist-block country. I am writing this letter to ask for financial help. We started the Christian Baptist Church over seven years ago. After meeting 8 months in an apartment, we finally found a building that we could rent. During the time in this building we knew that some day we would need a permanent place to meet, a place that we could call our own. We began looking and although we found several places that we thought would work; God closed the door to every one and kept leading us back to the building we were renting. The owner of the building tried to sell it to us on several occasions, but there was a problem – there were a few people suing him for the property and there was no way we wanted to buy a building and a law suit along with it. Then just this last month the owner contacted us and said that he had finally won the law suit and that he now had a document from the judge stating that the issue was settled and no one else could sue. I had our lawyer look at the documents and he confirmed that the owner was telling the truth. Before I get to the price of the building let me share a few things with you. In Bulgaria, like much of Eastern Europe, we are considered to be a sect. The Orthodox Church even tells its people that if they step foot into an Evangelical church that they will have no chance of salvation. This means that from the very beginning of church planting here you already have a big hurdle to cross. But over the last seven years, we have worked hard building up a good reputation in this community of 100,000 people. We have done park renovation, offered free day care and a hot lunch through the help of Manna, we run a soup kitchen for the poor and even the chief of police of the area knows me by name and invites me to drink coffee with him when we meet on the street. We have worked really hard at being a testimony for Christ in spite of what the state-run Orthodox Church says about us and we are reaping the results of that now with our church being mostly composed of young families with children. The average cost of a 2500 square feet free standing building in our area is around $500,000. The owner of our building is offering ours to us for $235,000 because of our good relationship with him and because he is in a hurry to sell. I am totally convinced that this is God’s will for our church and will be putting a deposit down on the building of $20,000 on the 15th of August. I do not have the other $215,000 and have no idea of where the money is going to come from. I am just convinced that this is God’s will and that He will provide. Would you please pray with us in this matter and if God leads would you please help in meeting this financial need? In Christ, Steve Swann |