Mission in Varna
Students in BCSU organized an evangelistic week in Varna from the 24th to the 27th of March. The title of the week was "Life - do you have time to waste?" On each day various activities were prepared related to life, the future, and God.
Every morning, students from cities across Bulgaria (including Sofia, Varna and Veliko Tarnovo) gathered early for breakfast, prayer and preparation. During the day these students went together to the different university campuses in the city to invite students and faculty to the evening events and to provoke them to think about their future, the meaning of life and about God. Students shared their opinions to different questions on picture boards and then they had the opportunity to have a professional picture taken of them holding a sign that displayed the most important thing in their life.
Many students walked away from these conversations with new things to think about and the believing students learned that God works in the hearts of others as we ask good questions. Students from BCSU commented that these conversations were extremely useful because they gave them courage to be witnesses and to speak the truth without being ashamed of the gospel. We all learned each day to trust God and that He is the one who changes people and works in their lives. "The best thing,” one student shared, “is that God gave us moments of joy and fun. He also deepened the friendships between us.”
On the first evening of the mission, the students organized a movie night with the screening of the film "To Save a Life", followed by a discussion. Because the room was small and more students came than we expected, the organizers decided to make the discussion happen as a large group. The feedback from the evening included 8 questions. Of the 22 completed forms, 13 said they liked the event, 11 expressed that they wanted to learn more about Jesus, 4 people wrote that they would come to the event "Know Jesus."
The next night a theatrical team from Burgas performed. The theme of the evening was "How do people waste their lives?" 16 people came to the event -including 11 people who remained until the end of the evening. One of the girls said, "When I came, I didn’t know that I would see my life in the play. I am the girl in the play. I too feel lonely. But I see happiness in your eyes." Another student shared how powerful it was for him to hear the testimony of Kaloyan and how it made him think about what is important in life . The next night, the same student commented that after hearing what Kaloyan said, he went and told his friends, his brother, his father and mother. “It was so powerful that I could not keep it in."
The third night‘s theme was " Do you really want to be different?" Ognjan Amerov from the ministry “Hope and Future” spoke and then there were many games. Again more than 22 students showed up, one of which said: "I am in a whole new world here with you ... I feel a change in me after meeting you... I will do all I can to come to the meeting "Know Jesus." Another student said: "For me this is all quite new. I hope to find part of the puzzle on the path to knowing God. I am looking for people who understand me and I am especially looking to live a different life, different from anything I have experienced so far."
The last night of the event aimed to answer questions that students have about faith and which they had written down on their feedback papers from previous days. Students from BCSU challenged the others to come and ask their questions about God, Jesus, Christianity, life, and other important things.
After the mission, the students realized that this was just the beginning. Now comes the more serious part; now is the time for student to care for the people they met . We were excited that 5 people came to the meeting "Know Jesus". We looked at the passage in Luke chapter 5 and students talked about how different Jesus is than what the world often says or thinks.
One of the biggest surprises of all is that at our first study group after the mission three new students from the mission came. Each of them were looking for a new relationship with God and place to meet and share with believers.
Desi Momcheva said, "It's great when we see that God has prepared more than we expected. We believe that the seed of the gospel has been planted into even more hearts than we expected, because, as we have seen throughout the Mission, God makes a way where we do not see a way. Often the smallest things make for the biggest testimonies. Let us pray that what was sown in the hearts of many will grow and that their hearts will become good soil for Jesus."
